Ivar Ekeland
University of Chicago Press;
Chicago; 146 pages; $19.95
Ekeland writes, “This is the task I have set myself to accomplish: to sum up, in a few pictures;, the mathematics of time, which is the common background of much of contemporary science.” Like art, science has its compelling images, he argues—planets revolving around the sun in elliptical orbits, or more recently, Arnold’s cat, Smale’s horseshoe, and Thom’s cusp. Ekeland’s distillation into images was first published as Le Calcul, l’Imprévu and won the Jean Rostand prize for scientific writing directed to laymen. Ekeland, who spent part of his childhood in Minneapolis (as well as in Vienna, Moscow, and Paris), prepared the English translation himself. He teaches mathematics at the University of Paris, Dauphine.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY: A Review of Recent Developments
Lesley Grayson, editor; The British Library; London 12 pages in vol.1, no.1; £18 or overseas, about $93.50 for ...
