User cotton seed - MathOverflow

Answer by Cotton Seed for Proof formalization

2010-02-25T15:02:57Z

There was a special issue of the Notices of the AMS on Formal Proof in 2008. Freek Wiedijk, who wrote one of the Notices articles, has some good resources on his home page.

Answer by Cotton Seed for What are some famous rejections of correct mathematics?

2010-02-08T01:14:16Z

According to the nLab category theory entry, Eilenberg and Mac Lane's paper introducing category theory, General theory of natural equivalences, was originally rejected before being published.

Answer by Cotton Seed for Too old for advanced mathematics?

2009-11-29T17:35:56Z

Quick answer: No, you are not too old. Yes, such people do exist. It sounds like you're off to a good start. Don't let your age worry you.

I dropped out of college when I was 21 to work as a software engineer. Admittedly my work was technical, but my background in abstract mathematics was basically nonexistent. Two+ years ago, when I was 34, I decided to get a PhD in math. I returned to college to study math, basically from scratch. Like you, I'd learned some math on my own, but I feel I made faster progress in a more structured environment working with people who were also trying to learn math. It was a great decision. I'm now a first year graduate student, well on my way to a second career in math.

Comment by Cotton Seed

2010-03-18T20:07:00Z

CW-complexes are paracompact. Milnor and Stasheff, p. 74, references Miyazaki, H., Paracompactness of CW complexes , Tohoku Math. J. 4 (1952), 309-313 and Dugundji, J., "Topology," Allyn and Bacon, Boston, 1996, p. 419.