Count Down by Steve Olson, Houghton Mifflin, $24, ISBN 0618251413 Reviewed by Elizabeth Sourbut
EVERY year the best teenage mathematicians in the world fight it out at the International Mathematical Olympiad. The six problems they are given to work on do not require advanced techniques, but they are very, very hard. Answering them requires insight, creativity, talent, knowledge and persistence. In this highly readable account Steve Olson asks how these teenagers develop their problem-solving abilities. Are they natural-born geniuses or were their skills developed by their circumstances?
The nature-nurture debate is an old one, but Olson gives it fresh life.…
