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In this newsletter: * Latest news * Plus Podcasts * Mathematical moments * Browse with Plus * Live maths * The Plus New Writers Award ********** Latest news 2008 Crafoord Prize One of science's biggest prizes awarded for research into strings and knots http://plus.maths.org/latestnews/jan-apr08/craaford/index.html?nl=1 Unjamming Traffic Why traffic jams occur for seemingly no reason http://plus.maths.org/latestnews/jan-apr08/cars/index.html?nl=1 ********** Plus Podcasts: Maths On the Move Podcast 6, January 2008: Interdisciplinary Maths, from life on Mars to cancer development The role of maths in interdisciplinary science We talk to four researchers from UCL's centre for mathematics and physics in the life sciences and experimental biology (COMPLEX) about the role of maths in such fields as astrobiology, cancer modelling and biology. Download the file directly at: http://plus.maths.org/podcasts/PlusPodcastJan08.mp3?nl=1 To subscribe or see a list of all our episodes, go to: http://plus.maths.org/podcasts/index.html?nl=1 Or look up Plus in iTunes. ********** Mathematical moments Lodovico Ferrari Born: 2 Feb 1522, Bologna, Papal States (now Italy) Died: 5 Oct 1565, Bologna, Papal States (now Italy) Lodovico Ferrari was an Italian mathematician famed for solving the quartic equation. Ferrari was born in Bologna and at the age of 14 became the servant of Gerolamo Cardan, a celebrated Italian Renaissance mathematician, physician, astrologer and gambler. Ferrari showed mathematical promise at a young age, and at the age of 20 became a public lecturer in geometry. He was also a player in a great mathematical controversy of the time - who should get credit for the development of solutions for the cubic and quartic equations. The controversy includes another notable mathematician of his day, Nicolo Fontana Tartaglia. Tartaglia was an Italian mathematician who was the first to apply mathematics to the investigation of the paths of cannonballs. He had developed his own solutions to the cubic equations, and when Cardan heard of this achievement, nagged a reluctant Tartaglia to show him his work. He succeeded only when he challenged him to a debate and implied that through his influence he could arrange a potentially lucrative contact with the governor of Milan. Tartaglia agreed to tell Cardan his method if Cardan would swear never to reveal it and to only ever write it down in code so that even if he died, nobody would ever discover it. Cardan agreed to this, and Tartaglia enigmatically handed over his formula in the form of a poem. Several years later however, Cardan and Ferrari saw unpublished work by Scipione del Ferro who had independently devised the same solution as Tartaglia. This work was dated before the work of Tartaglia, and so they decided to break their promise and the include Tartaglia's solution in their published work. Based on Tartaglia's formula, Cardan and Ferrari found proofs for all cases of the cubic and, more impressively, solved the quartic equation - this was reportedly largely due to the work of Ferrari. Tartaglia then started a campaign of public abuse directed at Cardan and Ferrari, and whilst most of the insults washed off Cardan - who was now established as the world's leading mathematician - Ferrari wrote to Tartaglia challenging him to a public debate. Tartaglia however did not consider Ferrari as worthy of debate - it was Cardan he wanted. Ferrari and Tartaglia traded insults for over a year until 1548 when Tartaglia received an offer of a lectureship in Brescia. To establish his credentials for the post, he was asked to take part in the debate with Ferrari. Tartaglia was an experienced debater and expected to win. However, by the end of the first day, it was clear that things were not going his way and that Ferrari understood the cubic and quartic equations more thoroughly. Tartaglia decided to flee that night, with victory left to Ferrari. Ferrari's fame soared and he was inundated with offers of employment, including a request from the emperor. Ferrari was appointed tax assessor to the governor of Milan, and after transferring to the service of the church, retired as a young (aged 42) and rich man. He moved back to his home town of Bologna and in with his widowed sister Maddalena. He died in 1565 of white arsenic poisoning, most likely administered by Maddalena. Maddalena did not grieve at his funeral and having inherited his fortune, remarried two weeks later. Her new husband promptly left her with all her fortune and she died in poverty. For more information on cubic equations: http://plus.maths.org/issue19/news/prize/index.html?nl=1 http://plus.maths.org/issue7/xfile/index.html?nl=1 And for more on Ferrari: http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Ferrari.html?nl=1 ********** Browse with Plus Computer Science for fun! http://www.cs4fn.org/ Computer Science is no more about computers than the music industry is about microphones, and cs4fn brings out the fun side of Computer Science. The website explores how computer science is about people, solving puzzles, creativity, changing the future and, most of all, having fun ... The site contains an online magazine, a news section on what's new in the world of computer science, and you can follow the metaphoric "maze" within the site and wander aimlessly from page to page and topic to topic. There is also an interactive guide to computer science so you can learn what it's all about. http://www.cs4fn.org/ ********** Live maths * A millennium of mathematical puzzles Speaker: Professor Robin Wilson Date/Time: 06/02/2008, 1pm and 6pm Venue: Barnard's Inn Hall, Gresham College, Holborn London EC1N 2HH How much: FREE In the 8th century Alcuin of York described the wolf, goat and cabbage problem - so did Lewis Carroll over 1000 years later. This lecture looks at a wide variety of mathematical puzzles that entertained people of all ages over the intervening period. * Proving Einstein right! Speaker: Professor Ian Morison Date/Time: 21/02/2008, 1pm Venue: Staple Inn Hall, Gresham College, Holborn London EC1N 2HH How much: FREE A gentle introduction to Einstein's General Theory of Relativity discussing gravitational waves and the curvature of space and how, since 1915, experiments have been undertaken to test its accuracy. Recent observations by Jodrell Bank astronomers have shown that Einstein's theory must be at least 99.95% right! * From Hilbert's problems to the future Speaker: Professor Robin Wilson Date/Time: 27/02/2008, 1pm and 6pm Venue: Barnard's Inn Hall, Gresham College, Holborn London EC1N 2HH How much: FREE In 1900 the German mathematician David Hilbert presented the mathematical community with 23 unsolved problems. What were they, and how successful were attempts to solve them? 100 years later the mathematical world was presented with seven 'millennium problems'. What are they, and where is maths heading in the future? More information on Gresham College can be found on their website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/ ********** The Plus New Writers Award Every year at Plus we hold our maths essay competition, the Plus new writers award. We want to find people who can bring mathematics to life. The competition is open to new writers of any age and from any background who can explain a mathematical topic or application they think the world needs to know about. The winning entries will be read by an international audience of over two hundred thousand in the June 2008 issue of Plus, and the winners will receive an iPod and signed copies of popular maths books by some of the best science writers today. The closing date is March 31st 2008. The competition is kindly supported by the Maths, Stats and Operational Research Network, a Subject Centre of the Higher Education Academy, and the London Mathematical Society. The competition will be judged by three prominent mathematicians and science writers. There are three categories: secondary school and sixth form students, university students (both undergraduate and postgraduate) and the general public. If you think you can share your passion for maths with the general public, download your entry pack today and get writing! For more information and the entry pack, go to: http://plus.maths.org/competition/?nl=1 ********** Happy reading and a happy new year 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.