Author Archives: Peter Cameron

About Peter Cameron

I count all the things that need to be counted.

Simon Norton

Posted on 19/02/2019

Simon Norton died last week. I got the news yesterday. I have written about Simon here before, after reading Alexander Masters’ biography. I have no intention of rehearsing Simon’s eccentricities. But he had an extraordinary talent and insight into mathematics, … Continue reading →

Posted in books, mathematics and ... | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Books

Posted on 02/02/2019

I realised yesterday that, although I had moved the web pages of books I had written to my St Andrews website when I came here, I had neither updated them nor put links to them. I have done the easier … Continue reading →

Posted in books, the Web | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Academic-Led Publishing Day

Posted on 30/01/2019

This event is on 7 February this year. You may be interested in taking part. The web address is https://academicledpublishingday.com/. And no, I knew nothing about it until I spent five minutes browsing this afternoon.

Posted in publishing | Tagged | Leave a comment

Michael Atiyah

Posted on 12/01/2019

Sir Michael Atiyah died yesterday. I attended part of a course of lectures he gave on algebraic geometry in the 1970s (until term got too busy and I was forced to drop the course). They were excellent lectures, the sort … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 5 Comments

A family of non-synchronizing groups

Posted on 06/01/2019

As I explained recently, according to the O’Nan–Scott Theorem, a finite primitive permutation group either preserves a Cartesian structure, or is of affine, diagonal or almost simple type. In all these types except the last, the action of the group … Continue reading →

Posted in exposition, symmetric group | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Punctuation

Posted on 03/01/2019

Happy New Year everyone! A month ago I was engaged in a big fight with a major international academic publisher, whose typesetters had added commas to our paper in such a way as to change the meaning significantly. Today I … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Sophistry

Posted on 29/12/2018

The word “sophistry” means lies and deception, the kind of thing that more and more is associated with the pronouncements of politicians. I was prompted to think about this when the word came up in yesterday’s Guardian crossword, set by … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments