One + One = Nothing: Ain't We Got Fun

How come mathematicians have all the fun? It just doesn't add up. Maybe serious mathematicians are more focused than the rest of us. After all, I have to divide my time between work and work, and occasionally work and play. Still, you'd think it would equal out from time to time.

Take Dmitry Vaintrob of Eugene, Oregon, for instance. Although only a senior in high school, think of the fun Dmitry can have with the $100,000 he got for winning the 2006-07 Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology for his work in string topology. His project, entitled "The string topology BV algebra, Hochschild cohomology and the Goldman bracket on surfaces" focuses on mathematical shapes.

"Mr. Vaintrob found a very beautiful formula for describing the way shapes combine in string theory," said competition judge Dr. Michael Hopkins, Professor of Mathematics, Harvard University. "His work is at the PhD level, publishable and already attracting the attention of researchers." Hopkins added that "It was an insanely difficult problem, which he solved within weeks and then came up with an important additional development."

Mathematics isn't the only fun thing that Dmitry does, however. He's the organizer of his school's math club, a pianist, and is fluent in Russian, French and English.

In the same competition, Scott Molony, Steven Arcangeli, and Scott Horton, seniors at Oak Ridge High School in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, won the $100,000 prize in the team category, for their project "Linking Supercomputing and Systems Biology for Efficient Bioethanol Production."

"This team used supercomputers to analyze biological networks, looking at tens of thousands of genes and their biological pathways to discover clues for engineering direct biofuel production by microorganisms," said competition judge Dr. Gary Benson, Associate Professor at Boston University. "Through a real team effort and a sophisticated,
interdisciplinary approach, they developed a promising method that takes us a step closer to engineering biofuel."

In related mathematical news, Jerry McNerney, a Ph.D. mathematician from Pleasanton, California, won election to the U.S. Congress representing California's 11th district. Congressman-elect McNerney received his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of New Mexico in 1981. With someone who can really add, subtract, multiple, and divide, maybe Congress can get around to balancing its budget. That will be fun.

Finally, according to the BBC, Dr. James Anderson, a member of the University of Reading's Computer Science Department, has come up with a theorem that solves an extremely important problem -- the problem of nothing. (Sounds a little like an episode out of "Seinfeld", right?.)

Anderson's theory of nullity proposes a new number -- "nullity" -- which sits outside the conventional number line.

"Imagine you're landing on an aeroplane and the automatic pilot's working," he suggests. "If it divides by zero and the computer stops working -- you're in big trouble. If your heart pacemaker divides by zero, you're dead."

In the meantime, you can imagine the fun I'm going to have explaining nullity to my bank when I explain to the teller why my account is overdrawn. It's not my fault that they don't know about nothing.

Posted by Jon Erickson at 01:19 AM  Permalink