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> October 9, 1998:
Hour Two: Math and the Media
 | This summer, the country has seen a few math-related movies, including "Good Will Hunting" and "Pi." But why does math seem to often get the short end of the stick in the media? Is it that math just isn't "cool?" Is it too hard to understand? Is it that people don't see the applications of mathematics to their everyday lives? Or is it the result of a vast media conspiracy to keep mathematics out of view of the public? | Many people have heard of a few specific mathematical mysteries like "Fermat's Last Theorem." But how many people have heard of the Kepler Conjecture, which governs how grocers stack piles of oranges, or random matrices, which explain the inner workings of that great corporate time-sink, the game of solitaire? Why is it that many people think fractals are cool to look at, but have no idea that they have applications to simulating the branching of trees, the growth of bacteria, or the nooks and crannies of fjords and mountains?
On this hour of Science Friday, we'll talk with some mathematicians about some interesting but little-known applications of mathematics, and with some journalists and popularizers of math about how they explain math to the public - and about why there's such a lack of coverage of mathematics in the media.
Guests:
Bob Osserman
Author, "Poetry of the Universe: A Mathematical Exploration of the Cosmos" (Anchor/Doubleday)
Professor Emeritus, Mathematics
Stanford University
Special Projects Director
Mathematical Sciences Research Institute
Berkeley, CA
Persi Diaconis
Professor, Statistics and Mathematics
Stanford University
Stanford, CA
Jim Holt
Columnist
The Wall Street Journal
New York, NY
Larry Gonick
Author, "Cartoon Guide to Statistics," and "Cartoon Guide to Physics" (HarperCollins)
Staff Cartoonist, Muse Magazine
San Francisco, CA
Books/Articles Discussed:
check out our special selection of math books!
Related Links:
American Mathematical Society: e-MATH
What's New In Mathematics (from AMS)
Mathematical Sciences Research Institute
Math Education Resources (from Swarthmore)
Unsolved Mathematics Problems
This hour produced by:
Karin Vergoth |
