Controversy Over 140-Year-Old Math Problem 64
sciencehabit writes "British mathematician Darren Crowdy has been bragging all week about how he solved a 140-year-old math problem, as we discussed a few days ago. But three American mathematicians say they had the critical idea first."
I get it (Score:1, Insightful)
Darren isn't one to brag (Score:5, Insightful)
I object to the use of the word 'bragging' in the summary. I went to grad school with Darren (his office was 3 doors down from mine) and he was a great all-around guy. He was someone you could joke around with and I never saw any indication of him being a braggard. It's possible that he's changed significantly in the last 10 years, but I see nothing in TFA that would suggest this. He made what is potentially a significant contribution. Why shouldn't he be aloud to be proud of it?
GMD
But he's working solo (Score:2, Insightful)
To be fair, one should probably not be using subjective tenses all that much in academic writing anyway.
Re:you don't win the waffle iron . . . (Score:3, Insightful)
You must have translated that in your head to the prestige of the university someone went to or number of papers written. That I can see many people actually using today, to my dismay. If being a professor was about more than numbers of papers written in a given time period, I would have considered it as a career option.
Re:It wasn't obvious until it was pointed out (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:-50 off-topic (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:-50 off-topic (Score:4, Insightful)
It's not just philosophy majors who end up as waitresses.