[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 6]
[House]
[Pages 7919-7920]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  COMMENDING MATHEMATICAL BREAKTHROUGH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 4, 2007, the gentleman from California (Mr. McNerney) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McNERNEY. Madam Speaker, the American Institute of Mathematics, 
MIT, Cornell University, University of Michigan, University of Utah, 
and the University of Maryland together created a mathematical 
breakthrough this week made possible by congressional support of the 
National Science Foundation.
  The breakthrough involves defining the detailed structure of a 
geometric object called E8, the largest of the exceptional Lie groups 
used to study symmetry. E8, one of the most complicated structures ever 
studied, is a 248-dimensional Lie group used to explore the symmetries 
of a 57-dimensional object. Mapping out such an object is a magnificent 
achievement of the human mind.
  Connections between E8 and string theory indicate that physical 
applications of E8 will eventually emerge.
  The participants are to be commended for their work that has expanded 
the limits of human knowledge and brings hitherto unknown beauty and 
power to grace our human condition.

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