Comment by danwills

I'd really love to know what the mathematicians are actually doing when they work this stuff out? Is it all on computers now? Can they somehow visualize 24-dimensional-sphere-packings in their minds? Are they maybe rigorously checking results of a 'test function' that tells them they found a correct/optimal packing? I would love to know more about what the day-to-day work involved in this type of research actually would be!