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Domain: leidenuniv.nl
Stories and comments across the archive that link to leidenuniv.nl.
Stories · 5
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Original Einstein Manuscript Discovered
vinlud writes "The original manuscript of a paper Albert Einstein published in 1925 has been found in the archives of Leiden University's Lorentz Institute for Theoretical Physics. The German-language manuscript is titled "Quantum theory of the monatomic ideal gas," and is dated December 1924. It is considered one of Einstein's last great breakthroughs. High-resolution photographs of the 16-page manuscript are posted on the institute's web site." -
Escher and Elliptic Curves
melquiades writes "Mathematician Hendrik Lenstra was struck by the blank spot in M. C. Escher's Print Gallery . Why is the spot blank there, he wondered, and what should go in it? Although Escher, who had only a high-school mathematics background, drew the picture by brilliant and methodical intuition, the mathematical machinery underlying the image turned out to be elliptic curves (which come up in factorization, cryptography, and the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem). Lenstra and his colleagues were able to generate several breathtaking possible completions for the missing space. Read the story at the ever-registration-required NYT." -
Escher and Elliptic Curves
melquiades writes "Mathematician Hendrik Lenstra was struck by the blank spot in M. C. Escher's Print Gallery . Why is the spot blank there, he wondered, and what should go in it? Although Escher, who had only a high-school mathematics background, drew the picture by brilliant and methodical intuition, the mathematical machinery underlying the image turned out to be elliptic curves (which come up in factorization, cryptography, and the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem). Lenstra and his colleagues were able to generate several breathtaking possible completions for the missing space. Read the story at the ever-registration-required NYT." -
The Danger of License Termination Clauses
Ray Dassen writes "Bruce Perens has written " Is Your Software In Danger of Termination? ", a letter about the problem of termination clauses such as those in the licenses of Jikes and Secure Mailer. " -
Prez and Irish PM sign e-commerce note
Ray Dassen writes "Wired reports, that the US president and the Irish Prime Minister digitally signed a a joint communiqué on e-commerce. Dare we hope politicians start understanding the basics of cryptography, and the right to privacy? "
Hopefully, but probably not. I think this will be a mainly symbolic thing, and that they are trying to reinforce the usage of digital sigs.