Marcus du Sautoy on mathematics
The Life Scientific
BBC
4.6 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 7 June 2016
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Marcus du Sautoy wasn't particularly good at maths at school; but a teacher spotted his aptitude for abstract thought and he started reading, and enjoying, journals filled with mathematical proofs. His thesis on the mathematics of symmetry launched him as a world class mathematician. And before he dies he wants to know: can you predict the properties of the next symmetrical object that could possibly exist in a hundred thousand dimensions or more? Marcus talks to Jim Al-Khalili about his passion for the performing arts, as well as mathematics; and why, for him, mathematics is as much a creative art as a science.
Producer: Anna Buckley.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the podcast of the Life Scientific. |
| 0:03.6 | First broadcast on BBC Radio 4. |
| 0:06.2 | I'm Jumal Kiele and my mission is to interview the most fascinating and important |
| 0:11.0 | scientists alive today and to find out what makes them tick. |
| 0:15.0 | Matheician, |
| 0:17.0 | Matheician, |
| 0:20.0 | Simone professor for the public understanding of science. |
| 0:22.0 | Marcus de Sotoi certainly doesn't conform to the horribly stereotypical image |
| 0:27.0 | that many people have of mathematics professors. |
| 0:30.0 | He's as happy playing the character X, in play X and Y as he is explaining mathematical proofs |
| 0:35.8 | to an audience of world-class academics. |
| 0:38.2 | He plays the trumpet, he writes books, he plays football, he's an avid arsenal fan, but much of his academic life has been dedicated to trying to find out how many symmetrical objects could possibly exist in mathematical hyperspace, an abstract world of never-ending dimensions. |
| 0:55.0 | Marcus de Sertulli, welcome to the Life Scientific, and of course many congratulations on |
| 0:58.9 | being elected a fellow of the Royal Society recently. |
| 1:01.2 | Absolutely, it was one of the sort of highlights of a scientific career is to become a fellow. |
| 1:06.0 | So that was a very exciting moment. |
| 1:07.4 | Now there is this terrible tendency, I think, to imagine that mathematicians are rather |
| 1:12.4 | unemotional creatures. |
| 1:13.6 | I introduce you as this rather extrovert character. |
| 1:17.0 | Yes, I think actually what is a mathematician doing all day? |
| 1:20.5 | Am I just proving all the true statements about mathematics? And actually that's not true. |
| 1:24.7 | I'm making a lot of choices and those choices about what becomes part of mathematics are |
... |
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