My comment on a discussion of elliptic curves and modular forms at Secret Blogging Seminar, about 10 PM tonight:

How does this affect popularized discussions of the Taniyama-Shimura conjecture– for instance, Ivars Peterson’s, in “Curving Beyond Fermat,” November 1999– which claim, for instance, that “Elliptic curves and modular forms are mathematically so different that mathematicians initially [in the 1950’s, the early days of the conjecture] couldn’t believe that the two are related.”?

Update of about 10:45 PM tonight:

A reply by the author of the discussion, Scott Carnahan:

I don’t think anyone doubted that there is a connection between elliptic curves and modular forms on the level I described above. However, the Taniyama-Shimura conjecture refers to a more advanced idea about a deeper connection.

Carnahan then gives a one-paragraph summary, definitely not popularized, of the deeper connection.