{"id":2377,"date":"2016-10-25T03:54:40","date_gmt":"2016-10-25T08:54:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/blogonmathblogs\/?p=2377"},"modified":"2016-10-26T10:42:51","modified_gmt":"2016-10-26T15:42:51","slug":"topology-in-the-limelight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/blogonmathblogs\/2016\/10\/25\/topology-in-the-limelight\/","title":{"rendered":"Topology in the Limelight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Topology is having a moment. Maybe not as much as this\u00a0never-ending<\/span><\/a> election season<\/span><\/a> or this Pringles “ringle”<\/a><\/span>\u00a0with 40,000 retweets and counting (seriously, you should go look\u2014it\u2019s a self-supporting ring of potato\u00a0chips, need I say more?), but it\u2019s been getting more recognition than usual for a field of theoretical math. Somewhat ironically, it\u2019s all because of the Nobel prize, and there\u2019s not even a Nobel for math. (And no, it\u2019s not because a mathematician had an affair with Nobel\u2019s wife<\/span><\/a>; he was a bachelor.) Earlier this month, the Nobel prize in physics went to three physicists for their work on topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Delicious<\/a>

Delicious topology. Image: Dave Crosby, via Flickr. CC BY-SA 2.0<\/p><\/div>\n

As science news editors across the globe sighed and shelved their pre-written explainers about LIGO and gravitational waves<\/span><\/a>, they got to work figuring out how to talk about the work that actually won the prize this year. The easiest part of the prize to explain ends up being the most off-putting word, topology, so the bagels and coffee cups<\/span><\/a> were at the ready. <\/span><\/p>\n