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See the original image at nature.com

Mathematicians rewarded for decoding symmetry

nature.com — The Abel Prize, generally considered the ‘Nobel’ of mathematics, has been won this year by two mathematicians whose work has helped to classify the building blocks of symmetry.

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  • stvalentino, on 03/28/2008, -2/+11they really deserve the prize
  • jonxblaze, on 03/28/2008, -9/+15yeah but can they decode Donald Trumps hair piece????
    • xerexes1, on 03/28/2008, -1/+9Wouldn't that be more in the realm of chaos theory?
    • talonstriker, on 03/28/2008, -1/+1thats level 72. Before that they need to figure out how to divide by zero and find a formula for predicting the contours of turbulence.
  • trav12221, on 03/28/2008, -11/+5I UNDERSTAND THIS
  • LiquidIse, on 03/28/2008, -14/+5Dugg for *****.
  • warkro, on 03/28/2008, -11/+4"Jacques ***** of the Collège de France in Paris, France", i'm guessing he works with plastic surgeons.
  • KevinJ, on 03/28/2008, -4/+37I couldn't help but notice that the one mathematicians last name was "*****"
    • mapkinase, on 03/28/2008, -0/+4With my settings I would never knew what those asterisks mean.
    • SupaFurry, on 03/28/2008, -0/+1I involuntary exclaimed "*****!" out loud at reading this article. Now I'm embarrased.
    • S1ngular1ty1, on 03/28/2008, -0/+1That would be an awesome name.
  • Godzmarine, on 03/28/2008, -3/+9Jacque *****, now that is a name!
    • flazz, on 03/28/2008, -2/+3what's his wife's name, Vagina Navy?
      • WootZoot, on 03/28/2008, -2/+2Dugg down for both a poor joke that does not apply to the situation, and family guy.
  • ralphodog, on 03/28/2008, -10/+0Go Gators.
  • chrissku, on 03/28/2008, -14/+1How did this get on the front page of Digg? I wouldn't call this earth shattering news.
    • Hollowpoint, on 03/28/2008, -1/+1Oh, because it's not like Digg ever gets geeky articles on the front page? I think you may be on the wrong website.
    • S1ngular1ty1, on 03/28/2008, -0/+1It is because you don't understand the application of this discovery.
  • heythisismyname, on 03/28/2008, -10/+4Greatest Last Name Ever............. *****

    Dugg!
  • joebaloney, on 03/28/2008, -11/+4http://000000320.000000101.000000231.000000375/wat ...
    • talonstriker, on 03/28/2008, -0/+8someone mind explaining this to me?
      (the URL, not the dance)
      • HalFTW, on 03/28/2008, -0/+8It appears to be a v4 IP address encoded in base 8 (Octal).
        • Neoanarchist, on 03/28/2008, -0/+1Oh ok, that actually makes sense to me. Thanks.
          /not sarcasm
          • nallelcm, on 03/28/2008, -1/+2are you daft? go back to my space. Why ask to have it explained to you if you dont understand?

            HERE try this explanation. It's a link that points to rick roll. It's magic. The pixies did it first.
          • HalFTW, on 03/28/2008, -0/+3I don't know which bit you don't understand, so...

            Domains (eg youtube.com) resolve to IP addresses. eg 208.65.153.253
            When you connect to a site, you are realy connecting to the IP that the domain resolves to, so it makes sense that you could connect straight to an IP address, and indeed you can. The following are effectively the same:
            http://youtube.com
            http://208.65.153.253

            The IP address 208.65.153.253 is a decimal (base 10) representation. This is for most people the normal way to represent numbers. There are other systems, you have probably heard of binary (base 2) and hexadecimal (base 16). Octal (base 8) is another one (there are of course infinite number bases). See this for more info on bases: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radix

            You can represent IPv4 addresses in various ways, the decimal w/ dot notation is the most well known, but you can use others. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv4#Address_represen ...

            http://000000320.000000101.000000231.000000375 is equivalent to the two other youtube URLs above. Each of the four decimal numbers have been converted to base 8 (octal).

            You could also use base 16 (hex):
            http://0xD0.0x41.0x99.0xFD
            or hex without dots:
            http://0xd04199fd
            or decimal without dots (seems to work, but youtube doesn't like it for some reason)
            http://3493960189/
    • BTConan, on 03/28/2008, -0/+5The uuiU is hidden beyond the ellipsis!
  • Gusbob, on 03/28/2008, -5/+12The only thing I'll every remember about this is that one of them is called Jacques *****.

    "Hey, my name is *****. I'm here to show you the true meaning of symmetry."
    "How is hanging, *****?"
    "John Thompson worked with ***** in his Abel prize winning work on symmetry."
  • omkarvw, on 03/28/2008, -6/+0Finally their work pays off.
  • blorguehad, on 03/28/2008, -5/+1Wooo. whatever happened to the russian dude who won an award for eating dougnuts or whatever he did.
  • EdwardNigma, on 03/28/2008, -5/+5Dugg for "*****"
  • logicalnoise, on 03/28/2008, -5/+2I have one word for this:
    bid
  • mieroc, on 03/28/2008, -5/+0no nice?
  • Unriggable, on 03/28/2008, -1/+26I love this. We diggers are smart.

    "Symmetry can be divided into numerous subclasses, which involve heavily some fo-"
    "Excuse me sir, is your name Jacque *****?"
    "Yes."
    "NO. WAY. You wanna head over to the titty bar, Jacque? Oh we're already here! A-ha-ha-ha...."

    That's how a conversation would play out in my mind, at least.
    • nbyn, on 03/28/2008, -0/+12I envision a scene at a restaurant, "*****? reservation for 2?"
    • fatlip, on 03/28/2008, -0/+1A TIT MOUSE!

      Larry, you're obsessed!
  • naj0rt, on 03/28/2008, -1/+13Every ones getting dugg down for commenting on the Tit surname, but god dang, imagine going through life with a name like that. No wonder hes a mathematician.
    • Sliver85, on 03/28/2008, -1/+1"No wonder hes a mathematician."
      I don't get it.
      • elhaf, on 03/28/2008, -0/+4Shunned by gradeschool society and constantly taunted, he turned inward for his enjoyment.
      • kipmartin, on 03/28/2008, -0/+2mathematicians are rarely seen at Hooters? thats my guess.
      • Sliver85, on 03/28/2008, -0/+2But with a name like *****, don't you think he'd be super popular?

        Maybe only I think that, who knows
    • talonstriker, on 03/28/2008, -0/+3I doubt it effects him at all..."*****" in english probably isn't the same in france.
      That being said, there's a professor named ***** in my university (Maryland). :)
    • surKaz, on 03/28/2008, -0/+1His parents liked birds..
    • kipmartin, on 03/28/2008, -0/+2Tit in French means the same thing as it does here. It isnt that unusual to be named after a body part--we have a VP named Dick, for example.
    • KraftDinner101, on 03/28/2008, -0/+2***** as a last name would be the best ice-breaker. "Hi, my name is *****, can I see yours?" so much potential and he wasted it on math....
      /kidding
  • EvansHall, on 03/28/2008, -1/+27The Fields Medal is regarded as the Nobel prized in mathematics, not the Abel. The Abel is a coveted medal, don't get me wrong, but it ain't the Fields.
    • Arch83, on 03/28/2008, -0/+6Thank you... I was worried that nobody else realized the overstated comparison between the Abel and the Nobel prizes in the article summary.
  • Kenzan, on 03/28/2008, -2/+1Well Done!
  • elhaf, on 03/28/2008, -0/+3Trivia question: why is there no Nobel prize for Mathematics?
    • eighties, on 03/28/2008, -0/+5Answer: No one really knows, but people like to speculate. Alfred Nobel basically didn't mention mathematics in his will.

      Also, the Fields medal is more akin to the Nobel prize, but it is only given every 4 years and the recipient must be under the age of 40 (Andrew Wiles, the man who solved Fermat's Last Theorem, turned 40 just before the publication of the proof, thus denying him this award. He did get the Millennium prize as a slight consolation, though).
    • jaalin, on 03/28/2008, -2/+0i always thought it was because math was just a tool - the application is what wins the nobel, whether it be in economics, physics, chemistry, etc
    • Petrushka72, on 03/28/2008, -0/+2I had always understood that it was because Nobel's wife had an affair with a mathematician. I can't back that up, though.
  • talonstriker, on 03/28/2008, -2/+1" “*****' work is about trying reduce wild to tame behaviour.”
    Graham Niblo "
    So thats why women have *****. Gotcha.
  • WonderBoy55, on 03/28/2008, -0/+2Can someone please explain what it means to have 196,883 dimensions and 8 x 10^53 symmetry elements?
    • SSUK, on 03/28/2008, -1/+1Uhm... Easy!... ...Oh hey... Did you see his last name was *****? Ha ha, yeah...
    • Gagle, on 03/28/2008, -1/+1it means that it takes a couple of PhD's and a lot of imagination to grasp
  • achoo5000, on 03/28/2008, -0/+2I thought the Fields medal was the Nobel of math.
  • rac1234, on 03/28/2008, -3/+2I appreciated the quote - Niblo on *****.
  • TheZorch, on 03/28/2008, -0/+1"Zathaous have very sad life, probably have very sad death, at least there is symmetry."
  • zackKS, on 03/28/2008, -2/+1“*****' work is about trying reduce wild to tame behaviour.”



    No, *****' work generally promotes behavior from tame to wild.
  • bigtizzle, on 03/28/2008, -1/+2I know the "*****" cracks are all getting buried, but I do find it ironic that real life ***** are rarely symmetrical.
  • camino262, on 03/28/2008, -0/+2Mathematicians get no respect. Dugg!
  • wukillabee, on 03/28/2008, -1/+1math hurts my brain
  • serif69, on 03/28/2008, -1/+1I will now classify the mystery of symmetry in mathematical terms

    =

    Thank you.
  • Svamp, on 03/28/2008, -1/+5The article should've been named "***** rewarded for decoding symmetry" to attract more diggs.

    I can't help finding this stuff immensely interesting, but the mathematical barrier is so immense I can't absorbe anything but surface elements. Just try looking up anything math on wikipedia.
  • SplashDog, on 03/28/2008, -1/+0Reminds me of Stephen Wolfram's book, A New Kind of Science.
  • digjam, on 03/28/2008, -1/+1DUGG! That made as much sense to me as a RAP song would!
  • MacNyce, on 03/28/2008, -1/+2***** is the man !!!
  • icutcheese, on 03/28/2008, -1/+0Bummer that they're both **** Up!
  • forgiste, on 03/28/2008, -1/+1Strange how symmetrical ***** are seen as more attractive.
  • TheWindBlows, on 03/28/2008, -0/+2This is basically an accomplishment of compressing down polygons forms to its symmetrical equivalent.

    Thats how i read it anyways.
  • ytsrc, on 03/29/2008, -0/+0Well done! But sammie has not yet confirmed the accuracy of their work and jay whitlow relies only upon sammie's verification of any and all mathematical stuff and this surely qualifies as heavy duty math stuff and jay whitlow only understand things like 12,000 b.c.
  • darthom, on 03/29/2008, -0/+11 plus 1 = 2, 2 plus 2 = 4, 1 plus 2 = 3 and 3 plus 3 = 6 which are contained in 3 plus 6 = 9.
    Wow! Those old farts are smart. And an award to boot.
  •  

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