For your first assignment (to be handed in, we will do others in class) pick out one journal article from the textbook by Taubes and write a report of a paragraph or two explaining what it is about and why you find the article interesting.  If you prefer, you may substitute an article from Nature or Science (or a similiar journal) for one in the text.   Include, as best you can (or explain your puzzlement) what the mathematics should or could do in making the point of the article and its scientific results clear.   It is not expected that you necessarily understand the math in the article about the article.  That's what we're spending the term learning to do! (Taubes' commentary might be helpful to you in understanding how the math is used.)  Keep in mind that you will be doing projects in this course; finding an interesting article is a good first step in thinking about a subject for your first project.

You may do this with one or more other students.  In fact, collaboration on homework (especially computer assignments) is strongly encouraged.  If you do this assignment in a group, you should all discuss the same article, but you should each write a paragraph with your own viewpoint in it. You can refer to the ideas of others in your group in your report. These will be read and discussed in class, time permitting, and they will be collected at the end of the Tuesday Class on September 10.

If you do not find any of the articles in the text, Science or Nature interesting or readable, perhaps this is not the right course for you.