Stewart, Ian 1945- (Ian Nicholas Stewart)

PERSONAL:

Born September 24, 1945, in Folkestone, England; son of Arthur Reginald and Marjorie Kathleen Stewart; married Avril Bernice Montgomery (a nurse), July 4, 1970; children: James Andrew, Christopher Michael. Education: Churchill College, Cambridge, B.A., 1966, M.A., 1969; University of Warwick, Ph.D., 1970. Politics: Labour Party. Hobbies and other interests: Guitar, geology, Egyptology, travel, science fiction, keeping fish.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Coventry, England. Office—Mathematics Institute, University of Warwick, Gibbet Hill Rd., Coventry CV4 7AL, England. Agent—(for science fiction works) Ashley Grayson, 1324 18th St., San Pedro, CA 90732; (for popular science) Peter Tallack, Conville and Walsh, 2 Ganton St., London W1F 7QL, England. E-mail—I.N.Stewart@warwick.ac.uk.

CAREER:

Writer, editor, illustrator, mathematician, translator, and educator. University of Warwick, Coventry, England, lecturer, 1969-84, reader, 1984-90, professor of mathematics, 1990—, Mathematics Awareness Centre, director. University of Tübingen, Humboldt Foundation fellow, 1974; Auckland University, visiting fellow, 1976; University of Connecticut, Storrs, visiting associate professor, 1977-78; University of Illinois, Carbondale, visiting professor, 1978; University of Houston, Houston, TX, visiting professor, 1983-84, and has served as adjunct professor. Guest on BBC-Radio and on several British television programs, including The Magical Maze, Country Tracks, Chaos, Antichaos, Great Little Numbers, The Late Show, Reality on the Rocks, Esther, The Bride of Frankenstein, Sex and the Scientists, The Numbers Game, and Six Experiments that Changed the World; appeared on Future File, European Business News satellite channel; consultant to New Scientist and Encyclopedia Britannica.

MEMBER:

International Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Symmetry, American Association for the Advancement of Science (fellow), American Mathematical Society, Mathematical Association of America, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Royal Society (fellow), Cambridge Philosophical Society, London Mathematical Society, Institute of Mathematics and Its Applications, American Museum of Natural History, Planetary Society, International PEN, Gresham Society.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Michael Faraday Medal, Royal Society, 1995; Rhone-Poulenc Prize for science books, 1998, for Shortlist; Joint Policy Board for Mathematics Communications Award, 1999; Gold Medal, Institute of Mathematics and Its Applications, 2000; Hugo Award nomination, 2000, for The Science of Discworld; Chaos Award, Centre for Hyperincursion and Anticipation in Ordered Systems, 2001; Balaguer Prize (with M. Golubitsky), 2001; fellow of the Royal Society, 2001; Award for the Public Understanding of Science and Technology, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2002; recipient of research grants from Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Swindon, England. Recipient of honorary degrees from Westminster University, Université Catholique du Louvain, Kingston University, and Open University.

WRITINGS:

(With J. Jaworski) Nut-Crackers, Piccolo/Pan Books (London, England), 1971.

Galois Theory, Chapman & Hall (New York, NY), 1973, 3rd edition, Chapman & Hall (Boca Raton, FL), 2004.

(With R.K. Amayo) Infinite-dimensional Lie Algebras, Nordhoff (Leyden, Netherlands), 1974.

Concepts of Modern Mathematics, Penguin (Harmondsworth, England), 1975, revised edition, Dover (Mineola, NY), 1995.

(With J. Jaworski) Get Knotted!, Piccolo/Pan Books (London, England), 1976, abridged edition published as Get Knotted! Lots of Things to Do with String, John Adams (Reading, England), 1980.

(With David Tall) The Foundations of Mathematics, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 1977.

(With Tim Poston) Catastrophe Theory and Its Applications, Pitman (San Francisco, CA), 1978.

(With David Tall) Algebraic Number Theory, Chapman & Hall (London, England), 1979, 3rd edition published as Algebraic Number Theory and Fermat's Last Theorem, A.K. Peters (Natick, MA), 2002.

(With others) Aspects of Abstract Algebra, Open University Press (Milton Keynes, England), 1980.

(With J. Jaworski) Seven Years of Manifold: 1968-1980, Shiva (England), 1981.

(And illustrator) Oh Catastrophe! (comic book), Librairie Classique Eugene Belin (Paris, France), 1982.

(And illustrator) Les Fractals (comic book), Librairie Classique Eugene Belin (Paris, France), 1982.

(And illustrator) Ah, les beaux groupes! (comic book), Librairie Classique Eugene Belin (Paris, France), 1983.

(With David Tall) Complex Analysis, Cambridge University Press (Cambridge, England), 1983.

The Problems of Mathematics, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1987.

(With M. Golubitsky and D. Schaeffer) Singularities and Groups in Bifurcation Theory, Volume 2, Springer Verlag (New York, NY), 1988.

Does God Play Dice? The Mathematics of Chaos, Basil Blackwell (Oxford, England), 1989, 2nd edition published as Does God Play Dice? The New Mathematics of Chaos, Blackwell (Malden, MA), 2002.

Game, Set, and Math, Basil Blackwell (Oxford, England), 1989, published as Game, Set, and Math: Enigmas and Conundrums, Dover Publications (Mineola, NY), 2007.

(With M. Golubitsky) Fearful Symmetry—Is God a Geometer?, Basil Blackwell (Oxford, England), 1992.

Another Fine Math You've Got Me Into …, W.H. Freeman (New York, NY), 1992, published with a foreword by Martin Gardner, Dover Publications (Mineola, NY), 2003.

(With Jack Cohen) The Collapse of Chaos: Discovering Simplicity in a Complex World, Viking (New York, NY), 1994.

Nature's Numbers: The Unreal Reality of Mathematics, Basic Books (New York, NY), 1995.

From Here to Infinity, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1996.

(Revisor) Richard Courant and Herbert Robbins, What Is Mathematics?, new edition, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 1996.

(With Jack Cohen) Figments of Reality: The Evolution of the Curious Mind, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1997.

The Magical Maze: Seeing the World through Mathematical Eyes, Wiley (New York, NY), 1998.

Life's Other Secret: The New Mathematics of the Living World, Wiley (New York, NY), 1998.

(With Jack Cohen and Terry Pratchett) The Science of Discworld, Ebury Press (London, England), 1999.

(With Jack Cohen) Wheelers (science fiction novel), Warner Aspect (New York, NY), 2000.

Flatterland: Like Flatland Only More So, Perseus Books (Cambridge, MA), 2001.

What Shape Is a Snowflake? Magical Numbers in Nature, W.H. Freeman (New York, NY), 2001.

(Author of introduction and notes) Edwin A. Abbott, The Annotated Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, Perseus (Cambridge, MA), 2002.

(With Jack Cohen) Evolving the Alien: The Science of Extraterrestrial Life, Ebury Press (London, England), 2002, published as What Does a Martian Look Like? The Science of Extraterrestrial Life, Wiley (Hoboken, NJ), 2002.

(With Jack Cohen and Terry Pratchett) The Science of Discworld II: The Globe, Ebury Press (London, England), 2002.

(With Martin Golubitsky) The Symmetry Perspective: From Equilibrium to Chaos in Phase Space and Physical Space, Birkhäuser (Boston, MA), 2003.

(With Jack Cohen) Heaven (science fiction novel), Warner Books (New York, NY), 2004.

Math Hysteria: Fun and Games with Mathematics, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2004.

(With others) The Colours of Infinity: The Beauty and Power of Fractals (includes DVD), Clear Books (Herndon, VA), 2004.

(With Jack Cohen and Terry Pratchett) The Science of Discworld III: Darwin's Watch, Ebury Press (London, England), 2005.

The Mayor of Uglyville's Dilemma, Atlantic Books (London, England), 2005.

How to Cut a Cake: And Other Mathematical Conundrums, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2006.

Letters to a Young Mathematician, Basic Books (New York, NY), 2006.

Why Beauty Is Truth: A History of Symmetry, Basic Books (New York, NY), 2007.

TRANSLATOR

Jean-Pierre Petit, Flight of Fancy, J. Murray (London, England), 1982, William Kaufmann (Los Altos, CA), 1985.

Jean-Pierre Petit, Informagic, J. Murray (London, England), 1982, published as Computer Magic, William Kaufmann (Los Altos, CA), 1985.

Jean-Pierre Petit, Euclid Rules OK?, J. Murray (London, England), 1982, published as Here's Looking at Euclid (and Not Looking at Euclid), William Kaufmann (Los Altos, CA), 1985.

Jean-Pierre Petit, The Black Hole, William Kaufmann (Los Altos, CA), 1985.

Jean-Pierre Petit, Everything Is Relative, William Kaufmann (Los Altos, CA), 1985.

Jean-Pierre Petit, Run, Robot, Run, William Kaufmann (Los Altos, CA), 1985.

Jean-Pierre Petit, Big Bang, William Kaufmann (Los Altos, CA), 1986.

Jean-Pierre Petit, The Silence Barrier, William Kaufmann (Los Altos, CA), 1986.

K.H. Becker and M. Doerfler, Dynamical Systems and Fractals, Cambridge University Press (Cambridge, England), 1989.

Also author of scholarly articles, computer programming guides, and published lecture and research notes.

Contributor to journals and periodicals, including Journal of Nonlinear Science, SIAM Journal of Applied Dynamical Systems, Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos, New Scientist, Scientific American, and Dynamical Systems. Contributor of science fiction stories to Analog, Omni, and Interzone.

Creator of computer software programs. Author of column, "Mathematical Recreations," Scientific American, 1990-2001; editor of Manifold (a mathematics magazine). Writer and presenter of radio program Chaos!, BBC Radio, 1992.

Stewart's writings have been translated into Brazilian, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish.

SIDELIGHTS:

British mathematician and educator Ian Stewart is a prolific author of books on mathematics. He has written works for the academic market as well as titles that aim to explain the concepts and abstractions of math to the average lay reader. Stewart is an "active research mathematician," noted his home page, and "his present field is the effects of symmetry on dynamics, with applications to pattern formation and chaos theory in areas including animal locomotion, fluid dynamics, mathematical biology, chemical reactions, electronic circuits, computer vision, quality control of wire, and intelligent control of spring coiling machines. He takes a particular interest in problems that lie in the gaps between pure and applied mathematics."

In Nature's Numbers: The Unreal Reality of Mathematics, Stewart discusses how mathematicians approach their work and explains that the field is merely a system of thought: a way of looking for patterns and then exploiting those patterns. He cites examples of patterns such as the dripping of water and the spiral of a snail shell, and then explains their relation to mathematical laws. As the book progresses, Stewart leads readers toward new frontiers in math such as chaos theory. "Stewart is the soul of clarity," maintained Booklist contributor Gilbert Taylor. The book also won praise from a reviewer for Publishers Weekly, who commended his "elegant narrative" and stated that "Stewart gives the reader an uncanny feel for the way mathematicians think."

Stewart has written several works with Jack Cohen, a biologist and British television personality. In their first collaboration, 1994's The Collapse of Chaos: Discovering Simplicity in a Complex World, the authors discuss "the law of nature" question and advocate the end of scientific reductionism, a theory that "reduc[es] behavior to the interactions of the smallest entity," explained Taylor in another Booklist review, and that "has brought forth great advances in biology, chemistry, and physics." Stewart and Cohen argue that such thinking is now obsolete, and no new discoveries seem possible. They offer the terms "simplexity" and "complicity" instead, and along the way debunk the theory that DNA is the "blueprint for life."

Stewart and Cohen once again teamed up for 1997's Figments of Reality: The Evolution of the Curious Mind. They assert that the human mind evolved to respond to the complexity of the natural world, posit that evolution itself is related to the evolution of the human mind, and assert that one is not possible without the other. Library Journal critic Mark L. Shelton called it "a delightful but heavy read" and praised the authors as "witty, erudite, [and] clever."

Stewart's The Magical Maze: Seeing the World through Mathematical Eyes is based on a lecture he delivered at the Royal Institute in 1997. Discussing flower petals, colonies of amoeba, and swarms of flies, the mathematician argues that such natural phenomena are examples of chaos theory and symmetry in nature. "The book patiently takes readers from seemingly bewildering random sets of numbers to the elegant principles that lie behind them," a Publishers Weekly reviewer remarked. Again, the author won praise for his ability to explain such concepts for the less mathematically inclined. Stewart, noted Booklist contributor Bryce Christensen, "knows how to cast the spell over readers who normally regard" the subject of mathematics with "indifference or distaste."

In Life's Other Secret: The New Mathematics of the Living World, Stewart more fully develops his contention that DNA does not hold all the answers as to how and why life replicates itself. He maintains that the codes contained in our genes are inactive until the right combination of chemistry and physics is present. "Nurture, in other words, is no less structured than nature, and Stewart steers us expertly through a series of beautiful examples from both the plant and animal kingdoms to prove his point," observed Science reviewer Sunetra Gupta. Life's Other Secret also discusses the work of D'Arcy Thompson, a forgotten zoologist who began writing about the "geometry of life" early in the twentieth century. Patterns in the natural world such as snowflakes and butterfly wings are not at all random, Stewart contends in writing about this geometry. Life's Other Secret earned positive reviews from several critics. "Stewart writes with style and verve, displaying an impressive command of mathematics," stated Library Journal critic Gloria Maxwell, while in Booklist, Christensen remarked that the author "writes with such compelling clarity" that a lay reader "can share in the intellectual daring of his perspective."

Stewart and Cohen teamed up for a literary project of a different kind with Wheelers, the first novel for both writers. In this science fiction tale, a twenty-third-century junior archaeologist named Prudence Odingo decodes a secret inscription on the Sphinx, but her colleague and former lover takes all the credit. Dismayed, she travels to Jupiter for solace, where she finds the "wheeler," a gear-shaped artifact that comes to life. The presence of an unknown alien civilization becomes apparent, and Odingo realizes that they are able to redirect the orbits of Jupiter's moons. When a large comet heads toward the Earth because of this, Odingo and her former foe must divert it. This involves communicating with the blimplike beings who reside in large cities inside Jupiter's atmosphere. The aliens must be convinced that the Earth—which they have deemed "Poisonblue"—really does support life with its oxygen-laden atmosphere. A sect of asteroid miners who practice Tibetan Buddhism also figure into the plot, as does Odingo's nephew Moses, who possesses special abilities. A Publishers Weekly reviewer found that though Stewart and Cohen's characterizations and descriptions of a different world "lack believability, the authors wield scientific speculation with cheerful abandon, providing some real old-fashioned sense of wonder." Gerald Jonas, writing in the New York Times Book Review, termed Wheelers an "ambitious and entertaining novel," and Booklist contributor Eric Robbins echoed the sentiment in terming it an "imaginative and well-written story."

Collaborating to write another novel, Heaven, in 2004, Stewart and Cohen set a tale in the far future that focuses on two men: Second-Best Sailor and Servant-of-Unity XIV Samuel. The former is a nomadic trader from the planet of No-Moon; the latter is a missionary of Cosmic Unity, a church that wants to unite all of the races of the universe in peace. The church of Cosmic Unity's other mission is to prevent potentially dangerous, highly advanced artifacts left behind by the extinct Precursor race from falling into the hands of those who might use them as weapons; the relics are so powerful that their misuse could destroy all of civilization. While Cosmic Unity's goals are noble, their methods bring a great deal of suffering to the people of No-Moon. "Apparently the reverse of the old saying is true," commented a Publishers Weekly reviewer: "for evil to triumph, it's only necessary for good men to try to do everything." Although Heaven tackles big ideas, it is "seasoned with touches of good humor," Don D'Ammassa noted in Science Fiction Chronicle, and provides "a consistently pleasant journey into the imaginations of the authors."

Stewart has also created an annotated version of Edwin A. Abbott's science fiction classic Flatland, which was first published in 1884. The story is set in a two-dimensional world populated by flat geometric shapes. Here, one's social class is determined by the number of sides one's shape has. The protagonist, A. Square, is introduced to the world of three dimensions when he meets Sphere. The parable helped, in the real world, to popularize the concept being developed at the time that there might be a fourth dimension. "Stewart's notes [in The Annotated Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions] bring a welcome new level to Abbott's classic," Robert K.J. Killheffer noted in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. The notes flesh out Abbott as a person, describe how he conceived of the idea for the book, and explain the math used in the text, Killheffer explained. "Perhaps most valuably, they place Abbott and his book solidly in their social and cultural context," wrote Killheffer, showing how then-prominent mathematicians and even Communist philosopher Karl Marx are connected to the tale.

Around the same time he released the annotated book, Stewart published his own sequel to Flatland titled Flatterland: Like Flatland Only More So. Like the original Flatland, this book teaches mathematical concepts to a popular audience from the perspective of a geometric shape with a human mind—in this case, Victoria "Vikki" Line, who is the great-great-granddaughter of A. Square. Stewart covers many new theories about geometry, space, and time that have been developed since 1884, including superstring theory, the idea that there may be as many as ten dimensions, relativity, black holes, and quantum mechanics. "The breadth of material is astonishing," Michael Goldberg wrote in Isis. Stewart also scatters humor and pop-cultural references throughout his tale, including allusions to Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the British pop group the Spice Girls, and the film The Wizard of Oz. With the combination of science and humor, "Flatterland provides an engaging, completely accessible guide to some of the trickiest concepts in contemporary mathematics," concluded a Science News reviewer.

How to Cut a Cake: And Other Mathematical Conundrums contains a collection of Stewart's mathematics columns from Scientific American. The pieces in this book appeared between 1987 and 2001, and in total they offer a mathematical view of some perplexing everyday puzzles as well as mathematical theory and the application of math to modern technology. "Stewart is one of the finest popular maths writers out there, and he does not disappoint with this latest offering," commented Lewis Dartnell on the Plus magazine Web site. Stevens considers subjects such as the reasons behind why the telephone cord always seems to become tangled; the sophisticated application of mathematics in online security and data encryption; the testing of circuit boards; chess games that never end; efficient ways of lacing up shoes; and more. The title piece addresses the well-known problems of cutting a cake so that all diners are content that they have received a fair and equitable portion. Dartnell called the book a "smorgasbord of tasty morsels" and named each essay a "delightful description of a particular puzzle in mathematics."

In Letters to a Young Mathematician, Stewart offers academic insight, professional wisdom, and career advice from a fictitious mathematician to his niece, Meg, a young (but imaginary) American student struggling with questions of career and direction. The letters provide counsel to Meg at critical stages in her progress toward becoming a professional mathematician, covering her initial decision to enter the field, her pursuit of higher education, and her first forays into the professional world of teaching and research. Throughout the twenty-one essays, Stewart offers insight derived from his own extensive experiences. He covers practical matters such as the learning and teaching of math, methods for approaching math problems, and balancing the professional demands of research and teaching. He also considers more theoretical and abstract concepts, such as the constant presence of mathematics in the everyday world, the nature of several prominent mathematical problems, and the broad sweep of mathematics as it touches on theology and metaphysics. The collection "contains something of interest for everyone, from the young mathematician of the title to anyone who is curious about the subject," noted Plus magazine Web site reviewer Marianne Freiberger. Stewart "offers a remarkable insight into how mathematics opens up unique understandings of nature," observed P.D. Smith in the Guardian (London, England). Reviewer K. Soundararajan, writing in American Scientist, concluded: "Stewart's book may be heartily recommended to any young person considering a future in the field, and indeed to anyone with more than a passing interest in mathematics or mathematicians." Though the book is aimed at those considering a career in math, "others simply interested in learning about the field and how mathematicians think will find it compelling reading," noted a Publishers Weekly contributor.

Stewart considers the ancient and elegant mathematical concepts behind symmetry in Why Beauty Is Truth: A History of Symmetry. Symmetry, Stewart explains, is a method of transforming and moving an object so that it remains largely unchanged in appearance after its transformation—the object changes, but its basic structure is preserved. Symmetry, in addition, provides balance among the forces of the universe. In the book, Stewart delves deeply into the mathematical history behind symmetry, tracing some of its first manifestations to the quadratic equations developed by ancient Babylonian mathematicians. He provides biographical information on numerous important figures in the development of symmetry, from young French mathematical genius Evariste Galois, who invented group theory but was killed at age twenty-one in a duel, to Albert Einstein and modern quantum physicists who use symmetry, group theory, and other associated concepts to describe the vast beauty and complexity of the universe. Booklist reviewer Bryce Christensen called the book "an exciting foray for any armchair physicist," while American Scientist writer David W. Farmer named it a "reasonably entertaining story about the history of symmetry" and related ideas. "Anyone who thinks math is dull will be delightfully surprised by this history of the concept of symmetry," commented a Publishers Weekly contributor.

Stewart once told CA: "As a child I always enjoyed both writing and mathematics. My father once found an old typewriter in a bank vault, and I and my circle of friends spent a lot of time using it to produce such items as a humorous dictionary of mathematics, a humorous epic poem some 500 verses long, and rules for new card games. I was also interested in science, especially physics, and I devoured Scientific American and New Scientist. I was an avid fan of Martin Gardner's ‘Mathematical Games’ column in Scientific American and compiled a lengthy series of notebooks on mathematical recreations.

"An offer to study mathematics at Churchill College, Cambridge, settled my future career, but I continued writing as a sideline. I edited (and wrote large chunks of) student mathematics magazines at Cambridge and Warwick. My first ‘real’ book was Galois Theory, a textbook that [was] still in print after [two decades]. Soon after, I wrote up an extramural lecture series as Concepts of Modern Mathematics, a first attempt at writing for a ‘lay’ audience. For some reason, I was sidetracked into writing textbooks. I was rescued from this blind alley by two things. The first was the craze for personal computers. With a friend, I began writing a series of books about how to program the beasts, at a peak rate of one book every six weeks. The second was a suggestion from Ravi Mirchandani at Penguin Books that I should write a popular book on ‘chaos theory.’ The result was Does God Play Dice? The Mathematics of Chaos, which … has been translated into nine foreign languages.

"My fingers start to itch unless they are somewhere near a word processor keyboard. I find it difficult to take the world seriously—how could any rational mind make sense of it?—and much of my output has humorous aspects. I have written and drawn three comic books on mathematics which were published in French. As the writer of the ‘Mathematical Recreations’ column in Scientific American, I incorporate mathematical ideas into brief stories with improbable characters, such as the Worm family—father Henry, mother Anna-Lida, baby Wermentrude, and friend Albert Wormstein. I believe that it is possible to be serious about science without being solemn. I am afflicted with an evangelical streak which drives me to explain to the rest of the world those parts of mathematics and science that, at any given moment, I find interesting. I am attracted to writing because it's the only way you can have fun, improve the sum total of human understanding, and make money all at the same time. But mostly I write because my head is filled with sequences of words, trying desperately to get out."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Scientist, May-June, 2007, K. Soundararajan, "Port and Walnuts," review of Letters to a Young Mathematician; November-December, 2007, David W. Farmer, "The Power of Symmetry," review of Why Beauty Is Truth: A History of Symmetry, p. 544.

Analog Science Fiction and Fact, June, 2003, Tom Easton, review of What Does a Martian Look Like? The Science of Extraterrestrial Life, p. 134.

Booklist, February 15, 1994, Gilbert Taylor, review of The Collapse of Chaos: Discovering Simplicity in a Complex World, p. 1041; June 1, 1995, Gilbert Taylor, review of Nature's Numbers: The Unreal Reality of Mathematics, p. 1708; February 15, 1998, Bryce Christensen, review of Life's Other Secret: The New Mathematics of the Living World, p. 958; April 15, 1998, Bryce Christensen, review of The Magical Maze: Seeing the World through Mathematical Eyes, p. 405; August, 2000, Eric Robbins, review of Wheelers, p. 2126; May 15, 2001, Gilbert Taylor, review of Flatterland: Like Flatland Only More So, p. 1739; March 1, 2007, Bryce Christensen, review of Why Beauty Is Truth, p. 48.

Entertainment Weekly, June 11, 2004, Noah Robischon, review of Heaven, p. 129.

Guardian (London, England), May 26, 2007, P.D. Smith, review of Letters to a Young Mathematician; September 1, 2007, Steven Poole, "Fearful Symmetry," review of Why Beauty Is Truth.

Internet Bookwatch, June, 2007, "Basic Books," review of Why Beauty Is Truth.

Isis, December, 2001, Michael Goldberg, review of Flatterland, p. 751; December, 2002, Robert Kaplan, review of The Annotated Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, p. 711.

Kirkus Reviews, September 15, 2000, review of Wheelers, p. 1321.

Library Journal, October 15, 1997, Mark L. Shelton, review of Figments of Reality: The Evolution of the Curious Mind, p. 88; January, 1998, Gloria Maxwell, review of Life's Other Secret, p. 136; May 15, 2004, Jackie Cassada, review of Heaven, p. 118; April 15, 2006, Jack W. Weigel, review of Letters to a Young Mathematician, p. 104.

Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, August, 2002, Robert K.J. Killheffer, review of The Annotated Flatland, p. 22.

Mathematics Teacher, September, 2002, Catherine A. Gorini, review of Algebraic Number Theory and Fermat's Last Theorem, p. 470.

Natural History, February, 2002, review of What Shape Is a Snowflake? Magical Numbers in Nature, p. 76.

New Scientist, October 5, 2002, David Langford, review of Evolving the Alien: The Science of Extraterrestrial Life, p. 50; October 12, 2002, Andrew Bowler, review of Algebraic Number Theory and Fermat's Last Theorem, p. 52; September 18, 2004, Kenneth Falconer, review of The Colours of Infinity: The Beauty and Power of Fractals, p. 46.

New York Times Book Review, June 12, 1994, Ed Regis, "The World Made Easy"; November 12, 2000, Gerald Jonas, review of Wheelers.

Publishers Weekly, February 28, 1994, review of The Collapse of Chaos, p. 67; July 10, 1995, review of Nature's Numbers, p. 51; March 2, 1998, review of The Magical Maze, p. 53; October 16, 2000, review of Wheelers, p. 53; April 2, 2001, review of Flatterland, p. 43; November 26, 2001, review of The Annotated Flatland, p. 55; April 26, 2004, review of Heaven, p. 46; January 16, 2006, review of Letters to a Young Mathematician, p. 49; February 19, 2007, review of Why Beauty Is Truth, p. 162.

School Library Journal, November, 2001, Sheila Shoup, review of Flatterland, p. 194.

Science, April 3, 1998, Sunetra Gupta, review of Life's Other Secret, p. 54; February 22, 2002, Coimbra Sirica, "Scientists Honored at 2002 Annual Meeting," p. 1543.

Science Fiction Chronicle, June, 2004, Don D'Ammassa, review of Heaven, p. 41.

Science News, December 15, 2001, Cait Goldberg, review of What Shape Is a Snowflake?, p. 370; February 1, 2003, review of Flatterland, p. 80; April 22, 2006, review of Letters to a Young Mathematician, p. 255; May 12, 2007, review of Why Beauty Is Truth, p. 303.

Scientific American, April, 2007, Martin Gardner, "Is Beauty Truth and Truth Beauty?," review of Why Beauty Is Truth.

SciTech Book News, June, 2007, review of Why Beauty Is Truth.

Skeptical Inquirer, September-October, 2007, Kendrick Frazier, review of Why Beauty Is Truth, p. 56.

ONLINE

Ian Stewart Home Page,http://freespace.virgin.net/ianstewart.joat/index.htm (April 10, 2008).

Plus,http://plus.maths.org/ (April 10, 2008), Lewis Dartnell, review of How to Cut a Cake: And Other Mathematical Conundrums; Marianne Freiberger, review of Letters to a Young Mathematician; Charlotte Mulcare, review of Why Beauty Is Truth.

Warwick Mathematics Institute Web site,http://www.maths.warwick.ac.uk/ (April 10, 2008), "Professor Ian Stewart, FRS."