The finite - infinite interplay is central in human thinking, from ancient philosophers and mathematicians (Zeno, Pythagoras), to modern mathe­ matics (Cantor, Hilbert) and computer science (Turing, Godel). Recent developments in mathematics and computer science suggest a) radically new answers to classical questions (e. g. , does infinity exist?, where does infinity come from?, how to reconcile the finiteness of the human brain with the infinity of ideas it produces?), b) new questions of debate (e. g. , what is the role played by randomness?, are computers capable of handling the infinity through unconventional media of computation?, how can one approximate efficiently the finite by the infinite and, conversely, the infinite by finite?). Distinguished authors from around the world, many of them architects of the mathematics and computer science for the new century, contribute to the volume. Papers are as varied as Professor Marcus' activity, to whom this volume is dedicated. They range from real analysis to DNA com­ puting, from linguistics to logic, from combinatorics on words to symbolic dynamics, from automata theory to geography, and so on, plus an incursion into the old history of conceptions about infinity and a list of philosophical "open problems". They are mainly mathematical and theoretical computer science texts, but not all of them are purely mathematical.

Mathematics is the music of science, and real analysis is the Bach of mathematics. There are many other foolish things I could say about the subject of this book, but the foregoing will give the reader an idea of where my heart lies. The present book was written to support a first course in real analysis, normally taken after a year of elementary calculus. Real analysis is, roughly speaking, the modern setting for Calculus, "real" alluding to the field of real numbers that underlies it all. At center stage are functions, defined and taking values in sets of real numbers or in sets (the plane, 3-space, etc.) readily derived from the real numbers; a first course in real analysis traditionally places the emphasis on real-valued functions defined on sets of real numbers.

The P=NP question is one of the great problems of science, which has intrigued computer scientists and mathematicians for decades. Despite the abundant research in theoretical computer science regarding the P=NP question, it has not been solved.