Sitdown Sunday: How an unknown teenager solved a decades-old maths mystery
We've hand-picked some of the week's best reads for you to savour.
1. How a 17-year-old solved a 40-year maths mystery
Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
A maths paper published earlier this year left the maths world stunned after a relatively unknown author had solved a decades-old maths mystery about how functions behave, the Mizohata-Takeuchi conjecture.
(Quanta Magazine, approx 10 mins reading time)
The problem was a simplified version of the Mizohata-Takeuchi conjecture. Zhang had included it in one of his homework assignments as a warm-up, hoping to encourage students to practice advanced techniques in a deep area of math. The assignment also included an optional extension, inviting them to consider whether the proof they'd found for the simplified case could be extended to more complicated formulations of the problem. Cairo completed the problem set and took Zhang up on the invitation to keep thinking. To her, it seemed natural to follow the thread of an idea as far as it would go. 'Why would I stop?' she said.
2. Sliding into the PM's (spotlight)
Political pundits may often compare a current leader's performance to their predecessors, but sometimes through rose-tinted glasses. But why do some ex-political leaders just never… go away?
(Politico UK, approx 8 mins reading time)
While they receive £115,000 annually for life, a permanent security detail and are expected to attend Remembrance Sunday commemorations at the Cenotaph, there is no official responsibility or equivalent of a U.S.-style presidential library to promote an ex-prime minister's legacy. That can leave former leaders feeling stuck on the sidelines.
3. Treating trauma in Gaza
File image of a Palestinian child doing play therapy in Rafah, in 2021.
Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
Palestinian journalist and author Mohammed R. Mhawish reports from Gaza, where he explores how mental health experts are treating trauma among those, young and old, who are still trapped in an active conflict.
(New Yorker, approx 18 mins reading time)
Nour Jarada, a mental-health manager in Gaza, sees this rewiring on a daily basis. She works inside of medical tents that have no sound insulation, each one containing folding beds that separate trauma from trauma. The patients arrive on foot—some having walked for miles, many led in by family members who didn't know what else to do. 'Some don't speak,' she told me. 'They stare, sometimes scream. Most cry for hours, unblinkingly.' Children have asked Jarada if they could go back to school, as if normal were still hiding somewhere nearby.
4. Hello new world. Is anyone there?
The most-important part of starting a new website is getting people to find it on search engines. Most spend years perfecting their 'search-engine optimisation' skills. But are SEOs are a thing of the past, with new AI technology? And what now?
Advertisement
(New York Magazine, approx 15 mins reading time)
SEO shaped how virtually everything on the web looked and read. It's why headlines are the way they are (and why a lot of news stories get published at all). It's why online recipes read the way they read. It's why e-commerce listings are larded with text intended to catch Google's algorithmic eye. It's why so much of the web feels so uncanny, as if it's written for someone, or something, other than the people browsing it, and one of the reasons why Google itself feels so broken.
5.
Rise to the… top?
The sidekick role has been around for centuries.
Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
The sidekick role has been around for centuries. Shylock and Launcelot, Batman and Robin, Trump and, apparently, US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson. Once a firebrand politician, Johnson is seen firmly on the White House's side.
(Time, approx 15 mins reading time)
Expectations for Johnson in Washington were low.But he has defied them. Since Trump's Inauguration, Johnson has shepherded a series of wins for the White House: thwarting a vote blocking Trump's sweeping tariffs, passing the Laken Riley Act expediting the deportation of arrested migrants, averting a government shutdown, and delivering pro-crypto legislation that blesses certain digital assets tied to the U.S. dollar.
6. Europe and its off-the-rail trains
We've heard plenty about the Metrolink, DART expansion, the introducing of new Luas lines and even a dreamed of rail connection to the UK. One thing is for sure, it's costly and timely. No more is that evident than at Europe's cross-border rail line.
(The Guardian, approx 8 mins reading time)
Leaving aside the nonexistent connectivity, the obstacles facing the long-distance European rail traveller will have become apparent long before they actually get on a train. Planning a trip and buying tickets (as well resolving problems if things go wrong) are daunting challenges in themselves. Seasoned travellers recommend Deutsche Bahn's website as the best and most comprehensive planning tool, but few novices would describe even that as user-friendly.
…AND A CLASSIC FROM THE ARCHIVES…
Henry Cavill previously shared how thoughts on his idea of superhero impacted his body image.
Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
As Dean Cain becomes an ICE agent in the United States - depending on how you look at it – your idea of a superhero may be tainted. In a 2015 interview, another Superman, Henry Cavill, shared how his idea of superhero had impacted his body image.
(
The Guardian
, approx 12 mins reading time)
Even once he became an adult, he would refuse to believe girlfriends who reassured him that his weight was fine. 'I'm very self-critical and I use that to motivate myself. If I look in the mirror, I might say, 'You're looking good!' Other days, like today, because I'm off-season and haven't been training, I'll say, 'Look at you, you fat fuck.''
I wince at that, and not only because the man sitting before me is in perfect physical shape. 'I tell myself, 'Mate, you're a mess. If you were to meet a bird out in a bar and bring her home, she's expecting Superman. This is not Superman and she's going to be mega-disappointed.''
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Irish Independent
28 minutes ago
- Irish Independent
Israeli bombardment of Gaza kills at least 89, as five more die of starvation
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Irish Independent
28 minutes ago
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Irish Examiner
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The most recent famine-related deaths brought the total number of hunger-related deaths recorded since October 7 2023 to 227, including 103 children, according to Gaza's health ministry. Nasser Medical Complex confirmed a six-year-old boy had died of hunger-related illness in the southern city of Khan Younis, while doctors said a 30-year-old man had died of malnutrition. Israel has faced mounting criticism over the 22-month-long war with Hamas, with UN-backed experts warning of widespread famine unfolding in besieged Gaza. Israel has imposed a blockade and restrictions on aid entering the territory, but in his press conference on Sunday Netanyahu said it was 'completely false' that his government was pursuing a 'starvation policy'. He acknowledged hunger, and problems with the food distribution system run by the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, but accused the media of 'lies' about the scale of the problem. Twenty-two months into the conflict, Israel's war on Gaza has killed a total of 61,599 Palestinians and injured 154,088 since 7 October 2023, according to Gaza's health ministry. An outpouring of condemnation has followed the death of the prominent Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif, killed along with four colleagues in an Israeli airstrike on Sunday. The Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights said they would file a joint complaint to the international criminal court over their killings. The Israel Defense Forces admitted carrying out the attack, claiming Sharif was the leader of a Hamas cell responsible for rocket attacks against Israel – an allegation that Al Jazeera and Sharif had previously dismissed as baseless. HRF's investigation traces the chain of command from Netanyahu to senior Israeli army figures, including air force and intelligence commanders. The UN secretary general, António Guterres, condemned their deaths and his spokesperson called for an independent investigation. The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, said in a post on X: 'The Israeli Army continues to silence voices reporting atrocities from Gaza.' 'I am horrified by the killing of another 5 journalists in Gaza City. Since the war began, more than 200 Palestinian journalists have been reported killed in total impunity.' — The Guardian
