Dewdney, A.K. 1941–

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Dewdney, A.K. 1941–

(Alexander Keewatin Dewdney)

PERSONAL: Born August 5, 1941, in London, Ontario, Canada: son of Selwyn Hanington (an artist) and Irene Maude (a therapist) Dewdney; married Patricia Pegg (a professor), May 22, 1965; children: Jonathan Woods-worth. Education: University of western Ontario, B.A. (with honors), 1964; University of Waterloo, M.A., 1965, Ph.D., 1975; attended University of Michigan, 1965–68. Hobbies and other interests: Conservation, including broadband biosurveys and forest regeneration.

ADDRESSES: Home—42 Askin St., London, Ontario, Canada N6C 1E4. Office—Department of Computer Science, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5B7. Agent—Linda McKnight, Westwood Creative Artists, 94 Harboard St., Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1G6. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Computer scientist, educator, and writer. University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada, lecturer, 1968–74, assistant professor, 1974–77, associate professor, 1977–96; professor emeritus, 1996–; University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, professor, 2000–04, professor emeritus, 2004–. Turing Omnibus, Inc., president; Newport Forest conservation area, owner and operator, Ontario, Canada. Near East Cultural and Educational Foundation, Toronto, Ontario, member, 1983–; Algorithm, editor and founder, 1989–93; Mixedwood Plain Ecological Science Committee (Environment Canada), member, 1994–98, appointed coordinator, 1998; Springwater Forest Protection Committee, Catfish Creek Conservation Authority, Aylmer, Ontario, member,1996–97; McIlwraith Field Naturalists, member, London, Ontario, April, 1996–. Also maker of short films: Scissors, 1967; Four Girls, 1967; The Maltese Cross Movement, 1967; and Wildwood Flower, 1973.

MEMBER: Ecological Society of America, Ontario Puma Foundation, McIlwraith Field Naturalists.

AWARDS, HONORS: University of Waterloo teaching fellowship, 1964–65; University of Michigan teaching fellowship, 1965–68; Canadian Artists '68 Exhibition non-narrative film category winner, 1967, for the film The Maltese Cross Movement; Environmental Citizenship Award, Environment Canada, 2000; Conservatino Award, Carolinian Canada, 2001.

WRITINGS:

The Planiverse: Computer Contact with a Two-Dimensional World (fiction), Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1984, reprinted, Copernicus (New York, NY), 2001.

The Armchair Universe: An Exploration of Computer Worlds, W.H. Freeman (New York, NY), 1986.

The Turing Omnibus: 61 Excursions in Computer Science, Computer Science Press (Rockville, MD), 1988.

The Magic Machine: A Handbook of Computer Sorcery, W.H. Freeman (New York, NY), 1990.

200% of Nothing: An Eye-opening Tour Through the Twists and Turns of Math Abuse and Innumeracy, Wiley (New York, NY), 1993.

The New Turing Omnibus: 66 Excursions in Computer Science, Computer Science Press (New York, NY), 1993.

The Tinkertoy Computer and Other Machinations, W.H. Freeman (New York, NY), 1993.

Introductory Computer Science: Bits of Theory, Bytes of Practice, Computer Science Press (New York, NY), 1996.

(Editor) Daylight in the Swamp: Memoirs of Selwyn Dewdney, Dundurn Press (Buffalo, NY), 1997.

Yes, We Have No Neutrons: An Eye-Opening Tour through the Twists and Turns of Bad Science, Wiley (New York, NY), 1997.

Hungry Hollow: The Story of a Natural Place, Copernicus (New York, NY), 1998.

A Mathematical Mystery Tour: Discovering the Truth and Beauty of the Cosmos, Wiley (New York, NY), 1999.

Beyond Reason: Eight Great Problems that Reveal the Limits of Science, Wiley (Hoboken, NJ), 2004.

Contributor to professional journals, including Manuscripta Math, Biological Bulletin, Theoretical Population Biology, Acta Oecologogica, Discrete Math, Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society, Utilitas Math, and Pattern Recognition. Contributor to periodicals, including the Science Terrapin, Mathematical Intelligencer, and Scientific American.

WORK IN PROGRESS: A book about the Newport Forest.

SIDELIGHTS: In his first book, The Planiverse: Computer Contact with a Two-Dimensional World, A.K. Dewdney creates a fictional story about a computer simulated world created in the classroom by a college professor's students. The world ends up linking the group with a two-dimensional creature named Yendred, whom the students can see on their computer screen. While the students quiz Yendred about his world, the creature goes on a quest into another part of his seemingly limited two-dimensionial world. "The Planiverse is witty and unusual and strangely compelling," wrote Robert Eckhardt in PC magazine. It is "a window into the mind of one of the most creative computer writers today." The reviewer added: "It is, too, a delightful fantasy."

In The Turing Omnibus: 61 Excursions in Computer Science, the author provides an overview of computer science knowledge circa 1990, focusing both on theory and practice with an emphasis on a specific topic in each of the sixty-one chapters. Writing in Newsbytes, Barbara E. McMullen and John F. McMullen noted that they thought the book was "both stimulating and enjoyable." Dewdney has also written numerous articles for Scientific American and presents a collection of these articles in his book The Armchair Universe: An Exploration of Computer Worlds. The majority of the articles focus on various aspects of computer programming.

Yes, We Have No Neutrons: An Eye-Opening Tour Through the Twists and Turns of Bad Science is an historical look at "bad science" through the ages. From ancient scientists to modern physicists, Dewdney reveals how many researchers failed because they did not conduct good experiments or publish their work for peer review. The author also points out that the competitiveness of scientists to be "the first" has also played a crucial role in bad science. The author provides eight notorious examples that illustrate science gone wrong. "Written with wit and a touch of pathos—and sure to please science lovers," wrote a Publishers Weekly contributor. Gilbert Taylor, writing in Booklist, noted that the author's story is "expounded in an engaging, conversational manner."

Dewdney reveals his passion for the natural world in Hungry Hollow: The Story of a Natural Place. Focusing on three natural areas near his home in Canada, the author explores an upland forest, a creek, and the creek's floodplain by combining both nonfiction and fictional elements in the forms of creatures he follows to tell his story. Rebecca L. Saxer, writing in Bioscience, noted that "it is … fascinating for the reader to share in the experiences and thoughts of the numerous characters." Booklist contributor Nancy Bent called the book "engaging reading."

In A Mathematical Mystery Tour: Discovering the Truth and Beauty of the Cosmos, Dewdney explores the theoretical and philosophical ideas of math's surprising ability to describe the universe and ponders whether the reality of math has always existed or whether it is something humans invented that happens to apply to the universe. A Publishers Weekly contributor commented that the book is "an amenable introduction to a difficult subject." Jack W. Weigel, writing in the Library Journal, called it "an excellent popular introduction to some fundamental questions in the philosophy of science."

Dewdney carries on these mathematical ponderings in Beyond Reason: Eight Great Problems That Reveal the Limits of Science. This time he sets out to answer his questions about mathematics' relationship with the universe by focusing on problems both in the physical and mathematical realms that cannot be solved and involve such areas of science and research as perpetual motion and the chaos theory. In a review in Publishers Weekly a contributor wrote: "The topics he discusses are largely of great interest to science and math buffs." Bryce Christensen, writing in Booklist, noted that the book is "rigorous enough to challenge intelligent readers but not so daunting as to overwhelm the nonspecialist."

Dewdney once told CA: "Apart from a continuing interest in popular mathematical and computer nonfiction projects, I also write science fiction. I am currently realigning my focus as a writer of nonfiction to include all of science. This more accurately reflects my rather broad experimental and theoretical background in a variety of scientific disciplines."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Scientist, March-April, 1998, Malcolm J. Sherman, review of Yes, We Have No Neutrons: An Eye-Opening Tour Through the Twists and Turns of Bad Science, p. 200.

BioScience, October, 1999, Rebecca L. Saxer, review of Hungry Hollow: The Story of a Natural Place, p. 841.

Booklist, April 1, 1997, Gilbert Taylor, review of Yes, We Have No Neutrons, p. 1273; December 1, 1998, Nancy Bent, review of Hungry Hollow, p. 628; April 15, 2004, Bryce Christensen, review of Beyond Reason: Eight Great Problems That Reveal the Limits of Science, p. 1411.

Chemistry and Industry, April 19, 1999, Ian Simmons, review of Yes, We Have No Neutrons, p. 316; January 17, 2005, Ian Simmons, review of Beyond Reason, p. 18.

Discover, December, 1997, review of Yes, We Have No Neutrons, p. 73.

Library Journal, April 1, 1999, Jack W. Weigel, review of A Mathematical Mystery Tour: Discovering the Truth and Beauty of the Cosmos, p. 124.

Newsbytes, May 1, 1990, Barbara E. McMullen and John F. McMullen, review of The Turing Omnibus: 61 Excursions in Computer Science.

PC, October 15, 1985, Robert Eckhardt, review of The Planiverse: Computer Contact with a Two-Dimensional World, p. 264.

Publishers Weekly, March 10, 1997, review of Yes, We Have No Neutrons, p. 59; February 22, 1999, review of A Mathematical Mystery Tour, p. 78; April 5, 2004, review of Beyond Reason, p. 50.

Whole Earth, Review, summer, 1991, Steven Levy, review of The Armchair Universe: An Exploration of Computer Worlds, p. 127.