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The Perfect Way To Slice a Pizza Screenshot-sm 282

Posted by samzenpus from the equal-distribution-of-the-pie dept.
iamapizza writes "New Scientist reports on the quest of two math boffins for the perfect way to slice a pizza. It's an interesting and in-depth article; 'The problem that bothered them was this. Suppose the harried waiter cuts the pizza off-center, but with all the edge-to-edge cuts crossing at a single point, and with the same angle between adjacent cuts. The off-center cuts mean the slices will not all be the same size, so if two people take turns to take neighboring slices, will they get equal shares by the time they have gone right round the pizza — and if not, who will get more?' This is useful, of course, if you're familiar with the concept of 'sharing' a pizza."
Space

Super-Earths Discovered Orbiting Nearby, Sun-Like Star 242

Posted by Soulskill from the i-for-one dept.
likuidkewl writes "Two super-earths, 5 and 7.5 times the size of our home, were found to be orbiting 61 Virginis a mere 28 light years away. 'These detections indicate that low-mass planets are quite common around nearby stars. The discovery of potentially habitable nearby worlds may be just a few years away,' said Steven Vogt, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UCSC. Among hundreds of our nearest stellar neighbors, 61 Vir stands out as being the most nearly similar to the Sun in terms of age, mass, and other essential properties."
Image

Jetman Attempts Intercontinental Flight Screenshot-sm 140

Posted by samzenpus from the a-jetwing-and-a-prayer dept.
Last year we ran the story of Yves Rossy and his DIY jetwings. Yves spent $190,000 and countless hours building a set of jet-powered wings which he used to cross the English Channel. Rossy's next goal is to cross the Strait of Gibraltar, from Tangier in Morocco and Tarifa on the southwestern tip of Spain. From the article: "Using a four-cylinder jet pack and carbon fibre wings spanning over 8ft, he will jump out of a plane at 6,500 ft and cruise at 130 mph until he reaches the Spanish coast, when he will parachute to earth." Update 18:57 GMT: mytrip writes: "Yves Rossy took off from Tangiers but five minutes into an expected 15-minute flight he was obliged to ditch into the wind-swept waters."

Submission + - Israel Gelfand Dies at 96 (blogspot.com)

Submitted by tehgnome
tehgnome writes: Arguably the greatest mathematician of the 20th century has passed at the age of 96. The wake of Gelfand's work has influenced every modern branch of mathematics from Representation theory and Fourier analysis, to Algebraic Geometry. He will be remembered for his extreme influence on the world of mathematics and his legendary Gelfand seminar.

Submission + - Mcdonalds purposely forgetting items (imgur.com)

Submitted by
tehgnome
tehgnome writes: "This will like require some more info (and research that I have no time to complete), but i saw this image circulating around and i thought the /. community would be interested. Thanks for looking at this."

Comment Re:Any abstract algebra text (Score 1) 630

by tehgnome (#26779195) Attached to: Mathematics Reading List For High School Students?
I think you make a nice point, but most of all I think you slipped in a better idea. Set Theory. A good class in set theory and introduction to finite math and proofs would be the best. I am a graduate student in mathematics, and I see many math majors without a good background in set theory. Also, getting an early start with induction and simple proofs in combinatorics builds mathematical maturity very quickly. Additionally, it is easy to get students interested in combinatorics because the problems are so easy to understand and fun once you do. Obvious Halmos' Naive Set theory is the one of the standards. For introduction to combinatorics, the book by Jonsenbaugh is pretty easy and it covers and intro to proof. I really like the combinatorics book by Brualdi but it might be a bit difficult. If you are super brave you could read the book by Lawvere on an introduction to category theory...
Science

Extinct Pyrenean Ibex Cloned 249

Posted by Soulskill from the intrepid-endeavor dept.
jamie points out a story in the Telegraph about a project to clone the Pyrenean Ibex (known also as bucardo), a species that went extinct in 2000. Before the last known member of the species died, scientists took tissue samples to begin a project to clone the animal. "Using techniques similar to those used to clone Dolly the sheep, known as nuclear transfer, the researchers were able to transplant DNA from the tissue into eggs taken from domestic goats to create 439 embryos, of which 57 were implanted into surrogate females. " Now, for the first time, one of them has survived the gestation period, living for seven minutes after birth. One of the researchers said, "The delivered kid was genetically identical to the bucardo. In species such as bucardo, cloning is the only possibility to avoid its complete disappearance."
Medicine

Marijuana Could Prevent Alzheimer's, New Study 807

Posted by timothy from the that's-just-like-your-opinion-man dept.
Chickan writes "'A puff a day might keep Alzheimer's away, according to marijuana research by professor Gary Wenk and associate professor Yannic Marchalant of the Ohio State Department of Psychology. Wenk's studies show that a low dosage in the morning of a certain canavanoid, a component in marijuana, reversed memory loss in older rats' brains. In his study, an experimental group of old rats received a dosage, and a control group of rats did not. The old rats that received the drugs performed better on memory tests, and the drug slowed and prevented brain cell death.' My fine university's dollars at work!" Maybe it works even better in combination with brain-preserving sips of coffee.
Mozilla

EU Could Force Bundling Firefox With Windows 650

Posted by CmdrTaco from the could-they-force-me-a-sandwich dept.
Barence writes "The European Commission could force Microsoft to bundle Firefox with future versions of Windows. The revelation came as part of Microsoft's quarterly filing with the Security and Exchange Commission. Among the statements is a clause outlining the penalties being considered by the European watchdog, which recently ruled that Microsoft is harming competition by bundling Internet Explorer with Windows. The most interesting situation outlined in the filing would see either Microsoft or computer manufacturers forced to install Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari by default alongside Internet Explorer on new Windows-based PCs."
Media

Microsoft Brings Back DRM 414

Posted by timothy from the perhaps-skydiving-is-not-for-you dept.
Barence writes "Microsoft yesterday unveiled its MSN Mobile Music service — and a surprise return to digital rights management (DRM). While companies such as Apple and Amazon have finally moved to music download services free of copy protection, MSN Mobile locks tracks to the mobile handset they are downloaded to. It also charges more than the other services per track, and offers no way to transfer your tracks to your new phone when you upgrade. The company's Head of Mobile UK spoke to PC Pro about the launch, but his answers are almost as baffling as the service itself. Best quote: Q: 'If I buy these songs on your service — and they're locked to my phone — what happens when I upgrade my phone in six months' time?' A: 'Well, I think you know the answer to that.'"

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