I really want to buy a copy of this print. It is both sublime and elegant.

According to Justin Mullins:

“Let me say upfront that I am not a mathematician. I lay no claim to the equations I have selected in my work. Those are the discoveries of the philosophers and scientists who spend their lives exploring the mathematical world and revealing its great wonders. For me they are like the great explorers returning from distant shores with tales of fantastic lands and magical creatures.

If mathematicians are explorers, then my role is that of a photographer who retraces their steps. During my journey, I photograph what I find. By that I mean frame it, record it and later present it.

There is nothing particularly special about this process. In the same way that an ordinary photograph is a snapshot of an area of outstanding natural beauty, a mathematical photograph is a snapshot of mathematical beauty.

But while the notion of mathematical beauty, and indeed ugliness, is well established, mathematics and mathematical physics can inspire (for me at least) an extraordinary mix of other emotions and ideas. For that reason, the equations in my photographs are much more than objects of ‘austere beauty’, as Bertrand Russell put it. I photograph them to explore their emotional and aesthetic values. In the Gallery are a selection of the results.

Let me say a few words about the text that accompanies many of these photographs. The most common request I receive is to explain my work and I am partially sympathetic.

On the one hand, I want my pictures to be judged in their own right and for people to come to their own conclusions about their value. It cannot be right for me to tell people what to feel about a picture. But on the other hand, I recognise that mathematics is an alien world, in which many people rapidly become lost. The text is intended as signposts to help people on their way.”

ALEPH ONE
The smallest number bigger than infinity.

FURTHER READING
A good discussion of transfinite numbers is at
http://www.anselm.edu/homepage/dbanach/infin.htm

Aleph One is also discussed at
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Aleph-1.html

Via Boing Boing.

I am fascinated by the mathematical principles surrounding incentives for particular behaviors, otherwise known as game theory.

I am most interested in zero-sum and non-zero-sum games — how what’s in it for me (WII-FM) can express itself as either selfish or selfless and still be completely self-interested, oftentimes along the lines of short-term (or short sighted) and long-term (or far-sighted) motivations.

If you want to get an excellent launch pad and primer for game theory, start out at Wikipedia’s Game theory entry.