![]() ![]() Of ordinary family life blurring with the abstract world of mathematical physics, of theories and equations that haunt your dreams and seeking the elusive inspiration found only in a locked, darkened room.īlending science with history, biography with myth, Villani conjures up an inimitable cast: the omnipresent Einstein, mad genius Kurt Godel, and Villani’s personal hero, John Nash. His story is one of courage and partnership, doubt and anxiety, elation and despair. Along the way he encounters obstacles and setbacks, losses of faith and even brushes with madness. One sees exactly how Villani (or a pure mathematician) goes from abstract to abstract without ever exiting the world of pure and symbolic mathematics, even though the subject concerns a very concrete real-world topic. How does a genius see the world? Where and how does inspiration strike?Ĭédric Villani takes us on a mesmerising adventure as he wrestles with the Boltzmann equation – a new theorem that will eventually win him the most coveted prize in mathematics and a place in the mathematical history books. Villani is playful in real life, his research is playful, and the book is playful. ![]() "This man could plainly do for mathematics what Brian Cox has done for physics" – Sunday Times ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |