23 - 004 Patterns - Mathematics

Source: Times Newspaper

Section: Thunderer

Date: 09/12/2022

Author: Thomas Fink

Role: Director of the London Institute for Mathematical Sciences

Digitisation Method: Straight transcription by retyping.

 

Tomorrow, in Stockholm Nobel prizes will be presented in physics, chemistry and medicine but not mathematics. The original motives for this omission are obscure. Some say that, when Alfred Nobel created the prizes, he had fallen out with a mathematician over a woman. More likely, as an experimental chemist known for inventing dynamite, he undervalued the abstract world of mathematics.

To explain Nobel’s mistake, here’s a brief account of how science works. Scientists spot patterns in the universe and describe them, whether in words, like Darwin’s theory of evolution, or mathematically, like Maxwell’s equations. They are then tested by experiment. Patterns that stand up to scrutiny are called theories.

By the 19^th century, enough patterns had accumulated for a new breed of scientist, known as theorists, to deduce patterns simply by mixing and matching old ones, without doing any experiments at all. But here’s the catch. This meta-pattern spotting – seeing patterns among patterns- is only possible in fields whose patterns have been described mathematically. This is why fields such as geometry and physics operate in overdrive, while our understanding of biology remains merely descriptive.

The impact of meta-pattern seekers is huge. Their work is cheap and they move fast, often getting there first. Alan Turing predicted universal computation. Robert Langlands unified geometry and number theory. Roger Penrose predicted black holes. All of them did it by seeing patterns among patterns, years ahead of their more plodding colleagues.

I founded the London Institute for Mathematical Sciences to serve the unique role of theoretical physicists and mathematicians in advancing knowledge. They unify disconnected fields, as Maxwell did with electricity and magnetism. They conceive entirely new subfields and are the starting point of radical new technologies. Despite their value, theorists are neglected not only by the Swedish Academy but also by governments. Research funding is biased against them. Whereas experiments can be described in advance, the only way to pitch a theoretical advance is to have already made it. The solution is to give high trust support that needn’t be constantly justified. Yet of the 24 UK Institutes that receive such core funding, none is dedicated to theory.

Theorists don’t seek the limelight and aren’t in it for money. Rather they have a restless compulsion to conjure up patterns. They voyage, as Wordsworth said of Newton, “through strange seas of thought, alone.” Unwittingly, they confer precisely the benefit to mankind that Nobel sought to honour.