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Sometimes, as I read, listen to music, or watch a movie, I see mathematical ideas and concepts. "The beauty is in the eyes of the beholder", some would say. I believe that this is not necessarily the case: Mathematics pervades our society, and it is part of our human nature, as much as art and music, for instance, are. I have a strong belief in a society that thinks critically about its issues. Mathematics, as a science and as a tool, can help us with that.
Below, I collected some articles and excerpts of things that show how numbers, quantification, and mathematical thinking, are not that far from our usual day-by-day life... and sometimes "hidden" in other beautiful things (like art, music, and dance).
NOTE: I'm slowly (very slowly, in fact) converting some of these observations + the many interesting questions I receive from friends and curious strangers into short posts for non-specialists in the blog https://mathematicalmeanders.wordpress.com/, which has a Portuguese version twin at https://meandrosmatematicos.wordpress.com/. Do not hesitate to contact me if you have suggestions /ideas of what you'd like to see therein.
On Bayesian thinking, and the search for Rembrandt's paintings (there is a bit of pattern recognition here too)
[in Nytimes, Feb, 27, 2019: Rembrandt in the Blood: An Obsessive Aristocrat, Rediscovered Paintings and an Art-World Feud]
What is an algorithm?
[in "The scarecrow" (1920), by Buster Keaton and Edward Cline, on the right]
The barber paradox
[in Nytimes, June, 5 2019: Bob Dylan’s Glam Hootenanny: Returning to Rolling Thunder]
Knitting is mathematics, too!
[in Nytimes, May 17, 2019: ‘Knitting Is Coding’ and Yarn Is Programmable in This Physics Lab]
Dimension reduction and some of the issues with information loss
[in Nytimes, May 29, 2019 A School of Fish, Captured in a Fossil]
On the shape of stories, by Kurt Vonnegut
[in Washington Post, February 9, 2015: Kurt Vonnegut graphed the world’s most popular stories]
[see video on the right]
Non-euclidean geometries
[in New York Times, July 29 2019: In Brazil, Mending an Urban Fabric With Geometry and Bamboo]
There is a lot of mathematics behind... bubbles (about Karen Uhlenbeck)
[in New York Times, April 8 2019: In Bubbles, She Sees a Mathematical Universe]
Tit for tat and China-US trade war?
[in New York Times, October 03 2019: How Trump and Xi Can Both Win Their Trade War] (if you don't know what tit for that is, see this wikipedia page, or listen to this Radiolab podcast)
On disease propagation, heard immunization, role of science in society, and many other interesting things
[in New York Times, September 23 2019:, How Anti-Vaccine Sentiment Took Hold in the United States]
Why 1 = 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + .... ? [Summer Stock (1950) – Gene Kelly Solo Dance]
Future cities, designed to be places for optimal interaction between their citizens [[in New York Times, September 5, 2019: A Nobel-Winning Economist Goes to Burning Man]
On genetic algorithms, biology, and optimization [in New York Times, March 31, 2020: A Forest Submerged 60,000 Years Ago Could Save Your Life One Day]
(just to highlight: indeed, the connection between genetic algorithms and optimization is huge, and very interesting! I exploit that on these notes/codes I posted on Github)
Looking at nature in order to find new materials [in New York Times, February 1, 2021: The Skin-Deep Physics of Sidewinder Snakes]
"My favorite vegetables" (quoting The Beach Boys) [in New York Times, July 09, 2021: Cauliflower and Chaos, Fractals in Every Floret]
Puzzles + pattern formation = ? [in New York Times, December 09, 2022: They’re Taking Jigsaws to Infinity and Beyond]
Never ask a program to verify itself [in New York Times, May 27, 2023: Here’s What Happens When Your Lawyer Uses ChatGPT]
The biggest inspiration to shower curtains' patterns [in New York Times, June 01, 2023: With a New, Improved ‘Einstein,’ Puzzlers Settle a Math Problem]
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