I don’t understand the animus here. A young person has solved a long-standing open problem with a clever construction, which deserves to be celebrated. Quanta articles rarely explain proof techniques: they play a specific journalistic role roughly at the old Scientific American level, for readers who want to feel they got a taste of the ideas. I know a little about knot and manifold invariants, and they can be introduced at a level accessible to high schoolers, but this isn’t what Quanta does… this would require an entire article of equal or greater length. How about learning about her proof and writing an accessible exposition?
Another question is: what does Piccirillo teach to students whom she is interested in attracting to her research group? The answer to this question could lead to a better article for the general public to read.
She doesn’t have students yet, because she just graduated. Cris
On May 23, 2020, at 10:45 PM, Brad Klee <bradklee@gmail.com> wrote:
From what the story seems to say, this construction was the main insight to completing the proof. So why not make the article an opportunity to talk more about similar constructions? (and give easier examples?)
All the article says is: <<Constructing trace siblings is a tricky business, but Piccirillo was an expert. “That’s just, like, a trade I’m in,” she said. “So I just went home and did it.”>>
It could help to read all references and backtrack, but with trades come trade secrets. Not only that, Piccirillo must have some sort of special perspective, which isn't easily available to the public.
Another question is: what does Piccirillo teach to students whom she is interested in attracting to her research group? The answer to this question could lead to a better article for the general public to read.
--Brad
On Sat, May 23, 2020 at 10:27 PM Allan Wechsler <acwacw@gmail.com> wrote:
I was mostly admiring the structure of the "trace sibling" she constructed
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