Word: mathematicians
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...find only one Nobel Prize-winning gem. They also claim that rogue scientists could praise and criticize research in an unfair, un-objective way. But copious empirical evidence indicates that open online communities—including those dedicated to scientific research—have an incredible capacity to self-regulate.Russian mathematician Grigori Perelman’s recent online publication of a proof of the Poincaré conjecture—a century-old question of fundamental importance in topology, the solution to which won Perelman a Fields Medal—is an iconic example of the unlimited possibilities in open online science...
...Larry Summers, and to a lesser extent, with the vicious show trials of students Kaavya Viswanathan ’08, Eugene Plotkin ’00, and Nick Sylvester ‘04. Below, you’ll also find the story of Shing-Tung Yau, a Harvard mathematician who has recently come under fire in The New Yorker. This is a scrutiny about what it’s like to be branded, and what it’s like to try to win back your name. Careful when you read it, though: most of the professors profiled here were...
Acording to Harvard mathematician Shing-Tung Yau, the first time journalist Sylvia Nasar got in touch with him for a story she was writing for the New Yorker, she told him she was interested in the fusion of math and physics as represented in the age-old Poincare Conjecture. Yau, a Harvard string theorist, had a lot to say on the subject—two of his mentees had just completed a full proof of the Conjecture, which had gone unsolved for a hundred years. He happily agreed to talk to her, according to the New Yorker...
...center of the New Yorker article are reclusive Russian mathematician Grigory Perelman and the more sociable Yau. The story opens with a full-page illustration rendering a bespectacled, white-haired, Asian man tugging at a medal labeled “Fields” that dangles from the neck of a brown-bearded Caucasian. Below, the caption reads: “Grigory Perelman (right) says, ‘If the proof is correct, then no other recognition is need.’ Shing-Tung Yau isn’t so sure...
...Yorker as saying that Perelman’s proof “was written in such a messy way” that it was incomprehensible. The Harvard professor is promoting another proof written by two of his protégés—a Guangzhou, China-based mathematician and a Lehigh University professor. Yau and his protégés say that their version—while influenced by Perelman—is a “self-contained and complete proof.” Perelman’s backers dispute that claim...