• Nature is the Architect

    …..and we are it’s builders? So beyond indeed, is the static realization of the structure of things. This is a more definable recognition of something that is very fluid and expressive. It is by our own humanistic natures that we like to compartmentalize? “There comes a time when the mind takes a higher plane of…

  • Who said it?

    At this point in the development, although geometry provided a common framework for all the forces, there was still no way to complete the unification by combining quantum theory and general relativity. Since quantum theory deals with the very small and general relativity with the very large, many physicists feel that, for all practical purposes,…

  • Theoretical Excellence

    Although Aristotle in general had a more empirical and experimental attitude than Plato, modern science did not come into its own until Plato’s Pythagorean confidence in the mathematical nature of the world returned with Kepler, Galileo, and Newton. For instance, Aristotle, relying on a theory of opposites that is now only of historical interest, rejected…

  • Solidification of Geometrical Presence

    While I might infer the “attributes of Coxeter here,” it is with the understanding such a dimensional perspective which has it’s counterpart in the result of what manifests as matter creations. Yet we have taken our views down to the “powers of ten” to think of what could manifest even before we see the result…

  • Pasquale Del Pezzo and E8 Origination?

    “I’m a Platonist — a follower of Plato — who believes that one didn’t invent these sorts of things, that one discovers them. In a sense, all these mathematical facts are right there waiting to be discovered.“Donald (H. S. M.) Coxeter There are two reasons that having mapped E8 is so important. The practical one…

  • IN Search of Mandelstam’s Holy Grail

    There are two posts that reflect the purpose of this post today. One is Clifford’s linked through Lee Smolin’s comment and the other, at Backreaction. Good Physics is Conflict A lot of you may never understand the significance of the mystery that follows the thinking of the Holy Grail. Yet is it more the knowledge…

  • Visual Abstraction to Equations

    Sylvester’s models lay hidden away for a long time, but recently the Mathematical Institute received a donation to rescue some of them. Four of these were carefully restored by Catherine Kimber of the Ashmolean Museum and now sit in an illuminated glass cabinet in the Institute Common Room. Some of you might have noticed the…

  • Beyond the Dance of the Sun

    When we first start facing truth, the process may be frightening, and many people run back to their old lives. But if you continue to seek truth, you will eventually be able to handle it better. In fact, you want more! It’s true that many people around you now may think you are weird or…

  • Sylvester’s Surfaces

    Figure 2. Clebsch’s Diagonal Surface: Wonderful. We are told that “mathematics is that study which knows nothing of observation…” I think no statement could have been more opposite to the undoubted facts of the case; that mathematical analysis is constantly invoking the aid of new principles, new ideas and new methods, not capable of being…