I had a good friend in graduate school who was obsessed with prime numbers. He spent all his free time graphing the primes in various ways trying to convince all of us that there was an underlying structure to their distribution.
Sagan in his book Contact plays around with the old Pythagorean idea that mathematical ideas are hard coded into reality – by understanding the structure a mathematical constant like pi we can see the hand of God.
According to the article below, perhaps Sagan wasn’t so far off…
WSJ.com – Science Journal: “The Riemann hypothesis now has been shown to underlie a plethora of puzzles in physics and math. The pattern of his magical exponents is related to the energies of particles in atomic nuclei, the energies of waves that fit precisely on geometric surfaces that describe space in Einstein’s general theory of relativity, waiting times on bank lines and even how many cards you have to move to order the hand you’re dealt in bridge. Why that should be so is — depending how you look at it — a coincidence, a profound truth of nature, or proof that God has a sense of humor. “
