Leonhard Euler, the Mozart of mathematics 
In the book Mathematics for all , published by Polity Press, the British mathematician journalist Ziauddin Sardar writes, "is like if society is divided into two classes of individuals. The smart ones who understand the math and the rest of us "to add then that life without math would be" inconceivable, as is the language that advances in science and technology. " The problem is that the mathematics required "technique and talent," like any other human ability, "such as dance," says the British mathematician. Therefore, as only the first figures are perfectly capable of running a ballet in a "sophisticated, fine," the proof of a theorem, Sardar concludes, can "Be smart and beautiful in the hands of a mathematical genius." One is Leonhard Euler (1707 - 1783 ), last year it celebrated its birth.
"There is no book of mathematics, physics or engineering where there is the name of Euler" recognizes the professor of mechanics at the Polytechnic University of Alicante, José Francisco Rubio Verdú. Thus, "it is unfair ignorance about his life and work within the world of culture," laments the teacher is like "erase from collective memory contributions to the music of Mozart or the philosophy of Voltaire or painting de Goya. "
"Euler has a work written over eight hundred," says the professor of History of Science at the University of Alicante, Antonio García Belmar, not just mathematics itself covers subjects such as geometry, algebra or analysis ", but that contributions to physics, astronomy, mechanics, hydraulics, marine engineering or artillery are" very important, not quantity but quality, "says Belmont.
The Swiss mathematician and physicist Emil A. Fellmann, author of a biography of his illustrious compatriot, published by Birkhäuser says that "his ideas were at the head of the mathematical world of the time." Their formulas are used today, either in the design of the "hull or sails of ships or the structure of a building or a bridge," he writes Fellmann. Branches of mathematics such as calculus of variations, the modern theory of numbers or analytical mechanics are the work of this genius of Basel, therefore, as a scientist should be placed "at the same level as Newton and Einstein," concludes the author of the book.
Reading this biography portrays the life of a man who loved peace and quiet of a home life. Always surrounded by his children and grandchildren playing with them at the same time solve complicated mathematical problems. It is said that he could do with twenty decimal operations and reviewed today with modern calculators is not a failure. His classical training made him recite the Aeneid or the Odyssey, and he mastered Latin and Greek. There was a man who liked to frequent the salons where the nobility met with intellectuals of the time, preferred to work rested at home with his family. This
joined his strong religious convictions. Fellmann narrates as being in St. Petersburg in 1773, Euler coincided with the French philosopher Denis Diderot who, atheist, boasted of being able to refute any argument to prove the existence of God. Euler knew that the philosopher was not interested in math, so during dinner and before many witnesses, Euler said, "than b raised to the n, all of n, equal to x, therefore God exists. Respond. " Not knowing what to say, Diderot was so ridiculed that two days later returned to France.
2007, a year of celebrations
Throughout 2007, recalled in his hometown as it passes through it. From concerts were held in the church where he was baptized, to conferences, conventions and exhibitions on his life and work in University where he studied. Another initiative has been to demonstrate the mathematics attitude of the citizens of Basel by a particular contest. Throughout the year on buses and trams in the city have hung posters on the proposed mathematical problems for travelers. The solutions are sent by email to the organization that awards a prize for the most original, while the published on its official website .
At the same Web page, there is also a list of commemorative events held throughout the world. These activities range from the serious to the most playful. Among latter emphasizes the Sodokus contest organized at the Swiss embassy in Japan. With this act, is to remember that it was the Swiss mathematician one of the first to study this popular Japanese pastime, known in his day as "Latin Squares."
Over the years, the tomb of the mathematician in the cemetery of St. Petersburg is a must for scientists and engineers around the world, participants at scientific conferences held in the Baltic city. This has been the ultimate goal of the study Euler tour, a study tour through the cities where he lived and work the distinguished mathematician, organized by one of the most prestigious associations of mathematicians Americans, Mathematical Association of America , to celebrate this anniversary.
Spain celebrates a meeting organized by the research group in the History of Science and Technology Department of Applied Mathematics I, Technical University of Catalonia. The professor of this department and member of scientific committee of the congress, Antoni Roca-Rosell, recognizes that the objectives of this meeting is not only "to commemorate the birthday of Euler" but convey to the participants, through his monumental work, that mathematics is "a useful science, dynamic, and interdisciplinary human."
An illustrated life
Swiss Academy of Sciences has promoted the publication of a comic book with the title Leonhard Euler. A Man to Be With Reckoner (Leonhard Euler. A man to consider) edited by the publisher Birkhäuser. The text has been borne by the brothers Andreas and Alice K. Heyne and has been illustrated by Elena S. Pini. With this issue, conducted in German and English, is to disseminate to youth and adult life of the genius of Basel.
Early childhood vignettes tell Leonhard at his father, a Calvinist pastor, annoyed constantly questions his precocious son, more interested in knowing why a top tour or float a boat, than playing with a wooden horse. This curiosity continues when the young Euler entered the University to receive an education on the use of the time, where not only studied mathematics, but of theology, medicine, astronomy, physics and oriental languages. Despite finishing with excellent grades at the University, you can not get a professorship in Basel. So, in 1727, returns to Russia to work at the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg.
The comic continues, picture by picture, narrating as lost vision in one eye by excessive trabajo en 1735 o su traslado a la Academia de Ciencias de Berlín en 1741 por la delicada situación política de Rusia. La estancia de Euler durante veinticinco años en la corte prusiana, se resume con una serie de ilustraciones, que cuentan los variopintos problemas que tenía que resolver a petición del rey Federico el Grande de Prusia, tales como conseguir que los surtidores de las fuentes del palacio subieran hasta 30 metros, complicados problemas de artillería o la lucrativa forma de realizar una lotería.
Esta historia gráfica prosigue con Euler regresando de nuevo a Rusia con su familia en 1766, tras un accidentado viaje con naufragio incluido. Nada más llegar pierde la visión del otro ojo, a causa de unas cataracts, so it spent the last seventeen years of his life with total blindness, in any case, we drove down its pace. The penultimate bullet shows the Swiss mathematician's death in 1783 while drinking tea and studying the laws of the ascension of balloons.
reserve the last drawing the comic to show his monumental work, some scholars is surrounded by boxes containing manuscripts of Euler file in a bubble reads: "The genius of Basel, where he died at age 76, had calculated and written so many people from 1907 until now, have been engaged in the publication of his complete works but ... still for a while! "
Juan Miguel Suay Belenguer
If you ever wondered as they did our ancestors 30,000 years ago, the answer has given Robert McCarthy, an anthropologist at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton (USA), has managed to reproduce the voice would be like a Neanderthal, as published in NewScientist . 
Neanderthal Speech 
