Too much contemplation of the infinite can damage your health. Amir Aczel, in
The Mystery of the Aleph, makes this clear in what is mostly the
biography of the celebrated George Cantor, who became intermittently mad while
grappling with the rarefied mathematics of transfinite numbers. Theoretical
mathematicians will revel in this well-written, witty book and even
non-mathematicians will be carried along by a narrative with the pace of a
thriller. Published by Four Walls Eight Windows, $24.95, ISBN
156858105X.
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