## LENR: A skeptical perspective

LENR: Science or pseudoscience?

As chronicled in the earlier Math Scholar blog, a community of researchers has been pursuing a new green energy source, known as “low energy nuclear reaction” (LENR) physics, or, variously, “lattice-assisted nuclear reaction” (LANR) physics or “condensed matter nuclear reaction” (CMNR) physics. This work harkens back to 1989, when University of Utah researchers Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons that they had achieved desktop “cold fusion,” in a hastily called news conference. After several other laboratories failed to reproduce these findings, the scientific community quickly concluded that the Utah researchers were mistaken, to put it mildly.

But

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## Karen Uhlenbeck wins the Abel Prize

The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters has awarded the Abel Prize, a mathematical award often regarded as on a level with the Nobel Prize, to Karen Uhlenbeck of the University of Texas, USA.

The award cited her work in geometric analysis, gauge theory and global analysis, which has application across a broad range of modern mathematics and mathematical physics, including models for particle physics, string theory and general relativity.

Her career began in the mid-1960s, under the advisor Richard Palais. Palais had been exploring some connections between analysis (generalizations of calculus) and topology and geometry (the mathematical theory of

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## LENR energy: Science or pseudoscience?

Credit: IPCC

The threat of climate change

The threat of climate change is emerging as the premier global issue of our time. As a recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) grimly warns, even a 1.5 degree C (2.7 degree F) rise in global temperatures would have “substantial” consequences, in terms of extreme weather, damage to ecosystems and calamitous impact on human communities. But limiting the increase to 1.5 degree C will still require a wrenching change away from fossil fuels and an equally wrenching realignment of global economies, all over the next decade or as

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## New result for Mordell’s cube sum problem

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Mordell’s cube sum problem

In 1957, British-American mathematician Louis Mordell asked whether, given some integer $k$, there are integers $x, y, z$ such that $x^3 + y^3 + z^3 = k$. Like Fermat’s last theorem, this problem is very easily stated but very difficult to explore, much less solve definitively.

Some solutions are easy. When $k = 3$, for instance, there are two simple solutions: $1^3 + 1^3 + 1^3 = 3$ and $4^3 + 4^3 + (-5)^3 = 3$. It is also known that there are no solutions in other cases, including

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## A Pi Day crossword puzzle

Once again Pi Day (March 14, or 3/14 in North American notation) is here, a day when both professional mathematicians and students alike celebrate this most famous of mathematical numbers.

San Francisco’s Exploratorium is featuring several events, culminating with a “Pi Procession” at 1:59pm Pacific Time (corresponding to 3.14159) and pie served at 2:15pm. The website teachpi.org lists 50 ideas to make Pi Day “entertaining, educational, tasty and fun.”

For this year’s Pi Day festivities, the Math Scholar blog presents a Pi Day crossword puzzle (see below), created by the present author. We will announce the first correct solver! Send

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