16 NOV 2017 by ideonexus
Understanding the Education Customer
VCs and entrepreneurs tend to be well educated. Well educated people think about education as an investment. You put as many of your resources in to an investment as you can. It may take 20 years to pay off, but if the return-on-investment is high (which it is for education) then you invest. This group of people — if you’re reading this, you fall into this group — generally understand that education is an investment, and as a result are price insensitive and will optimize for quality (a highe... 1 
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notes24 DEC 2016 by ideonexus
Different Measure of Intelligence Peak at Different Ages
One potential concern with cross-sectional data is that it may be subject to cohort effects. Our findings in Experiment 2 are consistent with the possibility that people born in 1945 have unusually large vocabularies, people born in 1980 have unusually good working memory, and people born in 1990 have unusually fast processing speed. Such concerns can be mitigated by converging results from cross-sectional datasets collected at different times (Schaie, 2005). Here, we compared results derived... 1 notes
notes08 MAR 2016 by ideonexus
Physical and Actuarial Escape Velocities
The escape velocity cusp is closer than you might guess. Since we are already so long lived, even a 30% increase in healthy life span will give the first beneficiaries of rejuvenation therapies another 20 years—an eternity in science—to benefit from second-generation therapies that would give another 30%, and so on ad infinitum. Thus, if first-generation rejuvenation therapies were universally available and this progress in developing rejuvenation therapy could be indefinitely maintained, the...Folksonomies: longevity life-extension
Folksonomies: longevity life-extension
1 08 MAR 2015 by ideonexus
If You Do Get a Degree, Double-Major in Something Useful
Well, the value of graduate school really depends on what you are studying and what you expect to get out of graduate school. I encourage young people to engage in the act of dynamic thinking. That means don't just apply the rules that worked in your field 20 years ago. Journalism is a great example. The media has changed dramatically. I run a media company. I'm in media all the time, and the biggest mistake a journalism major can make is to allow 1985 thinking to dictate how they pursue thei...24 JUL 2013 by ideonexus
Cost Benefits of Lead Cleanup
It's difficult to put firm numbers to the costs and benefits of lead abatement. But for a rough idea, let's start with the two biggest costs. Nevin estimates that there are perhaps 16 million pre-1960 houses with lead-painted windows, and replacing them all would cost something like $10 billion per year over 20 years. Soil cleanup in the hardest-hit urban neighborhoods is tougher to get a handle on, with estimates ranging from $2 to $36 per square foot. A rough extrapolation from Mielke's est...While it would cost tens of billions to clean up lead in the environment, it would generate a hundred billion in health benefits.
18 JAN 2013 by ideonexus
Why Do Journals Get It Wrong?
Why do studies end up with wrong findings? In fact, there are so many distorting forces baked into the process of testing the accuracy of a medical theory, that it’s harder to explain how researchers manage to produce valid findings, aside from sheer luck. To cite just a few of these problems:
Mismeasurement To test the safety and efficacy of a drug, for example, what researchers really want to know is how thousands of people will fare long-term when taking the drug. But it would be unethical... 1 notes
notesWhy do journals publish so many papers with wrong results (2/3rds wrong by some estimates)?
19 OCT 2012 by ideonexus
Exercise Rejuvenates the Body
As noted earlier, mitochondrial degradation is a primary culprit in dwindling muscle mass. But recent evidence indicates that exercise can slow down this effect. According to Mark Tarnopolsky, a professor of pediatrics and medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, resistance training activates a muscle stem cell called a satellite cell. In a physiological process known as ‘gene shifting,' these new cells cause the mitochondria to rejuvenate. Tarnopolsky claims that after six month...Strength training specifically prompts the body to produce stem cells that repair motochondria, promotes the production of telomerase to maintain DNA, increase lifespan by six to seven years, and improve cognitive function dramatically as we age.
01 FEB 2012 by ideonexus
To Spend 20 Years on an Epic Poem
I should not think of devoting less than 20 years to an Epic Poem. Ten to collect materials and warm my mind with universal science. I would be a tolerable Mathematician, I would thoroughly know Mechanics, Hydrostatics, Optics, and Astronomy, Botany, Metallurgy, Fossilism, Chemistry, Geology, Anatomy, Medicine—then the mind of man—then the minds of men—in all Travels, Voyages and Histories. So I would spend ten years—the next five to the composition of the poem—and the five last to the correc...Folksonomies: research
Folksonomies: research
1 notes
notesColeridge's described process sounds like scientific research, which is equally intense and epic.
28 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
Characteristics of Visionaries
Visionaries had in common five characteristics, which the researchers termed “Innovator’s DNA.” Here are the first three:
• An ability to associate creatively. They could see connections between seemingly unrelated concepts, problems or questions.
• An annoying habit of consistently asking “what if”.And “why not” and “how come you’re doing it this way”. These visionaries scoured out the limits of the status quo, poking it, prodding it, shooting upward to the 40,000-foot view of someth... 1 notes
notesExperimentation, inquisitiveness, and the ability to draw associations are the cognitive traits of an innovative mind.
27 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
The Wonder of the Fertilized Egg
The opening cast members of the baby-making play are simply a sperm and an egg and a saucy Marvin Gaye song. Once these two cells are joined, they begin producing lots of cells in a small space. The human embryo soon looks like a tiny mulberry. (Indeed, one early development stage is called the morula, Latin for mulberry.) Your mulberry’s first decision is practical: It has to decide what part becomes baby’s body and what part becomes baby’s shelter. This happens quickly. Certain cells are...Folksonomies: wonder fetal development
Folksonomies: wonder fetal development
1 notes
notesThe process will produce a human brain from a single cell.
