This volume is fourth in the much-acclaimed AMS series, What's Happening in the Mathematical Sciences. The lively style and in-depth coverage of some of the most important ""happenings"" in mathematics today make this publication a delightful and intriguing read accessible to a wide audience. High school students, professors, researchers, engineers, statisticians, computer scientists--anyone with an interest in mathematics--will find captivating material in this book. As we enter the 21st century, What's Happening presents the state of modern mathematics and its worldwide significance in a timely and enduring fashion. Featured articles include ... ``From Wired to Weird'', on advances that are encouraging research in quantum computation. ``A Prime Case of Chaos'', on new connections between number theory and theoretical physics. ``Beetlemania: Chaos in Ecology'', on new evidence for chaotic dynamics in an actual population. ``A Blue-Letter Day for Computer Chess'', on the mathematics underlying Deep Blue's victory over Garry Kasparov, and much more!
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24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
nice account of mathematical research,
By
This review is from: What's Happening in the Mathematical Sciences, Volume 4 (What's Happening in the Mathermatical Sciences) (Paperback)
Barry Cipra is an excellent writer of mathematical articles for the public. This is the fourth in a series that started in 1993 covering recent developments in mathematics of general interest to the public. This volume covers the period from 1998-1999. most interesting to me is the coverage of the developments in artificial intelligence and how it is being used to master difficult combinatorial games like chess and go. In the case of chess he details the developments from the IBM researchers who developed the Deep Blue program that defeated world chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997 after some early unsuccessful attempts.
I also was very interested in the work of Paul Erdos that is described along with Dr. Grossman's fun research on Erdos numbers. Because Erdos published so many mathematical papers and nearly all were coauthored there are many mathematicians with Erdos number 1 (coauthor of at least one published paper with Erdos). This happened partly because Erdos was a wanderer who had no permanent home and liked to travel from campus to campus throughout the world. At each stop he would usually stay long enough to produce at least one joint publication. The Erdos number is defined as the number of links through coauthorship that are required to connect you to Paul Erdos. Since I have published a number of papers with statisticians who could be connected to Erdos, I contacted Grossman to find out if I had a finite Erdos number. It turned out that my Erdos number is 3! I published a paper with McCormick who on another occasion published a paper with Canfield and Canfield once published a paper with Erdos. So Canfield has an Erdos number of 1, McCormick's is 2 and mine is 3. Defining the number requires checking all links with coauthors of Erdos. Another important article deals with cryptograph. With the need for security over the internet, safe coding systems are increasingly important to banks and members of the general public that shops over the internet. The article on the new role of computers in algebraic geometry is also fascinating.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Math for the masses,
By Timothy E. McMahon (Lincoln, RI) - See all my reviews
This review is from: What's Happening in the Mathematical Sciences, Volume 4 (What's Happening in the Mathermatical Sciences) (Paperback)
Reviewed by: Timothy E. McMahon, M.S. Principal Web Developer The McMahon Group This is an excellent book for those who have an interest in the mathematical sciences and the personalities that make up the field. Cipra takes a complex science and makes it available to anyone from the high schooler to the educated layman. The article on Erdos is well done and is an excellent companion to The Man Who Loved Only Numbers and Poincare's famous article "Mathematical Discovery" points out the Eureca moment and the deep thinking for which mathematicians are so well known. The American Mathematical Society is in the process of preparing another work in this series, and I for one am waiting anxiously for its release.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Really Interesting,
By A Customer
This review is from: What's Happening in the Mathematical Sciences, Volume 4 (What's Happening in the Mathermatical Sciences) (Paperback)
What's Happening in the Mathematical Sciences is an yearly publication about recent interesting happenings in Mathematical field. All the articles are very will written and are suitable for general audience as well as more informed. Barry Cipra has the ability to arouse an interest in the reader to learn more about the topics covered. This issue contains articles on Deep Blue, Chaos, Paul Erdös, Algebraic Geometry, Cryptogrpahy and many more. One more plus point is reprint of Henri Poincaré's "Mathematical Discovery", written in the start of twentieth century.
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