Mathematical Develovments in 1991

The major news in mathematics in 1991 was the spread of research and applications involving wavelets. Other announced results involved determining the kissing number for spheres, extending the period of random-number generators, and new facts about the boundary of the Mandelbrot set fractal. There was progress toward breaking the USgovernment-sponsored code for commercial communications, while the government proposed a controversial new standard to guarantee authenticity of digital signatures. There were mixed results in trials of the Turing test, an attempt to decide if computers can think. A computer was used to solve a long-outstanding chess problem, and a new record was established for the number of computed digits of pi.