math!

Cool article about what is looking like a valid proof of Poincare's conjecture.

I did take algebraic topology towards getting a math degree, and so I know about metric spaces. But really the course was, for the most part, well, a bit over my head. Still, the writer does a good job explaining it.

It also makes you wonder about people this brilliant. It sounds as if, Unabomber-like, the mathematician involved just took off into a cabin out in the woods somewhere outside St. Petersburg. I guess he spends his days foraging for mushrooms, and thinks about topology. Perhaps he finds the shapes of nature suggestive - mushrooms, leaves, trees, stones. All of which are topological spheres, by the way (unless it is a very unusual case).