Martin Gardner died this week.

One of his books is on my coffee table.  This is not a coincidence, there is always one of his books on my coffee table.

Many of my puzzles have come from these books.

I know him as the greatest collator and populiser of math puzzles, but of course his talents went far beyond this.

Rather than try to do my own second-rate obituary I will just point you at some links.

Scientific American, for whom he wrote for 25 years.  http://www.scientificamerican.com/report.cfm?id=Martin%20Gardner,%201914-2010

Make your own Martin Gardner Flexagons here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DETMhTC0H0.

The Daily Telegraph on his deconstruction of Lewis Carroll’s Alice books, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/books-obituaries/7765184/Martin-Gardner.html

He wrote over 70 books.  Nothing I can say can begin to encompass his long and amazing life.  He is someone you need to discover for yourself.

He is already missed.

Greg Chaitin, author most recently of MetaMath!,  discusses the ubiquity of undecidability: incredibly all kinds of mathematical and physical systems exhibit utterly unpredictable, baffling behavior– and it’s possible to prove we can never fully understand why!

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The Math Factor podcast is taking a rest for a while — we’ll be back with new podcasts at some point (probably, we think) so check back every once in a while!

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In the meantime, from time to time the Math Factor crew will still be posting here, on our traditional highly irregular schedule.

I’m really proud of the bookends to the pieces so far: Cantor’s Theorem, in the segments leading up through AH. QED and now the discussion of undecidability in the last two podcasts. Along the way, we’ve managed to get in quite a bit of sophisticated stuff — not bad for local radio! 

I’ve really enjoyed all the conversations the Math Factor has initiated, between me and Kyle, with mathematicians and those using mathematics to do really interesting stuff, with book authors, and especially all those who have written in — and even become active collaborators! (Hi Jeff and Stephen) The tremendously supportive feedback we’ve gotten really means a lot.

I think it’s time, though, to take an extended break from the podcast. Kyle is now incredibly busy producing five hours of original magazine format radio journalism a week. He’s always been a dynamo, but lately the man’s a blur! And much of my energy has been directed elsewhere too (check out math2033.uark.edu!) I’ve started a couple of books that I hope you’ll check out when the time comes, and in the meantime, please read my articles Can’t Decide? Undecide! and another on tilings and computation.

I’ll be hanging out in Marseille, Mexico City and Oaxaca in June, with a lot of neat people, so might get all inspired to make some new posts soon, but on the whole, I feel like I’ve said what I needed to say for a while. The Theory of Computation is really an astounding and important perspective, and I’m delighted to have helped spread the word a bit more. It’s a great resting spot!