While we need to continue efforts with alternative transport choices and energy uses, the current generation of electric vehicles falls woefully short of solving our problems. It was my job and my privilege to interview Prof. Hales and write an article, which appeared in the Sept. 16 Record, describing his solution to the Kepler conjecture-a problem mathematicians have been attempting to solve since 1611. In my article, I attempted to explain the nature of a mathematical proof and tried to give members of the university community some sense of how difficult it is to do this type of work. Based on Wedlick's letter, newspaper coverage and comments from others around campus, I evidently didn't do a very good job. So I appreciate this opportunity to try again.
Obvious solutions are frequently wrong.
Behind every new discovery in science and technology stands a long line of men and women who never assumed they knew the answer to the problem. Instead they developed a hypothesis and designed an experiment to test it. People often find it easier to accept the enormous investment of time and energy required to push the boundaries of human knowledge if the outcome has an immediate practical application. If Prof. Hales were a microbiologist and spent 10 years developing a new cancer vaccine, no one would call it a waste of time. To a mathematician, there is as much beauty in the logic and precision of a mathematical proof as there is in a symphony, a novel or a work of art.