Spent a good part of this Friday evening trying to make sense of our bank accounts. Then, for recreation, I had a look at my mail. I found one msg from Michael, joyfully notifying me that

A publicity-shy Russian researcher who labours in near seclusion may have solved one of the oldest and most obscure problems in mathematics, the Poincare Conjecture.
[...]
Answering the question may help scientists better understand the shape of the universe. Beyond that, it may have no application whatsoever to everyday life.

Blimey.

So, must look that one up, right? Well. Here it is, strait from wikipedia:

Every simply connected compact 3-manifold without boundary is homeomorphic to a 3-sphere.

believe me, my bank accounts are harder.