Wilkerson response to question about conjectures and questions,
and Stasheff update on Thom's condition............DMD
_______________________________________________

Subject: Re: Serre and Thom
Date: Mon, 10 May 1999 12:39:24 -0500
From: Clarence Wilkerson <wilker@math.purdue.edu>


This refers to

86i:55011a 55P35 (16A62 55P62)
Anick, David J.
A counterexample to a conjecture of Serre.
Ann. of Math. (2) 115 (1982), no. 1, 1--33.

and

86i:55011b 55P35 (16A62 55P62)
Anick, David J.
Comment: "A counterexample to a conjecture of Serre".
Ann. of Math. (2) 116 (1982), no. 3, 661.

The text of the M.R entry states in part:

" In the comment, the author gives some history concerning a question
raised by Serre and solved in the negative by the author. The question
is whether the Poincare series for the rational homology of
the loop space of a simply-connected finite CW-complex is a rational
function. The author points out that Serre posed this question
without indicating which answer seemed more likely."

_______________________________________________________-
Date: Mon, 10 May 1999 13:20:21 -0400 (EDT)
From: James Stasheff <jds@math.unc.edu>
Subject: slight modification in Re: Rene Thom (fwd)

.oooO   Jim Stasheff            jds@math.unc.edu
(UNC)   Math-UNC                (919)-962-9607
 \ (    Chapel Hill NC          FAX:(919)-962-2568
  \*)   27599-3250

        http://www.math.unc.edu/Faculty/jds

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 10 May 1999 19:18:32 +0200
From: Jean Pierre Bourguignon <jpb@math.polytechnique.fr>
To: jds@math.unc.edu
Subject: Re: Rene Thom (fwd)

Deaer Jim,

Thanks for your message concerning Thom. In fact his
memory problems are not caused by an Alzheimer's disease
but by bad circulation of the blood in arteries which also
caused the amputation of the foot.

It is indeed very sad.

Yours,

Jean-Pierre.