Source code discussion at Hamilton Lecture

ALL MOVEMENT of electronic data is achieved using codes. And attributes that make up a good code come under discussion tonight in Dublin at the annual Hamilton Lecture.

The lecturer this year is Yuri Ivanovich Manin, a pure mathematician based at the Max Planck Mathematics Institute in Germany. Prof Manin, winner of numerous gold medals and international awards, will talk about codes and their limitations.

Since the time of the telegraph and early radio broadcasts codes have been used to send data, said Prof Manin yesterday. Codes were devised that allowed correction of transmission errors automatically.

Yet a balance must be struck between a highly accurate but slow to transmit code and a less accurate fast-to-transmit code, he said. Finding the correct balance was the challenge.

Prof Manin is also a poet. He has published his work and also translations into Russian of poems by WB Yeats and by northern poet Paul Muldoon.

The lecture celebrates the work of William Rowan Hamilton, Ireland’s most famous mathematician/scientist. On this day in 1843 he created quaternions, an advanced form of algebra that ultimately made the moon landings possible, helped advance quantum mechanics and makes characters move realistically in computer games.

This morning nine of Ireland’s top mathematical sciences students receive a prize as part of the Hamilton day activities.

Tonight’s Hamilton Lecture is entitled Silver Lining: codes and clouds. It takes place at 7.30pm at the Gleeson Hall Theatre, DIT Kevin Street. Online booking has ended but some seats will be available at the door. The lecture is free.