Vedere la Scienza Festival
International Scientific TV, Film and AV Media Festival
Milano 30/3/2009 - 5/4/2009
Spazio Oberdan, viale Vittorio Veneto 2 - Milano
The Spell of the Poincaré Conjecture
- Author: Masahito Kasuga
- Director: Masahito Kasuga
- Scientific Advisor: Valentin Poenaru, Mikael Gromov, John Morgan, Jim Carlson, John Stallings, Yakov Eliashberg, William Thurston, Sir John Ball, Sylvain E. Cappell, Jeff Cheeger, Steven Smale, Gang Tian, Bruce Kleiner, Wolfgang Haken
- Editor: Minoru Moriya
- Photography: Ichiro Horiuchi
- Sound: Teruo Abe
- Effetti sonori/Sound Effects: Takao Sasaki
- Production: Shinya Ide, Hisashi Miura/NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corp)
- Japan
- 59 min.
- 2008
What is the shape of our universe? The Poincaré Conjecture, formulated in 1904 by French mathematician and philosopher Henri Poincaré, promised to shed light on that question. Unsatisfied with differential geometry, Poincaré developed topology, a new branch of mathematics devoted to the understanding of shapes that enabled him to approach the description of the Universe in a new, more comprehensive way.
The Conjecture remained unproved for a century, as scores of mathematicians tried and failed to establish a full proof, though many advanced the quest. Some devoted their entire careers to the effort; the frustration of failure drove several of them to the brink of madness.
Recently, a reclusive Russian genius named Grigori Perelman offered an innovative proof that has now been confirmed. Yet he has refused the Fields Medal, as prestigious in mathematics as a Nobel Prize is in other disciplines. He has also resigned from his research institute, and almost completely disappeared from society. The brilliant solution has thus yielded a personal conundrum. …
The Poincaré Conjecture is so important that it was included in the list of the seven “Millennium Prize Problems” by Boston’s Clay Mathematics Institute. The remaining six problems are still unsolved …
Featuring contributions by some of the protagonists, this film explores a century of intellectual struggle, a story that spans heartbreaking defeats and awe-inspiring triumphs.
