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References: Science, Math, and Ideas

  1. Zero - MacTutor History of Mathematics, University of St Andrews - A careful history of zero as a placeholder and as a number, from Babylon and the Maya to Brahmagupta, Baghdad and Fibonacci. Read it to see why historians say no single person "invented" zero.

  2. Indian numerals - MacTutor History of Mathematics, University of St Andrews - Traces the digits from Brahmi numerals to place value, including the earliest dated documents and the Gwalior inscription of 876 CE.

  3. Arabic numerals - MacTutor History of Mathematics, University of St Andrews - Follows the digits from South Asia through Baghdad, al-Khwarizmi and North Africa to Europe, with a clear timeline of dates.

  4. Madhava of Sangamagrama - MacTutor History of Mathematics, University of St Andrews - A biography of the founder of the Kerala School, with his infinite series for pi, sine and cosine, and an honest discussion of what is and isn't known.

  5. Carbon dating finds Bakhshali manuscript contains oldest recorded origins of the symbol 'zero' - Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford (2017) - The original 2017 announcement about the Bakhshali manuscript. Read it alongside the 2024 report below to see how the claim changed.

  6. Radiocarbon dating of the Bakhshālī manuscript - Chivall, Lladó-Buisán, Howell and Evison, Oxford University Research Archive (2024) - The revised radiocarbon results for five leaves, dating them to roughly the late 700s to early 1000s CE. A real example of scientists correcting an earlier result.

  7. Ayurvedic Medicine: In Depth - National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NIH) - What Ayurveda is, what research has and hasn't shown, and why some products can be unsafe. A reliable starting point before believing any health claim.

  8. Yoga: Effectiveness and Safety - National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NIH) - Summarizes what research says yoga may help with, where the evidence is weak, and how to practice safely.

  9. Sir C. V. Raman: Facts - The Nobel Prize - Official facts about Raman's 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics, his birthplace and his work on the scattering of light.

  10. An ancient wind-powered iron smelting technology in Sri Lanka - Gill Juleff, Nature 379 (1996) - The research paper (abstract free to read) that showed how ancient Sri Lankan furnaces used monsoon winds to make high-carbon steel.