They Zoomed In On Life

by George Barany and Marjorie Russel

This "mid-week level" puzzle was released within days of reading (spoiler) the New York Times obituary of the scientist pictured to the right. He was a beloved Professor of mine (and to many others) during my time as a graduate student at The Rockefeller University. After solving the puzzle, you may be further inspired to click here and learn more about the puzzle's full scope. I was also inspired to locate from an old photo album this historic publicity shot (circa 1976), and the corresponding late-night graduate student parody prank.

Click here to view or download the puzzle in PDF format; here to download it as a puz file; here to download it as an ipuz file [requires the free Puzzazz app to solve]; here to solve the puzzle interactively (thanks to Jim Horne); here for the solution. We thank Marcia Brott, Noam Elkies, Lloyd Fricker, Brent Hartzell, Martin Herbach, Nancy Herther, and Alex Vratsanos for test solving.

If you want to tell others about this particular page, refer them to
http://tinyurl.com/zoominpuz

More puzzles here (all), here (science), and here (tributes).

E-mail barany@umn.edu to be added to a bcc distribution lists.