Wall Street Journal Takes a Brief Look at 2007 Annual Meeting

February 19, 2007

On January 12, the Wall Street Journal's excellent science writer Sharon Begley wrote that "At the math meeting, discovery after discovery showed that there are still secrets to plumb even about plain old natural numbers — 1, 2, 3, and the rest."

In the well-written piece she discussed mathematical questions centering on coin tossing and prime numbers, which could be resolved without the use of technology. All it took, at times, was individual brilliance.

Other mathematical problems, such as the four-color problem, however, required the use of computers to come to an apparent resolution. But, she asked, could mathematicians put all their faith in long and complicated computer-aided proofs whose every detail no one could verify with certainty?

While mathematicians would still come to startling discoveries, Begley came away from the New Orleans Meeting with a dismaying conclusion. "Mathematicians," she wrote "are the first scientists to face the shattering and humbling prospect that the complexities of nature may be beyond the reach of the human mind.