Author: Ian

After serving as a captain in the US army, Lewis became secretary to President Thomas Jefferson. When Congress approved a plan to find a land route to the Pacific Ocean, Jefferson selected his trusted associate, along with William Clark, to head the expedition. In 1807, Lewis was made governor of the Louisiana Territory. His sudden death—either by murder or suicide—in 1809, while on his way to Washington, DC, is still the subject of controversy. Why have requests to exhume his body been denied? Discuss

A founder of modern probability theory and number theory, Fermat was a French jurist and amateur mathematician. A contemporary of Descartes, he independently discovered the basic principles of analytic geometry. Yet he is best remembered for the assertion now known as Fermat’s Last Theorem, which he scribbled in the margin of a book along with a note stating that he could have shown it to be true but lacked the room in which to write the proof. For how many years did the theorem remain unproven? Discuss

When Mortensen died at the age of 115 years and 252 days, he was the oldest man who had ever lived whose age is undisputed. Mortensen was born in Denmark in 1882 and immigrated to the US in 1903. He worked in various trades until he retired in 1950. Twenty-eight years later, at the age of 96, he reportedly rode his bicycle to a retirement home in San Rafael, California, where he lived for the rest of his life. What advice for living a long life did Mortensen give on his 115th birthday? Discuss