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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 12/16/2014 5:53 PM,
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:barbeau@math.toronto.edu">barbeau@math.toronto.edu</a> wrote:<br>
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<blockquote
cite="mid:18932.207.219.69.152.1418766803.squirrel@mail.math.toronto.edu"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">The issue is not whether a typical reader is on top of all the terminology
but whether in the obituary the writer gives a sense of the achievement of
the deceased and some sense of the range of ideas in which he operated.
If a given reader is unfamiliar with the technicalities, then that reader
has learned something -- that there is an important world beyond his
immediate ken that is consequential. And this is not a bad thing.
I think that Mumford succeeded in his purpose.
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<br>
So do I. The obituary was excellent. It even gave the careful
reader a rather good idea of what Grothendieck had done. And Nature
should probably have run it. I say "probably" because Nature has
always considered its <i>raison d'etre</i> to exclude mathematics,
except for quirky experimental stuff about how densely you can pack
regular polyhedra without using any theory, which is more a sort of
Lego physics. <br>
<br>
We aren't currently planning on running an obituary for Grothendieck
in the NOTES because we normally only do that when there is a strong
Canadian connection. Nature is perhaps in the same boat. What
surprised me most was that they thought they <i>might</i> run one.
Had they thought <i>Recoltes et semailles </i>was an agronomy
textbook? <br>
<br>
It was only in his take on why the obit was declined that I thought
he had perhaps not quite hit the nail on the head. Grothendieck's
work was so specialized that I would <i>not</i> expect most
scientists to know anything about it; but Nature <i>would</i> have
run an obit for an experimental scientist whose work was equally
specialized. <br>
<br>
Cheers,<br>
Robert<br>
<br>
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