Milo Beckman, "Math Without Numbers" (Dutton, 2020)
One of the questions I am often asked is exactly what do mathematicians do. The short answer is that they look at different mathematical structures, try to deduce their properties, and think about how...
17 Aug 202352min
The Outer Limits of Reason: What Science, Mathematics, and Logic Cannot Tell Us
Many books explain what is known about the universe. This book investigates what cannot be known. Rather than exploring the amazing facts that science, mathematics, and reason have revealed to us, thi...
31 Jul 202316min
Athene Donald, "Not Just for the Boys: Why We Need More Women in Science" (Oxford UP, 2023)
Why are girls discouraged from doing science? Why do so many promising women leave science in early and mid-career? Why do women not prosper in the scientific workforce?Not Just for the Boys: Why We N...
7 Jun 202334min
Justin L. Bergner, "Solving the Price Is Right: How Mathematics Can Improve Your Decisions On and Off the Set of America's Celebrated Game Show" (Prometheus Books, 2023)
The Price is Right is television's longest-running game show. Since its inception in 1956, contestants have won cars, tropical vacations, diamond jewelry, even a live horse, and the hosts' excited cat...
19 Apr 202351min
Shelly M. Jones, "Women Who Count: Honoring African American Women Mathematicians" (American Mathematical Society, 2019)
African-Americans and women are increasingly visible in professional mathematical institutions, organizations, and literature, expanding our mental models of the mathematics community. Yet early repre...
16 Apr 202353min
Alice and Bob Meet the Wall of Fire and A Prime Number Conspiracy
On this episode of the MIT Press podcast, Thomas Lin, Editor-in-Chief of Quanta Magazine, discusses the research and current climate behind the science and math in Alice and Bob Meet the Wall of Fire:...
15 Apr 202320min
Jeffrey Carpenter and Andrea Robbett, "Game Theory and Behavior" (MIT Press, 2022)
Jeffrey Carpenter and Andrea Robbett's book Game Theory and Behavior (MIT Press, 2022) is an introduction to game theory that offers not only theoretical tools but also the intuition and behavioral in...
14 Jan 202324min
James D. Stein, "Seduced by Mathematics: The Enduring Fascination of Mathematics" (World Scientific, 2022) Math
Seduction is not just an end result, but a process -- and in mathematics, both the end results and the process by which those end results are achieved are often charming and elegant.This helps to expl...
19 Des 20221h 22min
