I've been having a great time being the mathematics consultant to the Folger theater for their production of Tom Stoppard's play Arcadia. I figured I'm probably never going to get closer to a theater production, so I even managed to wrangle a credit in the program for the play. Anyway, the play is quite amazing because of all the mathematics that Stoppard puts in it (along with about a dozen other topics - everything from Romanticism to Garden Design). But I've been concentrating only on the mathematics - the iterated algorithms, the fractals, the chaos, the population dynamics. If you want to learn more about these topics (especially in connection with the play), I invite you to watch the above video. Also, go to the Folger website, where I've put up a bunch of other links to help understand the math.

Several scheduled events related to this: On Friday, May 15, the Folger is

Continue reading "m(ARCADIA)" »

OK, it's not the Pulitzer, but when my agent sent me this link, I have to admit I was tickled pink. Thanks once again to my friend Jose Villarrubia for the great photograph! (I'm sure the modeling agencies are lining up as we speak....)

More than a year in the making, and finally here! The long-awaited sequel to "Taming Infinity" (which already has enjoyed more than 11,000 viewers on YouTube). A new math video, which requires NO knowledge of mathematics! You'll see me talk about all the approaches to math that DON'T work, and then see how it really should be done. With lots of nifty animations. Please watch (drumroll, please) THE MATHEMATICS OF FICTION! (I promise you'll find it entertaining.)

And I would LOVE to hear your feedback.

Here's a link to Victoria Lautman's website, on which she has available interviews with several dozen authors (all conducted at the Chicago Public Library's beautiful Harold Washington Center). Victoria interviewed me earlier this year, and it was a highlight of the paperback tour - hear it on the link above.

I was in Pittsburgh for a few days last week, the city that I first came to in this country (as a grad student at Carnegie-Mellon University). Oakland, whose streets I first walked almost thirty years ago, still had that same university hangout feel - the Oakland Original restaurant was still there, though the King's Court theater has been long gone. It was all very nostalgic, but also strangely melancholic. I suppose the melancholy came from memories of being 20, of trying to figure out my place in the world and my best strategies for happiness. It was tremendously exciting to be in this new American culture, but also tremendously stressful - plus, there was a long road of self-discovery that lay ahead. I realized last week how relieved I was to have survived all that excitement, all that stress, all that self-discovery, how lucky I felt to have made the journey to my present juncture in life.

Continue reading "Quantum Physics in Pittsburgh" »

It took lots of work with Jacqueline Smith, one of the producers of the BBC program, The Forum, but after weeks of talking and e-mailing, we finally nailed down a tentative script of what I would say on the show. It was all quite ambitious - in addition to explaining an idea I've been mulling: how "basis functions" crop up in several artistic fields (watch for a YouTube show on this very soon), I was also going to expound on my mathematical research on the finite element method. Well, the show was quite lively and fun, with two other guests - Ruth Padel (the great grand-daughter of Charles Darwin) and Andrea Sabbadini, chair of the European Psychoanalytic Film Festival. You can listen to all our comments here - they sort of united to form a whole greater than the individual contributions. (I come on after Ruth.)

As part of the show, I also got sixty seconds to describe an idea that would improve the world, which you can read here (together with some complimentary and not-so-complimentary feedback). My idea: teach kids to question everything!

Had a great time this past Saturday at the annual Howard County Library benefit, whose theme this year was "Along the Silk Road". The whole library was decked out in colorful fabric, with eastern music and the smells of Indian food wafting through the book stacks. I gave a talk, "Capturing India through Fiction," which I'd just delivered the previous day at the India Studies program at Indiana University, Bloomington, IN. The difference was that this time, I had a somewhat larger audience - 170 people - and what a fantastic audience it was! Pulled out all the stops - even showed them my Bollywood video. Here's a blog entry describing the event by Roberta Rood, who was in attendance.