In this episode of Momentum Monday, I cover how the ancient mathematician Diophantus, who revolutionized problem-solving by focusing on relationships between numbers, can inspire us to rethink our own relationships. Instead of fixating on fixing others, I challenge you to observe, question, and experiment with your connections, just like solving an equation. Whether it's a coworker, family member, or friend, I share how curiosity, pattern recognition, and small changes can shift the momentum in your favor. Plus, I reference research from Albert Bandura, Daniel Kahneman, and B.F. Skinner to ground these ideas in psychology. 🔗 Sources & Further Reading: Diophantus and the Birth of Algebra Albert Bandura's Social Learning Theory Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow B.F. Skinner Science and Human Behavior   3 Things You'll Learn How to observe relationships like a mathematician, identify patterns, not just problems. Why questioning your assumptions (e.g., "Are they ignoring me or overwhelmed?") prevents misunderstandings. How to experiment with small changes to shift the dynamic in any relationship.    🔗 Explore more on our website: mathsciencehistory.com 📚 To buy my book Hypatia: The Sum of Her Life on Amazon, visit https://a.co/d/g3OuP9h 🎧 Enjoying the Podcast? 🔗 Explore more on our website: mathsciencehistory.com ☕ Support the Show: Coffee!! PayPal Leave a review! It helps more people discover the show! Share this episode with friends & fellow history buffs! Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform Check out our merch: https://www.mathsciencehistory.com/the-store Music: All music is Public Domain Mark 1.0 Universal and has no Copyright and no rights reserved. Selections from Violin Machine: A Deconstruction of the Bach Concerto by Lloyd Rodgers Until next time, carpe diem!

AI may verify proofs, but it can't replace curiosity. In this episode, I travel back nearly 1,800 years to meet Diophantus of Alexandria and explore how his approach to mathematics still shapes modern problem-solving, from Fermat's Last Theorem to today's AI-assisted research. Along the way, we discover why the real value of mathematics isn't finding answers. it's learning how to think. 🌐 Website: https://www.MathScienceHistory.com ☕Support the show: https://paypal.com/ncp/payment/PR7F7ST49GDNA • Discover why Diophantus is considered one of history's most influential mathematicians. • Learn how his work inspired Fermat's Last Theorem centuries later. • Explore whether AI is changing mathematics. or simply giving mathematicians better tools. Follow the show, subscribe wherever you listen, and leave a review to help others discover Math! Science! History! Music: All music is public domain and has no Copyright and no rights reserved. Selections from The Little Prince by Lloyd Rodgers Valorium – by It's Trigi – No Copyright and no rights reserved Documentary Background – by MiroMax Music – No Copyright and no rights reserved Blackbook 7/1/01 from On The Sensations of Tone – by Lloyd Rodgers – No Copyright and no rights reserved Galliard á3 in g by Orlando Gibbons - recorded, mixed, and mastered by Dr. Phillip W. Serna - licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license Cute loop [c major] [93bpm] by deadrobotmusic -- https://freesound.org/s/555708/ -- License: Creative Commons 0 Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform Leave a review! It helps more people discover the show! Share this episode with friends & fellow history buffs! Until next time, carpe diem! - Gabrielle

Can mathematics be patented? In this episode, I explore one of the most fascinating questions in mathematics, intellectual property, and computer science by tracing the history of patents from the ancient world to today's software and AI algorithms. Along the way, we'll discover why mathematical ideas themselves remain unpatentable while the innovative ways we apply them can change technology, and the future. 🌐 Website: https://www.MathScienceHistory.com ☕Support the show: https://paypal.com/ncp/payment/PR7F7ST49GDNA You'll learn: • Why mathematics itself cannot be patented but mathematical applications sometimes can. • How ancient patent and copyright ideas evolved into modern intellectual property law. • How the MP3, Fourier Series, FFT, and the Alice v. CLS Bank case shaped today's software patents. Follow the show, subscribe on your favorite podcast platform, and leave a review to help more people discover Math! Science! History! Music: All music is public domain and has no Copyright and no rights reserved. Selections from The Little Prince by Lloyd Rodgers Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform! Leave a review! It helps more people discover the show! Share this episode with friends & fellow history buffs! Until next time, carpe diem!

You don't have to be a famous chemist to think like one. This week, I share three "flashcards" inspired by John Dalton that reveal how you're already using the same habits of observation, organization, and intellectual curiosity that have fueled scientific discovery for centuries. 🌐 Website: https://www.MathScienceHistory.com ☕Support the show: https://paypal.com/ncp/payment/PR7F7ST49GDNA You'll learn: • Why noticing everyday patterns is the first step of scientific thinking. • How organizing information is one of the most powerful skills of mathematicians and scientists. • Why changing your mind when new evidence appears is a sign of wisdom—not weakness. Follow the podcast, subscribe on your favorite platform, and leave a review to help more people discover Math, Science, and History. Flashcard Music: Gift of the Stars from The Little Prince by Lloyd Rodgers. All music is public domain and has no Copyright and no rights reserved. Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform Leave a review! It helps more people discover the show! Share this episode with friends & fellow history buffs! Until next time, carpe diem!

Success doesn't begin with talent, it begins with the habits you practice when no one is watching. This week, I share three powerful life lessons from chemist John Dalton that can help you build momentum, overcome obstacles, and develop the kind of character that earns lasting respect. 🌐 Website: https://www.MathScienceHistory.com☕Support the show: https://paypal.com/ncp/payment/PR7F7ST49GDNA You'll learn: • How to move forward even when opportunities seem out of reach. • Why consistent daily habits create extraordinary results over time. • How humility and genuine relationships build a legacy that lasts. Follow the podcast, subscribe on your favorite platform, and leave a review to help more people discover Math, Science, and History. Momentum Music: All music is Public Domain Mark 1.0 Universal and has no Copyright and no rights reserved. Selections from Violin Machine: A Deconstruction of the Bach Concerto by Lloyd Rodgers Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform Leave a review! It helps more people discover the show! Share this episode with friends & fellow history buffs! Until next time, carpe diem!

I'm revisiting one of my first episodes: the story of John Dalton, the self-taught Quaker schoolteacher who never attended university yet gave modern atomic theory its first real momentum. Barred from English universities for his faith, Dalton turned stubborn curiosity into world-changing science, mapping colorblindness before anyone understood it and sketching the first table of elements in a notebook. This is how one weaver's son carried science from a Cumberland village to the Large Hadron Collider. You'll learn: •  How a Quaker weaver's son barred from university built the foundation of atomic theory •  The stockings mix-up that led Dalton to discover, and later name, colorblindness •  Why his five-element notebook sketch from 1803 still echoes inside the Large Hadron Collider   🌐 Website: https://www.MathScienceHistory.com ☕Support the show: https://paypal.com/ncp/payment/PR7F7ST49GDNA   Follow or subscribe so you never miss an episode. Please leave a review, it helps more curious minds find the show! Music & Closing Credits Music: All music is public domain and has no Copyright and no rights reserved. Selections from The Little Prince by Lloyd Rodgers Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform Leave a review! It helps more people discover the show! Share this episode with friends & fellow history buffs! Until next time, carpe diem! - Gabrielle

Your instinct to question evidence, challenge "the way things are," and fall in love with a hard problem isn't a personality quirk; it's the exact thinking that built modern science, anthropology, and mathematics. In this Flashcards Friday episode, I break down three quick "cards" inspired by Sir Francis Bacon, Margaret Mead, and Paul Erdős, and show how their most famous breakthroughs mirror instincts you already have. This one's a companion to last Wednesday's Pride Month special, but it stands entirely on its own. 🌐 Website: https://www.MathScienceHistory.com ☕Support the show: https://paypal.com/ncp/payment/PR7F7ST49GDNA Three Things You'll Learn ·         How Francis Bacon's inductive reasoning became the foundation of the entire scientific method, and the personal risk he took living as a gay man in Elizabethan England ·         Why Margaret Mead's research in Samoa proved that "normal" is often just "what we decided and forgot we decided" ·         How Paul Erdős treated unsolved math problems like lifelong relationships, and why that's the key to real mathematical thinking Subscribe so you never miss a Flashcards Friday, and if this one hit home, leave a review—it helps more curious minds find the show! Flashcard Music: Gift of the Stars from The Little Prince by Lloyd Rodgers. All music is in the public domain and has no Copyright and no rights reserved. IMAGES: Bacon, Francis (1561-1626) -- Portraits Portraits Appartient à l'ensemble documentaire - By Bibliothèque nationale de France, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=161117399 Margaret Mead - By Los Angeles Daily News - https://digital.library.ucla.edu/catalog/ark:/21198/zz0002pz57, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=117411558 Coming of Age cover (1928) – Public Domain - Coming of Age in Samoa: margaret mead : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive Paul Erdos - By Kmhkmh - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=123828932 Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. Leave a review! It helps more people discover the show! Share this episode with friends & fellow history buffs! Until next time, carpe diem!

The fastest way to solve your toughest problem isn't to grind harder on it, it's to rotate your focus across a few problems at once, the way legendary mathematician Paul Erdős juggled hundreds of unsolved problems at a time. In this episode, I break down the neuroscience of why this "interleaving" beats multitasking, and I hand you seven simple tools to build this Erdős Method into your work week and your home life. By the end, you'll have a system for turning stuck, vague problems into ones your brain quietly keeps solving in the background.  🌐 Website: https://www.MathScienceHistory.com ☕Support the show: https://paypal.com/ncp/payment/PR7F7ST49GDNA Three Things Listeners Will Learn Why interleaving deep, undivided focus on one problem at a time, rotated across several, outperforms multitasking How to build a personal "Erdős List" and use the 45/15 focus block to make steady progress on several problems each week How small habits like the Wall Log, the Thinking Walk, and an End-of-Day Briefing turn your brain's background processing into visible progress Subscribe to Math! Science! History! on your favorite podcast app and leave a review! It really does help more people find the show! Momentum Music: All music is Public Domain Mark 1.0 Universal and has no Copyright and no rights reserved. Selections from Violin Machine: A Deconstruction of the Bach Concerto by Lloyd Rodgers Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform Leave a review! It helps more people discover the show! Share this episode with friends & fellow history buffs! Until next time, carpe diem! - Gabrielle

For Pride Month, I profile eight scientists across eight identities in the 2SLGBTQI+ community. From the equations underpinning modern physics to the brain cells once dismissed as filler tissue, these researchers shaped the world we live in, often while hiding, fighting for, or paying dearly for who they were. Today I trace the lives of Sofia Kovalevskaya, Alan Turing, Margaret Mead, Ben Barres, Christopher Strachey, Magnus Hirschfeld, Paul Erdős, and Lozen, eight stories of brilliance that history tried, and failed, to erase. 3 Things You'll Learn in This Episode How a forged marriage opened the door to modern physics. Sofia Kovalevskaya couldn't attend university as a woman in Russia, so she found another way in, and ended up proving foundational theorems that every engineer and physicist still relies on today. Why the man who helped win WWII was punished by the country he saved. Alan Turing's codebreaking work is credited with shortening the war by years and saving millions of lives. Decades later, that same government prosecuted him for being gay, then put him on its currency. How "supporting" brain cells turned out to be running the show. Ben Barres's research overturned decades of neuroscience consensus about glial cells, and his own experience transitioning gave him a firsthand look at gender bias in science that became one of the most cited accounts of its kind. Featured Scientists & Resources Sofia Kovalevskaya (1850–1891), Mathematician Cooke, R. (1984). The Mathematics of Sonya Kovalevskaya. Springer-Verlag. Koblitz, A. H. (1983). A Convergence of Lives: Sofia Kovalevskaia, Scientist, Writer, Revolutionary. Birkhäuser. MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive Alan Turing (1912–1954), Mathematician & Computer Scientist Hodges, A. (1983). Alan Turing: The Enigma. Burnett Books. Turing, A. M. (1950). "Computing Machinery and Intelligence." Mind, 59(236), 433–460. The Alan Turing Institute Bank of England: Alan Turing £50 note Wellcome Sanger Institute Blog: "LGBTQ+ scientists who shaped history" Margaret Mead (1901–1978), Anthropologist Mead, M. (1928). Coming of Age in Samoa. William Morrow & Company. Mead, M. (1975). "Bisexuality: A New Awareness." Redbook Magazine. Banner, L. W. (2003). Intertwined Lives: Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict, and Their Circle. Knopf. QueerBio.com: Margaret Mead Legacy Project Chicago: Margaret Mead Ben Barres (1954–2017), Neurobiologist Barres, B. A. (2018). The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist. MIT Press. Barres, B. A. (2006). "Does gender matter?" Nature, 442, 133–136. Allen, N. J., & Barres, B. A. (2005). "Signaling between glia and neurons: focus on synaptic plasticity." Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 15(5), 542–548. Wellcome Sanger Institute Blog: "LGBTQ+ scientists who shaped history" Christopher Strachey (1916–1975), Computer Scientist Campbell-Kelly, M. (1985). "Christopher Strachey, 1916–1975: A Biographical Note." IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, 7(1), 19–42. Strachey, C. (1967). "Fundamental Concepts in Programming Languages." Published posthumously in Higher-Order and Symbolic Computation, 13 (2000), 11–49. Computer History Museum: Christopher Strachey Magnus Hirschfeld (1868–1935), Physician & Sexologist Hirschfeld, M. (1910). Die Transvestiten. Alfred Pulvermacher. Wolff, C. (1986). Magnus Hirschfeld: A Portrait of a Pioneer in Sexology. Quartet Books. Encyclopædia Britannica: Magnus Hirschfeld US Holocaust Memorial Museum: Magnus Hirschfeld Science Museum Blog: "Magnus Hirschfeld and the Institute for Sexual Science" Paul Erdős (1913–1996), Mathematician Hoffman, P. (1998). The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdős and the Search for Mathematical Truth. Hyperion. Schechter, B. (1998). My Brain Is Open: The Mathematical Journeys of Paul Erdős. Simon & Schuster. ASBMB: "LGBTQ+ scientists in history" The Erdős Number Project, Oakland University Lozen (c. 1840–1889), Medicine Woman & Warrior Ball, E. (1970). In the Days of Victorio: Recollections of a Warm Springs Apache. University of Arizona Press. Aleshire, P. (1998). Warrior Woman: The Story of Lozen, Apache Warrior and Shaman. St. Martin's Press. Multnomah County Library: "Notable Two-Spirit Figures in History" Legends of America: "Lozen: Apache War Woman & Prophet" New Mexico Historic Women Marker Program: "Little Sister Lozen" 🔗 Explore more on our website: mathsciencehistory.com 📚 To buy my book Hypatia: The Sum of Her Life on Amazon, visit https://a.co/d/g3OuP9h  🌍 Let's Connect!Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/math.science.history LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/math-science-history/  YouTube: Math! Science! History! - YouTube 🎧 Enjoying the Podcast? ☕ Support the Show: Coffee!! PayPal Leave a review! It helps more people discover the show! Share this episode with friends & fellow history buffs! Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform Check out our merch: https://www.mathsciencehistory.com/the-store Music: All music is public domain and has no Copyright and no rights reserved. Selections from The Little Prince by Lloyd RodgersSkylight by Aidan Pinset is from Pixabay and has no copyrightDocumentary by Nikita Kondrashev is from Pixabay and has no copyrightNature Documentary by Alisia Beats is from Pixabay and has no copyrightModular Ambient by S Scheidl is from Pixabay and has no copyrightFrom Page to Practice by Brian Teoh and has no copyright Old Tolchaco by Southwest Native American Indian Flute is from Pixabay and has no copyright  Until next time, carpe diem!

What if the negotiation strategies, workplace rhythms, and relationship instincts you've relied on your whole life already had names in mathematics? In today's FLASHCARDS! episode of Math! Science! History!, I break down three foundational concepts from game theory: dominant strategy, tit for tat, and Nash equilibrium, and connect each one to the everyday decisions, compromises, and unspoken social contracts you navigate all the time. Whether you're a math enthusiast or someone who swore they "weren't a math person," this episode reveals that you've been doing game theory your entire life without even knowing it. 🃏 In This Episode, You Will Learn: What a dominant strategy is and how to recognize when you're already using one, from sending that follow-up email to ordering your favorite dish at a restaurant. The fascinating history of tit for tat, the surprisingly simple strategy that beat out complex algorithms in Robert Axelrod's famous 1980s tournament, and how it mirrors the unspoken rules of your closest relationships. How a Nash equilibrium shows up in everyday conflict, and why the moment you and someone else silently agree to "stop pushing" is actually a mathematically stable outcome. 📚 Sources Von Neumann's 1928 minimax theorem is widely considered the founding document of modern game theory. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimax_theorem John Nash received the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 1994 for his pioneering analysis of equilibria in the theory of non-cooperative games. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/1994/nash/facts Robert Axelrod's landmark book The Evolution of Cooperation (1984) explored how cooperation can emerge among self-interested agents, using his famous computer tournament in which tit for tat won. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Evolution_of_Cooperation 📣 Calls to Action Subscribe & Review: If today's episode made you see your everyday decisions in a whole new light, please subscribe to Math! Science! History! and leave a review wherever you listen. It helps more curious minds find the show! Share This Episode: Know someone who loves psychology, strategy, or really nails the follow-up email? Send them this episode; they're already game theorists and don't know it yet. Keep Learning: Catch up on last week's full episode on the birth of game theory and Monday's episode on using these strategies in the workplace! 🔗 Explore more on our website: mathsciencehistory.com 📚 To buy my book Hypatia: The Sum of Her Life on Amazon, visit https://a.co/d/g3OuP9h  🎧 Enjoying the Podcast? 🔗 Explore more on our website: mathsciencehistory.com ☕ Support the Show: Coffee!! PayPal Leave a review! It helps more people discover the show! Share this episode with friends & fellow history buffs! Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. Check out our merch: https://www.mathsciencehistory.com/the-store Music: All music is public domain and has no Copyright and no rights reserved. Selections from The Little Prince by Lloyd Rodgers  Until next time, carpe diem!