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Math is Murder (2012) |
 | Robert C. Brigham / James B. Reed |
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This is a murder mystery co-written by an emeritus math professor and a retired crime scene investigator. The victim was an egotistical and unpleasant mathematics department chair who seems to have resolved... (more)
Last Changed: 2013-05-06 08:18:22 |
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Odds Against Tomorrow (2013) |
 | Nathaniel Rich |
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Mitchell Zukor is a statistician and probabilist whose area of expertise is the prediction of disasters. To many people, including the reporter/narrator, this makes him a humorous and pathetic number... (more)
Last Changed: 2013-04-14 14:11:42 |
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The Zero Theorem (2013) |
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| Pat Rushin (screenplay) / Terry Gilliam (director) |
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Thanks to Brenton Lemesurier for pointing out this film directed by Monty Python's Gilliam and expected to be released December 2013. According to Wikipedia, it is about a computer programmer who "works to solve the Zero Theorem – a mathematical formula which will finally determine whether life has any meaning." (more)
Last Changed: 2013-04-12 08:46:14 |
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Mr. Churchill's Secretary (2012) |
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| Susan Elia MacNeal |
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After graduating with a degree in mathematics from Wellesley, Maggie Hope plans to go on to graduate studies at MIT, but her plans change unexpectedly when a letter from England gets her instead looking... (more)
Last Changed: 2013-04-10 11:02:06 |
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Princess Elizabeth's Spy: A Maggie Hope Mystery (2012) |
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| Susan Elia MacNeal |
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Maggie Hope is assigned to stay with the royal family. As we know from her first appearance in Mr. Churchill's Secretary, Maggie has an undergraduate degree in mathematics from Wellesley and was about... (more)
Last Changed: 2013-04-10 09:41:12 |
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The Mystic Cipher (2009) |
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| Dennis Mangrum |
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When an ex-Army Ranger finds a mysterious coded document on his farm purporting to be the key to the location of a hidden treasure, he enlists the aid of his daughter, a math student. There is stereotypical... (more)
Last Changed: 2013-03-24 13:57:19 |
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The Crimson Cipher (2010) |
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| Susan Page Davis |
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A code breaker seeks to solve the mystery of the murder of her father, a math professor who had been working on an encryption device at the beginning of World War I in this "Christian adventure/romance". (more)
Last Changed: 2013-03-24 13:42:19 |
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Flame War: A Cyberthriller (1997) |
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| Joshua Quittner /Michelle Slatalla |
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A brilliant math professor invents a code that even the government will not be able to break. When he dies in an explosion, his daughter and the law student who (unknowingly) delivered the bomb that killed him work together to bring the killers to justice. (more)
Last Changed: 2013-03-24 13:03:52 |
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Sine of the Magus [aka The Magicians] (1954) |
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| James Gunn |
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A private detective is hired to track a magician who turns out not to be an expert at "tricks", but a real and powerful wizard. This is one of those works (see the "similars" list below) in which magic... (more)
Last Changed: 2013-02-19 15:28:17 |
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Getting Rid of Fluff (1908) |
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| Ellis Parker Butler |
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A humorous story in which two men formulate a mathematical "law of scared dogs" to help in frightening away an annoying dog named Fluff.
"I bet if Sir Isaac Newon had had Fluff as long as you have had... (more)
Last Changed: 2013-02-11 19:23:02 |
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To Walk the Night (1937) |
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| William Sloane |
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A beautifully written horror tale in which vague references to equations are used to explain the mysterious death of a researcher who believed he proved Einstein wrong and the subsequent suicide of his colleague. The book is narrated in a quaintly old-fashioned style by the colleague's best friend and a key character is the lovely but apparently inhuman woman who was married to each victim. (more)
Last Changed: 2013-02-06 09:20:36 |
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The Axiom of Choice (2011) |
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| David W. Goldman |
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A ``choose-your-own-adventure'' story about a guitarist who must face the consequences of his decision to take a plane ride that ended in disaster. A brief but very nice discussion of The Axiom of Choice... (more)
Last Changed: 2013-01-23 18:48:41 |
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The Universal Library [Die Universalbibliothek] (1901) |
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| Kurd Lasswitz |
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This early "science fiction" story explores the notion of a library containing every possible five hundred page book and an English translation appears in the classic mathematical fiction collection Fantasia... (more)
Last Changed: 2013-01-10 08:00:25 |
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The Forever Marriage (2012) |
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| Ann Bauer |
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The unlikeable and unfaithful wife of a math professor only learns to appreciate the husband she never loved after his untimely death. The mathematician is humble but otherwise stereotypically brilliant (offered full professorships immediately upon receiving his PhD), unemotional and unromantic. (more)
Last Changed: 2013-01-06 19:58:39 |
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The Translated Man (2009) |
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| Chris Braak |
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Since the horrific Excelsior disaster, the subject of aetheric geometry has been banned. The ethical dilema for a young psychic is whether he should reveal to the detective he is assisting the tremendous... (more)
Last Changed: 2013-01-06 12:24:38 |
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Der Rechenmeister [aka The Mathematician] (1999) |
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| Dieter Jörgensen |
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When I browsed through your list I found one book missing that I have in my library: "Der Rechenmeister" by Dieter Jörgensen is a novel describing the life of Niccolo Tartaglia in Venice and his battle... (more)
Last Changed: 2012-11-25 19:25:00 |
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Macroscope (1969) |
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| Piers Anthony |
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A "hard SF" novel by Piers Anthony, who usually writes fantasy, in which mathematics forms a basis of communication between humans and intelligent aliens. In addition, the topological game "sprouts" is... (more)
Last Changed: 2012-10-29 10:14:29 |
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The Infinite Tides (2012) |
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| Christian Kiefer |
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A somber novel about an astronaut whose daughter dies tragically and wife leaves him while he is in space. Since he and his daughter were both mathematical prodigies, for whom math was not only a beloved... (more)
Last Changed: 2012-10-25 14:34:09 |
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The Mathematician (1967) |
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| Will Manson |
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Despite the title, there is almost no math in this pulpy spy story. Its Cold War nationalism and sexism date it somewhat, but it is fine as light entertainment, with danger, romance, and a "twist ending".
The... (more)
Last Changed: 2012-10-22 15:32:40 |
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Moment of Madness (2002) |
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| Una-Mary Parker |
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When her father, a brilliant but somewhat twisted mathematical statistician, dies unexpectedly, a woman is forced by his will to distribute valuable jewels to all of the women with whom he has cheated... (more)
Last Changed: 2012-08-09 16:56:55 |
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Bianca (1984) |
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| Nanni Moretti (director and screenplay) |
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A math teacher (played by Nanni Moretti himself) has odd obsessions and compulsions in this film, including his crush on colleague Bianca. Although his anti-social behavior seems to be destroying his... (more)
Last Changed: 2012-07-20 17:09:17 |
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The Flight That Disappeared (1961) |
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| Reginald Le Borg (Director) |
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An unsuspecting mathematician and some scientists are taken to another dimension where they stand trial for their involvement in the creation of horrible weapons. Perhaps during the Cold War and before... (more)
Last Changed: 2012-07-20 16:57:52 |
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Furuhata Ninzaburô (Episode 13) (1995) |
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| Kôki Mitani |
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In the last episode of the first season of this popular Japanese detective show, the inspector must solve the mystery of the murder of an award-winning mathematician. It turns out that the murderer was... (more)
Last Changed: 2012-07-20 16:37:03 |
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A Very Peculiar Practice (1986) |
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| Andrew Davies |
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In this television series about a medical doctor at a British university, a recurring character during the first season was a mathematician who was the doctor's roommate, Chen. Their "flat" was therefore... (more)
Last Changed: 2012-07-19 17:23:11 |
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Homage (1995) |
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| Ross Kagan Marks (director) / Mark Medoff (screenplay) |
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This film (and the 1994 play "The Homage that Follows" on which it was based) explores the mind of a murderer, who in this case happens to be a man with a Ph.D. in mathematics. He turns down a position... (more)
Last Changed: 2012-07-19 15:53:23 |
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Perry Rhodan 2638: Zielpunkt Morpheus-System (2012) |
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| Marc A. Herren |
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The long-running German science fiction series Perry Rhodan recently ran a contest whose winner, a certain Martin Felten, was included in issue number 2638 as a space actuary and inventor of a five-dimensional... (more)
Last Changed: 2012-07-19 08:54:08 |
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Doing our Babbage (1992) |
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| Ira Slobodien |
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The mind of 19th century mathematician Charles Babbage is brought back to life in electronic/mechanical form, becomes involved in a kinky "love rectangle" with the three scientists responsible (two women... (more)
Last Changed: 2012-07-11 09:18:09 |
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The Secret Number (2000) |
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| Igor Teper |
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In this very cute story, a mathematician who believes that there is an integer between 3 and 4 tries to convince his psychiatrist that he is not crazy. The idea is not very deep, but it is well handled... (more)
Last Changed: 2012-07-03 12:35:00 |
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Excision (2012) |
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| Richard Bates Jr (Director and Screenwriter) |
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I watched a horror-and-coming-of-age film (think an arty version of "Carrie") called "Excision" last weekend, and was delighted to find that it had in it Malcolm McDowell in it, playing a high school... (more)
Last Changed: 2012-06-24 15:06:37 |
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The Mathematics of Nina Gluckstein (1985) |
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| Esther Vilar |
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When Argentina's most famous singer dies in an accident during a concert, his unpopular wife, Nina Gluckstein, commits suicide. Yet, since public opinion of her was so low (and perhaps because she was... (more)
Last Changed: 2012-06-21 15:09:34 |
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