

Mary, queen of maths - ColinWright
http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21713163

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denzil_correa

        Freeman Dyson claims that Littlewood did not understand 
        the importance of the work that he and Cartwright had 
        done: "Only Cartwright understood the importance of her 
        work as the foundation of chaos theory, and she is not a 
        person who likes to blow her own trumpet."
    
        He records, however, that shortly before her death, he 
        received an indignant letter from Cartwright, scolding 
        him for crediting her with more than she deserved.
    

I don't quite remember the last time an academic did that. On the contrary, I
have personally observed quite the opposite. Glad to know there were (or are)
people who uphold ethical and moral values.

~~~
dbaupp
There's probably a significant amount of selection bias occuring here, since
it seems likely that one is more likely to hear about someone who is
constantly self-promoting and wanting attention, rather than a quiet person
who would much rather be left alone to wrestle with the problem in front of
them than make a fuss to get huge acknowledgements.

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thomasjames
Ed Lorenz didn't blow his own trumpet either. He used to give demonstrations
on elementary chaos for kids in my town. Using an old fashioned pin ball
machine. The man led a very solitary existence. We even ran into him on one of
the mountains around our town shortly before he died. He stayed very active
into his old age, but kept to himself. I remember wonder how he was seeing the
world around him even though we were both on the same trail.

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appreneur
Modesty wins, proves that we are in debt of millions of unrecognized humans
for the immense knowledge we have gathered n use everyday.

~~~
shrughes
> Modesty wins

What does this even mean?

~~~
appreneur
Being humble and not trumpeting one's idea...

~~~
shrughes
I was referring to the "winning" part.

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peripetylabs
Great read, I didn't know chaos theory had applications to radar; I thought
the study of radar originated in probability theory and spectral theory. Very
interesting.

My only criticism is that Mary Cartwright would probably balk at the idea of
royalty in mathematics.

