The Millennium Problems: The Seven Greatest Unsolved Mathematical Puzzles of Our Time. Hardcover - 2002

New York, NY Perseus Books Group: Basic Books, 2002. Hardcover First Ed; First Printing indicated. First Ed; First Printing indicated. Near Fine in Fine DJ: Book shows only minute indications of use; but the binding shows the slightest spine lean, while remaining perfectly secure; text clean. DJ flawless; price unclipped; mylar-protected. Virtually 'As New'. NOT a Remainder, Book-Club, or Ex-Library. 8vo. 237pp. Hardback with DJ. In this book the author makes a sincere attempt to describe to a popular audience the content behind seven mathematical problems that were chosen by a private foundation called "The Clay Institute" as being deep enough to warrant a prize of $1,000,000 for their solution. The author does an admirable job of achieving this goal; the book will be of inestimable value to those who are curious about the history and content behind these problems. The author is aware of the difficulty in describing the content of the problems to readers without substantial mathematical preparation, and he does a good job. One can of course think of many other problems that fit the stature of the millennium problems, such as the invariant subspace conjecture, or developing a complete mathematical model of the cell, but these seven will no doubt spark the curiosity of a few young persons as they further their studies in mathematics. Some of the millennium problems, such as the Riemann hypothesis, the NP problem, the Poincare conjecture, and the Navier-Stokes equations, require only an undergraduate education. The others definitely require more background, just to understand even the statement of the problem. All of the them are fascinating, and will no doubt stimulate some incredibly interesting mathematical constructions and an adventure that could fill a lifetime.