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Science 1 November 2002:
Vol. 298. no. 5595, pp. 967 - 968
DOI: 10.1126/science.1078527
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Essays on Science and Society

Also see the archival list of the Essays on Science and Society.

PORTRAITS OF SCIENCE:
Proof, Amazement, and the Unexpected

Reviel Netz

Archimedes is now best known for shouting "Eureka" in the bath, and perhaps also for his invention of the cunning machines that helped to defend Syracuse from the Roman fleet during the Punic Wars in 212 BP. He is less famous for his most profound work--the subtle deductions and rigorous, often counterintuitive, mathematical proofs of seemingly prosaic problems. His path-breaking work has reached new prominence among scholars with the rediscovery of a long-lost palimpsest copy of some of his writings, which for the first time shows that Greek mathematicians could work with infinite sets of numbers.

The author is in the Department of Classics at Stanford University, Building 20, CA 94305-2080, USA. E-mail: netz{at}leland.stanford.edu

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Ancient reference to infinite sets
Dilip G Banhatti
Science Online, 27 Nov 2002 [Full text]

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)