Sir
In your amusing News Feature interview with Harvard mathematics graduate Al Jean, head writer of The Simpsons ('Mmm... Pi' Nature 448, 404; 2007), Jean mentions, as an example of a staggeringly obscure mathematical reference, a number in the thousands that is the sum of four squares. However, as I'm sure every Harvard mathematics graduate knows, every positive integer is the sum of four integer squares. I think you've been had!
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The true significance of 8,208, the number referred to in the News Feature, is that it is one of only three four-digit numbers that are the sum of the fourth powers of their digits — Editor, Nature.
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Shaw, J. Summing up The Simpsons. Nature 448, 865 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/448865c
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/448865c
