Grigori Perelman and the Poincare Conjecture

Seems, this is the buzz of the day. I know, it sounds like a Robert Ludlum book, but it's really something more important than a buzz on any day.

Apparently, Grigori Perelman solved a so-called geometrization conjecture, and by way of that, the Poincare Conjecture, which states, "Every simply connected closed (i.e. compact and without boundary) 3-manifold is homeomorphic to a 3-sphere."

So what does that mean? Well, I means that if you have a looped object in 3-dimensional space, it can be shrunk to a single point just as would a sphere. I think it's a confusing concept, because it's counter-counter-intuitive.

I'm still trying to wrap my mind around it honestly--and I'm not the only one--but I hope to have a better understanding of all things matematicas by this time next year.