Great Feuds in Mathematics: Ten of the Liveliest Disputes Ever

Science News,  Sept 23, 2006  

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GREAT FEUDS IN MATHEMATICS: Ten of the Liveliest Disputes Ever

HAL HELLMAN

A history of mathematics often reads like a soap opera. Before the days of academic pressure to publish or perish, mathematicians often held their discoveries as personal secrets and vehemently defended their ideas against both plagiarism and criticism. Hellman, author of several popular science books, reveals the details behind some of the greatest feuds in mathematics and the intrigue and betrayal that resulted. Sixteenth-century mathematicians Girolamo Cardano and Niccolo Tartaglia argued over the invention of cubic equations, ending when Tartaglia allegedly turned over Cardano to Spanish inquisitors. Isaac Newton and William Gottfried Leibniz warred over their claims of independently developing calculus. In the early 20th century, David Hilbert and L.E.J. Brouwer argued over the foundations of mathematics in a battle that Albert Einstein described as "the war of the frogs and the mice." Hellman explains these battles. Wiley, 2006, 250 p., hardcover, $24.95.

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