Recreational mathematics has an old and honourable history. We illustrate that history and perhaps a bit of the utility of recreational mathematics by discussing a number of recreations involving binary representations and paths on graphs.dagger

David Singmaster delights in the autobiography of Martin Gardner, whose Scientific American maths column enchanted tens of thousands.

Your readers may already have heard about the secret sale, by Keele University, of the Turner Collection of more than 1,400 mathematical and scientific books. Its loss was discovered in November by a researcher wishing to use the collection, which had been donated to the university by a private collector for this purpose.

Wheels, Life and Other Mathematical Amusements. By Martin Gardner. W. H. Freeman: 1984. Pp.261. $15.95, £15.95.

The Great Mental Calculators: The Psychology, Methods, and Lives of Calculating Prodigies Past and Present. By Steven B. Smith. Columbia University Press: 1983. Pp.374. $29.50, £28.

The Great Mental Calculators: The Psychology, Methods, and Lives of Calculating Prodigies Past and Present. By Steven B. Smith. Columbia University Press: 1983. Pp.374. $29.50, £28.

Findings of an excess of de novo structural variants in cases of autism and schizophrenia have raised hopes that neuropsychiatric conditions may yet prove genetically tractable. Past experience suggests that success in finding causative variants will require exceptional rigor and caution.

One of the purposes of the mini-conferences at the meeting is to introduce new areas of mathematics which have found their way into the curriculum at some universities and colleges but deserve more attention. At the same time one can consider the question whether it concerns a development in mathematics that could in some way be incorporated in the high school curriculum. In the present case the topic is algebraic coding theory, an area between information theory, combinatories and applied algebra, which has only been around for about 30 years. More than likely at most of the world's universities there has never been a course in this subject. On the other hand at a few it has been taught for at least 15 years and it is usually received with enthusiasm by the participating students.