I just wanted to agree with the writng abilities of Ian Steward as well. To take mathematics and make it interesting is quite a feat of artistic expression? That one may compare the rabbit to the Alice’s world, is no small thing in comparison to how “points in space” can be applied to a geometrical perspective?

Poincaré Conjecture

If we stretch a rubber band around the surface of an apple, then we can shrink it down to a point by moving it slowly, without tearing it and without allowing it to leave the surface. On the other hand, if we imagine that the same rubber band has somehow been stretched in the appropriate direction around a doughnut, then there is no way of shrinking it to a point without breaking either the rubber band or the doughnut. We say the surface of the apple is “simply connected,” but that the surface of the doughnut is not. Poincaré, almost a hundred years ago, knew that a two dimensional sphere is essentially characterized by this property of simple connectivity, and asked the corresponding question for the three dimensional sphere (the set of points in four dimensional space at unit distance from the origin). This question turned out to be extraordinarily difficult, and mathematicians have been struggling with it ever since.

I seen this the first time and I let it go because I could not keep up, with the posts materializing at different speeds in different locations. Yet a comment on what one may of thought of and what is demonstrated from blog to blog is very important to the whole picture? From “my position of learning” how could this apply to the universe?

Tegmark did answer it?

Ian Stewart’s “Does God Play Dice?” is perhaps one of the best summaries on chaos theory for the armchair reader of math to sit down and mull over. Even though John Derbyshire’s “Prime Obession” is indeed a fine technical account (geared towards the technically challenged layperson, that is, of course;)) of the Riemann Hypothesis, Marcus du Sautoy’s perspective on the hypothesis, as conveyed in his work “The Music of the Primes,” is decisively greater in breadth of thought, hence, has a more cosmopolitan flavor to it.

Poincare was not only a brilliant mathematician who just so happened to have remarkable literary skills, but was a man who was very comfortable in the public arena. Riemann - on the other hand - was highly introverted, in fact, has been described as being painfully shy. While Poincare led an open sort of life, Riemann’s life still remains - to this day - shrouded in mystery. Without a doubt, an incredibly mysterious mathematician, like Riemann, will always make a great subject for writers of math, consequently, will capture the hearts or readers, such as myself. On the flipside, there’s much to be said for a charismatic mathematician, like Poincare.

Nevertheless, both mathematicians were regarded as exceptional polymaths. While Riemann had fluid dynamics and prime numbers - simutaneously - on his brain, Poincare had orbiting bodies and topos/chaos - simultaneously - on his brain. Therefore, I’ll predict, similar to Riemann, Poincare will be the next great object for writers of math to behold, in turn, to tackle.

Needless to say, Ian and Marcus are both not only extraordinary public communicators of math, but are both beautiful writers, in the artistic sense, as well. However, after unwisely releasing her tasteless article to “The New Yorker”, which primarily focused upon the human drama (a mighty conjecture in itself;)) behind the Poincare Conjecture, Sylvia Nasar, I believe, blew her chances of ever having a pop-math work published on Poincare. Truth be told, I’ve developed a bias against works composed by science journalist in favor of works created by legit (keyword, here) physicists/mathematicians.

Much to my dread, though, book publishers still continue to offer contracts to science/math journalists, despite the fact these authors tend to write without the required know-how of either math or science. Thus, in my humble opinion, Ian and Marcus ought be two viable candidates in the running to have books published on Poincare and his conjecture, not a garden-variety sort of science writer, such as Sylvia Nasar.

-cvj

The BBC has offered symphonies for mp3 download in the past. For example, all of the Beethoven symphonies. So, i can’t say they don’t know how, or what the issues are.