Perfect Rigour. A Genius and the Mathematical Breakthrough of the Century
Matematika, statistika i informatika
089990
London
2011
14×22
tvrdi s omotom
242
engleski
Cijena: 15,00 EUR
This fascinating biographical and scientific chronicle by the prominent journalist and author Masha Gessen delivers an incredible and deeply researched account of Grigori Perelman, the eccentric Russian mathematical genius who successfully solved the Poincaré conjecture — one of the world's most complex topological problems, which had baffled the greatest global minds for over a century. When the prestigious Clay Mathematics Institute designated the problem as one of the seven Millennium Prize Problems in 2000, offering a one-million-dollar reward for its solution, Perelman simply published his proof on the internet. Once its accuracy was officially verified, he stunned the scientific community by refusing both the million-dollar prize and mathematics' highest accolade, the Fields Medal, choosing instead a life of total isolation. The volume is complemented by extensive authorial notes alongside a comprehensive subject and name index at the back of the book. The content is organised into eleven chronological chapters (including titles such as Escape into the Imagination, A Beautiful School, The Proof Emerges, The Madness, and The Million-Dollar Question), bracketed by an introductory prologue and a concluding epilogue. Drawing upon numerous exclusive interviews with Perelman’s former teachers, classmates, coaches, and colleagues across Russia and the United States, Gessen — herself a mathematically gifted writer raised in Russia — masterfully reconstructs the distinctive and often cut-throat subculture of Soviet mathematical schools and competitions during the 1970s. Written with exceptional analytical depth, this work presents not only the story of a historic scientific triumph, but also a poignant, tense, and at times tragic study of isolation and the unique burden borne by an absolute genius.
