Tag: curious

Growing up a Scientist

I'm just intellectually curious.

Being a scientist is a state of mind. It’s really a way of looking at the world with wonder, curiosity, and logical rigor. Once you realize that, and get past the tedium of moving little bits of water from one place to the next, or peering through endless mathematical equations and lines of code, you’ll be a lot happier. At least that’s what I got out of Adam Rubin’s essay, “Experimental Error: Most Likely to Secede.”

His memories of growing up a scientist in middle school:

A scientist in middle school: Some of my classmates seem to have gotten large and confident very quickly. And the kids with the most friends are the ones who think science is lame. But I want friends. And I don’t think science is lame. Ah, the eternal question: WWDHD? (“What would Don Herbert do?”)1

Science questions explored: What is the difference between “weight” and “mass,” and why won’t you understand it no matter how many times it’s explained? What is static electricity, and why won’t you understand it no matter how many times it’s explained? What is a hypothesis, and why won’t you understand it no matter how many times it’s explained?

— Rubin (2011): Experimental Error: Most Likely to Secede

Kilobucks and capitalism

Well, it’s really kilobucks and economic systems, but that does not have the same rhythm for a title. We’re reprising the market versus socialist economies simulation game, my student came up with last year for his IRP.

I though I’d also include a little lesson on the metric system as a subtext. Hence the creation of the kilobuck. I’ll also talk about the centidollar, decidollar, decadollar and hectadollar.

One kilobuck, the official currency of the market versus socialist economy simulation game.

Human-Cyborg Relations

I’ve long thought that with all the things we can do with personal, handheld technology that we’re acceleratingly becoming cyborgs. And I don’t think it a bad thing. Consider how much cell phones and the internet helped in the Egyptian protests. Consider being able to look up maps and definitions when you need them, and being able to share them live in the classroom.

Garry Kasparov, the chess grandmaster who was the first to be defeated by a computer in 1998, adds another useful datapoint in an article on the human-machine partnerships in chess competitions:

The teams of human plus machine dominated even the strongest computers. The chess machine Hydra, which is a chess-specific supercomputer like Deep Blue, was no match for a strong human player using a relatively weak laptop. Human strategic guidance combined with the tactical acuity of a computer was overwhelming.
–Kasparov (2010): The Chess Master and the Computer

but also fascinating is this, after a tournament:

The winner was revealed to be not a grandmaster with a state-of-the-art PC but a pair of amateur American chess players using three computers at the same time. Their skill at manipulating and “coaching” their computers to look very deeply into positions effectively counteracted the superior chess understanding of their grandmaster opponents and the greater computational power of other participants.

The take home message is worth pondering:

Weak human + machine + better process was superior to a strong computer alone and, more remarkably, superior to a strong human + machine + inferior process.
–Kasparov (2010): The Chess Master and the Computer

iPod stands

Red paperclip iPhone stand.

I’ve been hoping for a wireless keyboard for the iPhone for quite a while, and Apple has finally produced one. As far as my students are concerned, with a full keyboard to write useful amounts of text, the iPhone is almost as good as having a “normal” computer. And the same applies to the iPad as well.

Once you have the keyboard, however, he next question is, how do you get the iPhone to sit at the correct angle for you to do your work. My students have dug up a couple solutions, starting with the paperclip version you see above. Simple, cheap, and elegant; I really like it.

Lego iPhone stand. The bright sparkles are purely a function of unapologetic awesomeness.

A couple days after seeing the paperclip stand in action, I came across the Lego stand.

“Why,” I asked.

“Because it’s awesome.”

“Oh,” I replied.

And it is.

Graphing discussion threads

Graphic representation of the Wikipedia discussions about deleting articles. The image links to an interactive version of the graphic at http://notabilia.net .

Swings to the right are arguments for keeping the article, swings to the left are arguments to delete them. Moritz Stefaner and others’ website have created this wonderful graphic of Wikipedia’s discussion threads. They have lots more details and discussions on their website.

The Chrysalids, Godwined

As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1.
— Mike Godwin, 1989.

Our daily discussions of The Chrysalids have gone on long enough that Hitler came up. I can’t remember the details, but somehow, it occurred to one of my students that, since we don’t know exactly when the story is set, and given the outstanding question, “Did they ever find Hitler’s body?” what if Hitler turned up in the book.

Sigh.

Quite coincidentally, I ran into this article today, about Hitler’s last bodyguard. Apparently, he’s getting too old to answer all his fan mail. Tennessee gets a mention.

Sigh.

On a final note, the above quote about Godwin’s Law is a nice one to use in a cycle where we’re talking about probability.

Cheers.

Amoebas “farming” bacteria

An amoeba going through cytokinesis (Robinson, 2002).
If you look carefully you can see the amoebas zipping around. I also have a really cool larger version too, which shows the entire slide..

Well, since certain organelles within our cells (mitochondria) have their own DNA, it’s been suggested that they were once separate organisms that became the ultimate symbionts. Now, someone’s found that single celled amoebas may actually farm the bacteria they eat.

P.S. While looking for a picture of the guilty party, I came across this nice image of the amoeba, Dictyostelium discoideum, splitting into two on Wikimedia Commons.