[Photo by Konrad Jacobs, Erlangen; used under CC license.]
Martin Gardner is an American mathematics and science writer who has spent decades puzzling people with mathematics and influencing others who share his passion. John Tierney notes: "When I started running a weekly puzzle here in TierneyLab, some readers promptly complained that I was repeating puzzles already presented by Mr. Gardner — a charge to which I happily pled guilty. It's pretty hard to do anything about mathematical puzzles without dealing with a theme already treated in Mr. Gardner’s books and Scientific American columns."
And as Matt says at Wired: "If you grew up, as I did, devouring every puzzle book you could get your hands on, you probably owe at least a little of your geekiness to Martin Gardner."
There's a great interview with Gardner here and another here (pdf). You can read his collected essays here, and his work Mathematical here.
Happy Birthday!
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