A fine piece of scientific sociology.
British author Sabbagh (A Rum Affair, 2000, etc.) looks at a major unsolved problem in pure math and the men working to solve it.
In 1859, the German mathematician Bernard Riemann stated his solution to the problem, which concerns the distribution of prime numbers in the natural number system. He could not provide a proof, but thought his answer “very probably true.” Since then, the sharpest minds in math have wrestled with it—so far, without a proof. But its importance is such that experts believe that a definitive answer would instantly settle a hundred other unsolved problems that assume its truth as a starting point. The author uses the problem as an opportunity to profile some two dozen Riemann specialists. The result is a surprisingly warm portrait that focuses as much on these men’s passion for mathematics and their reasons for becoming mathematicians as on the hypothesis itself. The central figure in this account is Purdue University’s Louis de Branges, who may be on the verge of proving the Riemann hypothesis. But most of his peers doubt his claim, even though de Branges solved another difficult problem, the Beiderback conjecture, several years ago. Sabbagh provides a good look at the culture of world-class mathematicians: their rituals and their jokes, their politics and their shortcomings (many are only mediocre at day-to-day calculation). “Toolkits” appended to the text offer brief refreshers in the key mathematical concepts (equations, graphs, matrices, etc.) that the subjects here use. Even so, the problem remains unsolved unless the experts accept de Branges’s proof, which is given in outline in an appendix. As the author admits, most readers will end up with no better idea of the dimensions of Riemann’s problem than before they started, but Sabbagh’s picture of the mathematicians’ world should amply compensate for that.
A fine piece of scientific sociology.Pub Date: April 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-374-25007-3
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2003
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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