Superbrain Launch
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Superbrain Launch
18.02.2010
A new book, Superbrain, The First Twenty-Five Years, written by three-times winner, Diarmuid Early and Professor Des MacHale, School of Mathematical Sciences was launched at UCC last evening (February 17th 2010). The book contains 250 Superbrain problems and solutions.

The launch, by Professor Patrick Fitzpatrick, Head, College of Science, Engineering & Food Science (SEFS) was followed by a talk, hosted by the Student Mathematics Society, titled: “My favourite Superbrain Questions” by Professor Des MacHale.

Speaking at the launch, Professor Fitzpatrick said: "Some people get very exercised about whether mathematics is about building theories or solving problems, but I don’t get too hung up on it – to me it’s a spectrum. After all, if you are creating an edifice then you assemble the raw material and the tools and then in the process of building the edifice you are constantly discovering how things fit together, or what precise bit of scaffolding is needed to support a particular bit of the structure, so even though you are in a world of your own making rather than someone else’s you are still solving problems."  He went on: "So, I think mathematics is all about discovery, the “eureka moment” when you suddenly know something that you didn’t know a second before. The neurobiologists would probably be able to tell us what’s happening. There’s certainly an emotional involvement (who can forget the emotion in Andrew Wiles’s account of his journey towards Fermat’s Last Theorem), but there’s also probably a chemical reaction in the eureka moment – a sort of high, probably a rush of endorphins to the brain (maybe we should promote mathematics as the “ultimate head shop”)."

Professor Fitzpatrick referred to Professor MacHale's lifetime of experience of discovery in mathematics and of inducing discovery in his students. "In putting this collection together Diarmuid and Des have done invaluable service to the mathematical community – to students and to teachers alike – by providing a resource that will stimulate the discovery process, that will “scratch the eureka itch”, and thereby encourage  them in their pursuit of mathematics. I congratulate Des on his superb achievement in devising the competition and in keeping it going (more or less single-handedly) for the past 25 years, and I congratulate Diarmuid and Des on producing this wonderful collection recording the problems and the best solutions. And I commend the two of them on their confidence and ambition in naming the book 'The First 25 Years of the Superbrain'!"

Pictured at the launch were: Professor Des MacHale with Professor Patrick Fitzpatrick.  Second picture includes Professors Des MacHale and Professor Patrick Fitzpatrick with staff members of the School of Mathematical Sciences and students.

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