The calculus was the first achievement of modern mathematics and it is difficult to overestimate its importance. I think it defines more unequivocally than anything else the inception of modern mathematics, and the system of mathematical analysis, which is its logical development, still constitutes the greatest technical advance in exact thinking.
John von Neumann, in James R. Newman The World of Mathematics
- Al Tarf (stars.astro.illinois.edu)
AL TARF (Beta Cancri). Surely, if Cancer (the Crab) were anywhere but on the ecliptic, the apparent pathway of the Sun, it never would have been made into a constellation by the ancients. Its brightest star, Al Tarf, is fourth magnitude, though in its favor (at 3.59) it is just over the line from third.