Topology is the branch of geometry that deals with large-scale
features of shapes. One cliché is that a topologist cannot
distinguish a doughnut from a coffee cup: if a coffee cup were made
of rubber, one could continuously deform it to a doughnut...
The story of the “data explosion” is by now a familiar one:
throughout science, engineering, commerce, and government, we are
collecting and storing data at an ever-increasing rate. We can
hardly read the news or turn on a computer without...
