Monthly Archives: January 2011
The prime twins conjecture
Over the weekend, identical twin sisters Inez Harries and Venice Shaw both celebrated their 100th birthday in California. I heard about this on the TV news, where it was the human-interest teaser story. “What are the odds of that?” the anchorman … Continue reading
Posted in mathematics, modern life
6 Comments
When life gives you lemmas, make lemma-ade
Santa and alligators in the hotel lobby: This must be New Orleans. Laptoppers and iPhoners paying no attention whatever: This must be the Joint Mathematics Meeting. It was a good meeting. I learned stuff. My take-home impression: The world of … Continue reading
Posted in mathematics
3 Comments
More on snow and balls
Here in New Orleans there’s nothing to make a snowball out of—not even a semisnowball—but I did hear several talks on snow and balls during the Joint Math Meetings. An invited address by Yuval Peres was followed by a session … Continue reading
Posted in mathematics
Leave a comment
Floor e?
At most conferences, the sign above might provoke a moment of puzzlement. But this is the JMM, the Joint Mathematics Meetings, being held this year in New Orleans. As far as I can tell, the 5,400 mathematicians gathered here are … Continue reading
Posted in mathematics
2 Comments
Snowballs
The first snow of the season is always a treat. When the flakes start flying, I want to go out and play. I even want to go out and shovel. Here in the Boston area our first storm left a particularly … Continue reading
Posted in mathematics, physics
3 Comments