Description

Gaudi's "Sagrada Familia" in Barcelona, the America's Cup victory of the Swiss sail boat "Alinghi", films such as "A Beautiful Mind" and "Enigma", the theatrical play based on the life of Galois, the images of the Dutch graphic artist M. C. Escher, crypotography, comics. What do all these have in common? Mathematics, of course. Many recent films, plays and books have explored mathematical themes. This book, whose aim is the popularization of mathematics, comprises a series of accounts which demonstrate in these cultural contexts that mathematics is a vibrant and intriguing subject for the non-specialist. In the same spirit, other contributions cover mathematics in art, architecture, cryptography, and the medical and physical sciences.