Two giants

The SAMSA community received news of the death of Paulus Gerdes on monday night. Paulus Gerdes highlighted the nontrivial mathematical reasoning in basket weaving and added that it has been a dynamic art form with innovation. He also exposed the existence of the basic Pythagorean result in basket weaves and contributed to documenting of history of mathematical representations in African culture and thinking. his colleague from Mozambique demonstrated a weaving workshop at AIMS last week. Gerdes was recently ill. (SAMSA = Southern African Mathematical Sciences Association). The following is a link to Mozambiquean news release: http://www.africa21digital.com/conhecimento/ver/20040685-morreu-o-matematico-mocambicano-paulus-ge


And today we learn of the passing on of the legendary Alexander Grothendieck, who has been a hero to many functional analysts and mathematicians for decades. His commitment to uncovering and promoting mathematical truth is inspiring. Here is a link to one of the many biographies: http://www.ams.org/notices/200808/tx080800930p.pdf