ON A fateful night in 1832, French mathematician Evariste Galois scribbled down the details of a new kind of mathematics called group theory. The very next day he died, age 20, shot in a duel over the woman he loved. But his work lived on, becoming one of the foundations of mathematics. Now it seems Galois’ group theory may provide a surprising insight into the nature of the universe itself. And it all comes down to an unlikely suspect: the monster.
The history of the quest to find the monster is detailed in a new book by Mark Ronan (Symmetry…
