Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Math: A Young Man's Game?

Another interesting post from Alex Bellos, this time on "maths' cult of youth" (the common notion that great mathematicians invariably do their best work in youth, and are past their prime by age 40).

http://alexbellos.com/?p=1354

Starts off focusing on now 15-year-old child prodigy Arran Fernandez, before addressing the issue more broadly.

(...Hopefully, we'll get a few more productive years out of 35-year-old Terence Tao , who some consider the world's greatest living mathematician, before he commences his downward slide. ;-))

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