Happy birthday

This column is a forum for discussion of mathematical communities throughout the world, and through all time. Our definition of “mathematical community” is the broadest. We include “schools” of mathematics, circles of correspondence, mathematical societies, student organizations, and informal communities of cardinality greater than one. What we say about the communities is just as unrestricted. We welcome contributions from mathematicians of all kinds and in all places, and also from scientists, historians, anthropologists, and others.     

A short tale of two cities: Otto schreier and the Hamburg— Vienna connection

This column is a forum for discussion of mathematical communities throughout the world, and through all time. Our definition of “mathematical community” is the broadest. We include “schools” of mathematics, circles of correspondence, mathematical societies, student organizations, and informal communities of cardinality greater than one. What we say about the communities is just as unrestricted. We welcome contributions from mathematicians of all kinds and in all places, and also from scientists, historians, anthropologists, and others.     

Confusion about Bohm

Conclusion  It is important to distinguish between physics, which is an experimental science, andphysicists, who are people. The latter are most certainlynot objective. Thus, Lipschütz-Yevick’s assertion that Ruskai says that the publication of Bohm’s controversial articles in thePhysical Review is evidence of the objectivity of the establishment towards [Bohm] is not supported by my statement It should be noted that even though studying the foundations of quantum mechanics has long been far from the mainstream, it has never been suppressed. The papers of Bohm, Bell,et al. were published in reputable journals, … Reasonable people may disagree on the significance of a particular theory or individual’s contribution. It is here, rather than in the physicsper se, that questions of social influence are likely to arise. I have commented elsewhere, e.g., [17], on the role that gender sometimes plays. In a subsequent article, I will also discuss the distinction between the effect of the social and political climate on the development of the careers of individuals and the development of physics. The articles by Cronin and Lipschütz-Yevick have stimulated me to think anew about a number of issues related to Bohmian mechanics, for which a full discussion requires clarification of some technical issues regarding the EPR experiment and non-locality. These will be discussed in a forthcoming article.     

Opening crystallography

Structural Chemistry - This essay surveys results of the past 4 years, starting with a week-long workshop on “Soft Packings, Nested Clusters, and Condensed Matter” held in...