Category Archives: Mathematics

Einstein’s Tutor, by Lee Phillips

Posted on July 9, 2025 by skullsinthestars

Book 20 for my 2025 goal of 30 books for the year! As is now default for me, my link to the book is through my bookshop dot org affiliate account. I’ve been gearing up lately to plan my next popular science book … Continue reading →

Posted in History of science, Mathematics, Physics, Women in science | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The Man of Numbers, by Keith Devlin

Posted on February 7, 2025 by skullsinthestars

Book 9 for my 2025 goal of 30 books for the year! Opted to switch to some history of science and mathematics to mix things up… Some books in my collection were things that caught my attention at the time … Continue reading →

Posted in History of science, Mathematics | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Godel’s Proof, by Ernest Nagel and James R. Newman

Posted on January 11, 2025 by skullsinthestars

Book 2 for 2025! My goal is 30 this year. This is actually a book I read years ago but it was time for a reread to try to better understand the subject. I honestly wish more people would explore … Continue reading →

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New collaborative paper on an optical Hilbert’s Hotel!

Posted on June 16, 2023 by skullsinthestars

I need to talk about more of my own research on this blog, and a new collaborative paper that just came out is a good opportunity! This paper presents collaborative work I did with researchers in India at the Physical … Continue reading →

Posted in Mathematics, Optics | 1 Comment

A Subway Named Mobius, by A.J. Deutsch

Posted on May 25, 2023 by skullsinthestars

I’ve spent a lot of time talking about short stories about invisibility, but my searches have occasionally reminded me of some of my other favorite, non-invisibility-related, science fiction stories. Today I thought I’d take a short look at “A Subway … Continue reading →

Posted in Mathematics, Science fiction | 1 Comment

A vintage math puzzle!

Posted on October 3, 2021 by skullsinthestars

Over a decade ago, at the beginning of this blog, I wrote a blog post about some classic math puzzles where a nonsensical result is arrived at by seemingly plausible mathematics; in the post, I challenged folks to figure out … Continue reading →

Posted in Mathematics | 1 Comment

A curious mathematical identity

Posted on August 18, 2019 by skullsinthestars

Update: There is more subtlety to the infinite case, which I’ve now addressed in the post! Update 2: Learning so much messing with this! Added a bit more discussion near the end. So on twitter yesterday, the following mathematical identity … Continue reading →

Posted in ... the Hell?, Mathematics | Leave a comment

The geometry of weird-shaped dice

Posted on March 9, 2017 by skullsinthestars

I’ve been enjoying a bit of reminiscing about my childhood lately, hunting down old copies of role-playing games I enjoyed in my youth as well as exploring newer games that have come out since then.  One thing that has changed dramatically since … Continue reading →

Posted in Mathematics, role-playing games | 19 Comments

Optics and infinity at American Scientist!

Posted on March 9, 2016 by skullsinthestars

I’ve been kind of quiet here lately, partly due to my job and partly due to writing blog posts and essays for other venues.  Happily, one of these blog posts is now available to read over at American Scientist, on … Continue reading →

Posted in Mathematics, Optics, Personal | 1 Comment

Beautiful equations of math and physics: my picks

Posted on January 24, 2016 by skullsinthestars

A few days ago, the BBC introduced a series of posts in which they asked mathematicians and physicists to share their favorite equations.  It’s a fun list, and the original post can be found here. One of the equations selected … Continue reading →

Posted in Mathematics, Physics | 12 Comments