Free Republic

John Horton Conway, a legendary mathematician who stood out for his love of games and for bringing mathematics to the masses, died on Saturday, April 11, in New Brunswick, New Jersey, from complications related to COVID-19. He was 82. Known for his unbounded curiosity and enthusiasm for subjects far beyond mathematics, Conway was a beloved figure in the hallways of PrincetonÂ’s mathematics building and at the Small World coffee shop on Nassau Street, where he engaged with students, faculty and mathematical hobbyists with equal interest. Conway, who joined the faculty in 1987, was the John von Neumann Professor in Applied...

The mathematical physicist and cosmologist Roger Penrose, now professor emeritus at Oxford University, is best known to mathematicians for his discovery of Penrose tiles. These are two four-sided polygons that tile the plane only in a nonperiodic way, that is, without a fundamental region that repeats periodically like the hexagonal tiling of a bathroom floor, or the amazing tesselations of the Dutch artist M. C. Escher. To everyone’s surprise, including Penrose’s, his whimsical tiling turned out to underlie a previously unknown type of crystal. You can read all about this in my book Penrose Tiles to Trapdoor Ciphers. Penrose’s two...

NORMAN, Okla. – Prolific mathematics and science writer Martin Gardner, known for popularizing recreational mathematics and debunking paranormal claims, died Saturday. He was 95. Gardner died Saturday after a brief illness at Norman Regional Hospital, said his son James Gardner. He had been living at an assisted living facility in Norman. Martin Gardner was born in 1914 in Tulsa, Okla., and earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy at the University of Chicago. He became a freelance writer, and in the 1950s wrote features and stories for several children's magazines. His creation of paper-folding puzzles led to his publication in Scientific...

Only today I learned that Martin Gardner, mathematician and publicist, passed away on May 22, 2010, at the ripe old age of 95. Ond can speak of a full life, of course. And still I am very sad without ever having known the man in person. But he was in some way always with me, ever since I started to read Scientific American, at age 20. He was a brilliant writer, and could transform the most abstract concepts into eminently readable essays. As editor-in-chief of the American, he led the magazine through its 'classic' period, its very best. I do...

All regular readers will surely know Martin Gardner, writer, philosopher, mathematician, magician, exposer of flim flam. He died Saturday night; according to long-time friend and magician James Randi, peacefully. For those who did not know Gardner, Roger Kimball’s tribute is an excellent starting point. Gardner made it to 95, which is a damn good run. Florence King warns that we should never call somebody a “national treasure” because it is a clichá; but if those words don’t apply to Gardner, they’ll never be adequate for anybody. We are all better off because he lived. Most of us knew his mathematical...

As the year 2000 approached, Protestant fundamentalists (I include members of Pentecostal churches and such fringe sects as Seventh-day Adventism and Jehovah's Witnesses) became more and more persuaded that the Lord's Second Coming was close at hand. Scores of strident books were published, and are still being published, showing how a correct interpretation of the books of Daniel and Revelation proves that the rapture of believers, the Battle of Armageddon, and the end of the world as we know it will be occurring very, very soon. The books range from the many by Hal Lindsey, which have sold by the...

Interview with Martin Gardner Martin Gardner occupies a unique position in the mathematical world. The author of the “Mathematical Games” column that ran for twenty-five years in Scientific American magazine, he opened the eyes of the general public to the beauty and fascination of mathematics and inspired many to go on to make the subject their life’s work. His column was the place where several important mathematical notions, such as Conway’s Game of Life and Penrose tiles, first became widely known. It was also a place where the sheer fun of mathematical games and puzzles was celebrated and savored....