## Larry Guth Colloquium Video: Unexpected applications of polynomials in combinatorics

My former colleague Larry Guth (now at MIT) visited us recently and gave a beautiful colloquium talk. The Department has recently deployed a video streaming service so we are able to share Larry’s talk with the world. We look forward to sharing other videos in the future.

Here is the video:

### Unexpected applications of polynomials in combinatorics

by Larry Guth | MIT
Time: 16:10  (Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013)
Location: BA6183, Bahen Center, 40 St George St
Abstract:
In the last five years, several hard problems in combinatorics have been solved by using polynomials in an unexpected way. In some cases, the proofs are very short, and I will present a complete proof in the lecture. One of the problems is the joints problem. Given a set of lines in $R^3$, a joint is a point that lies in three non-coplanar lines. Given $L$ lines in $R^3$, how many joints can there be? Another problem is the distinct distance problem in the plane. If P is a set of points in the plane, the distance set of $P$ is the set of all distances from one point of $P$ to another. If $P$ is a set of $N$ points in the plane, how small can the distance set of $P$ be? The proofs involve studying a set of points in a vector space by finding a polynomial of controlled degree that vanishes at the points, and then using the geometry of the zero-set to understand the combinatorial properties of the points. The goal for the talk is to give an overview of this new method.

## Web Course Platform Prototyped by Toronto Mathematician

Suppose you’ve recorded a one hour lecture onto video and taken digital photographs of each blackboard used during the presentation. The video and photograph files contain metadata with time stamps: we know the time when each frame of video and photograph was captured. How should these files be blended to create a browser-based environment for studying the ideas in the lecture? My colleague Dror Bar-Natan has prototyped a remarkable software platform combining this data to support online courses and seminars.

The system is built atop MediaWiki (the software that runs Wikipedia) and allows metadata, such as  comments and photographs, to be correlated in time to an embedded video stream. Comments can be attached to each frame of video. The system enables remote audience members to participate in the seminar frame-by-frame using their power to comment. In this way, the wClips system goes beyond playback by empowering the remote audience of the future to contribute to the past presentation.

The system was recently used to supplement a paper Dror is co-authoring with Zsuzsanna Dansco in the wClips seminar. Each section of the paper was discussed in detail in a seminar lecture captured on video. Each blackboard in the seminar series was photographed. Time links near the photographs move the video stream to the video time when that blackboard image was created. The sizes of the different elements can be changed by sliding the red line. In the final version of the paper, there will appear hyperlinks in each section pointing at the associated seminar presentation. Clicking on the photographs reveals another layer of comments highlighting the elements appearing on the blackboard.

Dror gave a video introduction describing how to operate the system and produced a one page guide. (The lighting is not so good.) Zsuzsanna’s lecture is also a nice demonstration of wClips.

The wClips system runs on a linux server using open source software so is inexpensive to deploy. Since it is based on MediaWiki, it has the potential to scale to support a massive audience. Getting the video content out of the camera and into the online course system involves some work but could be streamlined with the right scripts.

## Evolution Labels Needed on Medicines

Self-qualified intellectuals, like Texas Governor Rick Perry, have a right to know! I was born in El Paso: I have a right to know! Parents of American kids have a right to know! Does the Theory of Evolution have anything to do with our medicines? Which ones? Flu shots? Cancer treatments?

Medicines which are designed based on the Theory of Evolution should have a visible disclosure label. Here are two suggestions for images that might be appropriate for the evolution disclosure label:

Some medicines which are based on this scientific theory are described on the Evolution 101 website at the University of California at Berkeley.

Individuals not wishing to use medicines based on the Theory of Evolution should, naturally, have the right information available to select a different course of treatment. Believers in evolution will take comfort knowing their medicine is based on science (… a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe). We all have a right to know: Medicines should have evolution disclosure labels.

## Internet Censorship in Turkey

I am having a wonderful visit to Istanbul for a meeting on nonlinear dispersive equations.

Istanbul is amazing!

But, I was surprised when I tried to go to youtube.com and found that it was censored. The image below is what internet censorship in Turkey looks like.  I found out this is old news.