sciencefriday:Meet the Indian clerk who upended mathematicsNeed proof that genius arises in unex
sciencefriday: Meet the Indian clerk who upended mathematics Need proof that genius arises in unexpected places? Consider the story of Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan. Between 1913 and 1920, this impoverished clerk from South India—a two-time college dropout—upended mathematics with strange and beautiful equations that he seemed to pull out of thin air. Ramanujan’s story is tragically short. He died at age 32. But in that time, he filled three notebooks with equations that continue to perplex and intrigue mathematicians, helping them to unravel the intricacies of black holes and string theory—subjects that didn’t even exist in Ramanujan’s day. In a new memoir, My Search for Ramanujan, mathematician Ken Ono details his journey to discover the meaning behind Ramanujan’s toughest formulas. But he also reveals how his search for Ramanujan the man inspired him on his own bumpy path to mathematical fulfillment. Ono’s search for Ramanujan even takes him to Hollywood, where he helped bring Ramanujan’s story to the big screen in the new biopic, The Man Who Knew Infinity. Ono explains why the “idea of Ramanujan” might be just as important and influential as the genius’s mathematics. Listen to Ramanujan’s story here. -- source link