Maths Week Ireland

The all-island annual festival for the promotion of maths. 11-19 October 2025. #IUseMaths #STEM4All

[Marist College @MaristAthlone]

Well done to Senan Keena who won the ‘Guess the Number’ Maths Week Challenge!

[Black Journals @blackJournals01]

A doctor drove around America in a van with an ice pick and a hammer.

He would put a patient under with an electric shock, lift the eyelid, and drive the pick in through the top of the eye socket.

Walter Freeman did about 3,500 of these. He kept no meaningful notes.

The transorbital lobotomy. Freeman developed it in the 1940s so that the operation could be done without a surgeon, without an operating theatre and without anaesthesia, in about ten minutes.

He travelled in a vehicle he called the lobotomobile and performed them in state hospitals across the country, sometimes a dozen or more in a day, sometimes in front of an audience.

He was not a surgeon. He had no surgical training.

He operated on about 3,500 people. At least nineteen of them were children; the youngest was four years old.

Now the part that belongs on this account.

The transorbital lobotomy was performed overwhelmingly on the people least able to refuse it — patients in underfunded, overcrowded public institutions, where the appeal of a ten-minute procedure that made a difficult patient quiet was administrative rather than medical.

In the segregated American South and in segregated wards elsewhere, that population was disproportionately Black. Black patients in state institutions were more likely to be committed on thin grounds in the first place — you have had Crownsville in this feed, where a man was institutionalised for startling a horse — and once inside, they were in exactly the pool Freeman was operating on.

The documentation of who specifically received these operations is poor, which is itself part of the story: the records of what was done to people in segregated state hospitals are patchy because nobody was required to keep them well.

He kept operating into the 1960s. He was finally stopped in 1967 when a patient he was operating on for the third time died of a brain haemorrhage.

A man with an ice pick, a van, and no surgical qualification, working his way through the wards of American public hospitals for twenty years.

These are the histories that must not disappear. Get our book and uncover the painful stories too often left out of the record. https://t.co/V6OJtazidd

[Murderous Maths @murderousmaths]

Friday's puzzle

[Killea NS @NsKillea]

Great excitement this morning as our Guess the Sweets competition winners were celebrated @mathsweek @NsKillea @templemoretown.

[MathsStCaths @MathsStCaths]

⭐️ Maths Week Ireland Staff Puzzle Winners ⭐️

Congratulations to all the secret Mathletes hiding in plain sight in St Catherine’s College. Mrs Nixon was our fifth winner but she was camera shy! 🥳🧩🧮

#mathletes #staffpuzzlewinners #notjustmathsteacherslovemathspuzzles

[Maths Week Ireland @mathsweek]

Wise heads at St Catherine’s

[MathsStCaths @MathsStCaths]

⭐️ Year 8 Head to Head Mental Maths Challenge ⭐️

Last week our Year 8’s took part in a Head to Head Mental Maths Challenge to celebrate Maths Week Ireland 2026!

Congratulations to Lauren and Evie who were the final winners. Well done to Leila who was our runner up! 🏅🏆

[Maths Week Ireland @mathsweek]

Great work

[Ms Olson's Class @MsOlsonsClass]

We’ve got #MathsEyes! @mathsweek @Maths_Eyes @followstannes

[Math Files @Math_files]

Two MIT mathematicians have proposed a significant change to the future of mathematical research.

In an essay published on 21 October, Pavel Etingof and Slava Gerovitch argue that mathematicians should increasingly be evaluated for their understanding, judgment, and creativity rather than simply for being the first to prove a theorem.

They suggest that future PhD theses need not necessarily contain the first proof of a result.

Originality could instead come from new ideas, connections, explanations, or methods.

They also propose greater emphasis on oral examinations, collaborative research, and AI-assisted mathematical exploration.

Their central argument challenges a longstanding academic tradition: mathematical achievement should not be measured primarily by who proves something first.

[American Mathematical Society @amermathsoc]

AI is changing mathematics! Where does the conversation go from here?

The American Mathematical Society (AMS) has launched AI and Mathematics: Selected Resources, a curated collection to help mathematicians explore the opportunities, questions, and evolving discussions surrounding AI and mathematical discovery.

The web page brings together resources on AI-assisted research, proof verification, mathematics education, emerging tools, and expert perspectives with opportunities to explore new ideas, learn from others, and engage with the evolving role of AI in mathematics.

The AMS is committed to connecting our community and fostering thoughtful, informed conversations as the impact of AI on mathematics continues to unfold.

Have a resource to recommend? Email: [email protected]

Explore resources. Link in comments.

[OECD Education @OECDEduSkills]

Why are reading scores falling in many countries? PISA points to rising levels of "hasty reading", where students answer quickly but incorrectly, and growing difficulties with evaluating information, critical thinking and using multiple sources. https://t.co/OtcLqsN2yi

[COGG Oideachas @CoggOid]

🧮🎉 Tá Seachtain an Mhata linn! 🎉🧮

🌟 Faigh amach faoi na hacmhainní Gaeilge a thacaíonn le teagasc agus foghlaim an Mhata ar #TairseachCOGG.

📚🔢 Acmhainní do gach leibhéal

💡 Gníomhaíochtaí spraíúla

🌐 https://t.co/RTs8jrCttG

#MathsWeek #SeachtainanMhata

[Mercy Mounthawk @MounthawkMercy]

📐➕ Looks like we’ve solved for the students’ FAVOURITE Maths teacher! 🤩📊 This Maths Week, the fun with Mr Culloty is adding up, the smiles are multiplying, and the good vibes are off the charts! ➗✖️ Who knew Maths could be this much fun? 💙 #MathsWeek #MathsIsFun

[Killea NS @NsKillea]

Lots of active learning on this bright October morning @NsKillea @templemoretown @mathsweek

[Meán Scoil Mhuire @MeanscoilMhuire]

🔢📐 MATHS WEEK! ➗🎉

As part of Maths Week, we enjoyed a range of fun activities throughout the week in Meán Scoil Mhuire!

Congratulations to our winners, table 15 and runners up table 14 in the 1st year Maths Quiz.

[Killea NS @NsKillea]

Nothing beats solving a great puzzle @NsKillea @mathsweek

[Mercy Mounthawk @MounthawkMercy]

➗😂 Maths Week couldn’t have come at a better time! The sums aren’t adding up, the equations are causing confusion, and even the calculators are giving up on the kids! 🧮🤯 Time to multiply the fun and divide the stress! 📐✖️ #MathsWeek #MathsIsFun

[castledrumns @castledrumns]

What an effort! What an achievement. Pushed all the way by @CaheraghNS. Top of the weekly leaderboard for the @mathsweek targetboards. All Ireland champions has a nice ring to it!

[柴田 淳 - 「みんなのPython」の著者・機械学習講師・シニアアーキテクト @ats]

世界最高峰の数学者テレンス・タオが、いま「数学をする時間」を削ってまでAIへの対応に追われている。問題はAIが数学を解けることではない。数学という営みそのものが、何を価値とするのかを問い直されていることだ。

UCLAの数学者でフィールズ賞受賞者のTerence Taoは、AIと数学の関係をめぐる議論の中心人物になっている。本人もNYTのインタビューを「Terry Tao and the Crisis in Math」と紹介しており、UCLAも、特に若い研究者への影響を含め「AIが数学研究で急速に存在感を増していること」が記事の中心だったと説明している。

背景にあるのは、AIが単なる計算補助から、未解決問題を探索し、新しい数学的構成を発見する段階へ進みつつあることだ。実際、タオ自身が参加したAlphaEvolveの研究では、解析・組合せ論・幾何・数論にまたがる67問を対象に、多くで既知の最良解を再発見し、一部ではそれを改善した。

ここで揺らいでいるのが、「難しい問題を最初に解く」という数学界の評価軸である。タオは従来の数学を「Math 1.0」と呼び、証明が希少だったからこそ、難問を解くことを中心に研究者の名声や制度が組み立てられてきたと整理する。AIによって証明の供給量そのものが増えるなら、その前提が崩れる。

すると重要になるのは、AIより速く問題を解くことではなく、出てきた証明を検証し、意味を理解し、既存の数学との関係を見つけ、他の人が使える知識に変えることだ。タオはすでに、証明を生み出して「一番乗り」することへの評価を相対的に下げ、解説、査読、整理、標準化といった仕事をもっと評価すべきだと論じている。つまりAI時代の数学者は、「証明の生産者」から「数学的理解の編集者」へと役割を広げることになる。

https://t.co/CmsP00u9g2

[Math Files @Math_files]

Fields Medalist Timothy Gowers raises a troubling possibility: AI could become so powerful at mathematics that future generations may lose the motivation to study the subject deeply enough to understand its discoveries.

The paradox is striking. Machines might eventually solve problems far beyond human capabilities, while fewer mathematicians possess the expertise needed to interpret their results.

For Gowers, the deeper concern extends beyond the future of mathematical careers. It is about preserving the curiosity, intellectual discipline, and satisfaction of discovery that have sustained mathematics for centuries.

He also envisions a possible transformation of the mathematician’s role, from discovering new theorems to interpreting, connecting, and explaining mathematical knowledge generated by AI.

Reflecting on the approaching social consequences, Gowers offers a vivid analogy:

“We’re still on the beach, we can see the tsunami, but it hasn’t quite reached us yet.”

Importantly, he is not calling for mathematics departments to close or for universities to stop admitting PhD students. His remarks are cautious predictions about a possible future, rather than descriptions of changes that have already taken place.

[Murderous Maths @murderousmaths]

Sunday's puzzle