2014年11月27日 星期四

Google's new 'smart' spoon helps steady shaking hands

Google is getting into the spoon business.
But not just any spoons: This high-tech cutlery is aimed at people with essential tremors and Parkinson’s disease and, according to the company, can reduce shaking of the spoon bowl by an average of 76%.
Hi-tech invention aims to help sufferers from essential tremors and...
THEGUARDIAN.COM|由 DOMINIC RUSHE 上傳




Essential tremor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essential_tremor
Essential tremor (ET, also referred to as benign tremor or familial tremor or shaky hand syndrome) is the most common movement disorder; its cause is unknown ...
本態性振戦(ほんたいせいしんせん)は、原因不明の不随意な律動的な体の動きを起こす疾患である。

2014年11月24日 星期一

The evolution of Darwin’s Origin: Cambridge releases

The evolution of Darwin’s Origin: Cambridge releases 12,000 papers online

The origins of Darwin’s theory of evolution – including the pages where he first coins and commits to paper the term ‘natural selection’ – are being made freely available online today in one of the most significant releases of Darwin material in history.

The information Darwin received, and the discussions he conducted in these letters played a crucial role in the development of his thinking.
Alison Pearn
In total, Cambridge Digital Library (http://bit.ly/1y7q4e1) is releasing more than 12,000 hi-res images, alongside transcriptions and detailed notes as a result of an international collaboration with the Darwin Manuscript Project, based at the American Museum of Natural History. These papers chart the evolution of Darwin’s journey, from early theoretical reflections while on board HMS Beagle, to the publication of On the Origin of Species – 155 years ago today.
The launch of Darwin’s papers also marks the end of the first phase of funding for Cambridge’s Digital Library, launched to worldwide acclaim in 2011 with the publication of Isaac Newton’s scientific archive. Initial £1.5m funding for the Digital Library was provided by the Polonsky Foundation. Funding for the digitisation and transcription of the Origin papers was provided by the US National Endowment for the Humanities and National Science Foundation.
Cambridge University Library holds almost the entire collection of Darwin’s working scientific papers and the ones being released today are the most important for understanding the development of his evolutionary theory. They are being published simultaneously on the Cambridge Digital Library and Darwin Manuscripts Project websites, with a further release planned for June 2015, covering the notes and drafts of his eight post-Origin books.
None of the Darwin documents available from today have hitherto been digitised to the present high standard of full colour and high resolution, and many have never been transcribed or edited before now.
Professor David Kohn, Director of the Darwin Manuscripts Project, said: “These documents truly constitute the surviving seedbed of the Origin. In them, Darwin hammered out natural selection and the structure of concepts he used to support natural selection. It was here also that he developed his evolutionary narrative and where he experimented privately with arguments and strategies of presentation that he either rejected or that eventually saw the light of day with the Origin’s publication on November 24, 1859.”
The current release includes important documents such as the “Transmutation” and “Metaphysical” notebooks of the 1830s and the 1842 “Pencil Sketch” which sees Darwin’s first use of the term “natural selection”.
It was in Transmutation Notebook B, that Darwin first attempted to formulate a full theory of evolution and it was in Notebooks D and E that natural selection began to take form in late 1838 and early 1839. The further maturation of Darwin’s theory is found in the three experiment notebooks he began in the late 1830s and mid 1850s, and above all in a large mass of previously unpublished loose notes, primarily from the 1830s-1850s, which Darwin organised into portfolios that generally parallel the chapters of the Origin.
Also included will be images of nearly 300 of Darwin's letters with transcriptions and notes provided by the Darwin Correspondence Project, an Anglo-American research group also based in Cambridge University. 
Associate Director, Dr Alison Pearn, said: “The information Darwin received, and the discussions he conducted in these letters played a crucial role in the development of his thinking. It is a really significant step that now for the first time they can be studied and searched in the context of the scientific papers of which they are an integral part.”
Also being published on the Digital Library today is a catalogue of the University Library’s Sanskrit Collections, detailing more than 1,600 manuscripts, 500 of which are fully digitised. Along with important works from the many religious traditions of South Asia, including Vedic, Hindu, Buddhist and Jainist texts – the collection also includes texts on “secular” topics, ranging from works of poetry and drama to treatises on philosophy, mathematics, grammar, astronomy, law, eroticism and medicine.
Anne Jarvis, Cambridge University Librarian, said: “With seed funding from the Polonsky Foundation, we launched the Cambridge Digital Library in 2011 with Isaac Newton’s papers, declaring our ambition of becoming a digital library for the world, opening up our collections to anyone, anywhere on the planet with access to the Internet. Now, after millions of visits to the Digital Library website, we bookend our first phase of development with the launch of Charles Darwin’s papers and our Sanskrit collection. These now sit alongside Newton’s scientific works and a wealth of other material, including the Board of Longitude papers and, most recently, our Siegfried Sassoon archive.”

The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence. If you use this content on your site please link back to this page. For image rights, please see the credits associated with each individual image.
- See more at: http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/the-evolution-of-darwins-origin-cambridge-releases-12000-papers-online#sthash.QE2ZBB75.ZeanpQ3x.dpuf

2014年11月23日 星期日

Coding and creativity

Coding and creativity

GSE’s Brennan takes computer programming to a child’s level

November 12, 2014 | Popular
102714_Brennan605
It seems that these days everyone knows at least a little about computers, from the 3-year-old who can confidently maneuver through his parents’ iPad to the 93-year-old grandmother who has a presence on Facebook. We are constant consumers of media. We are — whether we like it or not — surrounded by computational media.
But what about creating media? Most of us don’t have nearly as much experience creating it as we do consuming it. So are we selling ourselves short? The late Steve Jobs of Apple was known for, among other things, saying, “Everybody in the country should learn how to program a computer … because it teaches you how to think.”
Harvard’s Karen Brennan couldn’t agree more. “I believe that learning how to code — learning how to program a computer — essentially how to create, should be for all kids and not just for some kids,” said the assistant professor of education at the Graduate School of Education.
Brennan recently spoke to a gathering of nearly 50 at the Harvard Allston Education Portal as part of its Faculty Speaker Series, which aims to bring Harvard faculty members to the community to discuss topics that are timely and interesting, and to provide exposure to things that are relevant and visual.
Brennan is one of the developers of Scratch, a free online computer programming language that allows users to create stories, games, and animations. She, together with her colleagues, developed the program while working on her Ph.D. at the MIT Media Lab.
Scratch is a powerful, integrative, and collaborative way of learning. Created in 2007, it has more than 4.3 million users worldwide, mainly between the ages of 8 and 18. It is translated into more than 60 different languages and houses more than 6.7 million projects.
Scratch lets children not only create, but share ideas, passions, and learning. Some users make tutorial projects for each other. Others work together, oftentimes cross-country, to create their own “production companies,” sharing their work with other users.
At the Ed Portal talk, nearly a dozen kids were scattered among the audience. Their parents, some of whom are currently learning Scratch as part of the Ed Portal’s Mentoring Program, said they attended because they wanted to be able to understand and support their children’s growing excitement and interest in programming.
“I really like the freedom of actually being able to do what you want, when you want, and I like being able to share what I create with other kids who use Scratch as well,” said 10-year-old Cora Cloherty of Brighton.
“This is learning in a very different way,” said Brennan. “Kids were used to being told how to think, how to memorize. This allows them to be in control. It takes some time, but once kids have a little taste of being creative, many of them don’t want to look back.”
Another benefit is the growing diversity of those involved.
Girls Who Code, a group that provides computer science education and exposure to young women, recently found that just 0.3 percent of high school girls select computer science as a college major. Scratch hopes to help bump up those numbers. And according to Brennan, it’s heading in the right direction. Approximately 40 percent of Scratch users today are female.
“This is not about wanting everyone to become a computer scientist,” said Brennan. “Just like the ability to read, it’s about computational fluency for everyone and the ability to think and create.”

2014年11月21日 星期五

闌尾炎 ("虫垂炎")

 

Wedekind, Frank, 1864-1918. 湯元吉


臺北 : 臺灣商務 民60[1971;上海 : 商務印書館 1935


Frühlings Erwachen (Spring Awakening / Spring's Awakening, 1891)    --HC的介紹:《春醒》Spring Awakening

查Wikipedia日文版的作者介紹,發現他1918年死於"虫垂炎",一查才知道是"闌尾炎,又作盲腸炎"的舊稱。
它又說這在1980年代的CT技術興起前,是很不容易診斷的。

可引起之後果[編輯]

闌尾炎本身並不恐怖,但症狀多變,無確切診斷工具,診斷主要依靠臨床表現,所以很容易誤診。不僅在國外或是國內,誤診率都頗高,有些甚至開完刀之後還無法確定到底是不是盲腸炎。
除了誤診率高之外,闌尾炎的併發症有時也十分嚴重,最需要注意的是引起腹膜炎。因為闌尾炎症狀若是延誤就醫,可能導致闌尾穿孔、膿瘍、傷口感染、敗血症腹膜炎等等併發症,嚴重的話可能會導致死亡,所以只要出現逐漸增強的腹痛,就絕對不要輕忽,一定要馬上到醫院就診,避免因為延誤就醫而引發症嚴重的病症。

2014年11月20日 星期四

using technology to uncover mysteries about the age and authenticity of historic paintings

By MICHAEL HILL, Associated Press
ITHACA, N.Y. (AP) — Richard Johnson can see right through the masterpieces of Rembrandt and Van Gogh.
The Cornell University electrical and computer engineering professor is a digital art detective, able to unlock the mysteries of a work's age and authenticity by analyzing its underlying canvas or paper.
Using high-resolution X-ray images, the 64-year-old academic can actually determine if paintings came from the same bolt of hand-loomed canvas, each of which has a varying thread density pattern that can be as unique as a fingerprint. Linking multiple pieces of canvas to the same bolt can shore up arguments for authenticity and even put works in chronological order.
It's a valuable service to world-class museums that comes through the unlikely cross-pollinating of traditional art history and contemporary computer science.
Computer and engineering professor Richard Johnson is using technology to uncover mysteries about the age and authenticity of historic paintings by artists like Johannes Vermeer and Vincent Van Gogh.
Read more at:
http://www.usnews.com/…/cornell-professor-unlocks-mysteries…

2014年11月18日 星期二

The Golden Ratio: Possibly the best rectangle in the world

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02bllqm
Image for The Golden Ratio: Possibly the best rectangle in the world

The Golden Ratio: Possibly the best rectangle in the world

DURATION: 01:55
Find out more about how the proportions of the Golden Ratio are consistently found in nature and have replicated by artists and architects for thousands of years. Voiced by Harry Shearer. Scripted by Nigel Warburton.
Available since: Last Tuesday

THIS CLIP IS FROM

A HISTORY OF IDEASVicky Neale on the Mathematics of Beauty

Mathematician Vicky Neale on the mathematics of beauty and the beauty of mathematics.
FIRST BROADCAST: 19 Nov 2014
Image for Vicky Neale on the Mathematics of Beauty

2014年11月12日 星期三

Philae spacecraft makes historic landing on comet

我在CNN看到此壯舉報導。Google的Doodle有此,引到3則報導。
可研究慧星上的水(如果有)是否類似地球的,如果是,地球的水可能就是慧星撞擊所帶來的。





【十年太空夢首次登陸彗星 人類文明邁出巨大一步】文: 場邊故事
「登陸!我的新地址:彗星67P」幻想成真!十年的太空旅程,機械人「菲萊號」(Philae)今晨登陸彗星,這個與小王子的B612星球神似的彗星67P,距離地球5億公里,完成了科學家的夢想:人類首次成功登陸劃過長空的彗星,找尋人類生命之源的秘密。
45年前,彗星67P首次被地球人發現。「我們在1969年第一次看到它的微光,今天,我們在上登陸。」歐洲太空總署(ESA)的科學家今日凌晨興奮宣布,人類有史以來首次成功登陸彗星,過往太空船總是撞毁灰飛煙滅。
「太遠,太遠了,拖著這個身體太重了」
今次漫長的太空旅程得來不易,飛船十年前啟航,曾繞地球三次,借助地球的重力揈到老遠的木星軌道附近,追上彗星 67P。靠太陽能推動的飛船曾因為距離太陽太遠,無力前行,控制中心唯有把它「催眠」,讓它在太空沉睡了兩年半,期間和地球失去聯絡。後來在預定時間甦醒及向 67P 最後進發,歐州太空署才鬆一口氣。
昨晚11時半,登陸器「菲萊號」成功脫離太空船着陸,單是着陸的訊息已要半小時才抵達德國的控制中心。登時中心內掌聲雷動,工作人員互相擁抱,為一個不可能的夢實現了喜極而泣。
肩負重任的「菲萊號」重100公斤,卻只有一個鞋盒大小,包括可鑽9吋深的鑽等十件精密儀器,採集原始物質進行分析。天文物理學家們希望這項任務,能成為瞭解太陽系及地球生命起源的一大里程碑。
彗星探索能否成功仍存隱憂,科學家發現「菲萊號」登陸了兩次,第一次着陸時曾彈跳了一下,再停在表面。而且上面用以抓緊彗星的魚叉未能成功發射,科學家要今日稍後時間再確定。
縱然命途未卜,今晨科學家收到第一張67P表面的相片時,已邁出下「人類文明的一大步」。連Google也來凑慶,「菲萊號」今天當上把谷歌塗鴉(Doodles)主角。
「菲萊號」,你可有帶着小王子回家?
資料來源/圖:CNN
http://cnn.it/1sDUcrK
BBC
http://bbc.in/1sDUxL0


  • Philae spacecraft makes historic landing on comet
    The Guardian - 41 mins ago
    Philae is talking to us,” said a jubilant Stephan Ulamec, Philae lander manager at the DLR ...


  • Philae spacecraft makes historic landing on comet

    Rosetta mission’s safe landing gives scientists their first chance to ride a comet and study close up what happens as it gets closer to the sun

    • Rosetta mission landing: follow the live reaction
    • See the historic landing in pictures
    • Usama Hasan: mission will help illuminate origins of life

    The European Space Agency mission control in Darmstadt, Germany, celebrates as Philae touches down
    The signal broke a seven-hour wait of agonising intensity and sparked scenes of jubilation at the European Space Agency’s mission control in Darmstadt. The team in charge of the Rosetta mission achieved what at times seemed an impossible task by landing a robotic spacecraft on a comet for the first time in history.
    The moment the tension broke came shortly after 1600 GMT when the Philae called home. “We are there. We are sitting on the surface. Philae is talking to us,” said a jubilant Stephan Ulamec, Philae lander manager at the DLR German space centre. “We are on the comet.”
    Andrea Accomazzo, the Rosetta flight operations director, added: “We cannot be happier than we are now.”
    But celebrations were tempered by the later discovery that the probe’s two harpoons had not fired to fasten the craft down in the ultra-low gravity. Scientists now think the probe may have bounced after first coming into contact with the surface. Ulamec said: “Maybe today we didn’t just land once, we landed twice.”
    The safe, if precarious, touchdown of the lander gives scientists a unique chance to ride onboard a comet and study from the surface what happens as its activity ramps up as it gets closer to the sun. The first images beamed back from the lander’s descent revealed a dramatic landscape of pits and precipices, craters and boulders. However, there have been gaps in its radio link with the orbiting Rosetta mothership. 

    Philae lander lander seen from Rosetta
    The Philae lander on its way to the comet, photographed by the Rosetta spacecraft.Photograph: AP

    The £1bn ($1.58bn) Rosetta mission aims to unlock the mysteries of comets, made from ancient material that predates the birth of the solar system. In the data Rosetta and Philae collect, researchers hope to learn more of how the solar system formed and how comets carried water and complex organics to the planets, preparing the stage for life on Earth.
    Space agencies have sent probes to comets before, but not like this. In 1986, Nasa’s Ice mission flew through the tail of Halley’s comet. In 2005, the agency’s Deep Impact spacecraft fired a massive copper block at comet Temple 1. But none before now has landed.
    The feat marks a profound success for the European Space Agency (ESA), which launched the Rosetta spacecraft more than 10 years ago from its Kourou spaceport in French Guiana. Since blasting off in March 2004, Rosetta and its lander Philae have travelled more than 6bn kilometres to catch up with the comet, which orbits the sun at speeds up to 135,000km/h.
    “We are the first to do this, and that will stay forever,” said Jean Jacques Dordain, director general of the ESA.
    Matt Taylor, a Rosetta project scientist, who had selected an extremely colourful shirt for the event, revealed an impressive – and brave – tattoo of the lander on the comet’s surface.

    2014年11月4日 星期二

    張益唐「孿生質數猜想」證明突破

    窩速食店八年的中研院新院士「敢做大學問」 張益唐破解160年數學難題
    撰文 / 蔡曜蓮
    出處 / 今周刊   920期
    關聯關鍵字: 中研院數學研究兩岸風雲920
    2014/08/07
    • 窩速食店八年的中研院新院士
    窩速食店八年的中研院新院士
    1
    學術作為一種志業,孤獨是難免的,張益唐卻走得比別人更曲折,博士畢業後長達八年流離學術圈外;去年,年近六十仍是講師的他,以一份邏輯清楚、完美論證的論文,對難倒無數學者的「孿生質數猜想」提出證明,頓時掀起一番波瀾。
    去年四月,張益唐投了一篇稿子到數學界權威雜誌《數學年刊》,接下的一年,他的人生,有了過去五十八年以來從未想像過的變化。

    他所撰寫的主題是「孿生質數猜想」。若非數學界專業人士,可能對這個主題聽得一頭霧水,但簡單地說,這是數學世界裡一道「百年難解」的習題,自一八四九年法國數學家波利尼亞克提出後,一六○餘年來,還沒有人能夠稍微像樣地進一步證明或反駁這個猜想的對錯,直到張益唐的這篇投稿出現。

    一般而言,像《數學年刊》這類頂尖刊物,處理的都是極複雜的論述,因此從投稿到審畢刊登約需兩年。然而,張益唐這篇稿件卻以破紀錄的三周時間審完並發表;更罕見的是,其中一名審稿人──亨利伊萬尼克更決定自曝身分,身為當代知名數論學者,他公開為這篇論文背書,表示「這篇證明邏輯清楚、論述完美」。

    這篇投稿,頓時在數學界掀起一陣波瀾,最有趣的是,在那當下,學術圈竟沒人知道論文作者「張益唐」究竟是誰?

    論文近乎完美
    評審:幸未埋沒人才


    沒人知道,這個嚇壞所有數學家的天才,年近六十還只在大學擔任講師;也不知道他在取得博士學位後,有長達八年的時間流離於學術圈外,只能在賣潛艇堡的賽百味(subway)小店裡打工、擔任收銀員;這個解出數學界百年難題的傢伙,在此之前,只發表過兩篇論文。

    台大數學系教授于靖表示:「去年參加瑞士理工學院的數論研討會,大家都在談張益唐。」于靖透露另名論文審稿者的說法,「剛開始評審們沒人相信一個突然冒出來的人可以做到。
    一周後他們再認真審查,不得不服氣,整篇論文只找出四個錯字,感嘆地說『還好這樣的人才沒有被埋沒』。」

    這一年來,張益唐陸續獲得瑞典皇家科學院羅夫.肖克獎、美國數學學會科爾數論獎、瑞士奧斯恃洛夫斯基獎、世界華人數學家大會晨興數學卓越成就獎,每個都是數學界重量級獎項。其中,他是第一位獲頒羅夫•肖克獎的華人,而在今年七月,他則當選中研院院士。

    論文發表沒幾天,哈佛數學系教授丘成桐即邀張益唐前往哈佛演講,丘成桐高度讚賞張益唐的學術突破,「這是很多大數學家夢寐以求的大結果,有幾百年的歷史了,尤其是張教授的證明引進了很新的想法。」于靖解釋,在數字宇宙裡,無限大的數字猶如遠端星雲,看不見也寫不完,即使用最好的電腦也計算不了,但張益唐的論文證明,「即使人力、電腦走不到那麼遠的遠方,那也沒關係,我們仍然知道在無限大的質數中也存在有限的距離。」

    先後遇見貴人
    助友解題展現實力


    一夕翻身成為學術明星,新罕布夏大學亦提供終身教職,張益唐在接受專訪時卻這麼說:「我覺得出名好像不見得是個好事情。」面對紛至沓來的邀約,「我就喜歡一個人安安靜靜地過日子。現在總有很多事情,靜不下心,太忙亂。」

    張益唐出生於北京,從小著迷數學,小學就讀起中學程度的科普書。十一歲,中國發生文化大革命,他隨家人流放鄉下種田、做工,十年期間沒有接受正規教育,養成他靜靜思考、自學的習慣;文革結束,他憑自學考取北京大學,成為文革後第一屆數學系學生。

    北大碩士畢業,教了一年書,他前往美國普渡大學攻讀博士,師從台灣數學家莫宗堅。張益唐做學問向來挑最難的下手,他選擇另一著名難題「雅可比猜想」,莫宗堅的成名論文亦為此猜想。七年來,張益唐在老師的基礎上繼續研究,卻在完成時發現細節上似有缺陷,因而和老師持有不同的學理見解,兩人從此產生矛盾,莫宗堅未曾替他寫下任何推薦信。他雖仍順利拿到博士論文,卻因為結果不夠完美而不願發表。

    沒有博士論文、推薦信,張益唐有八年時間找不到教職,當時朋友在美國肯塔基州開了賽百味,索性找他幫忙。他住在朋友家的地下室,生活簡約,終日做著收銀的工作,張益唐說:「這之中當然有點無可奈何,但最重要是活下來,將來慢慢還是會有希望的。」

    期間,張益唐沒有認真找過其他正職,「我對物質的需求很低,很少想要換工作。空閒的時候都在思考數學,如果是正職,我就沒時間研究數學了。只能說我還沒放棄數學。」生活中最奢侈的事,即是和朋友把酒言歡,酒量豪邁、學養豐富的他,文學、歷史、音樂皆有涉獵,詩詞過目成誦,隨手拈來皆文章;顛覆外界想像的是,他還是個NBA球迷,「我真的不是一個有怪癖的人,也有一些正常的愛好啊!」他這麼正經說明,反見趣味。

    平淡生活中出現的兩位貴人,是他北大的學長唐樸祁和學弟葛力明。北大時,他們三人常一起討論數學,兩人都很佩服張益唐的智識。當時唐樸祁在英特爾工作,研究上有個盲點想不透,偶然和張益唐提起,兩人討論一番,三周後,張益唐給了建議,問題順利解決,兩人共同申請專利。而今,此專利於網際網路計算基礎有廣泛應用。

    此事令唐樸祁驚豔張益唐仍寶刀未老,於是特意向在新罕布夏大學任教的葛力明提起。在葛力明的推薦下,張益唐從編制外的助教做起,六年後轉為正式講師。即使薪資待遇不若正規教授,也缺乏研究經費補助,但相較以往生活,已安穩不少。

    經濟穩定後,他結了婚。太太嘗試要他做學術外的工作,他始終不願意;他覺得數學理論很美,「本來這些問題都非常簡單,中學生都懂,但是你要確實在邏輯上證明它,卻又是那麼困難。我想它的美感就在這裡。」久了,太太理解他的執拗,也不再勸他。論文發表後,太太只交代一句,「記得梳頭髮」。

    對於和莫宗堅不相往來的師徒關係,張益唐沒有太多解釋;倒是莫宗堅在這篇驚天動地的論文公布後幾天就主動發文,文中提及他有時會後悔沒幫張益唐寫推薦信。張益唐淡淡表示他沒讀過這篇文章,也沒興趣看。

    人生沒有後悔事
    「金錢非唯一選擇標準」


    多年好友、美籍華裔指揮家齊雅格形容,張益唐從不嚼舌根,淡泊名利重情義,他曾打趣對齊雅格說,「那些得獎的錢我也不知道該怎麼花,還好我太太肯定知道。」他的手頭從不寬裕,但他對朋友總是慷慨解囊。十多年前,朋友的太太生產,他開車送夫妻倆去醫院,三天後再把兩人接回來;此後每年,逢小孩生日,朋友總會收到張益唐寄去的二百美元鈔票。朋友知道他的經濟也不好過,再三推辭,有時不好意思,就不兌現支票,好好收著。

    關於科學研究,有個流傳甚廣的笑話:「我們很難在一片漆黑的房間裡找出一隻黑貓, 尤其是當房間裡根本沒有貓的時候。」張益唐對數學的執著,讓他從沒想過這一切是不是枉然,「我人生沒什麼後悔的事,就算證明題做不出來,我也不會覺得後悔。」他全心投入數學研究,和外界聯繫不多,他的妹妹曾在網路上貼出尋人啟事,以為他失蹤了,還是朋友看到替他回信,「你哥哥很好,在研究數學呢!」

    今年,北京大學請他為畢業生演講,他說,「我不相信金錢是人生唯一選擇標準。」他鼓勵有志於研究的年輕學子要有氣魄,「我們敢做大的學問!我們敢攻克大的難題!」

    他一說完,掌聲響起,接著他退離講台一步,彷彿自覺剛剛的激情太張揚,身子半屈,笑著說了聲「對不起啊」,話鋒一轉,他又談起謙虛的重要。

    張益唐
    出生:1955年
    現職:新罕布夏大學數學系與統計學系教授
    事蹟:為「孿生質數猜想」證明取得重大突破,獲得瑞典皇家科學院羅夫.肖克獎、美國數學學會科爾數論獎、瑞士奧斯恃洛夫斯基獎、世界華人數學家大會晨興數學卓越成就獎,並入選中研院院士

    孿生質數猜想
    質數是指只能被自身和1整除的數,例如:3、5、7、11等。

    質數對(p , p+2)稱為孿生質數。「孿生質數猜想」在1849年由數學家阿爾方.德.波利尼亞克提出,即當數值無限大時,也存在差距2的相鄰兩質數。

    質數分布並不規則,因而百年來始終沒人能證明。而張益唐成功論證存在無窮多質數對,彼此差距都小於7千萬。將質數對的差距從無限大縮限到7千萬,即使離最終目標2仍有段距離,已是重大突破。