2016 dec barcamp talk on nobel prizes
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The Nobel Prizes
Sometimes NatureSurprises Us
Launches a New Field
PhysicsChemistry
Physiology or Medicine
PeaceLiterature
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in
Memory of Alfred
Very Smart PeopleHard Work
One sometimes finds what one is not looking for. When I woke up just after dawn on Sept. 28, 1928,
I certainly didn’t plan to revolutionize all medicine by
discovering the world’s first antibiotic, or bacteria killer.
Nobel Speech: "Nature makes penicillin. I just discovered it."
His Messy Lab Penicillin : Fleming, Physiology or Medicine 1945
a brilliant researcher,
but his laboratory was often untidy
When Chain heard that he was coming, he remarked,
"Good God! I thought he was dead."
Ernst Chain Howard Florey
Oxford University1st –ever
Honorary Doctorate in Medicine Awarded to a Non-Medical Person
Norman Heatley
Ernst Chain & Howard Florey: Co-Winners with Fleming
Purify &
Mass ProducePenicillin
Lucky Stroke 1: Once - by mistake - a thousand-fold too much catalyst was added. To Shirakawa's surprise, this time a beautiful silvery film appeared.
Lucky Stroke 2:the story could have come to a sudden end, had not Shirakawa and MacDiarmid happened to meet, accidentally, during a coffee-break.
A 1000X Mistake Led to Conductive Polymers MacDiarmid + Heeger + Shirakawa: Chemistry 2000
“One must cherish creativity,” Heeger said. “One should be bold, audacious. Seek to discover. Go into a new area, into the unknown and look for something new. The excitement of that risk is part of the thrill of a life in science.”
Any creative endeavor involves taking risks. You must not lose your nerve or you won’t hit the high C. You must not lose your nerve or you won’t be able to write the next book. Whether it’s science or music or literature or anything, creative endeavors involve risk.
Heeger: A Risk-Taker Who Never Lost His Nerve
Double Laureates – 2 Nobel Prizes for the Same Person
Pauling Had the Opportunity
to Win a3rd Nobel Prize
Watson & CrickPhysiology or Medicine 1962
Watson’s Rules: 1. Avoid Dumb People.
2. Look for the Most Interesting Person3. If you are the smartest person in the room,
you are in the wrong room
Maurice Wilkins
Watson & Crick: Physiology or Medicine 1962 Who was the 3rd person?
http://web.mit.edu/ir/pop/awards/nobel_by_year.html
MIT 24 Consecutive Years (1993 - 2016) of Nobel Prizes
Length Breadth
ChemistryPhysics
Medicine/PhysiologyPeace
Economic Sciences
Literature
Technology Progress Identified as Primary Growth Driver Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences
Robert Solow1987 Nobel Laureate
Solow calculated that about four-fifths of the growth
in US output per worker was attributable to technical progress.
Mathematics of Ideas(Worthy of a Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences?)
Mathematics of Economics
Technical Progress (Solow Residual)
Mathematics of Ideas
Paul Samuelson 1970 Nobelist
Robert Solow1987 Nobelist
Ideas drive
TBD Future Laureate(s)Idea Production Function
“I think you just blew my mind”Professor Vollrath
Fields Medalists Connect Disparate Mathematics Fields (connecting ideas)
The ability to detect hidden connections between
different areas of mathematicsCedric Villani
2010 Fields Medalist 1‘
a fundamental structural connection between
elliptic curves & modular formsAndrew Wiles
2016 Abel Prize Winner 2
“Monstrous Moonshine”: (a) & (b) (a) Group Theory (monster group)
1 + 196,883 (b) Number theory (j-function)
196,884Richard Borcherds
1998 Fields Medalist
“Math is … building bridges where on one side you see more clearly
than on the other,” Duncan said. “... this bridge was so
unexpectedly powerful that before you see the proof
it’s kind of crazy.” 3
1 Birth of a Theorem: A Mathematical Adventure – Cedric Villani2 https://www.myscience.org/wire/fermat_s_last_theorem_proof_secures_mathematics_top_prize_for_sir_andrew_wiles-2016-oxford3 Https://www.quantamagazine.org/20150312-mathematicians-chase-moonshines-shadow/
Creativity Principle Resides in MathematicsLogic: A B; Imagination ∞
Logic will get you from A to B.
Imagination will take you everywhere
Imaginationis more important than knowledge
Einstein’s June 1933 Herbert Spencer lecture
at Oxford.
Fields Winners(Math Genius)
BorcherdsVillaniWiles
Creativity Mathematics
Drives
Drives?
Creativity Drives Mathematics Can Mathematics Drive Creativity?
SG Challenge Identify
How Mathematics
Drives Creativity
“It is by logic that we prove, but by intuition that we discover”
Henri Poincare
Math Revolution Enables Correctness & Creativity
Proof Assistant
Properties Connections
Univalent Foundations(for the next 1,000 years)
Enable
Math Objects(sub-set of ideas)
forMathematicians
forHumankind
Symbiotic Genius
.LT. 100K ~1 Billion Working Adults
Exploration of Creativity
Checking of Correctness
Potential Economics Nobel
Laureate(s)V. Voevodsky
2002 Fields Medalist
Math of Ideas
Voevodsky: “Very Premature” to Explore CreativityHis Statement Opens The Opportunity to Lead the World
Fields Medalist Voevodsky’s belief that it’s “very premature” to use univalent foundations
to explore creativity opens the opportunity for Singapore to
lead the world in using mathematics to drive creativity.
Receiving Princeton Mathematician JH Conway’s Advice
Picture was taken at Princeton University “Genius at Play”
A book about John Conway
OZYMANDIAS
SG1000
Ideas Can Live Longest (surpassing infrastructure & institution in longevity)
X
√
!
Lee Kuan Yew’s Name
Can Be Discerned(w/imagination)
Within This GraphicInfrastructure
Idea
Institution
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