This article discusses the mathematics of the Manhattan Project which developed the first nuclear reactors and atomic bombs and established high expectations for the effectiveness of mathematical modeling…
The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. They don’t alter their views to fit the facts. They alter the facts to fit their…
Top Secret Rosies: The Female Computers of World War II Top Secret Rosies: The Female Computers of World War II is a documentary produced, directed, and narrated by…
On March 11, 2004 a series of bombs exploded aboard four commuter trains in Madrid, Spain, killing 192 people and injuring 2050. The Spanish police recovered a bag…
At present, at any rate, very little evidence exists that great mathematicians and calculating prodigies have been endowed with an exceptional neurobiological structure. Like the rest of us,…
Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future. Common quotation, variously attributed to Yogi Berra, Niels Bohr, Mark Twain and others. Introduction In Isaac Asimov’s famous science fiction…
Henry Frankenstein: Look! It’s moving. It’s alive. It’s alive… It’s alive, it’s moving, it’s alive, it’s alive, it’s alive, it’s alive, IT’S ALIVE! Victor Moritz: Henry – In…
The 2004 movie/documentary What the Bleep Do We Know? has a simple answer to life’s problems: Quantum Mechanics! Can’t get a date? The answer: Quantum Mechanics. Hate your…
Hobbes: “A new decade is coming up.” Calvin: “Yeah, big deal! Hmph. Where are the flying cars? Where are the moon colonies? Where are the personal robots and…
“Our advice: Beware of geeks bearing formulas.” — Warren Buffett, Letter to Shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway, Reporting Huge Losses In the classic 1961 Disney science fiction comedy movie…
The word “mathematics” comes from the Greek μάθημα (máthema) meaning lesson and the verb μαθαίνω (mathéno) meaning “to learn”. It could be argued that math anxiety is anxiety…
During the seventeenth century, the physicist Isaac Newton conducted a series of experiments studying the properties of light. Newton encountered a puzzling enigma. He found that light behaved…
