The Poincaré Conjecture

seems to have been solved by Grisha Perelman, a Russian mathematician, who, as you can see from the report is somewhat of an outsider within (surely that should be without, as in the hymn we used to sing at junior school) mathematical circles, and has refused the Fields medal. He will also, no doubt, turn down the prize from the Clay Institute (those of you with better memories will remember that I posted about this conjecture as one of the Millenium Problems), and for this and the purity of his mathematical and inquisitive spirit I salute him. My mother would question as to why, if he can solve a problem like this, he can't do the basic maths to work out that a million dollars would be good for his bank account, but what can you do?