Category Archives: Uncategorized

Michael Atiyah

Posted on 12/01/2019 by

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 →

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Punctuation

Posted on 03/01/2019 by

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 ssignificantly. Today I … Continue reading →

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Sophistry

Posted on 29/12/2018 by

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 →

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and G is for …

Posted on 07/09/2018 by

I am in Oxford for the birthday conference for Dan Segal and Aner Shalev. I will write something about that when time permits. This is just to report a discovery. There is now an official “Oxford Mathematical Alphabet”. I have … Continue reading →

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Q is for quantum?

Posted on 02/09/2018 by

The letter q has three, or maybe four, standard uses in mathematics. It stands for “quantum”, and it is fashionable now to produce quantum versions of everything from chromatic number of a graph to the symmetric group. Related to this, … Continue reading →

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Migrations

Posted on 15/08/2018 by

Derek Robertson is an artist based in Balmerino in Fife, site of a ruined abbey and subject of a poem by William McGonagall. His studio is right on the Fife Coastal Path. His main interest is wildlife, and in my … Continue reading →

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Congratulations to Ali Nesin

Posted on 02/08/2018 by

I was delighted to see, among the list of prizewinners at the ICM, that Ali Nesin has been awarded the Leelavati Prize (for outstanding contributions to public outreach in mathematics by an individual). The citation says the prize is awarded … Continue reading →

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