08 JAN 2018 by ideonexus
Negative Attention is Better Than No Attention at All
To give and receive attention is a fundamental human need. In the 13th century, King Frederick II of Sicily wanted to find out what language children would naturally grow up to speak if they were never spoken to. He took babies from their mothers at birth and placed them in the care of nurses who were strictly forbidden to either speak to or touch them. The babies, as it turned out, didn’t grow up to speak any language, as they all died of attention deprivation within a fortnight of the sta... 1 
notes
notes03 JUN 2016 by ideonexus
Liberal Arts Majors in Technical Professions
While we’ve hired many computer-science majors that have been critical team members, It’s noncomputer science degree holders who can see the forest through the trees. For example, our chief operating officer is a brilliant, self-taught engineer with a degree in philosophy from the University of Chicago. He has risen above the code to lead a team that is competitive globally. His determination and critical-thinking skills empower him to leverage the power of technology without getting bo...
1 Reminds me of my own career graduating with an English Degree and going into Computer Programming.
14 MAR 2016 by ideonexus
1.9 Cases of Leukemia per 10,000 CT Scans in Children
In the breakdown of results, the study authors from Group Health Research Institute and University of California, Davis note that the risk of developing leukemia was highest from head scans for kids under age 5 with a rate of 1.9 cases per 10,000 CT scans. Younger children and girls seemed more susceptible to solid cancers than older kids and boys. Every 300 to 390 scans of a girl’s abdomen or pelvis was associated with the development of one solid cancer. The study estimates that 4,870 fut...
1 03 MAR 2014 by ideonexus
The Silence of the Universe is Significant
Geoff Marcy, the University of California at Berkeley astronomer who has found scores of exoplanets, and who has diligently searched for signs of anything artificial in the data, says the silence is significant: “If our Milky Way Galaxy were teeming with thousands of advanced civilizations, as depicted in science-fiction books and movies, we would already know about them. They would be sending probes to thousands of nearby stars. They would have a galactic Internet composed of laser beams a...Folksonomies: extraterrestrial life
Folksonomies: extraterrestrial life
1 notes
notesThe fact that we can't detect anything out there means there may be nothing to detect.
27 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
Anecdote of Badges Encouraging Tutoring
When it comes to biology, Catherine Lacey is a Level 40 Hero. That's her ranking on OpenStudy, where the University of Western Australia student spends up to 30 hours per week answering homework questions posed by students around the world. The level indicates time spent on the site, and Hero is the hardest-to-attain badge. If you think of helping with homework as a game, she's got the high score.
The 20-year-old first stumbled upon the OpenStudy site while surfing the Web. She was hooked af...A student is motivated to tutor on a website that awards badges. Two takeaways from this: (1) award badges for mentoring and (2) award badges for content creation. Also, award points that can be spent in moderating like slashdot.
21 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Universities have Replaced Cathedrals
We thought of universities as the cathedrals of the modern world. In the middle ages, the cathedral was the center and symbol of the city. In the modern world, its place could be taken by the university. In the modern world.
12 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
The Ideal of Collaboration
In a University we are especially bound to recognise not only the unity of science itself, but the communion of the workers in science. We are too apt to suppose that we are congregated here merely to be within reach of certain appliances of study, such as museums and laboratories, libraries and lecturers, so that each of us may study what he prefers. I suppose that when the bees crowd round the flowers it is for the sake of the honey that they do so, never thinking that it is the dust which ...Folksonomies: collectivism collaboration
Folksonomies: collectivism collaboration
1 notes
notesWe think of scientists at universities and laboratories as working for a greater good, but, in reality, they are like bees in a hive gathering honey without thought to the larger picture.
26 APR 2012 by ideonexus
Science Cannot have Creeds
Religious creeds are a great obstacle to any full sympathy between the outlook of the scientist and the outlook which religion is so often supposed to require ... The spirit of seeking which animates us refuses to regard any kind of creed as its goal. It would be a shock to come across a university where it was the practice of the students to recite adherence to Newton's laws of motion, to Maxwell's equations and to the electromagnetic theory of light. We should not deplore it the less if our...We should not force students to blindly recite laws and theorems because that would reduce it to religion.
20 SEP 2011 by ideonexus
Evolution Predicts the Flowering of Mustard Plants
Here’s another prediction: under prolonged drought, natural selection
will lead to the evolution of plants that flower earlier than their ancestors. This is because, during a drought, soils dry out quickly after the rains. If
you’re a plant that doesn’t flower and produce seeds quickly in a drought,
you leave no descendants. Under normal weather conditions, on the
other hand, it pays to delay flowering so that you can grow larger and
produce even more seeds.
This prediction was tested ...Folksonomies: evolution predictions
Folksonomies: evolution predictions
1 notes
notesScientists predict how a drought will affect the flowering time of plants in California, and it comes true.
07 SEP 2011 by ideonexus
A Young Professor Plank
There is a story that once, not long after he came to Berlin, Planck forgot which room had been assigned to him for a lecture and stopped at the entrance office of the university to find out. Please tell me, he asked the elderly man in charge, 'In which room does Professor Planck lecture today?' The old man patted him on the shoulder 'Don't go there, young fellow,' he said 'You are much too young to understand the lectures of our learned Professor Planck'. 1 notes
notesAn amusing anecdote.
