Manifold Destiny

Manifold Destiny

"Manifold Destiny" is an article in The New Yorker written by Sylvia Nasar and David Gruber and published in the August 28, 2006 issue of the magazine. It claims to give a detailed account (including interviews with many mathematicians) of some of the circumstances surrounding the proof of the Poincaré conjecture, one of the most important accomplishments of 20th and 21st century mathematics, and traces the attempts by three teams of mathematicians to verify the proof given by Grigori Perelman.

Subtitled "A legendary problem and the battle over who solved it", the article concentrates on the human drama of the story, especially the discussion on who contributed how much to the proof of the Poincaré conjecture. Interwoven with the article is an interview with the reclusive mathematician Grigori Perelman, whom the authors tracked down to the St. Petersburg apartment he shares with his mother, as well as interviews with many mathematicians. The article describes Perelman's disillusionment with and withdrawal from the mathematical community and paints an unflattering portrait of the 1982 Fields Medalist, Shing-Tung Yau. Yau and others have disputed the accuracy of the article.

The article was selected for inclusion in the book The Best American Science Writing 2007. Sylvia Nasar is best known for her biography of John Forbes Nash, A Beautiful Mind. David Gruber is a PhD recipient and graduate of Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, who also wrote (with Vincent Pieribone) Aglow in the Dark, published by Harvard University Press.