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DescriptionGenius At Play: The Curious Mind of John Horton Conway – July 7th 2015 by Siobhan Roberts (Author) {Bindaredundat}  Product Details Hardcover: 480 pages Publisher: Bloomsbury Press (July 7th 2015) Language: English ISBN-10: 1620405938 ISBN-13: 978-1620405932 "Conway is a creative genius." - Martin Gardner An unabashed original, John Horton Conway is Archimedes, Mick Jagger, Salvador Dali, and Richard Feynman all rolled into one--a singular mathematician, with a rock star's charisma, a sly sense of humor, a polymath's promiscuous curiosity, and a burning desire to explain everything about the world to everyone in it. Born in Liverpool in 1937, Conway found fame as a barefoot Cambridge professor. He discovered the Conway groups in mathematical symmetry, and invented the aptly named surreal numbers, as well as the cult classic Game of Life--more than a cool fad, Life demonstrates how simplicity generates complexity and the game provides an analogy for all mathematics and the entire universe. Moving to Princeton in 1987, as a mathemagician he deployed cards, ropes, dice, coat hangers, and even the odd Slinky as props to extend his winning imagination and share his mathy obsessions with signature contagion. He is a jet-setting ambassador-at-large for the beauties of all things mathematical. Genius At Play is an intimate investigation into the mind of an endearing genius, laying bare Conway's personal and professional idiosyncrasies. The intimacy comes courtesy of the man himself. He generously granted Roberts full access, though not without the occasional grudge and grumble: "Oh hell," he'd say. "You're not going to put that in the book. Are you?!?" Review GENIUS AT PLAY is a portrait of one creative genius by another. Absolutely brilliant. Impossible to put down. (Sylvia Nasar, author of A BEAUTIFUL MIND and GRAND PURSUIT) A delightful meta-biography--playful indeed--of a brilliant iconoclast. (James Gleick, author of THE INFORMATION and CHAOS) Wonderfully written, fascinating and hilarious, the book is a delight from beginning to end. Roberts has produced a playful and captivating portrait of the most playful mathematician alive. (Alex Bellos, author of HERE'S LOOKING AT EUCLID and THE GRAPES OF MATH) John Conway is, by any standards, a very remarkable man, and he well deserves a remarkable biography, which this book undoubtedly is. Siobhan Roberts gives us an intimate picture of this brilliant and eccentric mathematician, with an extraordinary facility to entertain and educate through puzzles and unusual ideas. Through frequent use of quotations and anecdotes, she expertly conjures up a genuine picture of the man and his amazing world. (Roger Penrose, author of THE ROAD TO REALITY and THE EMPEROR'S NEW MIND) It's a riveting read, and you don't need to be a mathematician to enjoy it. (Baron Martin Rees of Ludlow, UK Astronomer Royal and author of JUST SIX NUMBERS) John Horton Conway [is] perhaps the greatest living genius unknown to the general public. (starred review Publishers Weekly) About the Author Siobhan Roberts is a science writer and winner of four National Magazine Awards. While writing this book, she was a Director's Visitor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and a Fellow at the Leon Levy Center for Biography, at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York. Her first book, King of Infinite Space, won the Mathematical Association of America's Euler Prize for expanding the public's view of mathematics. She lives in Toronto, Canada.  Sharing Widget |