An international team of 18 mathematicians, convened by the American Institute of Mathematics, has cracked a 120-year-old mathematical “Lie group E8” puzzle invented by 19th century Norwegian mathematician Sophus Lie. It has been long considered impossible to solve. Although “the calculation does not have any obvious practical applications” it “took the researchers four years to find and involves about 60 times as much data as the Human Genome Project.”
If mathematicians can crack a puzzle they can’t find a practical application for and can barely comprehend the puzzle’s implication, why is so difficult to find solutions for many U.S. citizens to have basic needs met? I know! Use the money spent on all frivolous “I wonder” projects to provide the working poor with insurance or research disease, or …
Delores Boone
Monroe
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