This year's C.P. Snow Lecture Series presents Manjul Bhargava, from Princeton University, speaking on "Drumming and Poetry, The Nature of Human Thought and the Origins of Mathematics." This event will be held on Thursday, March 16, at 7:00 p.m. in Textor 103. Professor Bhargava will integrate his lecture with percussion performances using a Tabla, a small India hand drum.
Mathematics pervades all the sciences, but it also lies at the heart of a number of fields in the humanities. Two such important subjects which go back to ancient times are linguistics and music. In fact, many of the modern mathematical tools used in probability and combinatorics, and tools applied in varied technologies, such as those on NASA space missions, originate in problems encountered by linguists and musicians thousands of years ago. A look at some of these ancient, poetic problems - and their remarkable solutions through the ages - reveals much about the nature of human thought and the origins of mathematics.
C.P. Snow was a British philosopher, physicist, biographer, novelist, and social critic who believed that communication among mainstream scientists, social scientists, and humanists was the greatest avenue to social progress. Each year, Ithaca College sponsors a lecture series and student award to honor this principle. At this presentation, the winner of the 2006 C.P. Snow award, which recognizes a student who has successfully combined scientific and humanistic studies at Ithaca College, will be announced.
This event is free and open to the public.
