December 9, 2005
"Michael Viscardi is a 16-year-old mathematician from San Diego, Calif...won the prestigious Siemens-Westinghouse Competition...Viscardi updated a late 19th century law by mathematician Lejeune Dirichlet...His theory can be applied to all shapes and sizes of metal. The research could lead to better airplane wing design, better stabilization of the NASA space shuttle, and high-speed rail transportation..."

Wow. Good for him!

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Quaeso quousque humi defixa tua mens erit? Nonne aspicis, quae in templa veneris?

I love this competition, because the kids who win are thoroughly quizzed to prove the original ideas are their own. The concepts must be ground-breaking or insightful to crack the top 10 nationwide.

And he used pencil and paper to boot. This ranks right up there with the Chinese farmer who gave us the new VERITY weld analysis program.

So help me--but I wonder if the internet is doing harm to research in some ways.

Newton may never have written the Principia had he had to check his e-mail every day for spam and such.

All those chain-letter threats from Edmond Halley: "what goes around comes around."

Wait, I bet Newton could have made something out of even that.

"Hmmm...new enhancer--fights the effects of gravity. I must tell Casanova."