Is a solution to one of the most important, beautiful and potentially lucrative problems in mathematics right around the corner?
Not long after Mukhtarbay Otelbaev of the Eurasian National University in Astana, Kazakhstan, last year proposed a solution to the fiendish Navier–Stokes equations1, which carry a US$1 million bounty, he acknowledged he had made a mistake. Now he says he is working to fix his proof, but some mathematicians do not think much of his chances.
The equations, devised by French engineer Claude-Louis Navier in 1822 and re-derived 23 years later by Irish mathematician-physicist George Gabriel Stokes, are used to model fluids such as air, ocean currents, blood and mucous.
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