Continuing further into the backlog of popular and/or expository science articles I want to highlight is this gem on the origins of coffee. Mmmmm... coffee. (Click on the cover of the magazine for the article's abstract. If you or your institution have appropriate subscriptions, you should be able to access the full text as well.)
According to the article, the first coffeehouse in Europe opened in Venice in 1645 and the second opened in Oxford in 1650. I believe that Queen's Road Cafe is supposed to be in the location of the first one in Oxford (at least according to the claim on their menu... ), though I don't know for sure if there has been one continuously in that location. (Queen's Road's menu seems to claim that this is the case.)
There is no known truth to the rumors that they had iced lattes and wi fi access back in the day. (Actually, I have no idea if they have wi fi access now!).
I'll end this entry with a question: Do you turn coffee into theorems or theorems into coffee?
1 day ago
2 comments:
The unfortunate wording I've heard is:
"A mathematician is a machine that turns coffee into theorems."
"Yeah, and a computer scientist is a machine that turns coffee into urine."
One can always do both.
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