A Twist of Fate: Nice overview of switching between cell types, cellular reprogramming & #IPS cells
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/39241/title/A-Twist-of-Fate #epigenetics
Rise & Fall of the Pocket Protector: great image at Apollo 11 liftoff of symbol of #nerd pride
http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/2014/3/rise-and-fall-of-the-pocket-protector pic.twitter.com/H3doOpV62r
Designed to keep shirts clean and tools handy, this ubiquitous invention declined into a social stigma but rebounded as a symbol of nerd pride
Henry Petroski
ANNALS OF CONSERVATION
BLUE BLOODS
The horseshoe crab is half a billion years old, but its existence may be threatened.
BY IAN FRAZIERAPRIL 14, 2014
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/04/14/140414fa_fact_frazier
Can the Horseshoe #Crab Be Saved? Its blue, Cu-based blood contains #LAL which acts as a sensor for bacterial toxins
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/04/14/140414fa_fact_frazier
The Wisdom of (Little) #Crowds: Correlated decision making dumbs down mobs. Evidence from modeling & #swarm expts.
http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2014/04/22/the-wisdom-of-little-crowds
Right on target: New era of fast genetic engineering. Nice “historical overview” of the development of #CRISPR-Cas
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22129530.900-right-on-target-new-era-of-fast-genetic-engineering.html
Brain-Mapping Milestones: 1st mention of the BrainSpan.org project in
the Times! http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/22/science/brain-mapping-milestones.html #Neuroscience & #Genomics
#Sports, Complexity & 10K-hr Rule (1/2): @Gladwell subtly rebuts @davidepstein on nurture v nature
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sportingscene/2013/08/psychology-ten-thousand-hour-rule-complexity.html HT @coreyspowell
.@Gladwell discounts @davidepstein track counter-ex. Argues rule works for complex, cognitive tasks. I disagree. (2/2) Sports… 10K-hr Rule
==
#Sports, Complexity & 10K-hr Rule: Gladwell subtly rebuts davidepstein on nurture v nature
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sportingscene/2013/08/psychology-ten-thousand-hour-rule-complexity.html. Gladwell discounts davidepstein track counter-ex. Argues rule works for complex, cognitive tasks. I disagree.
#Math Explains Likely Long Shots: Nice illustration of the
combinatorics of why 23 people usually share a birthday
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/math-explains-likely-long-shots-miracles-and-winning-the-lottery
QT:{{”
…because that’s the probability that none of them share my birthday, the probability that at least one of them has the same birthday as me is just 1 – 0.94. (This follows by reasoning that either someone has the same birthday as me or that no one has the same birthday as me, so the probabilities of these two events must add up to 1.) Now, 1 – 0.94 = 0.06. That’s very small.
Yet this is the wrong calculation to consider because that
probability–the probability that someone has the same birthday as you–is not what the question asked. It asked about the probability that any two people in the same room have the same birthday as each other. This includes the probability that one of the others has the same birthday as you, which is what I calculated above, but it also includes the probability that two or more of the other people share the same birthday, different from yours.
This is where the combinations kick in. Whereas there are only n – 1 people who might share the same birthday as you, there are a total of n × (n – 1)/2 pairs of people in the room. This number of pairs grows rapidly as n gets larger. When nequals 23, it’s 253, which is more than 10 times as large as n – 1 = 22. That is, if there are 23 people in the room, there are 253 possible pairs of people but only 22 pairs that include you.
“}}
The hot hand might be real after all: But streaking shooters only 1-2% more likely than #random to make next basket
http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2014/02/09/the-hot-hand-might-real-after-all/N8V34bGLWhPqk0Sx9yoHWI/story.html
QT:{{”
In 2010, Mr. Gates, along with his wife, Melinda, and the investor Warren E. Buffett, announced the campaign. So far, roughly a fifth of America’s nearly 500 billionaires have signed up, pledging to donate the majority of their fortunes to charity.
A Times analysis of the pledge letters made public shows that more than 40 percent of the signers plan to finance studies in science, health and the environment. With personal fortunes in excess of $250 billion, they are promising, at a minimum, to donate more than $125 billion. How much is destined for science is unclear, but several laid out objectives that are fairly extraordinary.
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Billionaires… Are Privatizing… Science. 20% of 500 US
#billionaires signed giving pledge & 40% to science =>$125B
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/16/science/billionaires-with-big-ideas-are-privatizing-american-science.html