

Blind Mathematicians - chromophore
http://onionesquereality.wordpress.com/2011/07/31/blind-geometers/

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Jun8
Excellent post! The fact that blindness can actually be an asset in modeling
higher dimensional objects (or complex ones in 3D) in mathematics is
interesting. It reminded me of reading that the name "swallowtail" was coined
by a blind mathematician (name escapes me now) for a certain kind of
bifurcation in catastrophe theory
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catastrophe_theory#Swallowtail_...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catastrophe_theory#Swallowtail_catastrophe)).

On a different but related note: Some people in the deaf community has long
argued that deafness is not an handicap and in fact can be considered as "a
difference in perception", akin to having a different native language or
coming from a different country. Although the more radical aspects of such a
position is untenable (some deaf parents declare they would rather have deaf
child rather than a gearing one) the fact that having constraints put on
perception will lead to increases in other aspects of it is quite interesting,
I think. Should we call it "the conservation of perception"?

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mjd
> The following anecdote illustrates the hazards of being editorial assistant
> of the _Annals_ in the early thirties. A manuscript was submitted by the
> brilliant Soviet mathematician, Lev Pontryagin. Since paper was then
> exceptionally scarce in the Soviet Union, Pontryagin had taken wrapping
> paper, torn it into appropriate-sized pieces, and gone to work on his
> typewriter. Unfortunately, Pontryagin was blind. The wrapping paper was torn
> unevenly, and a good portion of the words and symbols in the margins were
> missing. No matter. The Annals editorial assistant retyped the paper,
> supplying all the missing symbols. What a hero!

Edgar R. Lorch, _Szeged in 1934_ , American Mathematical Monthly, vol. 100,
#3, pp.220–221

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bchjam
As someone who's been slowly going deaf since infancy, these sorts of stories
can be really inspiring.

