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In the 70s Fermat was no longer in fashion.
70年代时，费马不再热门
At the same time Andrew Wiles was just beginning his career as a mathematician.
与此同时，安德鲁·怀尔斯正开始其作为数学家的生涯。
He went to Cambridge as a research student under the supervision of Professor John Coates.
他作为一名研究生进入剑桥大学，师从约翰·科茨教授。
I've been very fortunate to have Andrew as a student,
我很幸运有安德鲁作学生
and even as a research student he, he was a wonderful person to work with.
即使那时他仅是个研究生，也是位共事的好伙伴了。
He had very deep ideas then, and it was always clear he was a mathematician who would do great things.
他那时就有深邃的思想，显而易见，他是个可做大事情的数学家。
But not with Fermat. Everyone thought Fermat's last theorem was impossible,
但不是做费马的文章。每个人都认为费马最后定理是不可证的，
so Professor Coates encouraged Andrew to forget his childhood dream and work on more mainstream maths.
因此科茨教授力劝安德鲁忘记他儿时的梦想，而研究更为主流的数学课题。
When I went to Cambridge my advisor, John Coates,
我去剑桥时，我的导师约翰·科茨，
was working on Iwasawa theory and elliptic curves and I started working with him.
正在研究伊娃沙娃理论以及椭圆曲线，我开始与他共事。
Elliptic curves were the in thing to study, but perversely, elliptic curves are neither ellipses nor curves.
椭圆曲线是热门研究对象，但椭圆曲线既非椭圆也非曲线。
You may never have heard of elliptic curves, but they're extremely important.
你可能从未听说过椭圆曲线，但它们都极为重要。
OK, so what's an elliptic curve?
那么，一条椭圆曲线是什么呢？
Elliptic curves -- they're not ellipses, they're cubic curves whose solution have a shape that looks like a doughnut.
椭圆曲线，不是椭圆，它们是三次曲线，其解的形状看来像是个甜甜圈。
