r/math • u/moschles • 6d ago

Exotic Phenomena in dimension 4 (Lisa Piccirillo, Harvard)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXwALAkPubc
124 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

31 comments sorted by

27

u/moschles 6d ago

Lisa Piccirillo from MIT and University of Texas at Austin. Received her Ph.d from University of Texas , her undergraduate from Boston College. Piccirillo obtained infamy after solving the Conway Knot problem in 2018, and is the recipient of the Maryam Mirzakhani New Frontiers Prize.

Exotic structures which exist in dimension 4 can be smooth diffeomorphisms of 4D Euclidean space, and this connection only exists in dimension 4.

61

u/de_G_van_Gelderland 6d ago

Infamy?

Is that just a typo for fame, or was there some drama about her solution or something?

-16

u/True_World708 6d ago

She supposedly solved the longstanding open problem in a weekend

9

u/Loonyclown 6d ago

I’m not familiar with the story, is there any evidence to suggest she took longer, had uncredited assistance, etc?

10

u/obfuscatedanon 5d ago

She had the gal to work on an open problem without permission from the Council of the Royal Society.

5

u/nahuatl 4d ago

Lol, I think OP meant "fame" rather than infamy.

1

u/Loonyclown 4d ago

U/True_World708 doubled down on the skepticism though lol

2

u/True_World708 6d ago

Not that I’m aware of.

-9

u/workthrowawhey 6d ago

Here's a Quanta article:

https://www.quantamagazine.org/graduate-student-solves-decades-old-conway-knot-problem-20200519/

Up to you if you want to take the story at face value or not.

4

u/Loonyclown 5d ago

So basically you’re skeptical because a woman solved an open problem? Do I have this right?

2

u/workthrowawhey 5d ago

Wait no, a) I'm not and b) why do apparently so many people think I am?

The reason I put the last sentence there was specifically because I was responding to your comment, which seemed like you were skeptical. So I was saying, here's the article that says what she did. But if you remain skeptical, that's up to you.

This is so weird. I'm a native English speaker so I can't even blame the miscommunication on it being a second language...but even rereading my comment, I doesn't read to me at all like I'm the one being skeptical.

3

u/nahuatl 4d ago

This whole comment chain is sparked by OP's incorrect use of "infamy" instead of "fame".

9

u/ponchan1 5d ago

Even if this were true, "infamy" wouldn't be the correct word choice.

-7

u/iorgfeflkd 6d ago

She's at Harvard now? She could have skipped moving to Texas and back.

6

u/moschles 6d ago

She is visiting for a talk.

6

u/DeepHeart_ 6d ago

an old one

7

u/DeepHeart_ 6d ago

but very good !

5

u/contafi10 5d ago

Is there a particular reason why you posted this specific math lecture here? Can we all post random math videos on this sub? Not trying to be rude or anything, but I've seen other videos get removed, so I'm not sure what the criteria are

3

u/Whole-Thanks-5951 Analysis 3d ago

the quality of this sub has deteriorated in the past year or so. it’s a shame to see.

4

u/smallstep_ 5d ago edited 5d ago

You know exactly why 

2

u/NooneAtAll3 4d ago

I don't know either

4

u/electronp 5d ago

I don't.

11

u/dryga 5d ago

This video has 2.6 million views on Youtube and more than 11000 thirsty comments, which I recommend reading. Dear Harvard: this is why you're supposed to turn off comments when you upload math talks to Youtube!!

11

u/FeIiix 5d ago

I don't really see that many thirsty comments? 90% of them are basically "I don't understand any of this". There are a few calling out her muscular back/shoulders but they don't read as particularly thirsty to me lol

1

u/electronp 5d ago

Huh. Are millions interested in the topic or is there another reason?

1

u/Puzzled-Painter3301 1d ago

algorithm recommended it for some reason

1

u/electronp 1d ago

I wonder why?

2

u/lycanter 4d ago

I literally just heard her on the joy of wh(y) podcast this morning.