I heard a neat spot on National Public Radio today about Cornell mathematician Daina Taimina, who crochets beautiful models to explain the hyperbolic plane. Simple, regular increases worked in increments from once every stich to every nine stiches result in 3-D sculptures explaining, well, hyperbolic planes. Which I guess are like lettuce, only math. Apparently she prefers synthetic yarn because it provides a more accurate, stiff model. I am kicking myself that I missed their lecture at The Kitchen last month, but here is a picture from it that I found on flickr.
I wonder if Daina likes indian food, and if she knows that she's a human ecologist?
