1. seed
  2. Memories of Martin Gardner

Memories of Martin Gardner

By elerner on May 26, 2010.

Martin Gardner, polymath, puzzle-master, and philosopher, died on Sunday at the age of 95. Though he never formally studied math more complicated than calculus at the high school level, Gardner was perhaps best known for his interest in "recreational mathematics," the series of math and logic puzzles he published in books and magazine columns for decades. Beyond his skills at making science communication and learning fun, he has endeared himself to the science community (and ScienceBlogs in particular) by being a prominent skeptic during the height of New Age mumbo-jumbo, and one of the founding members of what is now the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Join our bloggers and fellow readers as they share their memories of Gardner and his many accomplishments

Martin Gardner is dead

Pharyngula May 23, 2010

"The author of that phenomenally influential Mathematical Games column in Scientific American (if you are of a certain age you will remember it well), Martin Gardner, has died at the age of 95."

Martin Gardner

The Quanutm Ponftiff May 24, 2010

"If I have any mathematical skills, I probably owe a large chunk of them to some of Gardner's puzzles."

RIP, Martin Gardner

Dispatches from the Culture Wars May 23, 2010

"James Randi was the first skeptical thinker to have a big influence on me, but Martin Gardner was close behind him."

Martin Gardner, 1914-2010

EvolutionBlog May 23, 2010

"Losing Gardner is like losing Isaac Asimov, Stephen Jay Gould or Carl Sagan. He will be sorely missed."

I learned all my interesting math from Martin Gardner...

Greg Laden's Blog May 23, 2010

"Here is a sampling of his works. He published dozens of books, so this is a very loose sample."

Tags
math

More like this

Martin Gardner, 1914-2010
Martin Gardner has died at the age of 95. He was a prolific writer in three different areas: mathematics, magic and debunking pseudoscience. Since those happen to be three of my favorite things in life you can imagine how big a fan I was of his writing. His book Puzzles From Other Worlds made a…
Martin Gardner
Martin Gardner has passed away at age 95. I fondly remember going back through the back issues of "Scientific American" as a kid and devouring Gardner's "Mathematical Recreations" column (along with the similar columns written by Hofstadter and Dewdney.) If I have any mathematical skills, I…
Gathering for Gardner 9
Don't see this at very many math conferences: This is from the Gathering for Gardner, which took place last week in Atlanta. That's Martin Gardner, who wrote the “Mathematical Games” column in Scientific American for thirty years. He also wrote prolifically about magic and psuedoscience. Or…
Free to a good home: science books!
Loyal ScienceBlogs reader Dr. Kim D. Gainer is moving to a newly-renovated office (Yay!) that is smaller than her current office -- which means that some of the goodies on her bookshelves are in need of new homes. That's where you come in. She writes: If folks would like any of these books, they…