India: The Land Of Human Computers?

With a recent warts-and-all Bollywood biopic of Shakuntala Devi, is India the land of “human computers” – i.e. people who can do incredible mathematical feats without the aid of a calculator?

By: Ringo Bones

For much of the 20^th Century, India has become a go-to country for those in the search of people who can do amazing mathematical feats without the aid of a pocket calculator or even a slide rule. From the number theories of Srinivasa Ramanujan to scores of others who can recite the value of pi to several decimal places that necessitate the use of an electronic device much more advanced than a battery-operated electronic pocket calculator, India seems to be the go to place to find them.

Recently, Indian math wizard Shakuntala Devi, often described as a “human computer”, became the subject of a new film that premiers on the online streaming giant Amazon Prime Video on Friday, July 31, 2020. Born in November 4, 1929 in Bengaluru, India, and in her interviews, Shakuntala Devi said she was “doing mathematical calculations from the age of 3 in my head” and that her father, a circus artist, discovered her felicity with numbers while playing cards with her when he discovered that she was beating him not by cheating – but by memorizing the cards.

At the age of 6, Shakuntala Devi first displayed her extraordinary mathematical skills in a public performance in the city of Mysore in Karnataka the southern state where she was born. She taught herself reading and writing and for decades travelled around the world doing impossibly complex mental calculations before audiences in universities and theaters and in radio and television studios.

In 1950, when Shakuntala Devi participated in a BBC television show, her answer to a problem differed from the host’s. That was because, as she pointed out, there was a flaw in the question. She was proved right when experts re-examined the numbers. In 1977 in the American city of Dallas, she beat Univac, one of the fastest supercomputers ever built during that time. And for her 1982 Guinness Book of World Records recognition s the fastest human computer, she multiplied two 13-digit numbers, randomly picked by a computer, in front of an audience of 1,000 at the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London. It took her 28 seconds, including the time to recite the 26-digit answer. For much of her professional life, she strove to simplify mathematics for students before passing away back in April 21, 2013 in the Bangalore Hospital, Bengaluru, India.

The Mysterious Mathematics Behind Bode’s Law: The Most Puzzling Law Of Science?

Often cited as the most productive – and most puzzling – scientific law at the same time, are there any “mathematical” mysteries behind Bode’s Law?

By: Ringo Bones

This rather “curious” scientific law was named after an 18^th Century German astronomer and mathematician named Johann Elert Bode, but contrary to popular belief, it was actually discovered by Johann Daniel Titius – a German mathematician – back in 1766. However, the empirical relation that gives the approximate distances of the planets from the Sun did not attract attention to the 18^th Century astronomical community until it was publicized by Johann Elert Bode – whose name has since then associated with it – back in 1772.

To the uninitiated, Johann Elert Bode (1747-1826) was an 18^th Century era German astronomer and mathematician who popularized an empirical law that was later named after him, which gives the approximate distances of the planets from the Sun. Bode was also famous for naming the planet Uranus that ended the confusion in the astronomical community at the start of the 19^th Century when the British astronomer William Herschel desired to name the then newly discovered planet as Georgium Sidius after King George III of England.

After examining the work of fellow German mathematician, Johann Daniel Titius, Bode noted that the distances of the various planets from the Sun fell into a curious mathematical sequence. Bode then published a paper which arbitrarily assigned numbers to the planets: 0, 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, 96, and 192. Thus the planet Mercury was numbered 0, planet Venus 3, planet Earth 6, planet Mars 12, and so on, each number being double the last one. When 4 was added to each of these numbers and the result is divided by 10, figures emerged which almost exactly equaled the planets’ distances from the Sun, measured in astronomical units. By the way, an astronomical unit is a unit of distance between the planet Earth and the Sun – which is around 93-million miles or 150-million kilometers.

The only trouble with the law was that back in the time when Bode published it in 1772, there were no planets found at positions 24 or 192. But astronomers searching in position 24 located the asteroids – around the start of the Nineteenth Century – i.e. the discovery of asteroid Ceres in 1801. The planet Uranus, which was discovered back in 1781, occurs at position 192 and conforms almost exactly to Bode’s calculations. Only the outermost planets – Neptune and the dwarf planet Pluto – failed to obey Bode’s Law. Although many attempts have been made to derive a physical explanation for the law, none has completely succeeded.  Today, many astronomers dismiss Bode’s Law as a coincidence and that Bode’s Law is not a rule governing planetary systems. Yet it remains one of the most mysterious statements of natural law formulated by man with the help of mathematics.

Did A 13 Year Old Girl’s Mathematical Skills Help Design The Spitfire’s Weapons System?

It would also have been much of a dream job for boys within her age but did a 13 year old girl helped design the weapons system of the iconic Supermarine Spitfire?

By: Ringo Bones

Now, 80 years after the start of the Battle of Britain on July 10, 1940, the RAF has finally recognized the role of an unseemly inventor and mathematical genius. In 1934, Hazel Hill, a teenage girl from north London, carried out the calculations that proved the new generation of fighter planes – i.e. Spitfires and Hurricanes – should carry eight fifty caliber machine guns, instead of just four. In a documentary researched by her granddaughter, Felicity Baker, a journalist, Hazel Hill’s contribution that allowed the Spitfire to dominate the Battle of Britain and denied the Nazi’s their British conquest finally got the recognition it deserve. Yet – until now – the compelling story of the schoolgirl who helped to win a war has been sadly untold. Hazel Hill’s only recognition was in a memoir written by her father’s superior officer in the UK Air Ministry.

Fortunately for Hazel Hill and her dad, the historic mathematical collaboration happened way before Number 10 declared that the Supermarine Spitfire’s design details were part of the UK’s Official Secrets Act or she could certainly have been denied access to it. In the summer of 1934, Hazel Hill, a 13 year old girl from north London, was approached by her father, Captain Fred Hill, a scientific officer in the UK Air Ministry who was trying to make the case for the new generation of fighter planes. Despite her youth, Captain Hill drew upon his daughter’s mathematical intellect and discussed plans with her as to how it could be possible to arm Spitfires with eight 50 caliber machine guns, as opposed to the four which had been originally suggested. Along with her father, she worked through the night on complex calculations that would shape the future of fighter planes like the Spitfire and the Hurricane. The work was done by lamplight over a kitchen table in north London. Night after night throughout the early months of 1934, Captain Fred Hill and his 13 year old daughter burned the midnight oil plotting graphs and laboring over complex algorithms.

When they got access to the new “calculating machines” of the time – which to our eyes today, resemble very rudimentary vacuum tube based computers – father and daughter worked long into the night analyzing the data that was previously obtained at their kitchen table. Their complicated calculations showed conclusively that each Spitfire needed to be capable of firing 1,000 rounds a minute – per gun. They also calculated the exact distance the Spitfire – whose top speed was about 360 mph – had to be from the enemy to hit them, just 755 feet.  The biggest thing was the huge increase in speed of the new fighters, which was way beyond anything people had experienced before – says mathematician Niall MacKay, the current head of the Department of Mathematics at the University of New York.

  It was tiring, unrewarding work but they both sensed how vital it would prove to be. And their instincts would before long be ratified by history because their intricate calculations would go on to help the RAF secure victory in the Battle of Britain – a triumph that many historians now believe changed the course of World War II. Bent together over their graphs, father and daughter concluded that the new generation of aircraft being built by the UK government to prepare for future war should be armed not with four powerful machine guns but eight – an idea was seen as deeply radical, even improbable at the time. Yet only then, the Hills had come to believe, would a new generation of Spitfires and Hurricanes have sufficient firepower to bring down enemy aircraft. A scientific officer in the UK Air Ministry, Captain Hill managed to convince his superior officers of the importance of his and Hazel’s findings – and six years later, in 1940, their calculations were put to the test in the skies above Britain as the RAF fought Adolf Hitler’s much feared Luftwaffe in a four month battle that has been described as the most important military campaign ever fought. The Battle of Britain is often referred to as the first major military battle which was fought entirely by air forces. Who knew that Reginald Joseph Mitchell’s iconic design could still be improved by a 13 year old girl from north London?

Farewell Katherine Johnson

Could the United States have won the so-called space race against the then Soviet Union without the help of NASA's African-American mathematician Katherine Johnson?

By Ringo Bones

Fortunately, she got her due credit while still alive given that her most important mathematical works were done during Jim Crow era America. As of February 24, 2020, former NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, also known as Katherine Goble passed away in Newport News, Virginia. Born in August 25, 1918 in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, USA became well known as America’s NASA mathematician whose calculations of orbital mechanics during her employment at NASA were critical to the success of the first and subsequent manned spaceflights.

Katherine Johnson was better known to the generation born after the Apollo moon missions as the NASA African-American mathematician portrayed by Taraji P. Henson in the 2016 movie Hidden Figures about a group of trailblazing African American women mathematicians employed by NASA during the start of America’s Civil Rights movement at the start of the 1960s. Although Katherine Johnson’s mathematical work began earlier in the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics / NACA – the predecessor of NASA – back in 1953. Before being made famous by the movie Hidden Figures in 2016, Katherine Johnson was awarded with the Presidential Medal of freedom – America’s highest civilian honor – by President Barack Obama in 2015.

During the early days of programmable digital computers – whose active components of which were still largely made with subminiature vacuum tubes first manufactured during 1947 – astronauts were not exactly keen on putting their lives in the care of these early electronic calculating machines, which were prone to hiccups and blackouts according to NASA. So pioneering astronaut John Glenn asked the NASA engineers to “get the girl” – referring to Katherine Johnson to run the computer equations by hand for improved reliability. Johnson and her team of African American women mathematicians did vital work for NASA that eventually made the United States won the space race by successfully landing the first men on the moon and  taking them back safely to earth before President John F. Kennedy’s end of the 1960s deadline.

Jeffrey Epstein Was A Mathematics Professor?

While his tenure at the esteemed Manhattan prep school was only a brief one, historically speaking, Jeffrey Epstein is not the only mathematics professor with an “iffy” sexuality by today’s standards?

By: Ringo Bones

When it comes to mathematics professors who had dabbled in “paedophilia”, it seems that only the most scholarly can attest that there are already two of them – i.e. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, also known as Lewis Carroll and the disgraced billionaire financier who had recently allegedly committed suicide in prison named Jeffrey Epstein. But is there any truth to the “alleged paedophilia” to both math professors?

Even though US President Donald Trump seems to have got off Scott-free when it comes to his “paedophile adventures” with Jeffrey Epstein, it was Prince Andrew who got a grilling by public opinion after an ill-advised interview at the BBC Panorama program. But does the “mathematical profession” really attract some “perverts”?

Dalton – the esteemed Manhattan prep school  where Jeffrey Epstein became a mathematics professor back in the 1970s has long been known for its rigorous academics, repeatedly ranking among the United States’ best private schools while drawing the sons and daughters of New York’s titans of finance, media and art. And students who are enrolled in Epstein’s class vividly remembered the then mathematics professor dressing in furs with open chest revealing chest hairs and blingy gold jewelry. Many say that the only reason Epstein got the job is that a number of New York’s upper crust acquired millions via Epstein’s financial advised backed by his mathematical acumen – although Epstein eventually quit after getting richer off the New York Stock Exchange.

Even though Victorian era mathematician Charles Dodgson – aka Lewis Carroll – who wrote Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland had an extensive collection of photos of naked girls aged 8 to 11. Though Charles Dodgson signed his real name to only his “serious” mathematical works, mathematicians for decades have been intrigued by the rich skein of symbolic logic that is woven into fantasies like in Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass.

Alfred North Whitehead: Mathematical Unifier?

Inspired by the underlying commonality of the existing mathematics of his day, would Alfred North Whitehead be as successful as Rene Descartes in establishing a new branch of mathematics?


By: Ringo Bones


Ever since Rene Descartes made possible the happy marriage of curves and quantities – i.e. by merging all the arithmetic, algebra and geometry of ages past into a single technique – to produce analytic geometry, many a wannabe great mathematician had tried to create their own branch of mathematics by combining existing ones. During the latter half of the Victorian Era, none got closer than Alfred North Whitehead. But today’s kids would certainly ask who the heck is he?

Alfred North Whitehead (1861 – 1947) English mathematician and philosopher, was born at Ramsgate, the Isle of Thanet, Kent, on February 15, 1861, of a family of teachers and ministers. His father was an Honorary Canon of Canterbury. Upon entering Trinity College, Cambridge, Alfred North Whitehead devoted himself to mathematics. But by being a member of the Apostles Club – philosophy, literature, history, politics and religion were all subjects of intense discussion.

In 1885, Whitehead became a Fellow of Trinity and began teaching mathematics. His Treatise on Universal Algebra led to his election to the Royal Society in 1903. A decade of collaboration with the most brilliant of his former pupils – Bertrand Russell – resulted in the publication of the monumental Principia Mathematica consisting of three volumes between 1910 and 1913.

Alfred North Whitehead’s mathematical work that gained him fame was the 1898 publication of his pioneering work called A Treatise on Universal Algebra. Now called Abstract Algebra, it was his unfinished attempt to unify “the various systems of Symbolic Reasoning allied to ordinary algebra.” The first and only volume that was published is a detailed investigation of H. G. Grassmann’s Calculus of Extension – Ausdehnungslehre in German – which was first published in 1844 but insufficiently appreciated and George Boole’s Algebra of Logic. These mathematical works had attracted Whitehead’s attention by their bold extension of algebraic methods beyond the traditional realm of the quantitative.

Whitehead restated Grassmann’s calculus and employed it to unify a variety of geometries; thus the theorems of projective geometry were exhibited as consequences of the definitions of the calculus. Some, but comparatively few, additions to the superstructure of mathematics were included – resulting in a main achievement that was more a novel unification. But this was along relatively unorthodox lines, thus the work had little influence among mathematicians.

Returning to the great Principia Mathematica, the first portion of which is a deductive elaboration of formal logic from a few axioms; the remainder is a detailed deduction, from this alone, of the basic concepts and principles, first called cardinal arithmetic and then of the other recognized mathematical sciences; and many new sciences suggested by the broad definitions being laid down.

The whole is written in exact and elaborate symbolism, taken partly from Giuseppe Peano. The work is basic for students of the foundations of mathematics, in spite of the fact that the first portion, for which Russell was mainly responsible, was involved in difficulties which have challenged experts ever since, and that the fourth volume, which was to deal with geometry alone, and was to be written by Whitehead alone, never appeared. Thus his attempts to unify various geometries were seen nothing more by mathematicians – then and now – as nothing more that a novel unification.

Is Prison A Good Place to Hone One's Math Skills?

From Jean Victor Poncelet to the imprisoned Tiananmen Square dissidents of 1989, is prison really a good place hone one’s mathematics skills?


By: Ringo Bones


Most prisoner of war inmates opt intricate scrimshaw carving or feeling sorry for themselves, but there are an exceptional few who used their time spent in captivity to develop and improve their existing math skills. Some have even managed to contribute indispensable facts to the still growing collective mathematical knowledge.

Captured during Napoleon’s disastrous Russian campaign of 1812, French mathematician Jean Victor Poncelet conquered the boredom of his prison camp by aligning a lot of disorganized non-Euclidian insights into a new branch of mathematics now known as projective geometry. Its aim is to study the properties of geometric shapes that stay unchanged when seen from a distance. An example of which is when Poncelet created a set-up during his captivity – a pyramid that contains a seemingly chaotic arrangement of colored cards. When the eye looks at this particular pyramid’s base, it sees an orderly pattern due to the angle at which “chaos” - or the chaotically arranged colored cards, is projected through space to the viewer’s eye. While some of his comrades are probably busied themselves carving intricate pieces of scrimshaw, Jean Victor Poncelet managed to create a new branch of mathematics now called projective geometry.

Professor Jackow Trachtenberg, a brilliant engineer who managed to invent a very handy set of mathematical shortcuts now known as the Trachtenberg Speed System of Mathematics during the years that he spent in captivity at Hitler’s concentration camps as a political prisoner. There’s even a Trachtenberg Mathematical Institute in Zurich, Switzerland established in honor of Professor Jackow Trachtenberg.

There also had been anecdotes during 1990 that some Chinese students who became political prisoners after their participation of the pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square back in 1989 have been making good use of their time spent in captivity as a political prisoner. Some have even tried to continue the unfinished work of Albert Einstein that he started since the1950s of formulating an equation that could unite the two very disparate systems of Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity. But is prison really an ideal place to hone one’s mathematics skills? Only time will tell.

The Three Wise Men: Also Mathematicians?

The Three Wise Men of the East were rumored to be great mathematicians that were often perceived by their contemporaries has having "supernatural powers" over numbers. Is the truth behind the story stranger than fiction?


By: Vanessa Uy


Frequently mentioned in the Bible as The Three Wise Men of the East or The Three Magi who were led to Bethlehem by a star, scholars first theorized them to be astrologers from Mesopotamia – now present day Iraq. But there’s a growing consensus that The Three Wise Men of the East were in fact Persian (Iranian) Zoroastrians who were known for their very advanced mathematical prowess. While the gold, frankincense, and myrrh that they brought for the infant Jesus were meant at the time to be understood as a sign that they believed the birth to be a great event.

Currently, The Three Wise Men or The Three Magi of the Bible were perhaps custodians of the Sacred Flame of the Fire Temples of Baku – a sacred site of holy pilgrimage to Zoroastrians. The mere fact that they arrived at the manger were Jesus was born hundreds of miles from their starting point only hints at their ability to navigate with extreme accuracy using celestial reference points. Does this prove that they have mathematical skills way above that of their other contemporaries?

Already well known during the Classical Hellenistic period as the priests of Zoroaster who had become custodians of Mesopotamian mathematical lore under the Persian Empire, The Magi’s mathematical knowledge was often seen as mystical or the blackest of all arts by outsiders. Given that during the time specialized mathematical knowledge being practiced by the Magi was considered a very indulgent luxury that they were often considered as magicians by their less educated brethren. Even the famous Greek mathematician Pythagoras was very much intrigued by the “mystical” mathematical abilities of the priests of Zoroaster.

For early Christian historians, Iran was always above all the land of “The Three Magi”, who are guided by the Star of Bethlehem, came to worship at Jesus’ birthplace. Further, continuing Jewish tradition, the early Christian historians identified Zoroaster with Ezekiel, Nimrod, Seth, Baruch, and even with Christ himself. After the early Christian writer Justin Martyr, Zoroaster and the Magicians could be cited by Christian apologists as being among the “witnesses” from outside whom they invoked to establish the truth of Christianity in pagan eyes; Even though latter Roman era Christian historians believed that Zoroaster founded particularly abominable superstitions of astrology and magic.

Even though the very early Roman Catholic Church had a very low opinion on Zoroaster and Zoroastrians in general, the Zoroastrians’ impeccable record keeping did manage to preserve ancient mathematical knowledge dating back thousands of years. Not to mention documentation of unique celestial events like appearances of comets and supernovae. We may even owe it to The Three Wise Men of the East or the Three Magi for noticing the Star of Bethlehem, because the “Christian West” managed to ignore the great supernova of 1054 despite the Chinese and Native Americans witnessing and recording the rare celestial event. Given that the entire Christian West ever came up as an excuse for not witnessing the great supernova of 1054 was war and pestilence.

Bose-Einstein Condensate: Mathematics Made Real?

Born out of a scientific correspondence and collaboration between Albert Einstein and Indian physicist Satyendrenath Bose; Does the Bose-Einstein condensate hold promise for mankind or a mere “curiosity”?


By: Vanessa Uy


Even though we only had succeeded in confirming the existence of a new state of matter called the Bose-Einstein condensate during the second half of the 1990’s, the mathematics explaining – or modeling - the “behavior” of this strange and wonderful substance can be traced back to 1924; Which, unfortunately, is only half of the story.

In 1924, the Indian physicist Satyendrenath Bose collaborated with Albert Einstein on the Bose-Einstein theory of quantum statistics. Even though they were half a world apart – even further back then given that the jumbo jet / low-cost airlines and the Internet were yet to be invented – and never met until their work was completed. Bose was only 30 back then when, on impulse, shared some of the work he had done on quantum statistics to Einstein. The correspondence that followed resulted in the publication of their joint theory brought Bose international fame among physicists.

More than just a curio to be toyed with by theoretical / quantum physicists, Bose-Einstein condensates have very unusual physical properties which make them a potential energy source of unimaginable inexhaustibility given that they have normally zero entropy. Plus, they could serve as a foundation for quantum computing and / or quantum encryption; which could create a new data security protocol that is of several orders of magnitude better than our current ones based on Bernhard Riemann’s work on very large prime numbers.

Even more “curiouser” is the Bose-Einstein condensate cloud’s ability to slow down light from its average “airspeed” of 1 billion kilometers per hour to about the same speed of a five-year-old girl riding a bicycle with training wheels – i.e. just a few meters per second. In recent experiments, light can be slowed down even further. Given that a photon (light particles) must travel at the speed of light no matter what their energy level is to maintain a photon’s “computational” zero rest mass or there will be unfortunate “relativistic” side effects… Like time travel?!

Satyendrenath Bose and Albert Einstein had bequeathed to the scientific community a very useful mathematical tool that despite being formulated over 80 years ago had only been extensively used “practically” via the laboratory studies of the Bose-Einstein condensate phenomena. Given that ballotechnic substances like the very hot quark-gluon plasma of the early universe that existed in a superfluid state is governed – more or less – by the mathematics behind the Bose-Einstein theory of quantum statistics, is humanity’s “Holy Grail” of unlimited energy already at hand?

No Nobel Prize for Mathematics?

It may come as a shock to most of us but nobody knows for sure – even Alfred Nobel himself haven’t left any explanations on his will – on why there is no Nobel Prize for mathematics. Is it a mystery worthy of a Nobel Laureate?


By: Vanessa Uy


Sooner or later, anyone who finds out that there is no Nobel Prize for Mathematics will feel somewhat perplexed. But will later descend into astonishment when no satisfactory reasons exist. Even Alfred Nobel’s last will and testament didn’t provide any explanation on why he won’t grant any of his prestigious prizes to mathematicians. But before we proceed, here’s a review on what the Nobel Prize is all about.

When Alfred Nobel got rich after inventing a manufacturing process that made the powerful but hopelessly unstable nitroglycerin – previously discovered by Ascanio Sobrero back in 1846 – into a product stable enough for use in mining and civil engineering work. Even the military sector of every nation of the world back then became the major purchasers of Alfred Nobel’s dynamite. Shy and deeply engrossed in his work, Alfred Nobel never got married. And thus formulated his last will and testament to bequeath his vast mostly self-made fortune be invested to fund a foundation / committee – later to become the Nobel Committee. And the interest awarded annually as prizes in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, peace, and economics. Which henceforth became known as the Nobel Prizes.

Even though Nobel Laureates of the Physics Prizes – especially quantum / theoretical physicists and Economics Prize Laureate economists can be thought of as de facto mathematicians, especially true these days. Alfred Nobel had not specifically stipulated a proviso on his will whether to explicitly award or shame mathematicians. Nobel neither put into writing nor publicly expressed his own personal sentiments about mathematicians during his lifetime. Which unfortunately started a rumor within the academic world that slowly trickled down into the general public on why Alfred Nobel has not set aside a Nobel Prize for mathematicians.

The rumor states that during one of the rare periods of his life when Alfred Nobel’s “workload” became low enough to allow him to search for a prospective bride, he lost a girl to a gifted yet obscure mathematician. Thus forever harboring resentment towards mathematicians. Even though this “apocryphal” story is about as factual as the young George Washington chopping down a cherry tree, or the apple hitting Isaac Newton on the head inspiring his eureka moment on his insight on gravity.

Given that the truth behind the story of Alfred Nobel losing his girlfriend to a mathematician will probably never gonna be substantiated in the foreseeable future. Other foundations structured similarly to the Nobel Committee were established throughout the years to recognize the achievements of our tireless mathematicians. Which is very important in today’s information-based society under the hegemony of Web 2.0 and round-the-clock global stock market trading.

2008: A Good Year for Mathematics?

Year of the rat, year of the environmentally embattled frog, the year 2008 is now known by many things. Why not make it a good year to make everyone more aware of the benefits of mathematics in today’s society?


By: Vanessa Uy


Inexplicably, 2008 was arbitrarily tagged as the year of mathematics, marked by the de rigeur discussion / reiteration of the importance and indispensability of mathematics in today’s society. Like the application of advanced mathematics in credit derivatives – a financial instrument, which probably less than 10,000 people around the planet fully understand – plus the other esoteric mathematical tools to allow these instruments to be traded ubiquitously on the stock market. Not to mention the other math tools now widely utilized to lessen the impact of our current financial crisis. Plus the somewhat “overwrought” discussion on the contribution of mathematics that made cheap but powerful computers a reality and what have you. Then there’s that perennial belletristic diatribe on which likes or who is more “comfortable” with mathematics: girls or boys?

Mathematics, which can be both the queen and handmaiden of all the branches of all the sciences is indeed burdened with long-standing issues. Given mathematics’ overall decline in popularity since the end of America’s manned lunar exploration program – despite contemporary society’s utter dependence on it in order to function – any program aiming to make mathematics more popular – especially to the younger generation – should be embraced with open arms. It’s been known for sometime now that those who depend mathematics for their day jobs are somewhat “socially ignored” despite of their utter indispensability in today’s society. Even us, who are only using mathematics for “hobby” purposes should be grateful that academia is busy promoting mathematics to the general public. Maybe in the future, more people will understand why some are fascinated by mathematics – even at just a hobbyist’s level.

Year of the rat, year of the environmental degradation embattled frog, 2008 might be remembered as a pivotal year when mathematics gained widespread popularity again – like it did during the Eisenhower administration. Given that career mathematicians are now getting consultation-related work on formulating plans to end our current ever deepening global financial crisis, 2008 might indeed be a good year for mathematics.