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This database contains more than 18,000 peer reviewed life sciences protocols, including video protocols, with 2,000 added each year.

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What is Pi?

Pi, represented by the Greek letter π, is the mathematical constant for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter and is approximately equal to 3.14159.  As an irrational number, it continues infinitely without any repeating decimal pattern. 

The earliest known record of this constant dates back to 1650 B.C. when an Egyptian scribe named Ahmes wrote about the relationship between the circle and its diameter and came up with a mathematical approximation of 256/81, or 3.1605.  In 1706, a Welsh mathematician named William Jones proposed that the symbol π be used to represent the circle ratio.  Throughout history, mathematicians from all over the world have attempted to calculate pi to more decimal places.  According to the Guinness World Records (2007, p. 150), Yasumasa Kanada of Japan holds the world record.  It took him 400 hours using a Hitachi supercomputer to calculate pi to 1,241,100,000 places.

What is Pi Day?

Pi Day was first celebrated in 1988 at the San Francisco Exploratorium by its founder Larry Shaw.  On Pi Day, people all over the world celebrate the history and significance of this constant in some very interesting and creative ways:

• Eating all varieties of pies including dessert pies and pizza pies
• Holding contests to see who can memorize the most digits of pi
• Converting all sorts of measurements into pi using 3.14 as a unit of measure
• Playing pie in the face games
• Running pi miles
• Viewing the movie Pi by Darren Aronofsky about a mathematician who is obsessed with calculating and understanding mathematical mysteries
• Beading a pi string to represent the never ending value of pi
• Writing a Pi-Ku (a haiku about pi) 

Reciting Pi by Memory

Akira Haraguchi, a Japanese mental-health counselor, claims that in the fall of 2006, he accurately recited pi to 100,000 decimal places in 16 hours.  He does not hold the Guinness world record, though, having not submitted the documentation.  The official record holder is Chao Lu, a Chinese chemistry student, who recited 67,890 digits in a little over 24 hours in 2005.

Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson  [QC16 .E5 I76 2007]

Introduction to Polymer Chemistry by Charles E. Carraher Jr.  [QD381 .C37 2007]

Why Darwin Matters:  The Case Against Intelligent Design by Michael Shermer  [QH366.2 .S494 2006]

Silent Deep:  The Discovery, Ecology, and Conservation of the Deep Sea by J. Anthony Koslow  [QH541.5.D35 K67 2007]

Under a Green Sky:  Global Warming, the Mass Extinctions of the Past, and What They Mean for Our Future by Peter D. Ward  [QE721.2.E97 W384 2007]

Terra: Our 100 Million Year Old Ecosystem and the Threats that Now Put It at Risk by Michael Novacek  [QE721.2.E97 N68 2007]

Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning by Christopher M. Bishop  [Q327 .B52 2006]

Greene’s Protective Groups in Organic Synthesis by Peter G. M. Wuts  [QD262 .G665 2007]

Poincare’s Prize: The Hundred Year Quest to Solve One of Math’s Greatest Puzzles by George Szpiro  [QA43 .S985 2007]

Making Sense of Data: A Practical Guide to Exploratory Data Analysis and Data Mining by Glenn J. Myatt  [QA276 .M92 2007]

Global Warming: Understanding the Forecast by David Archer  [QC981.8.G56 A73 2007]

To learn more about the life, work, and influence of Charles Darwin, check out the books below available at Sterne Library.

Charles Darwin: The Man and His Influence by Peter Bowler  [QH31.D2 B743 1991]

Darwin by Adrian Desmond and James Moore  [QH31.D2 D47 1994]

Cambridge Companion to Darwin by Jonathan Hodge and Gregory Radick  [QH31.D2 C185 2003]

Darwin for Beginners by Jonathan Miller and Borin Van Loon  [QH31.D2 M54 1982]

From So Simple a Beginning (four works) by Charles Darwin  [QH365.A1 2006]

Indelible Stamp: The Evolution of an Idea (four works) by Charles Darwin [QH365.A1 2005]

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You can sign up for a research clinic or a citation clinic using the online forms or by calling 934-6364.  You can also contact Jennifer Long, the Science Librarian, directly at jmlong@uab.edu to schedule a session.

Electronic access for the computer science collection covers 2005 to 2008 and for the Lecture Notes in Computer Science book series covers 1997 to 2008.

The eBooks are available through Springer Link by clicking on Computer Science under Subject Collection.  Accessible content is indicated by a green square next to the item.  Please contact Jennifer Long at jmlong@uab.edu for more information about the Springer eBooks collection for computer science.