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The 92-Year-Old Mathematician and the Teenage Apprentice
- vladmk 23d agoHard to read all the gated content :-(
- zasz 23d agohttps://archive.is/https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/06/science/92-year-old-mathematician-apprentice.html https://archive.is/https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/06/scienc...
- kenjackson 23d agoWhat a great story! I'm not sure why I felt teary eyed reading it, but I was. If you're here in the comments but haven't read it -- it is worth the read.
- oveja 23d agoVery lovely story. As noted in the article I couldn't help but feel it was a mirror to the story of Ramanujan.
- ziyao_w 23d agoBeautiful article. Reading this after having mixed feeling and honestly a bit depressed about the Navier-Stokes situation feels almost like therapy, and I had to try really hard to hold back tears. The Riverside Park has always been beautiful but particularly this time of year. Maybe I should pay a visit again, sitting on a bench thinking thoughts.
- deleted 23d ago[deleted]
- jgord 23d agoStunning, heart-warming read. This is possibly more exciting and of more future value than solving Navier Stokes. It also shows us a way, when it seems we are lost.
- PunchTornado 23d agoSuch a nice story to take us out of the news cycle of ai in math
- fgbxdfgbdrge 23d ago[flagged]
- mrmarket 23d agoIn spite of it all I do love human obsessives, with all their charming inefficiencies. This made me want to work as hard as I can on something important to me. I’m going to spend the night reading poems. And a great reminder of the value of a good mentor
- qmr 23d agoBeautiful article. https://archive.is/https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/06/science/92-year-old-mathematician-apprentice.html https://archive.is/https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/06/scienc...
- imrehg 23d agoJust FYI, I only get a "Welcome to nginx!" page there.
- e40 21d agoGift link https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/06/science/92-year-old-mathematician-apprentice.html?unlocked_article_code=1.AVE.CZi3.rFxhAkAmVwLi&smid=nytcore-ios-share https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/06/science/92-year-old-mathe...
- heikkilevanto 23d agoInteresting article. Pity it was so full of human factors, and so low on actual mathematics.
- dhosek 23d agoThere is a link to the paper in the article: https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.05283 https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.05283
- gobins 23d agoGift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/06/science/92-year-old-mathematician-apprentice.html?unlocked_article_code=1._1A.SfwP.feXK7rfEN_2o&smid=url-share https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/06/science/92-year-old-mathe...
- bagelcollie 23d agoBeautiful story. > Dr. Breuillard had been leading an effort to solve the question with the help of an A.I. chatbot. That humans appear to have sorted it out first — and these three particular humans — “almost feels like a blessing,” he said. This is such a contrast to current OpenAI controversy: https://bbc.com/news/articles/cy7zygy3rl2o https://bbc.com/news/articles/cy7zygy3rl2o
- tug2024 22d ago[dead]
- DoctorOetker 22d agoI know its the wrong take away, but some would summarize it as: 1) first dissuade others from proving the theorem 2) use child labor to actually prove the theorem
- sage76 21d agoA heartwarming story about a teenager cold-emailing a famous mathematician and getting mentorship—provided that she lives ten blocks away, rapidly solves Herstein problems with original proof ideas, catches the interest of multiple topologists, and eventually helps solve a decades-old open problem. The takeaway for ordinary students is presumably: “Simply be an extraordinary mathematical talent who happens to live next door to a lonely 92-year-old legend.”