Genius Who Shuns the Limelight

NATURE|Vol 464|11 March 2010 OPINION

Genius who shuns the limelight

Perfect Rigor: A Genius and the California, Berkeley, he vanished for several Mathematical Breakthrough of the Century years. None of his colleagues knew it, but he by Masha Gessen was working in solitude on a proof of the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: 2009. Poincaré conjecture — a famous problem in 256 pp. $26 topology about three-dimensional boundaries of four-dimensional spheres. After reappear- ing briefly to explain his proof in a whirlwind Mathematics rarely makes the news. One US tour, he vanished again. His whereabouts exception was the proof of the century-old today are unknown. Poincaré conjecture in 2003. When Russian Gessen describes the best and the worst that mathematician Grigory ‘Grisha’ Perelman Soviet maths had to offer; the best being the posted his solution on the Internet, people support given to gifted youths such as Perel- took notice. Experts found that it was correct man through maths clubs and competitions, and Perelman was awarded the highest the worst being the rampant anti-Semitism honour in maths, the Fields Medal, by the that pervaded maths departments until International Mathematical Union in 2006. perestroika in the late 1980s. Had it not been Yet the laureate refused to attend the award for the strenuous efforts of some professors to Clear views from Chile’s Paranal Observat ory ceremony in Madrid, leaving King Juan Car- support Perelman, even a prodigy of his stature are protected through agreements to limit los, who was to present the medal, waiting in might have been prevented from pursuing light pollution by neighbouring mines. vain. Media interest again soared: here was a graduate studies because of his Jewish back- long-haired weirdo who had flouted the King, ground. Gessen, a self-described ‘maths junkie’ he does not travel into space to visit the thus confirming every prejudice about math- brought up in Moscow, is ideally placed to tell Planck spacecraft in person, he writes of ematicians. Tales of priority disputes and of discriminatory practices in the Soviet how its forthcoming results on the cos- plagiarism quickly followed. academic world — her parents are Jewish mic microwave background will soon Given his supreme problem-solving ability engineers who suffered through such ordeals. challenge cosmologists’ knowledge of the and eccentric behaviour, Perelman’s personal- The book falls short in one important early Universe. ity begs analysis. Perfect Rigor fills that need. respect: like others who have tried, Gessen The Edge of Physics is an accomplished Science writer Masha Gessen has researched was unable to contact Perelman in person. and timely overview of modern cosmology the reclusive mathematician thoroughly, Putting on a brave face, she writes that she was and particle astrophysics. Ananthaswamy’s interviewing his teachers, maths coaches and not burdened by any allegiance to Perelman’s characterizations of the many physicists colleagues in the United States, Russia and narrative. Unfortunately, lacking tangible he meets are on the mark; yet the actors’ Israel. She also consulted psychologists about facts, she nevertheless speculates on why he number and brevity on the stage may his behaviour, which, she suggests, has much shunned both the medal and the public. With- baffle the uninitiated. It is especially gratify- in common with Asperger’s syndrome. out any evidence from supporting interviews, ing that he spends time with the dedicated Born in St Petersburg (at that time Lenin- Gessen suggests that his great achievement technicians and support staff, not just the grad), Perelman became a maths prodigy. At made him condescending towards the work big scientific names. 16 he won a gold medal at the 1982 Interna- of others. This guesswork is unwarranted. Ananthaswamy conveys that cutting- tional Mathematical Olympiad with a perfect One person who knows the Russian mathe- edge science is a human endeavour. score. After studies at Leningrad State Univer- matician’s true motives is John Ball, the then- Ending his journey, and his story, at India’s sity, the Steklov Institute of Mathematics in St president of the International Mathematical Hanle observatory in the Himalayas, he Petersburg and a postdoc at the University of Union who travelled to St Petersburg in an again notes the confluence of an observa- attempt to persuade Perelman to accept the tory and a monastery at a remote location. award. Ball reveals only that Perelman was He urges that these sites must be protected allegedly disappointed by the dishonourable from environmental threats such as climate behaviour of some unnamed mathematicians. change and oil pipelines. A more press- Gessen, by proffering gratuitous speculations, ing brake to grand experimentation is the both misleads the reader and does Perelman global recession. Yet his interviews show grave injustice. ROBERTS/NEWSCOM F. that understanding ultimately comes from Until 2006, the Poincaré conjecture was one individual curiosity and motivation, not of the most famous open problems in maths; expensive equipment. Perhaps in the quieter now it is one more theorem. For Perelman, economic times ahead, physicists will have proving the conjecture was sufficient reward in more liberty to contemplate the Universe itself — no prize or recognition was needed. around them. ■ Perfect Rigor reminds us that it is journalists Joanne Baker is Nature’s Books & Arts editor, and the public who want more. ■ and an ex-observational cosmologist. She is George Szpiro is a writer based in Jerusalem, author of 50 Physics Ideas You Really Need to Grigory Perelman disappeared after proving the Israel. His forthcoming book is Numbers Rule. Know. Poincaré conjecture about the topology of a sphere. e-mail: [email protected]