Back to Chess! News about Jesse Kraai, Jude Acers

October 7, 2013

After a brief sojourn into the world of mathematics, “dana blogs chess” now returns to the subject it’s supposed to be about! Today I have two news items that came in the e-mail within the past week. 1) Jesse Kraai has finished his Great American Chess Novel! This is great news for a couple reasons. […]

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dana blogs math: Farewell to Heidelberg, plus N-dimensional volumes

October 2, 2013

[The following entry was originally posted on 29 September. This is the last of my posts on the Heidelberg Laureate Forum. For chess fans, I will return to our regular subject matter in my next post. Thanks for your patience while I was hanging out in math-land!] Two days ago the Heidelberg Laureate Forum came […]

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dana blogs math: The Talk That Wasn’t

October 1, 2013

(Originally posted 26 September.) Today I had the real privilege of hearing Manuel Blum‘s talk at the Heidelberg Laureate Forum. It was about… “Wait a minute!” I hear you saying. “Manuel Blum didn’t give a talk at the forum!” Well yes, that’s right, he didn’t. But at least he told me about the talk he […]

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dana blogs math: A Happy Mathematical Birthday

September 30, 2013

(Originally posted 26 September.) During yesterday’s boat ride on the Neckar River, I had the chance to interview one of the youngest participants in this year’s Heidelberg Laureate Forum: Lisa Sauermann, an undergraduate at the University of Bonn, who was celebrating her 21st birthday. Even at such a young age, she has already accomplished some […]

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dana blogs math: Amazing Rope Trick

September 29, 2013

(Originally posted 24 September.) Here’s an amazing trick that Curtis McMullen performed in yesterday’s workshop on Quantum Mechanics and Topology, organized by Ryan Grady. McMullen modestly declined to be photographed, so here Grady demonstrates the trick. Step 1: Thread the rope through a carabiner and hold the ends, as shown. Step 2: Clip a second […]

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dana blogs math: Why So Few Mathematicians?

September 26, 2013

I wasn’t going to write about this. I was going to keep it to myself. But then Klaus Tschira, the chairperson of the HLF Foundation, mentioned it in his welcoming speech, and he didn’t mince words. “Some may feel there are not many mathematicians present,” Tschira said. “Personally, I feel very sorry about this.” The […]

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dana blogs math: Dances, Billiards, and Pretzels

September 24, 2013

When I came to the Heidelberg Laureate Forum, I expected a feast for my mind. I didn’t expect a feast for my eyes! Take a look at this incredible video, by Diana Davis, which was featured in today’s lecture by Fields medalist Curtis McMullen. Davis, who is now at Brown University, submitted this video to […]

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dana blogs math: In Love With Geometry

September 24, 2013

For generations, geometers have gotten used to not being able to see the objects that they prove theorems about. It’s a somewhat sad development in a subject that began in Euclid’s day with the splendidly visual concepts of points, lines, triangles, circles, conic sections and the like. But at the same time, it seemed like […]

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dana blogs math: Warrior for the Blind

September 18, 2013

Why should sighted people have all the fun? Kyle Rector, one of the young participants in this year’s Heidelberg Laureate Forum, doesn’t think they should. As part of her dissertation research on “eyes-free technology” at the University of Washington, with professors Julie Kientz and Richard Ladner, Rector has written a computer program that enables blind […]

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What if there were no King’s Gambit?

September 17, 2013

At Mike Splane’s latest chess party, on Sunday, I saw Richard Koepcke lugging around a ginormous chess book that was about the size of a phone book, and I asked him what it was. To my surprise, it was a new book on the King’s Gambit! I refer to John Shaw’s The King’s Gambit, published […]

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