Things to Read

Have to blog and run today. I get to spend three hours this afternoon trying to persuade skeptical calculus students that “related rate” problems aren't so bad. A forlorn quest, I know. Anyway, how about I just point you towards some interesting reading:

  • Over at CSICOP's site, Penny Higgins offers this excellent article on the topic of transitional forms generally, and Tiktaalik in particular. Worth it for the diagrams alone!
  • Joshua Roebke, writing for Seed, gives us a concise summary of Grigory Perelman's refusal of the Fields Medal for proving the Poincare conjecture.
  • The New York Times has this brief account of new research into the demise of the Neanderthals. Worth a look.

More like this

Related rates--good stuff. If I am ever teaching implicit differentiation and a student asks me why we do it, I would like to tell him what my professor told another student: "Because it works." (Actually, he did some more explaining after that but I have always wanted to say that.)

By Robert O'Brien (not verified) on 14 Sep 2006 #permalink