Carlson (2006), James, and Arthur Jaffe & Andrew Wiles, The Millennium Prize Problems, Clay Mathematics Institute and American Mathematical Society 2006
1: The Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer Conjecture: Andrew Wiles
2: The Hodge Conjecture: Pierre Deligne
3: The Existence and Smoothness of the Navier-Stokes Equation: Charles L Fefferman
4: The Poincare Conjecture: John Milnor
5: The P versus NP Problem: Stephen Cook
6: The Riemann Hypothesis: Enrico Bombieri
7: Quantum Yang-Mills Theory: Arthur Jaffe and Edward Whitten 
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Deutsch (1997), David, The Fabric of Reality: The Science of Parallel Universes - and its Implications, Allen Lane Penguin Press 1997 Jacket: 'Quantum physics, evolution, computation and knowledge - these four strands of scientific theory and philosophy have, until now, remained incomplete explanations of the way the universe works. . . . Oxford scholar DD shows how they are so closely intertwined that we cannot properly understand any one of them without reference to the other three. . . .' 
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Kaku (2021), Michio, The God Equation: The Quest for a Theory of Everything, Doubleday 2021 ' This is the story of a quest: to find a Theory of Everything. Einstein dedicated his life to seeking this elusive Holy Grail, a single, revolutionary 'god equation' which would tie all the forces in the universe together, yet never found it. Some of the greatest minds in physics took up the search, from Stephen Hawking to Brian Greene. None have yet succeeded. In The God Equation, renowned theoretical physicist Michio Kaku takes the reader on a mind-bending ride through the twists and turns of this epic journey: a mystery that has fascinated him for most of his life. He guides us through the key debates in modern physics, from Newton's law of gravity via relativity and quantum mechanics to the latest developments in string theory.  
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Lonergan (1992), Bernard J F, Insight: A Study of Human Understanding (Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan : Volume 3), University of Toronto Press 1992 '. . . Bernard Lonergan's masterwork. Its aim is nothing less than insight into insight itself, an understanding of understanding' 
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Miles (1996), Jack, God: A Biography, Vintage Books 1996 Jacket: 'Jack Miles's remarkable work examines the hero of the Old Testament . . . from his first appearance as Creator to his last as Ancient of Days. . . . We see God torn by conflicting urges. To his own sorrow, he is by turns destructive and creative, vain and modest, subtle and naive, ruthless and tender, lawful and lawless, powerful yet powerless, omniscient and blind.' 
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Neuenschwander (2011), Dwight E, Emmy Noether's Wonderful Theorem, Johns Hopkins University Press 2011 Jacket: A beautiful piece of mathematics, Noether's theorem touches on every aspect of physics. Emmy Noether proved her theorem in 1915 and published it in 1918. This profound concept demonstrates the connection between conservation laws and symmetries. For instance, the theorem shows that a system invariant under translations of time, space or rotation will obey the laws of conservation of energy, linear momentum or angular momentum respectively. This exciting result offers a rich unifying principle for all of physics.' 
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Rovelli (2017), Carlo, and Simon Carnell & Erica Sere (Translators), Reality is Not What it Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity, Allen Lane Penguin 2017 ' Be prepared for your intellectual foundations to be vaporized . . . Carlo Rovelli will melt your synapses with this exploration of physical reality and what the universe is formed of at the very deepest level . . . Quantum gravity is so new that there aren't many popular books about it. You couldn't be in better hands than Rovelli, a world expert.' Tara Shears, The Times Higher Edcation 
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Tyerman (2019), Christopher, The World of the Crusades, Yale UP 2019 ' Throughout the Middle Ages crusading was justified by religious ideology, but the resulting military campaigns were fueled by concrete objectives: land, resources, power, reputation. Crusaders amassed possessions of all sorts, from castles to reliquaries. Campaigns required material funds and equipment, while conquests produced bureaucracies, taxation, economic exploitation, and commercial regulation. Wealth sustained the Crusades while material objects, from weaponry and military technology to carpentry and shipping, conditioned them. This lavishly illustrated volume considers the material trappings of crusading wars and the objects that memorialized them, in architecture, sculpture, jewelry, painting, and manuscripts. Christopher Tyerman's incorporation of the physical and visual remains of crusading enriches our understanding of how the crusaders themselves articulated their mission, how they viewed their place in the world, and how they related to the cultures they derived from and preyed upon.' 
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Wiener (1958), Norbert, The Fourier Integral and Certain of its Applications, Dover 1958 ' This book is concerned principally with the Plancherel and Tauber theories as modified by other workers in the field, notably Wiener himself. Based on a course of lectures delivered at the University of Cambridge in 1932, it is divided into three separate groups of ideas. The first group deals with the Fourier transform and the Plancherel theorem. The second deals with the notion of an absolutely convergent Fourier series and of a Tauberian theorem. In the last group Wiener deals with the concept of the spectrum.' 
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Wilczek (2008), Frank, The Lightness of Being: Mass, Ether, and the Unification of Forces, Basic Books 2008 ' In this excursion to the outer limits of particle physics, Wilczek explores what quarks and gluons, which compose protons and neutrons, reveal about the manifestation of mass and gravity. A corecipient of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics, Wilczek knows what he’s writing about; the question is, will general science readers? Happily, they know what the strong interaction is (the forces that bind the nucleus), and in Wilczek, they have a jovial guide who adheres to trade publishing’s belief that a successful physics title will not include too many equations. Despite this injunction (against which he lightly protests), Wilczek delivers an approachable verbal picture of what quarks and gluons are doing inside a proton that gives rise to mass and, hence, gravity. Casting the light-speed lives of quarks against “the Grid,” Wilczek’s term for the vacuum that theoretically seethes with quantum activity, Wilczek exudes a contagious excitement for discovery. A near-obligatory acquisition for circulating physics collections.' --Gilbert Taylor  
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And yet it moves - Wikipedia, And yet it moves - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' "And yet it moves" or "Although it does move" (Italian: E pur si muove or Eppur si muove [epˈpur si ˈmwɔːve]) is a phrase attributed to the Italian mathematician, physicist and philosopher Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) in 1633 after being forced to recant his claims that the Earth moves around the Sun, rather than the converse. In this context, the implication of the phrase is: despite his recantation, the Inquisition’s proclamations to the contrary, or any other conviction or doctrine of men, the Earth does, in fact, move (around the Sun, and not vice versa). ' back

Beethoven (1824), Missa Solemnis D major, Op. 123, ' A solemn mass with a symbolic character: The Frauenkirche in Dresden hosted its first public concert to mark its reopening on November 4, 2005. The program included Beethoven’s Missa solemnis, performed by the Staatskapelle Dresden and the Chorus of the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden, conducted by Fabio Luisi. The soloists were Camilla Nylund, Birgit Remmert, Christian Elsner and René Pape. back

Boltzmann's entropy formula - Wikipedia, Boltzmann's entropy formula - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In statistical mechanics, Boltzmann's equation is a probability equation relating the entropy S of an ideal gas to the quantity W, which is the number of microstates corresponding to a given macrostate:
S = k ln W
where k is the Boltzmann constant, . . . which is equal to 1.38062 x 10⁻²³ J/K. back

Charles Sanders Peirce - Wikipedia, Charles Sanders Peirce - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Charles Sanders Peirce (September 10, 1839 – April 19, 1914) was an American scientist, mathematician, logician, and philosopher who is sometimes known as "the father of pragmatism". According to philosopher Paul Weiss, Peirce was "the most original and versatile of America's philosophers and America's greatest logician". Bertrand Russell wrote "he was one of the most original minds of the later nineteenth century and certainly the greatest American thinker ever".' back

Daniel Read )2024), Daniel Kahneman changed how we think about human nature – the psychologist remembered by a former student, ' Daniel Kahneman’s passing at 90 years old has left a major gap in the field of behavioural science and in the wider intellectual community. His scientific contributions, many made in collaboration with cognitive psychologist Amos Tversky, transformed the disciplines of psychology and economics. They also had outsize effects on philosophy, political science and many other disciplines.. . . Danny’s 2011 book Thinking, Fast and Slow is a classic of popular science writing. In it he popularised and developed the idea of two systems of thought. One of the two systems is fast, efficient, confident and prone to error (system one), while the other is slow, resource consuming, full of doubt and perhaps a little less prone to error (system two). These systems work together. System one tells us the dessert is likely to be delicious and worth considering, while system two (might) step in to check the calorie count before we dig in. . . . One way Danny stood apart from other researchers is that his work was driven by a desire not merely to contribute to a research field, but to create new fields. And then, if possible, to answer all the questions they pose. That is why his research, even published many decades ago, continues to act as the basis for new ideas and debates.' back

Entropy (information theory) - Wikipedia, Entropy (information theory) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In information theory, entropy is a measure of the uncertainty associated with a random variable. In this context, the term usually refers to the Shannon entropy, which quantifies the expected value of the information contained in a message, usually in units such as bits. In this context, a 'message' means a specific realization of the random variable. Equivalently, the Shannon entropy is a measure of the average information content one is missing when one does not know the value of the random variable. The concept was introduced by Claude E. Shannon in his 1948 paper "A Mathematical Theory of Communication".' back

Firebird (Slavic folklore) - Wikipedia, Firebird (Slavic Folklore - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' n Slavic mythology and folklore, the Firebird . . . is a magical and prophetic glowing or burning bird from a faraway land which is both a blessing and a harbinger of doom to its captor. Description The Firebird is described in one of the texts collected by Alexander Afanasyev as having "golden feathers, while its eyes were like unto oriental crystal". Other sources[which?] portray a large bird with majestic plumage that glows brightly emitting red, orange, and yellow light, like a bonfire that is just past the turbulent flame. The feathers do not cease glowing if removed, and one feather can light a large room if not concealed. . . . A typical role of the Firebird in fairy tales is as an object of a difficult quest. The quest is usually initiated by finding a lost tail feather, at which point the hero sets out to find and capture the live bird, sometimes of his own accord, but usually on the bidding of a father or king. The Firebird is a marvel, highly coveted, but the hero, initially charmed by the wonder of the feather, eventually blames it for his troubles.' back

Igor Stravinsky, Firebird, The Members of the Royal Danish Ballet Soloists Mette Honnignen. Torgen Jeppesen & Lars Damsgaard back

Isaac Arnsdorf, How Steve Bannon guided the MAGA movement’s rebound from Jan. 6, back

Jacqueline Nguyen & Simon Ho, After 10 years of work, landmark study reveals new ‘tree of life’ for all birds living today, ' The largest-ever study of bird genomes has produced a remarkably clear picture of the bird family tree. Published in the journal Nature today, our study shows that most of the modern groups of birds first appeared within 5 million years after the extinction of the dinosaurs. Birds are a large part of our lives, a sign of nature even in cities. They are popular among the general public and well studied by scientists. But placing all of these birds into a family tree has been frustratingly difficult. By analysing the genomes of more than 360 bird species, our study has identified the fundamental relationships among the major groups of living birds. The new family tree overturns some previous ideas about bird relationships, while also revealing some new groupings.' back

Jasminbe B. MacDonald & Elly Quinlan, How to ask adult mental health clients about sexual abuse, ' Individuals who have experienced sexual abuse are more likely to experience poor mental health outcomes. There is strong research evidence indicating that the experience of child sexual abuse is a unique risk factor for the development of mood disorders, anxiety disorders, posttraumatic stress disorder, substance abuse and sexual dysfunction (Noll, 2021). Research has also shown experiences of child sexual abuse to be associated with eating disorders, personality disorders and psychosis; however, other kinds of abuse may be contributing to this association (Noll, 2021). An Australian study indicated that adult survivors of sexual abuse are more likely than a matched control group to access mental health services and have higher prescription rates for psychopharmacological medication (Guha, Luebbers, Papalia, & Ogloff, 2019).' back

Jeffrey Nicholls (1987), A theory of Peace, ' The argument: I began to think about peace in a very practical way during the Viet Nam war. I was the right age to be called up. I was exempted because I was a clergyman, but despite the terrors that war held for me, I think I might have gone. It was my first whiff of the force of patriotism. To my amazement, it was strong enough to make even me face death.
In the Church, I became embroiled in a deeper war. Not a war between goodies and baddies, but the war between good and evil that lies at the heart of all human consciousness. Existence is a struggle. We need all the help we can get. Religion is part of that help and theology is the scientific foundation of religion.' back

Jeffrey Nicholls (2020b), Scientific Theology, ' This essay is dedicated to all people, past and present, who have been harmed spiritually, mentally or physically by the Catholic Church or its agents:invaded, murdered, burnt, tortured, raped, abused, molested, beaten, deceived, deprived, disrespected, denied or abandoned. Personally, I sadly regret having been systematically indoctrinated as a small child with a heavy load of false and politically motivated fiction. ' back

Jeffrey Nicholls (2024), Cognitive Cosmology) , ' Quantum mechanics began as a physical theory to explain spectra of atoms but now it is understood as a theory of computation and communication. Theology is the ancient and traditional theory of everything. If the Universe is to be divine, physics and theology must share the same space which means that they must speak the same language. This I understand to be the power of communication and computation implicit in the formalism of quantum theory. What follows is my attempt to unite physics and theology in a Universe I understand to be the mind of the god that created us and sustains our lives. My starting point is the unmoved mover postulated by Aristotle (384–322 BC).' back

Jørgen Veisdal (2024), The Einstein-Freud Correspondence (1932), ' In 1932, physicist Albert Einstein (1879-1955) took it upon himself to write an open letter to neurologist Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) to initiate a public conversation on the origins of war and peace, human nature and the role of the sciences in these matters. At the time of the writing of the letter, public scrutiny of Jewish intellectuals in Germany and Austria was mounting. The following May, a viciously anti-Semetic illustrated brochure entitled Juden Sehen Dich An (“Jews are Watching You”) would feature Einstein in its prologue alongside some sixty other prominent (alleged and actual) Jewish intellectuals (Robinson, 2019a p. 225). Written by a close collaborator of Hitler’s propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, the author of the brochure would include a photograph of Einstein alongside the caption: Thanks for reading Privatdozent! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Upgrade to paid “Discovered a much-contested theory of relativity. Was greatly honoured by the Jewish press and the unsuspecting German people. Showed his gratitude by lying atrocity propaganda against Adolf Hitler. Not yet hanged".' back

Josefin Stiller et al, Complexity of avian evolution revealed by family-level genomes, ' Abstract Despite tremendous efforts in the past decades, relationships among main avian lineages remain heavily debated without a clear resolution. Discrepancies have been attributed to diversity of species sampled, phylogenetic method, and the choice of genomic regions 1–3. Here, we address these issues by analyzing genomes of 363 bird species 4 (218 taxonomic families, 92% of total). Using intergenic regions and coalescent methods, we present a well-supported tree but also a remarkable degree of discordance. The tree confirms that Neoaves experienced rapid radiation at or near the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) boundary. Sufficient loci rather than extensive taxon sampling were more effective in resolving difficult nodes. Remaining recalcitrant nodes involve species that challenge modeling due to extreme GC content, variable substitution rates, incomplete lineage sorting, or complex evolutionary events such as ancient hybridization. Assessment of the impacts of different genomic partitions showed high heterogeneity across the genome. We discovered sharp increases in effective population size, substitution rates, and relative brain size following the K–Pg extinction event, supporting the hypothesis that emerging ecological opportunities catalyzed the diversification of modern birds. The resulting phylogenetic estimate offers novel insights into the rapid radiation of modern birds and provides a taxon-rich backbone tree for future comparative studies.' back

Louis de Broglie (1929), Nobel Lecture: The Wave Nature of the Electron, ' Nevertheless, it was still necessary to adopt the wave theory to account for interference and diffraction phenomena and no way whatsoever of reconciling the wave theory with the existence of light corpuscles could be visualized. The necessity of assuming for light two contradictory theories-that of waves and that of corpuscles - and the inability to understand why, among the infinity of motions which an electron ought to be able to have in the atom according to classical concepts, only certain ones were possible: such were the enigmas confronting physicists at the time I resumed my studies of theoretical physics.Now a purely corpuscular theory does not contain any element permitting the definition of frequency. This also renders it necessary in the case of light to introduce simultaneously the corpuscle concept and the concept of periodicity. On the other hand the determination of the stable motions of the electrons in the atom involves whole numbers, and so far the only phenomena in which whole numbers were involved in physics were those of interference and of eigenvibrations. That suggested the idea to me that electrons themselves could not be represented as simple corpuscles either, but that a periodicity had also to be assigned to them too. In other words the existence of corpuscles accompanied by waves has to be assumed in all cases. However, since corpuscles and waves cannot be independent because, according to Bohr's expression, it must be possible to establish a certain parallelism between the motion of a corpuscle and the propagation of the associated wave. . . .. They showed clearly that it was possible to establish a correspondence between waves and corpuscles such that the laws of mechanics correspond to the laws of geometrical optics. . . .. This prompted the thought that classical mechanics is also only an approximation relative to a vaster wave mechanics. I stated as much almost at the outset of my studies, i.e. "A new mechanics must be developed which is to classical mechanics what wave optics is to geometrical optics". This new mechanics has since been developed, thanks mainly to the fine work done by Schrödinger. . . .. I cannot attempt even briefly to sum up here the development of the new mechanics. I merely wish to say that on examination it proved to be identical with a mechanics independently developed, first by Heisenberg, then by Born, Jordan, Pauli, Dirac, etc quantum mechanics. The two mechanics, wave and quantum, are equivalent from the mathematical point of view. . . .. Since the wavelength of the electron waves is of the order of that of X-rays, it must be expected that crystals can cause diffraction of these waves completely analogous to the Laue phenomenon. . . . Thus to describe the properties of matter as well as those of light, waves and corpuscles have to be referred to at one and the same time. The electron can no longer be conceived as a single, small granule of electricity; it must be associated with a wave and this wave is no myth; its wavelength can be measured and its interferences predicted. It has thus been possible to predict a whole group of phenomena without their actually having been discovered. And it is on this concept of the duality of waves and corpuscles in Nature, expressed in a more or less abstract form, that the whole recent development of theoretical physics has been founded and that all future development of this science will apparently have to be founded.' back

Paul the Apostle, Galatians, chapter 5, USCCB, ' 16 I say, then: live by the Spirit and you will certainly not gratify the desire of the flesh. For the flesh has desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you may not do what you want. But if you are guided by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions, occasions of envy, drinking bouts, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. ' back

Peter Tregear (2024), The Missa Solemnis at 200: Beethoven was close to deaf when he wrote his self-proclaimed best work, ' Major anniversaries of works of art present us with an opportunity to engage in cultural stocktaking. We are invited to take a moment to contemplate and celebrate the basis of their lasting significance. April 7 2024 presents one such opportunity; it is exactly 200 years from the first performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, or “Solemn Mass”. Today, the Missa Solemnis is generally considered to be one of the most remarkable works of Christian liturgical (relating to public worship) music ever conceived. It is also a summation of Beethoven’s mature compositional style.' back

Scott Davie (2021), Decoding the music masterpieces: Stravinsky’s The Firebird , ' On June 25 1910, Igor Stravinsky’s ballet The Firebird opened to acclaim at the Paris Opéra. The success propelled its composer, then aged 28, to international prominence, a position of influence he would retain for six decades. The ballet’s myth-like storyline features a magical Firebird, who helps a young prince rescue a coterie of princesses from Kashchey, an evil sorcerer. Based on the eponymous bird of Russian folklore, it has ultimately propagated some myths of its own - relating to the artistic ideals of the team who created it, and the narrative’s historical accuracy. Most crucial, though, is the composer himself who, through successive elaborations of his own biography, engaged in myth-making on an extensive scale. Notable for what Stravinsky expert Richard Taruskin terms his “celebrated mendacity”, questions have lingered as to whether certain of the composer’s early musical ideas were as original as they seemed. ' back

Svetlana Mojsov et al, Preproglucagon Gene Expression in Pancreasand Intestine Diversifies at the Level ofPost-translational Processing*, ' Glucagon is a pancreatic hormone of 29 amino acids that regulates carbohydrate metabolism and glicentin is an intestinal peptide of 69 amino acids that contains the sequence of glucagon flanked by peptide extensions at the amino and carboxy termini. The glucagon gene encodes a precursor containing glucagon and two ad- ditional, structurally related, glucagon-like peptides separated by an intervening peptide. These peptides are encoded in separate exons. To determine whether the pancreatic and intestinal forms of glucagon arise by alternative RNA and/or protein processing, we used antisera to synthetic glucagon-likepeptides and exon- specific, complementary oligonucleotides for analyses of proteins and mRNAs in pancreatic and intestinal extracts. Preproglucagon mRNAs are identical, but different and highly specific peptides are liberated in the two tissues. Immunocytochemistryshows colocali- zation of glucagon and the two glucagon-like peptides in identical cells. We conclude that diversification of preproglucagon gene expression occurs at the level of cell-specific post-translational processing. back

William Nash (2024), The most important voice on Beyoncé’s new album, ' One of the most impressive parts of Beyoncé’s new album, “Cowboy Carter,” is her roster of collaborators, which includes rising country artist Shaboozey alongside country superstars Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson. But to me, the most important guest voice is the one least likely to be familiar to Beyoncé’s listeners: Linda Martell, the first commercially successful Black female country music artist. Two tracks on “Cowboy Carter,” “Spaghettii” and “The Linda Martell Show,” include spoken word commentary from Martell. By giving Martell a platform, Beyoncé simultaneously gives credit to her predecessor while staking her own place in the country music tradition. I’ve previously written about how the categories of race and genre have long restrained country musicians. In “Spaghettii,” Martell confronts the conundrums of genre: “Genres are a funny little concept, aren’t they?. … In theory, they have a simple little definition that’s easy to understand. But in practice, well, some may feel confined.” Confinement was the essence of Martell’s brief musical career – and it’s the exact sort of fate that Beyoncé has sought to avoid as she has moved from bubblegum pop singer to Afrofuturist oracle and country music scion. ' back