https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000p6dl
Roger Penrose is one of the greatest minds in the world today. The Oxford Professor of Mathematics has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics . He was on Start the Week this morning talking about physics. After watching an ignorant mad emperor in the USA , listening to him on the BBC or on this You Tube interview where he was asked if Mathematics was invented or discovered, calmed my mind .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujvS2K06dg4
The idea of the precision of Mathematics is reassuring as the reign of Trumpian chaos has not yet ended. Professor Jerry Hirsch told me that my husband Atam Vetta’s equations were elegant and I don’t doubt my son Adrian’s are too. I don’t have the mathematical knowledge to appreciate them but can appreciate some of the results . My favourite modern building in Oxford is the Mathematical Institute in the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter. As you approach the entrance you walk on a pavement of intriguing beauty. It is a pattern that never repeats itself, the work of Sir Roger Penrose which he describes in this short video.
https://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/node/865
My friend Weimin He was artist in residence at the RoQ while it was being built. I used his painting of the hand stand man celebrating he finishing of the building as the cover to the first Oxford Indie Magazine and the launch of Oxford Castaways 3 was in the Mathematics Institute. It was hosted by Charlotte Bannister Parker and her father Sir Roger Bannister was present. Great human beings like these two Rogers are inspirations but they did not become egoists: science grounded them. Interviewing inspirational people for the Oxford Castaway series I was always surprised that the people who have amazing intellect and achieve great things are modest .
