Should have asked me for the answer,yours The Doctor.(presently off Earth in the TARDIS)

John Winston Price, Oldham, England

About Time!

Only a 2-D matrix.. how démodé!
Simple tesselation is SO-O-O-O-O last Age!

Sum.. Err!.. Ergo Sum, London,

21 over 32 is the answer.

cw, bromley, uk

The good thing is that by mapping 248 dimensions we are likely to be able to triangulate superstring geometry across a unform trime-base. This, of course, can only be a good thing.

Thicasa Planck, London,

At the end of the day ...the mind 'boggles' !!!! Well mine does anyway ...what happened to the fat lady ?

COLIN STANSBIE, PORTLAND, DORSET

The big question is just how many football fields would the calcualtion cover were it to be written out, surely?

Richard, Plymouth, Devon

Other than in the headline, I can't see a zero anywhere, great, big or otherwise. This is an triumph of the human spirit, ranking with all sorts of arty farty crap like the Taj Mahal, the Sistine Chapel, the revived Take That and String Theory. It's fun for those who can understand it and are bothered to give it a go, and it can nourish us all in the apocalyptic wasteland that we currently inhabit.

robert, Birmingham, UK

Great, manifolds as a parabolic expression. We may now fully appreciate the significance of the amino-acids. In applying basi- cranial indices as further data we may finally identify an Arabic character both with Greek logic and, critically, identify this as developing further African nomadic dialogue.

Christopher Rea, Oxford, U.K.

The quality of the spelling in these replies doesn't say very much for the school system. Get a grip!

dave, Reading,

Yes they do get paid for it - just because you can have little understanding or insight into someone else's work does not mean it is irrelevant nor unuseful.

I'm sure Einsteins theory of relativety was greeted in a similar manner by equivalents of yourself of the time, think before you speak!

Ryan O'Neill, Southampton, Hampshire

Surprised to see some astonishingly ignorant views expressed here. Pure mathematical and scientific research like this is often viewed with scepticism and seen as irrelevant to everyday life; however it is precisely this sort of discovery which has lead to inventions such as the silicon chip, and gives us the tools to understand more about ourselves and the universe around us.

John from Peterhead, shame on you!

Former Chemist, London,

Awesome! I can't even contemplate a 5 dimensional object, let alone a 57 dimension one. I sit here in awe of what mathematics (mathematicians) have accomplished and wonder at what they will discover next.

P/NP anyone?

c. frost, mildenhall, suffolk, England

They may even get paid for it, John.

James Minchew, Gloucester, England

To Barry Holroyd:

Three-quarters of seven eighths is twenty-one thirty-seconds.

David, Alyth, Perthshire

We have the computer power.
Now we have a way of using it -- to achieve -- not sure what.

Have fun

DavidN, Melbourne,

but can they tell me what three-quarters of seven-eights is?

Barry Holroyd, Leeds, England

and thy get payed for this

john, peterhead, uk

Thank God we have that! I've no idea what we'd have done with out it. What worries me though is how much they have got paid to work out something that helps them and those like them but not the common man.

Rob, Brynamman, South Wales, UK.