One of my New Year’s resolutions is to make this blog more interactive. To do this, I’ll be using Wolfram’s computable document format (CDF). You don’t need Mathematica to interact with CDF files, but you do need a free player.

A couple of months ago, we wrote a post on how to use finite difference methods to numerically solve partial differential equations in Mathematica. Several readers have asked for more details about the method.

Art Heist Last week, burglars stole seven paintings from the Kunsthal museum in Rotterdam. The paintings included works by Picasso, Monet, Gauguin, and Matisse. The loot is likely worth hundreds of millions of dollars, but the loss of these great pieces surpasses anything that can be calculated as a monetary figure.