May 23, 2019

Secrets of the Universe Revealed!

Cornell University applied mathematics professor Steven Strogatz talks about his new book Infinite Powers: How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe.

By Steven Strogatz & Steve Mirsky

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Welcome to Scientific American’s Science Talk, posted on May 23rd, 2019. I’m Steve Mirsky. On this episode:

CLIP

That’s Steven Strogatz. He’s a professor of applied mathematics at Cornell University. His last book, in 2012, was The Joy of X, and his new book is Infinite Powers: How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe.

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If the mention of the word calculus send chills of horror up your spine, don’t leave, please! This discussion is really for you as much as for anyone who loved taking their calculus course.

I spoke to Strogatz in a Manhattan apartment when he visited from upstate a few weeks ago. So please, as always, also enjoy the occasional sound of first responders’ vehicles going about their business in our ultra-exciting metropolis.

STROGATZ SEGMENT

That’s it for this episode. Get your science news at our website, www.scientificamerican.com, where you can watch a short video of highlights from an hour-long panel in April at the National Academy of Sciences that featured 10 Nobel and Kavli laureates in a variety of fields. You can find it in our blogs section.

And follow us on Twitter, where you’ll get a tweet whenever a new item hits the website. Our twitter name is @sciam. For Scientific American’s Science Talk, I’m Steve Mirsky. Thanks for clicking on us.

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