Science's Breakthrough of the Year

johkir writes "Last year, evolution was the breakthrough of the year; We found it full of new developments in understanding how new species originate. But we did get a complaint or two that perhaps we were just paying extra attention to the lively political/religious debate that was taking place over the issue, particularly in the United States. Perish the thought! Our readers can relax this year: Religion and politics are off the table, and n-dimensional geometry is on instead. This year's Breakthrough salutes the work of a lone, publicity-shy Russian mathematician named Grigori Perelman, who was at the Steklov Institute of Mathematics of the Russian Academy of Sciences until 2005. The work is very technical but has received unusual public attention because Perelman appears to have proven the Poincaré Conjecture (Our coverage from earlier this year), a problem in topology whose solution will earn a $1 million prize from the Clay Mathematics Institute. That's only if Perelman survives what's left of a 2-year gauntlet of critical attack required by the Clay rules, but most mathematicians think he will. There is also a page of runner-ups. Many of which have been covered here on Slashdot."

Interesting, but very esoteric...

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This mathematical proof is clearly interesting from a mathematics-proofs-point-of-view. But I'm surprised it's considered the breakthrough of the year. Its very difficult for most people to relate to. I'm a scientist, and I try and keep up (at a basic level) with many fields of research other than my own (by reading articles in Science), but I think the nature of this proof is very difficult to keep up with. Not to mention it is difficult to even be sure that the proof works (since it can really only be evaluated by highly specialized experts). If this breakthrough pans out, mathematicians need to do a much better job of public relations, like most other sciences do. I for one think the data from the Mars Rovers, the Cassini spacecraft, and the comet material recovery mission represent (collectively) the breakthrough of the year. The amount we have learned about our solar system this past year is extraordinary. I say this even though I am a biologist, and we've done some marvelous things in biology this year. But the unmanned space program really came through this year, and is far more captivating than the math proof, no offense.