Numbers

"I'm not saying 2+2 equals 3 and I'm not saying it equals 5 but...." So says Gregory Chaitin, one of the world's three leading mathematicians, addressing the camera from the deep recesses of the IBM building in Yorktown Heights, New York State. He cheerfully proposes that he has proved nothing is fixed in a shifting universe. However, for others numbers promise pattern and certainty - Rabbi Dr Tali Lowenthal believes everything has numerological significance up to and including the Name of God too holy to be written; to record producer Andy Richards all music comes down to the number 4; to Janet Street-Porter, numbers give a lift to the nomenclature of her TV output; and to Michael Gardner 666 is truly the Mark of the Beast. Most of us take numbers for granted - Arena takes a second look.