Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Swedish Student Partly Solves 16th Hilbert Problem

Posted by timothy on from the my-calculator-is-broken dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Swedish media report that 22-year-old Elin Oxenhielm, a student at Stockholm University, has solved a chunk of one of the major problems posed to 20th century mathematics, Hilbert's 16th problem. Norwegian Aftenposten has an English version of the reports."

3 of 471 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I remember by red+floyd · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I think that story is an urban legend, but if you've ever used Huffman coded data, Huffman himself used to tell this story:

    He was flunking information theory at MIT, and his prof told him he'd pass if he solved mimimal redundancy coding. So he did, and invented Huffman codes.

    <HUMOR>
    Of course, as his students at UCSC, we used to believe that his roommate solved it, and Huffman killed him for the solution (and hid the body)...
    </HUMOR>

    --
    The only reason we have the rights we have is that people just like us died to gain those rights. -- Cheerio Boy
  2. Re:It's funny that college kids.... by pbox · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Well (after being through myself) I tend to disagree with your oversimplification (even if there is a tiny teeny-weeny truth in you assesment):

    1. It was her job. (she is a grad student and a teaching asst, therefore has a JOB even if it way underpaid).

    2. Just the other day /. had an article about how most researchers have major breakthroughs before their 30s. That article offered several ideas why is that, like (simplified): need for show-off, extra time because of lack of families, etc...

    3. She is not a "college kid" as you put it, but a PhD student (she does not fit into the same drug-imbibing, all-night partying picture)

    --
    Code poet, espresso fiend, starter upper.
  3. Re:It's funny that college kids.... by mcrbids · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Nash himself said he felt his best years were behind him at age 30

    That's very typical. As people get older, they get less creative. As people get married, they become unimaginative dolts.

    Of course, I'm happily married, and I'd like to think that I still have *some* creative spark, but then, I *am* here, at 6:33 PM on Turkey-Day eve, reading slashdot...

    Maybe they're right, after all?

    --
    I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.