Skeptics on the Fringe:Simon Singh-The Simpsons And Their Mathematical Secrets

Speaker

Simon Singh’s career ranges from a PhD in particle physics at CERN to be sued for libel and campaigning for libel reform. In between he has been a best selling science writer, with titles such as Fermat’s Last Theorem, Big Bang, The Code Book and Trick or Treatment, Alternative Medicine on Trial. This afternoon he is going to be to talking about his next book, which is not published until next month, The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets.

Simon blogs here: http://simonsingh.net/simon-singh

Simon’s book will be published in October: The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets (http://bookshop.blackwell.co.uk/jsp/id/The_Simpsons_and_Their_Mathematical_Secrets/9781408835302)

Talk

Simon investigates the maths that infiltrates The Simpsons in a way that is both accessible and funny. He takes you behind the scenes and makes sense of the complex mathematical jokes that litter the show. In his new book, he meets the writing team who are not only comedy geniuses but who also happen to hold an array of diplomas in super-geeky subjects from applied mathematics to biochemistry (in fact, two of the original writers were brought in especially to ‘nerdify’ the first series). And along the way, he throws light on the history of maths and the problems that still haunt today’s generation of number theorists. D’oh!

http://www.edinburghskeptics.co.uk/events-2/