Keith Portrait
Superb portrait of Keith Moore (Royal Society library boss and star of Objectivity) by Chris Stern.
Keith by Chris
Keith in action on Objectivity
Fitting for a man who spends a lot of time around portraits.
Dionysius Theory
This week we posted a Numberphile video about a mysterious drawing by John Herschel, contained in a letter to his friend Charles Babbage.
Herschel challenged Babbage to "interpret this hieroglyphic, it contains a great discovery."
A devil-like figure, surrounded by complicated squiggles and equations, was captioned as "Dionysius the God of Functions, alias the genius of numerical magnitude".
Numerous viewers have shared their theories about what it may mean.
But the most promising I've seen so far came from user david getsout who said:
"Back in the day dionysius lardner was a professor at london working with hershel to build big telescopes dionysius would talk shit about the infinate universe and us being at the center due to human perception or somthing complicated like that."
(SIC)
I had never heard of Lardner, but some quick Wikipedia and Googling shed more light on matters.
Lardner sounds like a science populariser and commented/lectured on the work of people like Babbage and Herschel.
I can easily envisage two scientists being a bit snarky toward someone who does that. It is not uncommon these days!
Was Herschel (left) mocking Lardner (right)?
It may also explain why Herschel spells it Dionysius with an "i" and not Dionysus which is how the God of Wine is spelled? But I don't know much about the history of this word.
I look forward to more investigative work by keen-eyed and clever viewers.
Herschel's Mysterious Doodle
As discussed on Numberphile, here is John Herschel's doodle, sent to his friend Charles Babbage.
Herschel said: "Interpret this hieroglyphic, it contains a great discovery."
The figure at the centre is described as: "Dionysius the God of Functions, alias the genius of numerical magnitude."
Just silliness between two friends, or something more?
If you enjoy stuff like this, make sure you're following my Objectivity YouTube channel, with weekly videos about cool old objects and mysteries like this from the Royal Society archives.
The Mistake on Page 453
I think I know how this stamp feels...
Let me explain.
Numberphile viewers will know Matt Parker, who is a regular presenter of our videos.
Matt released a book last year called Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension.
A new paperback edition has just ben released.
Matt phoned me the other day with good news and bad news.
Good news: he'd inserted an acknowledgement to me and Numberphile in the new edition.
I find it annoying when people say they're "humbled" - so let me say I was honoured.
But I was about to find out I had indeed been humbled too.
Although Matt supplied the publisher with my correct name (he says), an editor had changed Brady to Bradley!
Guess I'm not exactly a household name! :)
Matt and I laughed at the mistake and he said it would be changed in future print runs.
But we now have a batch of unknown quantity in circulation containing an acknowledgement to Bradley Haran.
Brady and Matt
After initially being disappointed, I saw this as a rare item and an opportunity!
I will auction a special edition of the book, signed by Matt.... And signed by me as "Bradley".
Rest assured I will not be making a habit of this, so this is a rare object, much like the Inverted Jenny stamp above.
UPDATE - THE AUCTION HAS NOW ENDED
All funds raised will be given to the Cransley Hospice, which does a magnificent job caring for people in Northamptonshire and who have helped my family tremendously in recent weeks.
If you don't want the book, but just want to donate to the hospice, here's a link.
(FULL DISCLOSURE: The publishers of Matt's book have paid for an advertisement on the Numberphile website during July - this was agreed in June and is unrelated to this post or my name being mis-spelled.)
Maxwell Medal
Congratulations Clare Burrage from the University of Nottingham on picking up the 2015 Maxwell Medal from the Institute of Physics.
It was in recognition of "her contributions to dark energy research, in particular to the development of methods of testing for fifth forces from astrophysical probes through to atom interferometry experiments".
Clare recently appeared in two Sixty Symbols videos. Here they are:
Neil wins a Prize
Neil Barnes - the mysterious cult hero of Periodic Videos - has picked up an award for his outreach activities.
It was the Papin Prize for Outreach, awarded at the 2015 Higher Education Technicians' Summit.
Neil is a senior technician at the University of Nottingham's School of Chemistry and has been a star of the Periodic Table of Videos since day one.
Neil is a genius behind the scenes helping real chemistry get done every day... But it is great to see him honoured for his "extra work" bringing chemistry to the wider world.
Baby Matt
In the latest Numberphile, Matt Parker discusses his birth year being 1980.
I asked Matt for a picture of him as a baby to go in the video, which he duly delivered.
But Matt (visiting his childhood home at the time) did even better, supplying this before-and-after comparison which was not seen in the video.
Reward Matt's public humiliation by checking out his book, Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension, now available in paperback.
And here's a playlist of Matt's Numberphile videos.