Undiluted Hocus-Pocus

Gardner takes readers from his childhood in Oklahoma to his varied and wide-ranging professional pursuits. He shares colorful anecdotes about the many fascinating people he met and mentored, and voices strong opinions on the subjects that matter to him most, from his love of mathematics to his uncompromising stance against pseudoscience. For Gardner, our mathematically structured universe is undiluted hocus-pocus - a marvelous enigma, in other words

About the author

Martin Gardner (1914 - 2010) war ein bekannter Spiele-Erfinder und Herausgeber und Verfasser wissenschaftlicher Bücher. Seine Relativity for the Million gilt als die brillanteste Erklärung von Einsteins Relativitätstheorie.

Summary

The autobiography of the beloved writer who inspired a generation to study math and science

Martin Gardner wrote the Mathematical Games column for Scientific American for twenty-five years and published more than seventy books on topics as diverse as magic, religion, and Alice in Wonderland. Gardner's illuminating autobiography is a candid self-portrait by the man evolutionary theorist Stephen Jay Gould called our "single brightest beacon" for the defense of rationality and good science against mysticism and anti-intellectualism.

Gardner takes readers from his childhood in Oklahoma to his varied and wide-ranging professional pursuits. He shares colorful anecdotes about the many fascinating people he met and mentored, and voices strong opinions on the subjects that matter to him most, from his love of mathematics to his uncompromising stance against pseudoscience. For Gardner, our mathematically structured universe is undiluted hocus-pocus—a marvelous enigma, in other words.

Undiluted Hocus-Pocus offers a rare, intimate look at Gardner’s life and work, and the experiences that shaped both.

Additional text

"A very interesting read."---Christopher Hollings, Mathematics Today

Product details

• Authors: Persi Diaconis, Martin Gardner, James Randi
• Assisted by: Persi Diaconis (Foreword), Diaconis Persi (Foreword), James Randi (Afterword), Randi James (Afterword)
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.11.2015
• EAN: 9780691169699
• ISBN: 978-0-691-16969-9
• No. of pages: 288
• Dimensions: 130 mm x 205 mm x 18 mm
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Mathematics > General, dictionaries; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Biographies, autobiographies; popular science, SCIENCE / General, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Science & Technology, Autobiography: science, technology & medicine, Autobiography: science, technology and medicine