So, why am I blogging anyway?

"Dammit Jim, I'm a mathematician, not a blogger."


I originally started this blog with two purposes. The first was to get me to think and talk about things other than mathematics and my career, which can become all-consuming while pursuing a PhD. This has been largely successful. I have begun spending more time following the running scene, which has always been a favorite hobby of mine. I have started to seriously cook for the first time in my life, which is especially important since I have learned I am Celiac. I am also getting excited about potentially doing movie and music reviews. The second purpose behind starting a blog was to try to communicate my own career to the non-scientific. Science folk (mathematicians, doctors, engineerings, physicists, etc.) often have an enormously difficult time explaining (a) what their job is and (b) why it is important in the first place. I honestly feel this is a bad thing. The scientific community must communicate with the general public, and they must do it in an effective manner. They shouldn't talk over the public's head. They shouldn't look down. They shouldn't turn their heads. They should spend the time and effort to explain exactly what they do and why people should care. This is especially important for those in academia as it is often the public's tax dollars funding their work. That is why I am going to start a series of posts on mathematical topics related to my own work that will be accessible to the general public. The first of these series will be on emergence and chaos theory. Emergence refers to the way that complex systems and patterns can arise from a large number of simple interactions - snowflakes are a prime example of this, with the interaction of ice droplets resulting in fantastically beautiful patterns. Chaos theory, on the other hand, generally refers to the unpredictable behavior of particular deterministic systems, such as the weather. I am excited (and a little intimidated, frankly) to talk about these topics in future weeks.