Wednesday, March 01, 2006

In the Interests of Maths and Science

Simon Singh is an author, journalist and TV producer, specialising in science and mathematics, the only two subjects about which he claims to have the faintest clue about.

Harvey recently wrote of being riveted by Simon Singh's book titled 'Big Bang', over on his the write place blogsite. He said, Singh’s not only explains the science of the big bang, he’s a great storyteller who lets you see the personalities behind modern cosmology.

Wandering over to Singh's site I read: 'I decided to write a book about the Big Bang theory of the universe because it is one of the pinnacles of human achievement. I wanted people to understand the theory and to appreciate why cosmologists are confident that it is an accurate description of the origin and history of the universe. The book is essentially the story of the Big Bang theory. Like any good tale, the discovery and proof of the Big Bang theory has more than its fair share of curious incidents and peculiar characters'.

Singh also offers up information on Fermat’s Last Theorem, which is the most notorious problem in the history of mathematics and surrounding it is one of the greatest stories imaginable. He explains what the theorem is,who invented it and who eventually proved it.

Crypto Corner is about his interest in the history and science of codes and code breaking, and his 400-page book on the subject. There's a Teachers section, and a Mathematics section ... as well as The World's Funniest Mathematical or Scientific Joke section.

I was always looking for useful teaching material while teaching English and thought this might be of interest to some.

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