Mathematical Conversations: Selections from The Mathematical Intelligencer Book

	Introduction	1
1	An Interview with Michael Atiyah	9
2	On the Steps of Moscow University	23
3	An Interview with Jean-Pierre Serre	32
4	Mathematical Anecdotes	39
5	My Collaboration with Julia Robinson	49
6	C. N. Yang and Contemporary Mathematics	61
7	The Proof of the Mordell Conjecture	77
8	Adventures in Arithmetick, or: How to Make Good Use of a Fourier Transform	87
9	Solving Polynomial Systems	102
10	Artin's Conjecture for Primitive Roots	113
11	Representation Theory of Finite Groups: From Frobenius to Brauer	128
12	Quaternionic Determinants	142
13	The Surfaces of Delaunay	159
14	The Banach-Tarski Theorem	166
15	Painleve's Conjecture	175
16	A Geometrization of Lebesgue's Space-Filling Curve	185
17	Sophus Lie and Harmony in Mathematical Physics, on the 150th Anniversary of His Birth	192
18	The Missing Link	207
19	Yeast Oscillations, Belousov-Zhabotinsky Waves, and the Nonretraction Theorem	219
20	Strings	229
21	Integrability in Mathematics and Theoretical Physics: Solitons	238
22	On Newton's Problem of Minimal Resistance	250
23	If Hamilton Had Prevailed: Quaternions in Physics	259
24	On the Probleme des Menages	277
25	Quasicrystals: The View from Les Houches	288
26	Celtic Knotwork: Mathematical Art	302
27	The Sacred Cut Revisited: The Pavement of the Baptistery of San Giovanni, Florence	315
28	Symmetrical Combinations of Three or Four Hollow Triangles	323
29	Instantons and the Topology of 4-Manifolds	333
30	The Computer-Aided Discovery of New Embedded Minimal Surfaces	342
31	What Is the Difference between a Parabola and a Hyperbola?	360
32	How to Build Minimal Polyhedral Models of the Boy Surface	374
33	Recent Developments in Braid and Link Theory	381
34	Hyperbolic Geometry and Spaces of Riemann Surfaces	393
35	Kurt Godel in Sharper Focus	407
36	Who Would Have Won the Fields Medals a Hundred Years Ago?	418
37	The Last 100 Days of the Bieberbach Conjecture	429
38	A Little-Known Chapter in the History of German Mathematics	442
39	The War of the Frogs and the Mice, or the Crisis of the Mathematische Annalen	445
40	Hilbert's Problems and Their Sequels	466
	Index of Names	483