Latest news from Plus magazine! - http://plus.maths.org
In this newsletter:
- Latest news
- Browse with Plus
- Mathematical moments
- Live maths
- The Plus new writers award
**********
Latest news
Secrets of the Universe - where size really does matter
The future of technology to probe the very nature of the Universe
http://plus.maths.org/latestnews/sep-dec06/cosmos/index.html
Volunteers find largest prime number yet - again!
The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search strikes again
http://plus.maths.org/latestnews/sep-dec06/mersenne/index.html
The Fields Medals 2006
The highest honour in maths has been awarded to four mathematicians... and
one of them said no
http://plus.maths.org/latestnews/may-aug06/fieldsmedal/index.html
Plus ... more news from the world of maths in the new Plus blog
Celebrating mathematics at work
Einstein passes with 99.5% result
School maths to beat climate change
Shining new light on dark matter
Conjecture to theorem to fame to fortune
http://plus.maths.org/blog/index.html
**********
Browse with Plus
3D-XplorMath Gallery - 3D-XplorMath is a mathematical visualisation program
which can be downloaded for free to run on Macintosh computers. But if that
sounds like too much hard work you can appreciate the spectacular images it
creates in their online gallery. The gallery offers you a variety of ways to
experience the beauty of a range of mathematical concepts, such as spinning a
pseudosphere or watching a movie of a Moebius Strip turning into a Klein
Bottle.
http://vmm.math.uci.edu/3D-XplorMath/index.html
You can read more about imaging maths on Plus:
http: //plus.maths.org/issue26/features/mathart/index-gifd.html
http: //plus.maths.org/issue27/features/mathart/index.html
*NEWSFLASH*
Mathematician Richard Palais (who wrote 3D-XplorMath), and graphic designer Luc
Benard, have just won the 2006 Science and Engineering Visualisation Challenge
. More on their beautiful image "Still Life: Five Glass Surfaces on a
Tabletop" will appear on Plus soon.
http://www.sciencemag.org/sciext/vis2006/
**********
Mathematical moments
Winifred Edgerton Merrill
Born: 24 Sep 1862 in Wisconsin, USA
Died: 6 Sep 1951 in Connecticut, USA
Against many odds Merrill pursued a passion for mathematics and was the first
American woman to obtain a PhD in the subject. She studied at Columbia
University, but only after having to visit each of the trustees individually to
plead her case to be allowed to study there. Her research was in mathematical
astronomy, including the computation of comet orbits.
Having achieved so much, she then left scholarly life when she married in 1887
as her husband forbade such unladylike activities. He also stopped her
involvement in the formation of Barnard College in New York, as he didn't
approve of her attending meetings in men's offices in the city.
But Merrill continued to make advances for women's education, founding a
prestigious girl's school in New York in 1906, and a second school in
Paris in 1912. The inscription under her portrait in Columbia University
reads:
"She opened the door"
Read more about Winifred Merrill in:
MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive...
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Merrill.html
Agnes Scott College...
http://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/merrill.htm
And read more about mathematical astronomy and women in maths on Plus
http: //plus.maths.org/indices/topic_urls.html#ASTRONOMY
http: //plus.maths.org/indices/keyword_urls.html#WOMEN%20IN%20MATHEMATICS
**********
Live maths
Can you crack the enigma code? - From time immemorial, people have sought to
protect confidential information by encrypting it into codes, and for almost as
long people have been trying to break these codes to find out the secret
messages held within. Richard Belfield will show how to unravel many modern and
ancient codes in a lecture at the University of Surrey as part of the Guildford
Book Festival.
When: Wednesday 18 October at 7.30pm
Where: Lecture Theatre 1 in the Austin Building at the University of Surrey
Tickets: 6 pounds (3 students) available from the University Box Office
01483 686876 and the Guildford Book Festival Box Office 01483 444334, or
visit the festival website for more information
http://www.guildfordbookfestival.co.uk/
Happy reading from the Plus team!
**********
If you received this message you have subscribed yourself to the
PLUS-ANNOUNCE mailing list via our website. If you do not wish to remain on
the list please visit
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa.exe?SUBED1=plus-announce&A=1
and follow the instructions to leave the list.
If you have any comments on this newsletter, or Plus Magazine, please
contact us at [log in to unmask] - we are always happy to hear from our
readers!
Feel free to forward this email to anyone you think might be interested.
|
