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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: mathematicians

mathematicians stories: 9 news summaries

British PM Apologizes
to Gay WWII Codebreaker

Gordon Brown slams 'horrifying' treatment of late mathematician Alan Turing

Sep 11, 09 3:20 AM CDT
(Newser) - Gordon Brown has issued a posthumous apology to WWII codebreaking genius Alan Turing, the Guardian reports. Turing's work cracking German codes helped the Allies win the war, but he was later prosecuted for having a gay relationship. He was chemically castrated after being forced to choose between that or prison,... More »

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Gordon Brown • homosexuality • World War II • homosexual • mathematicians • Alan Turing

A Zombie's Worst Enemy: Canadian Math Geeks

Scholars devise method to eliminate pesky Hollywood bugaboo

Aug 15, 09 3:41 PM CDT
(Newser) - Decades of terrorizing sleepy towns in grade-B horror flicks hasn't prepared zombies for their newest foe: Canadian math geeks. Scholars in Ottawa have formulated a mathematical model to combat a zombie outbreak, dismissing quarantines and cures: “The most effective way to contain the rise of the undead is to... More »

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Hollywood • Canada • outbreak • mathematicians • zombie

 Spooky Universal Pattern 
 Captivates Math Experts 

Academics ponder similarities between cities and organisms

May 20, 09 5:53 AM CDT
(Newser) - A fascinating mathematical similarity between infrastructure requirements of cities and the nutritional needs of different-sized animals has energized a field of study that is enthralling academics. Researchers have discovered that any measure of a city's infrastructure—from number of gas stations to miles of roadway—grows only in proportion to... More »

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microorganisms • professor • academics • mathematics • pattern recognition • city • animal • mathematicians • urban development • math

(AP) - Cambridge University says famed mathematician Stephen Hawking was rushed to the hospital today and is "very ill." The university said Hawking had been fighting a chest infection for several weeks. Hawking, 67, gained fame for his work on black holes, and has remained active despite being stricken with... More »

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Stephen Hawking • mathematicians • black holes • motor neurone disease

 Mathematician Solves Sudoku 


Mar 16, 09 1:11 PM CDT
(Newser) - A mathematician has devised a foolproof method for solving Sudoku puzzles, USA Today reports. The stimulating mental challenge of the game has attracted millions of fans all over the world, but, from a mathematical perspective, “the interesting fact about Sudoku is that it is a trivial puzzle to solve,... More »

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sudoku • puzzles • study • game • mathematics • mathematicians

 The Best  
 (and Worst)  
 Jobs in America 

Findings confirm it's good to be nerdy

Jan 6, 09 2:55 PM CST
(Newser) - How desirable is your daily grind? A new study aims to answer that question with a list ranking the best and worst jobs according to five factors: “environment, income, employment outlook, physical demands, and stress,” the Wall Street Journal reports. In the end, the CareerCast list suggests, nerds... More »

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work • list • worst jobs • logging • job • career • mathematicians

US Culture Stifles Girls' Math Skills

Smaller countries
that nurture students have more prodigies

Oct 10, 08 4:02 PM CDT
(Newser) - The women who have won the world's most elite math competitions come disproportionately from small countries with computation-friendly cultures, such as Bulgaria and Romania, a new study finds. The reason the US lags isn't related to talent, but rather to culture. Americans don't value math enough to put kids on... More »

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education • aptitude • gender gap • mathematics • mathematicians

UCLA Bags $100K Prize With Record-Breaking Prime Number

Winning discovery is
13 million digits long

Sep 27, 08 7:34 AM CDT
(Newser) - A team of UCLA mathematicians has won one of  the math world's most coveted prizes, the Los Angeles Times reports. Their discovery of a 13-million-digit prime number—only the 46th such number ever found—scores them a $100,000 reward from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The organization is also offering... More »

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UCLA • Electronic Frontier Foundation • algorithms • mathematicians

 Celebrate π, It's 3/14! 

Classrooms everywhere fete a most mathematical holiday

Mar 14, 08 2:00 PM CDT
(Newser) - Math lovers, rejoice, for today is Pi Day, celebrated in classrooms around the country—preferably at 1:59, which, on 3/14, nearly matches 3.14159, the famed irrational number’s first six digits. “What’s fun about pi is that everyone knows the number,” a math professor tells... More »

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school • Princeton • University of Tokyo • mathematics • pi • mathematicians • Yasumasa Kanada • Ingrid Daubechies • David Bailey • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory • C.A. Waldo • King Solomon • Temple of Jerusalem • John von Neumann • Institute for Advanced Study

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