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Science Quickly

Cleo, the Mysterious Math Menace

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.2639 Ratings

🗓️ 14 June 2023

⏱️ 12 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 2013 a new user named Cleo took an online math forum by storm with unproved answers. Today she’s an urban legend. But who was she? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Understanding the human body is a team effort. That's where the Yachtel group comes in.

0:05.8

Researchers at Yachtolt have been delving into the secrets of probiotics for 90 years.

0:11.0

Yachtold also partners with nature portfolio to advance gut microbiome science through the global grants for gut health, an investigator-led research program.

0:20.1

To learn more about Yachtolt, visit yawcult.co.

0:22.7

.jp.j. That's y-A-K-U-L-T.C-O.J.P. When it comes to a guide for your gut, count on Yacult.

0:33.4

It's a bit of an urban legend in mathematics. There's a sort of a romance to the story in a way.

0:39.9

I'm Alice Impartial.

0:41.2

You're listening to Science Quickly.

0:43.4

Today we've got an episode about a mysterious figure in the online math world.

0:47.7

They disappeared years ago, but they're still sparking debate and speculation.

0:58.0

We all love a good puzzle. Some people have their crosswords.

1:00.0

Some people play Sudoku.

1:01.0

Other people are still doing wordle.

1:03.0

But Ron Gordon, a patent agent and a former physicist in Massachusetts,

1:07.0

does hardcore calculus.

1:09.0

Back in 2013, when our story takes place, he spent enough time on

1:12.6

this online forum called Math Stack Exchange that it could have qualified as a full-time job.

1:16.8

I was working my full-time job, and then I was on Stack Exchange. Plus, I had a family, too.

1:22.8

I was having so much fun with it that I just didn't even keep track of how many hours I was

1:27.7

dedicating to it.

1:28.9

The mathematics stack exchange website is like Yahoo Answers, if the people on Yahoo

1:33.4

Answers had graduate level STEM degrees.

...

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