Ramanujan left three notebooks, a fourth lost notebook consisting of loose sheets that was redisoovered in 1976 by George Andrews of Pennsylvania State University, and various manuscripts, some of which are still missing. Berndt thinks that Ramanujan, far from being old-fashioned, was ahead of his time. Ramanujan left unsolved problems that still tax the power of mathematics. One, the Ramanujan Conjecture, was proved in 1975. It was a spinoff from one of the major mathematical events of this century a dramatic breakthrough in algebraic geometry by the Belgian mathematician Pierre Deligne.
Genius can flower in the most unlikely habitat.
Before Hardy, two other prominent British mathematicians had received letters from Ramanujan, and had ignored them. The next time you get an unsolicited manuscript from a crank, think of them, of Hardy, and of Ramanujan. Inc. All rights reserved. We welcome your opinion.