First Woman To Receive the Abel Prize

 

On Tuesday, November 2 (2021) it was announced from Oslo that Karen Keskulla Uhlenbeck will be awarded the Abel Prize. The prize was created by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters in 2003, and is viewed as the mathematics equivalent of a Nobel Prize. Uhlenbeck is the first woman to receive the Abel Prize in the award’s 18-year history.

The Abel Prize is awarded annually by the King of Norway to one or more outstanding mathematicians. It is named after Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel (1802–1829) and directly modeled after the Nobel Prizes.

The citation explains that Uhlenbeck’s work has “led to some of the most dramatic advances in mathematics in the last 40 years.”

Uhlenbeck, a founder of modern geometric analysis, is 79 years old.

Her research “inspired a generation of mathematicians,” said François Labourie of the University of Côte d’Azur in France. “She wanders around and finds new things that nobody has found before.”

Karen Uhlenbeck is a professor emeritus of mathematics at the University of Texas at Austin, where she held the Sid W. Richardson Foundation Regents Chair. She is currently a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study, and a visiting senior research scholar at Princeton University


Read more here.

The Earliest Symbols for Zero

The Bakhshali manuscript is an ancient Indian mathematical manuscript written on more than 70 leaves of birch bark. It was found in 1881. It is notable for having a dot representing zero. This symbol then grew into something that today captures the concept of nothing.

A team of researchers at the University of Oxford and the Bodleian Libraries carbon dated the manuscript and found that it dates from between 200 and 400 AD. This use of a symbol of zero is older than the zero symbol found on the ninth century Gwailor temple manuscript found in India.

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By 1740 BC, the Egyptians used the Nefer symbol (shown above) for zero. It resembles an inverted ankh. When this glyph appears with two horizontal lines at the top and a flag to its left it represents "The Good God."

The symbol is related to the hieroglyph for beauty (neferu).The symbol appears in the name of the famous queen Neferitti and in the title Nefer-neferu-aten (cartouche shown below). It usually appears in a set of three or four and with an empty oval.

The ancient Egyptians used the nefer symbol to indicate the base level in drawings of tombs and pyramids, and distances were measured relative to the base line. In building construction, horizontal leveling lines were used to guide the construction of pyramids and other large monuments. One of these leveling lines was labeled "nfr," or "zero." Other horizontal leveling lines were spaced 1 cubit apart and labeled as "1 cubit above nfr," "2 cubits above nfr," or 1 cubit, 2 cubits, etc. below nefer.  Thus, zero was used as a reference for a system of numbers and measurements in ancient architecture.

Related reading: The Origin of the Zero

The Twin Prime Conjecture

Mathematicians have uncovered a big new piece of evidence for one of the most famous unproven ideas in mathematics, known as the twin prime conjecture. But the route they took to finding that evidence probably won't help prove the twin prime conjecture itself.

The twin prime conjecture is all about how and when prime numbers — numbers that are divisible only by themselves and 1 — appear on the number line. "Twin primes" are primes that are two steps apart from each other on that line: 3 and 5, 5 and 7, 29 and 31, 137 and 139, and so on. The twin prime conjecture states that there are infinitely many twin primes, and that you'll keep encountering them no matter how far down the number line you go. It also states that there are infinitely many prime pairs with every other possible gap between them (prime pairs that are four steps apart, eight steps apart, 200,000 steps apart, etc.). Mathematicians are pretty sure this is true. It sure seems like it's true. And if it weren't true, it would mean that prime numbers aren't as random as everyone thought, which would mess up lots of ideas about how numbers work in general. But no one's ever been able to prove it.

It's all about the polynomials...

Read more here.

John Lennox is a No-Nonsense Guy

“Nonsense remains nonsense, even when talked by world-famous scientists.”
John C. Lennox

John Lennox (standing) debating the late Christopher Hitchens, March 2009

John Lennox, mathematician and Christian apologist, is a no-nonsense guy. He tends to cut to the heart of a matter. To Stephen Hawking, he asks, "But how did gravity exist in the first place? Who put it there? And what was the creative force behind its birth?"

Lennox believes that the existence of a Creator is the only logical and reasonable explanation for existence of the universe. He has said, "For me, as a Christian believer, the beauty of the scientific laws only reinforces my faith in an intelligent, divine creative force at work.

In his book God's Undertaker: Has Science Buried God?, he writes, "Indeed, faith is a response to evidence, not a rejoicing in the absence of evidence.”

He wrote, "Faith is not a leap in the dark; it’s the exact opposite. It’s a commitment based on evidence… It is irrational to reduce all faith to blind faith and then subject it to ridicule. That provides a very anti-intellectual and convenient way of avoiding intelligent discussion.”

Dr. Lennox has defended the Christian faith in numerous debates. He has debated Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Lawrence Krauss, Victor Stenger, Michael Tooley, and Peter Singer.

At The Veritas Forum, Lennox discussed the limitations of science and critiqued the claim that science has buried God. Watch the video.

John Lennox earned an M.A. and PhD. degree at the University of Cambridge. He was awarded a D.Sc. degree in mathematics by the University of Cardiff for his research. Lennox also holds a D.Phil. degree from the University of Oxford, and an M.A. degree in bioethics from the University of Surrey.

Lennox is Professor of Mathematics (emeritus) at the University of Oxford and Fellow in Mathematics and the Philosophy of Science at Green Templeton College, Oxford. He also is an Associate Fellow of the Said Business School, Oxford University, and teaches for the Oxford Strategic Leadership Programme. Additionally, he is an Adjunct Lecturer at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford University, and at the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics, as well as a Senior Fellow of the Trinity Forum.

He has published over seventy peer-reviewed articles on mathematics and co-authored two Oxford Mathematical Monographs and has worked as a translator of Russian mathematics.

John Lennox was born in Northern Ireland in 1943. His father operated a store in Armagh. He is married to Sally and the couple have three children and five grandchildren. Lennox enjoys learning languages. He speaks English, Russian, French, and German. Other hobbies include amateur astronomy and bird-watching.

Related reading: Concerns About Dr. Lennox's Christology

Blaise Pascal: Christian Mathematician

The French mathematicians Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) and Pierre de Fermat (1601-1665) are credited with the development of probability theory.

At the age of sixteen, Pascal wrote on the subject of projective geometry, now known as Pascal's Theorem. The theorem states that, if a hexagon is inscribed in a circle, then the three intersection points of opposite sides lie on a single line, called the Pascal line.

He is also known for Pascal’s Triangle, a convenient tabular presentation of binomial co-efficients, where each number is the sum of the two numbers directly above it.

Pascal's parents were Étienne Pascal (1588 – 1651), a magistrate who collected taxes, and Antoinette Bégon Pascal (1596-1626), the daughter of a merchant. As a young man, Pascal built a calculating machine that performed additions and subtractions, to help his father with his tax calculations.

Pascal was an inventor, a writer, a mathematician and a philosopher. In 1631, His father sold his government post as a tax collector and moved his family to Paris. There he conducted scientific experiments and pursued mathematics. He also taught his children. Pascal’s exceptional intellectual gifts, Étienne designed a curriculum to meet his son's exceptional intellectual gifts.

Pascal showed great ability in math and his father gave him a copy of Euclid's Elements. Reading the book, Pascal realized that he already had discovered several of Euclid's proposition for himself. He had proved on his own that the sum of the angles of a triangle is equal to two right angles. Pascal quickly mastered Euclidean geometry.

At the age of fourteen Pascal was admitted to Marin Mersenne's weekly scientific discussions. The French Academy of Sciences developed out of Mersenne's discussions.

As a man of the Enlightenment, Pascal recognized the value of reason. He also understood that not everything is understood or apprehended by reason. When it comes to the spiritual life, human reason is often inadequate. Pascal wrote, "Reason's last step is the recognition that there are an infinite number of things which are beyond it."

Pascal's most famous book is Pensées. A central argument of the book is that Christianity is reasonable, though not provable by reason. About Christianity, he wrote, "Other religions, as the pagan, are more popular, for they consist in externals. But they are not for educated people. A purely intellectual religion would be more suited to the learned, but it would be of no use to the common people. The Christian religion alone is adapted to all, being composed of externals and internals. It raises the common people to the internal, and humbles the proud to the external; it is not perfect without the two, for the people must understand the spirit of the letter, and the learned must submit their spirit to the letter." (Pensées, 251)

On November 23, 1654, Pascal experienced a vision of the crucifixion that transformed his life. This is how he described that experience: "From about half-past ten in the evening until about half-past twelve … FIRE … God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, and not of the philosophers and savants. Certitude. Certitude. Feeling. Joy. Peace."

Such mystical experiences are not uncommon among intelligent people. Other Christians who had similar experiences include John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, Julian of Norwich, Hildegard of Bingen, Bernard of Clairvaux, John van Ruysbroeck, Francis of Assisi, and Thomas Aquinas... all exceptional figures of history. This fact did not stop some European intellectuals from attacking Pascal for his morbid religion. Pascal was viewed as a cheerless, brooding ascetic. Voltaire was especially critical of Pascal's pessimistic philosophy of man's depravity. Pascal believed that without God, humanity is destined to misery.

In the field of philosophy, Pascal is known for his so-called "Wager" on the existence of God. Pascal’s Wager poses belief in Christianity as self-serving because if the claims of Jesus Christ are true, we have everything to gain by believing in Him. On the other hand, if the claims are false, we have nothing to lose by believing in Him. 

Here Pascal echoes the reasoning of the Apostle Paul, who wrote:

"...for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied." (1 Corinthians 15:15-19)

Pascal died at the age of 39, having suffered from various illnesses most of his life.

Related Reading: Pascal: Scientific and Spiritual Prodigy; Blaise Pascal