Math Digest Summaries of Media Coverage of Math Edited by Allyn Jackson, AMS Contributors: Mike Breen (AMS), Claudia Clark (freelance science writer), Lisa DeKeukelaere (Brown University), Annette Emerson (AMS), Brie Finegold (University of California, Santa Barbara)

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2006 Math Digest

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December 2006

• "Wobblology," New Scientist, 23/30 December 2006;
  "Strange but True: Turning a Wobbly Table Will Make It Steady," ScientificAmerican.com, 25 January 2007;
  "The Science of Steadying a Wobbly Table," National Public Radio, 17 February 2007
• "New math could improve 'invisibility cloak'," CBC News, 27 December 2006
• "Tsunami Data Points to Value of Reefs in Warming Era," National Public Radio, 26 December 2006
• "Major progress in prime number theory," The Hindu, 25 December 2006
• "Erziehung berechnen (To compute upbringing)", Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 24 December 2006
• "What a Flake: Computers get the hang of ice-crystal growth," Science News Online, 23 December 2006
• "Breakthrough of the Year: The Poincaré Conjecture--Proved," Science, 22 December 2006;
  "Math takes Science's spotlight in 2006," MSNBC, 22 December 2006;
  "Maths solution tops science class," BBC News, 22 December 2006;
  "Journal Science selects top 10 scientific breakthroughs of 2006," People's Daily Online, 22 December 2006
• "Master Class in Evolutionary Modeling": Review of Evolutionary Dynamics: Exploring the Equations of Life, by Martin Nowak, Science, 22 December 2006
• "Measures for measures," Nature, 21/28 December 2006
• "Painting by numbers," The San Diego Union Tribune, 21 December 2006
• "2006 in Review," news@nature.com, 20 December 2006;
  "Top 10 stories of 2006," news@nature.com, 28 December 2006
• "A prime example," Guardian Unlimited, 19 December 2006;
  "Making mathematics music to their ears," Times Online, 23 December 2006
• "Die Berechnung der Bedeutung: Die Mathematik hinter Googles Webseiten Klassifizierung (The calculation of meaning: The mathematics behind Google's website classification)", Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 15 December 2006
• "Mathematician numbers don't add up," Herald Sun (Australia), 14 December 2006
• "Scientist at Work: Nick Patterson; A Cold War Cryptologist Takes a Crack at Deciphering DNA's Deep Secrets", New York Times, 12 December 2006
• "One Last Mission for Ship Sunk in Pearl Harbor Attack," Washington Post, 7 December 2006
• "Relatively Small Number of Deaths Have a Big Impact in Pfizer Drug Trial," Wall Street Journal Online, 6 December 2006
• "Siemens High School Science Awards," National Public Radio, 4 December 2006;
  "Student Wins Top Math Award," The Register-Guard (Eugene), 5 December 2006;
  "High school senior wins scholarship," The Associated Press, 4 December 2006
• "Never mind the Pollock's [sic]," USA Today, 3 December 2006;
  "Jackson Pollock Fractals," National Public Radio, 15 December 2006
• "The Monty Hall Problem," Who's Counting, abcnews.com, 3 December 2006
• "Let there be number": Review of How Mathematics Happened, by Peter S. Rudman, New Scientist, 2 December 2006
• "Teacher, students revel in joy of high-level math," The San Francisco Chronicle, 2 December 2006
• "'Mike's Math': How One Volunteer Is Helping Kids Think Differently," ABC News, 1 December 2006
• "Day by day---how a cancer grows," Scotsman News, 1 December 2006
• "The Turing Model Comes of Molecular Age," Science, 1 December 2006
• "Million Dollar Math," Discover, December 2006

November 2006

• "Up a Lazy River," American Scientist, November-December 2006
• Articles on the mathematics of cake-cutting, November 2006
• "Students score well with fantasy football," ESPN.com, 9 December 2006;
  "San Jose Math Class Lands on ESPN, Thanks to Fantasy Football", KCBS, 27 November 2006
• "Not Just a Pretty Equation": Review of Mathematics and Common Sense: A Case of Creative Tension, by Philip J. Davis, New Scientist, 25 November 2006
• "How to End the Math Wars," Time Online Edition, 19 November 2006
• "The Biggest Questions Ever Asked" and "Journey Through Time", New Scientist, 18 November 2006
• "Dashing Rogues," Science News, 18 November 2006
• "Lottery Strategy Pays Off," The Chronicle of Higher Education, 17 November 2006
• "This Academic Life," The Chronicle of Higher Education, 17 November 2006
• "Peloisi shakes capital ... Political Greenhorn: McNerney arrives in D.C. to take Pombo's seat, learn ropes," San Francisco Chronicle, 14 November 2006
• "Eine fläche für den Poeten (A surface for the poet)", Scienzz web site, 6 November 2006
• "When god plays dice," New Scientist, 4 November 2006
• "The Gateway Arch is NOT a Parabola," National Public Radio, 4 November 2006
• "Ballot Roulette: Computer Scientists and Mathematicians Look For Better Ways to Vote," Science News Online, 4 November 2006
• "Beautiful Models": Review of Evolutionary Dynamics: Exploring the Equations of Life, by Martin Nowak, Nature, 2 November 2006
• "Coole Mathematiker (Cool Mathematicians)": Review of Bourbaki, A Secret Society of Mathematicians, by Maurice Mashaal, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 1 November 2006
• "Fuzzy Math," Discover, November 2006

October 2006

• "Seed Firms Bolster Crops Using Traits Of Distant Relatives," The Wall Street Journal, 31 October 2006
• "Gender Similarities in Mathematics and Science," Science, 27 October 2006
• "Bent Into Shape," Science, 27 October 2006
• "Coping with uncertainty": Review of From Cosmos to Chaos: The Science of Unpredictability, by Peter Coles, Nature, 26 October 2006
• "A Rebellion Erupts Over Journals of Academia", New York Sun, 26 October 2006;
  "All Bent Out of Shape at Topology," Science, 3 November 2006;
  "Editorial Board of Elsevier Journal Resigns in Protest Over Pricing," Chronicle of Higher Education, 10 November 2006
• "Mind Games": Review of A Beautiful Math: John Nash, Game Theory, and the Modern Quest for a Code of Nature, by Tom Siegfried, New Scientist, 21 October 2006
• "Numerical Mathematics Consortium publiziert Standard (Numerical Mathematics Consortium publishes standard)," Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 20 October 2006
• "Wie schnell sich ein Beweis in nichts auflösen kann (How quickly a proof can dissolve)," Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 18 October 2006
• "Scientist at Work: Shing-Tung Yau: The Emperor of Math," New York Times, 17 October 2007
• "Researchers Devise Algorithms To Prevent Information Overload," Information Week, 16 October 2006
• "Proof": Review of The Artist and the Mathematician, by Amir D. Aczel, Washington Post, 15 October 2006
• "Awards," Science, 13 October 2006
• "Web Site Sells Math and Science Answers to Inquiring Students," Chronicle of Higher Education, 13 October 2006
• "The Propaganda of Numbers," Chronicle of Higher Education, 13 October 2006
• "Trying to Herd a Cat Stat," Wall Street Journal Online, 12 October 2006
• "Living With an Inability to Do Math," National Public Radio 11 October 2006;
  "Math: It's Far from Elementary, My Dear," National Public Radio, 15 November 2006
• "A Castle Fit for a Mathematician," Science, 6 October 2006
• "Vision's Grand Theorist," Science, 6 October 2006
• "Numbers are Male, Said Pythagoras, and the Idea Persists," by Margaret The New York Times, 3 October 2006
• "The Social Life of Genius," Toronto Star, 1 October 2006
• "Math’s Great Uniter" in "Brilliant 10," Popular Science, October 2006
• "Inpaint by Numbers," Scientific American, October 2006

September 2006

• Articles on NCTM Curriculum Report, September 2006
• "Math Factor Radio," Science News Online, 30 September 2006
• "Black Mathematicians, Still a Rarity, See Light at the End of the Pipeline," The Chronicle of Higher Education, 29 September 2006
• "A Web Site Tells Black Math Scholars 'Who We Are'," The Chronicle of Higher Education, 29 September 2006
• "Statistical Flaw Trips Up Study of Bad Stats," Nature, 28 September 2006
• "A Closer Look at Sports Miracles," Wall Street Journal Online, 28 September 2006
• "Die Rolle des Zufalls in der Mathematik (The role of randomness in mathematics)," Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 27 September 2006
• "Science gets image conscious," USA Today, 25 September 2006;
  "2006 Visualization Challenge," Science, 22 September 2006
• "How Random is the iPod's Shuffle?" Wall Street Journal Online, 21 September 2006
• "String theory: Hanging on a thread?" USA Today, 19 September 2006
• "Mathematician Is Chosen for 'Genius' Grant," Los Angeles Times, 19, September 2006;
  "UCLA Mathemagician Wins 'Genius' Grant," NBC4 TV in Los Angeles, CA, 19 September 2006
• "Newsmakers: Two Cultures," Science, 15 September 2006
• "Go with the Flow," Science, 8 September 2006
• "Controlling our errors" (the Sato-Tate Conjecture), Nature, 7 September 2006
• "What'd you say? Math sorts out noise," The Kansas City Star, 4 September 2006
• "Die Mathematik gibt dem Arzt den Durchblick (Mathematics gives the doctor a glimpse)," Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 3 September 2006
• "Full proof? Let's trust it to the black box", Times Higher Education Supplement, 1 September 2006

August 2006

• Coverage of 2006 Fields Medals, August 2006 (plus articles about Grigory Perelman)
• "Number Crunch," Nature, 31 August 2006
• "The Colbert Report: Fields Medal," Comedy Central, 22 August 2006
• "Math institute plans castle in California," Boston Globe (Associated Press), 18 August 2006
• "Professor puts politics aside in solving 51-year-old math puzzle," The Star-Ledger, 13 August 2006
• "Connecting the Dots," American Scientist, September-October 2006;
  "Making Connections," Science, 4 August 2006
• "How a Leopard Changes His Spots: Equations get to grips with patterns in a growing cat's coat," news@nature.com, 4 August 2006;
  "Spot the difference," Nature, 10 August 2006
• "Solving Laplace's Lunar Puzzle," Science, 4 August 2006
• Articles about the use of x-rays to reveal writings of Archimedes, August 2006
• "The Geometer of Particle Physics," Scientific American, August 2006

July 2006

• "The Topology and Combinatorics of Soccer Balls," American Scientist, July-August 2006
• Obituaries for Irving Kaplansky, July and August 2006
• Obituaries for Frederick Mosteller, July 2006
• "Benjamin Franklin hat's erfunden (Benjamin Franklin's got it)," Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 30 July 2006
• "The Joy of Symmetry": Review of The Equation that Couldn't Be Solved, by Mario Livio, and Fearless Symmetry, by Avner Ash and Robert Gross, New Scientist, 29 July 2006, page 48.
• "Dear Mom and Dad: Please Send Cookies And a New Calculator: Math Camps Spread for Kids Who Can't Get Enough," Wall Street Journal, 28 July 2006
• "New Life for Neural Networks," Science, 28 July 2006
• "All aboard, with a little help from Einstein," The Guardian (UK), 27 July 2006;
  "Getting passengers in their seats is as easy as E=mc²," The Scotsman, 27 July 2006
• "Celebrating Puzzles, in 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 Moves (or So)," The New York Times, 25 July 2006
• "Genialer Einsiedler (Brilliant hermit)," Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 23 July 2006
• "Major Math Problem Is Believed Solved By Reclusive Russian," The Wall Street Journal, 21 July 2006
• "Grim Statistics," Science, 21 July 2006
• "Revisiting the Relevance of the Queen of the Sciences," Greater Kashmir (Srinagar, Inda), 18 July 2006
• "Integrating Mathematics." Science, 14 July 2006
• "Small Movements: New Devices Help the Paralyzed," National Public Radio, 14 July 2006
• "AI research dealing with complicated matter," The Telegraph (Nashua, NH), 12 July 2006
• "Narratively Imaginative," Shanghai Daily, 12 July 2006
• "Geometric maps reveal hidden beauty of music," New Scientist, 7 July 2006;
  "Exploring Musical Space," Science, 7 July 2006;
  "Calculated tones," Nature, 13 July 2006;
  "Music's inner map revealed, with some help from geometry," The Boston Globe, 31 July 2006
• "Van Gogh painted perfect turbulence," news@nature.com, 7 July 2006
• "'No Child' Law Leads States to Weaken Student Tests, Study Says," Bloomberg.com, 5 July 2006
• "The Math Behind Pellicano's Code": Interview with Keith Devlin, National Public Radio, 1 July 2006
• "The net reloaded", New Scientist, 1 July 2006
• "The Extreme Sport of Origami," Discover, July 2006

June 2006

• Reviews of Unknown Quantity by John Derbyshire, June 2006
• "Chinese, English Speakers Vary at Math," The Washington Post, 26 June 2006
• "He Talks the Talk So Viewers Think He Figures the Figures," The New York Times, 25 June 2006
• "Mathematics stepping out of the shadows," Business Edge, 22 June 2006
• "Schwer fassbare dreidimensionale Sphären (Difficult-to-grasp three-dimensional spheres)," Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 21 June 2006
• "Hawking Takes Beijing; Now, Will Science Follow?", International Herald Tribune, 20 June 2006
• "Die Ecken und Kanten des runden Balles (The corners and crusts of round balls), Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 18 June 2006
• "Awards: Kyoto Prize." Science, 16 June 2006
• "Goal fever at the World Cup," Nature, 15 June 2006;
  "Scientists send Eriksson the perfect penalty formula," The Daily Telegraph, 22 June 2006
  "Researchers try to formulate the perfect penalty shot," The Christian Science Monitor, 6 July 2006
• "Mathematician Colors His Numbers into Artworks," Shreveport Times, 14 June 2006
• "The N.B.A.'s Secret Superstars," The New York Times, 10 June 2006
• "The Style of Numbers Behind a Number of Styles," The Chronicle of Higher Education, 9 June 2006
• "Charting an Arabic course": Review of Mathematical Geography and Cartography in Islam and their Continuation in the Occident, Vol. I, by Fuat Sezing, Nature, 8 June 2006
• "Eine Hommage an Kurt Gödel (A Homage to Kurt Gödel)," Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 7 June 2006
• "Das höchste Porto, das auf einen Brief passt (The highest postage that fits on a letter)," Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 4 June 2006
• "Walk of the Locusts," National Public Radio, 3 June 2006
• "String Trio," Science News, 3 June 2006
• "The Forgotten Mathematician": Review of Arthur Cayley: Mathematician Laureate of the Victorian Age by Tony Crilly, Nature, 1 June 2006
• "The Science behind Sudoku," Scientific American, June 2006

May 2006

• "Science & Technology: Future Focus, Training the Next Generation," The Crisis, May-June 2006
• "Gauss's Day of Reckoning," American Scientist Online, May-June 2006
• Articles about the awarding of the Abel Prize to Lennart Carleson, May 2006
• "Number power": Review of Dr. Euler's Fabulous Formula: Cures Many Mathematical Ills, by Paul J. Nahin, New Scientist, 27 May 2006
• "Math Professor's Work Adds Up to an International Award," KBCI-TV (Boise, ID), 24 May 2006
• "How Einstein struggled with his grand theory---and the maths," The Guardian (UK), 22 May 2006
• "The answer isn't teaching to the test," The Colorado Springs Business Journal, 19 May 2006
• "Finding Common Ground in the U.S. Math Wars," Science, 19 May 2006
• "Learning beyond the classroom," USA Today, 17 May 2006
• "New Math---Recent Algorithmic Art at LACDA," Artdaily.com, 17 May 2006
• "The NSA's Math Problem," The New York Times, 16 May 2006
• "Ex-University President to Lead U.S. Math Panel," The New York Times, 15 May 2006;
  "Well-Balanced Panel to Tackle Algebra Reform," Science, 19 May 2006
• "George Lenchner, 88, Dies After Life By the Numbers," New York Times, 14 May 2006
• "Algebra and Its Enemies," TCSDAily.com, 8 May 2006
• "Speed Theater," The San Francisco Chronicle, 7 May 2006
• "Wired for math," Science News, 6 May 2006
• "Free will---you only think you have it," New Scientist, 6 May 2006
• "Math teacher wins TV spot," Chicago Tribune, 4 May 2006
• "Math + letter writing = free Puffs tissues," WNDU-TV (South Bend, IN), 3 May 2006
• "Ask.Com's Friendly Math Professor Does TV Show and Tell," Brandweek.com, 3 May 2006
• "When Slide Rules Ruled," Scientific American, May 2006
• "America's 100 Best," Reader's Digest, May 2006

April 2006

• Articles on the centenary of the birth of Kurt Gödel, April 2006
• "Girls Just Want to Have Sums," The Simpsons, 30 April 2006
• "The curious side of big math," The Toronto Star, 30 April 2006
• "Caltech Professor Wins Top Research Award," Los Angeles Times, 24 April 2006;
  "Untangling Waves.", Science, 28 April 2006
• "Math is truly magical," KARE-TV (Minneapolis-St. Paul), 19 April 2006
• "Elemental, My Dear Watson," NETWATCH, Science, 14 April 2006
• "Fibonacci Poems Multiply on the Web after Blog's Invitation," The New York Times, 14 April 2006
• "Coexistence through math is a winning equation," Israel21c, 7 May 2006;
  "Science Partners," Jersusalem Post online, 13 April 2006
• "Movers," Nature, 13 April 2006
• "A chaotic test for Parkinsons," NewScientist.com, 11 April 2006
• "You Want It Clean? You Clean it!," New York Times, 9 April 2006
• "Math's Role in Internet Security," Weekend Edition, National Public Radio (NPR), 8 April 2006
• "Suche nach der effizienten Einsteigemethode: Kontraproduktive Sitzzuteilung (Searching for the efficient boarding method: counterproductive seat assignment)", Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 3 April 2006
• "Computing with Quantum Knots," Scientific American, April 2006

March 2006

• "Lost in Einstein's Shadow," American Scientist, March-April 2006
• "Knot Theory's Odd Origins," American Scientist, March-April 2006
• "Schools Cut Back Subjects to Push Reading and Math," by Sam Dillon. New York Times, 26 March 2006
• "Ride the celestial subway," New Scientist, 25 March 2006
• "Windy City Return," The Chronicle of Higher Education, 24 March 2006
• "Congress Examines Science Teaching," The Chronicle of Higher Education, 24 March 2006
• "Book, How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Words," New York Times, 19 March 2006
• "Film to celebrate maths genius," BBC News, 16 March 2006
• "Mathematischer Beweis einer intuitiven Idee (Mathematical proof of an intuitive idea)", Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 15 March 2006
• "National Pi Day," subject of The Daily One Minute Trivia Challenge on 88Slide.com, 14 March 2006
• "Today's Lesson About the Brackets: Don't Always Follow the Crowds," New York Times, 13 March 2006;
  "Bracketology," Riverfront Times, 22 March 2006;
  "Oops. A Few End Up Afloat in the Pool," New York Times, 28 March 2006
• "Improving math ed -- Bush right about that; But where are the teachers coming from?", San Francisco Chronicle, 12 March 2006
• "All Square,", Science News, 11 March 2006
• "Untying a math mystery," The Los Angeles Times, 6 March 2005
• "The Limits of Mathematics," Science News Online, 4 March 2006
• "Number cruncher": Review of Letters to a Young Mathematician, by Ian Stewart, New Scientist, 4 March 2006
• "Researchers use math to explain dolphins' dance," The Jerusalem Post, 2 March 2006
• "Largest US math group calculates in Providence," The Providence Phoenix, 1 March 2006
• "The Elusive Goal of Machine Translation," Scientific American, March 2006
• Articles about the 2006 Abel Prize awarded to Lennart Carleson, March 2006
• Articles about John Barrow receiving the 2006 Templeton Prize, March 2006
• Articles on winners of Intel Science Talent Search, March 2006
• "Knit Theory," Discover, March 2006

February 2006

• "Algorithms cut job to shape," Fairfax New Zealand Limited and Dominion Post, 27 February 2006
• "The Galois Story," Science News Online, 25 February 2006
• "Math Clears Up an Inner-Ear Mystery: Spiral Shape Pumps Up the Bass," Science, 24 February 2006;
  "Shape of Cochlea Found to Be Important to Hearing," FoxNews.com, 10 May 2006
• "Implementing a Quantum Computation by Free Falling," Science, 24 February 2006
• "Math gets its due as field enjoys rise in status, pay," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 19 February 2006
• "Mathematik in hohen Dimensionen (Mathematics in high dimensions)", Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 19 February 2006
• "Women turn math insult into aptitude adjustment," San Jose Mercury News, 15 February 2006
• "Panning for Terrorists," New York Times, 12 February 2006
• "Danica McKellar's Mathematical Theorem", Weekend Edition, National Public Radio, 11 February 2006
• "FAU prof, class honor `E day,' a little letter that means a lot to mathematicians," South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 8 February 2006
• "It's the geometry, stupid: Ontario's debate over high-school calculus misses the point," Toronto Star, 5 February 2006
• "X = Karin (Johnny) > 95%," The Los Angeles Times, 4 February 2006
• "Ever More Relevant, Prime Number Proofs Chalk Up More Successes," The Wall Street Journal, 3 February 2006
• "Forensic software traces tweaks to images," Nature, 2 February 2006
• "History by numbers": Review of God Created the Integers, edited by Stephen Hawking, Nature, 2 February 2006
• "The Dean of Debunkers", Discover, February 2006
• Articles on using fractals to analyze possible art forgeries, February 2006
• "Mathematician defines beauty in new exhibition," The Guardian, 1 February 2006;
  "Truth plus beauty," New Scientist, 28 January 2006
• Articles on push to improve mathematics education, January and February 2006
• Reviews of Infinite Ascent: A Short History of Mathematics, by David Berlinski, September 2005 and February 2006

January 2006

• "Unwed Numbers" American Scientist, January-February 2006
• "By the Numb3rs," Baltimore Sun, 27 January 2006
• "Scientists use Web site to track money and predict diseases," Associated Press, www.SignOnSanDiego.com, 26 January 2006;
  "Fitting the bill," Nature, 26 January 2006
• Review of Beyond Coincidence, by Martin Plimmer and Brian King, International Herald Tribune, 26 January 2006
• "Edge.org: What is your dangerous idea?", National Public Radio, 24 January 2006
• "Math will rock your world," Business Week, 23 January 2006
• "Hunter-Gatherers Grasp Geometry," Science, 20 January 2006
• "Hip 2B²," San Antonio Express-News, 14 January 2006;
  "Educators show ways to climb math mountain," San Antonio Express-News, 15 January 2006
• "Taking Anxiety Out of the Equation," Chronicle of Higher Education, 13 January 2006
• "Twin Prime Conjecture," NOVA scienceNOW, 10 January 2006
• "Doing the maths," openDemocracy, 10 January 2006
• "Irrationales bei Airlines und Passagieren: Das Braess-Paradoxon am Beispiel der Flugroutenwahl (Irrationality among airlines and passengers: The Braess Paradox on the example of an airline network)", Neue Zuercher Zeitung, 9 January 2006
• "The torturer's dilemma: the math on fire with fire," San Francisco Chronicle, 8 January 2006
• "A leap into hyperspace," New Scientist, 7 January 2006
• "Bayes Rules",The Economist, 5 January 2006
• "Mathematik zum Kugeln": Review of The Pea and the Sun: A Mathematical Paradox, by Leonard M. Wapner, Neue Zuercher Zeitung, 1 January 2006
• Obituaries for Raoul Bott, January 2006
• "Mysterious Death of a Mathematician Finally Solved?," Discover, January 2006
• "2005: The Year in Science." Discover, January 2006.

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