Praise for Hal Hellman Great Feuds in Mathematics "Those who think that mathematicians are cold, mechanical proving machines will do well to read Hellman's book on conflicts in mathematics. The main characters are as excitable and touchy as the next man. But Hellman's stories also show how scientific fights bring out sharper formulations and better arguments." -Professor Dirk van Dalen, Philosophy Department, Utrecht University Great Feuds in Technology "There's nothing like a good feud to grab your attention. And when it comes to describing the battle, Hal Hellman is a master." -New Scientist Great Feuds in Science "Unusual insight into the development of science . . . I was excited by this book and enthusiastically recommend it to general as well as scientific audiences." -American Scientist "Hellman has assembled a series of entertaining tales . . . many fine examples of heady invective without parallel in our time." -Nature Great Feuds in Medicine "This engaging book documents [the] reactions in ten of the most heated controversies and rivalries in medical history. . . . The disputes detailed are . . . fascinating. . . . It is delicious stuff here." -The New York Times "Stimulating." -Journal of the American Medical Association

From Descartes battling Fermat for the honour of inventing analytic geometry, to Poincaré wrangling with Russell over the logical foundations of mathematics, this text provides a fascinating look behind the numbers game.

The international bestselling author of Fermat’s Last Theorem explores the eccentric lives of history’s foremost mathematicians. From Archimedes’s eureka moment to Alexander Grothendieck’s seclusion in the Pyrenees, bestselling author Amir Aczel selects the most compelling stories in the history of mathematics, creating a colorful narrative that explores the quirky personalities behind some of the most groundbreaking, influential, and enduring theorems. Alongside revolutionary innovations are incredible tales of duels, battlefield heroism, flamboyant arrogance, pranks, secret societies, imprisonment, feuds, and theft—as well as some costly errors of judgment that prove genius doesn’t equal street smarts. Aczel’s colorful and enlightening profiles offer readers a newfound appreciation for the tenacity, complexity, eccentricity, and brilliance of our greatest mathematicians.

Controversy is central to scientific development. This book recounts ten major disputes that riled the world of intellectual research since the seventeenth century. It discusses Galileo's censure by the Catholic Church for his theories of astronomy, the furore over Darwin's proposals concerning evolution, and other historic quarrels about the nature of the universe.

Most science chronicles present a triumphant march through time, with revolutionary thinkers and their discoveries following in orderly progression. The truth, however, is somewhat different. Scientific Feuds is a collection of the most vicious battles among the greatest minds of our time. It features such contests as Huxley and Wilberforce's debate on Darwin's theory of evolution, Franklin and Wilkins' fight over the discovery of DNA, and the “War of Currents” between Tesla and Edison (which ended with Edison electrocuting dogs and horses in a vain attempt to discredit Tesla's work). From passionate competition to vindictive sniping, these rivalries prove that the world of science is far from cold and methodical.

There is a logical flaw in the statistical methods used across experimental science. This fault is not a minor academic quibble: it underlies a reproducibility crisis now threatening entire disciplines. In an increasingly statistics-reliant society, this same deeply rooted error shapes decisions in medicine, law, and public policy with profound consequences. The foundation of the problem is a misunderstanding of probability and its role in making inferences from observations. Aubrey Clayton traces the history of how statistics went astray, beginning with the groundbreaking work of the seventeenth-century mathematician Jacob Bernoulli and winding through gambling, astronomy, and genetics. Clayton recounts the feuds among rival schools of statistics, exploring the surprisingly human problems that gave rise to the discipline and the all-too-human shortcomings that derailed it. He highlights how influential nineteenth- and twentieth-century figures developed a statistical methodology they claimed was purely objective in order to silence critics of their political agendas, including eugenics. Clayton provides a clear account of the mathematics and logic of probability, conveying complex concepts accessibly for readers interested in the statistical methods that frame our understanding of the world. He contends that we need to take a Bayesian approach—that is, to incorporate prior knowledge when reasoning with incomplete information—in order to resolve the crisis. Ranging across math, philosophy, and culture, Bernoulli’s Fallacy explains why something has gone wrong with how we use data—and how to fix it.

Containing a large and varied set of problems, this rich resource will allow students to stretch their mathematical abilities beyond the school syllabus, and bridge the gap to university-level mathematics. Many proofs are provided to better equip students for the transition to university. The author covers substantial extension material using the language of sixth form mathematics, thus enabling students to understand the more complex material. Exercises are carefully chosen to introduce students to some central ideas, without building up large amounts of abstract technology. There are over 1500 carefully graded exercises, with hints included in the text, and solutions available online. Historical and contextual asides highlight each area of mathematics and show how it has developed over time.