Monday, February 19, 2007
A Good Way to Start the Week
I was awakened this morning by a loud knock at my door. This being something that doesn't happen - none of my neighbors are the cup-of-sugar-borrowing type and it was way too early for friends to be stopping by - I nearly leaped out of bed to see what was up. It was the FedEx guy. I would have been more annoyed, except that he was delivering a very precious package: my college statistics notebooks.
My current crop of biostats classes are so based in the underlying mathematics that I feel I'm losing sight of what it's all used for...my college courses didn't suffer this problem, as they were almost all applied classes. Hopefully now the semester will get easier!
After that, there's of course good science news. An international coalition of researchers has identified a possible Autism gene: neuregulin 1, on chromosome 11p appears to be altered in autistics. Neuregulin plays a key role in interneural communication, so its involvement in autism is not a great shock. The discovery raises hopes for future targeted treatments for the condition, but almost certainly doesn't represent a complete etiologic profile. There must be more genes and environmental factors out there that play a role.
Lost a tooth? Nasty cavities? Well, a Japanese team may have a solution for you: they successfully grew mesenchymal and epithelial cells, first in culture and then in situ, into replacement teeth for mice. The procedure's nowhere near ready for testing in humans, but will hopefully lead to effective tooth regrowth technology in the future.
My current crop of biostats classes are so based in the underlying mathematics that I feel I'm losing sight of what it's all used for...my college courses didn't suffer this problem, as they were almost all applied classes. Hopefully now the semester will get easier!
After that, there's of course good science news. An international coalition of researchers has identified a possible Autism gene: neuregulin 1, on chromosome 11p appears to be altered in autistics. Neuregulin plays a key role in interneural communication, so its involvement in autism is not a great shock. The discovery raises hopes for future targeted treatments for the condition, but almost certainly doesn't represent a complete etiologic profile. There must be more genes and environmental factors out there that play a role.
Lost a tooth? Nasty cavities? Well, a Japanese team may have a solution for you: they successfully grew mesenchymal and epithelial cells, first in culture and then in situ, into replacement teeth for mice. The procedure's nowhere near ready for testing in humans, but will hopefully lead to effective tooth regrowth technology in the future.
Labels: autism, genetics, math, mice, school, statistics, stem cells, teeth
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Tomorrow and Tomorrow
A Canadian researcher has published what he claims to be the mathematical equation that predicts how much a person will procrastinate a given task, the Temporal Motivation Theory: Utility = E x V / ΓD. Aside from the blanket futility of trying to come up with real numbers for "a person's sensitivity to delay" (D), "the value of completing the task" (V), or any of the other variables, this is a really interesting idea.
Procrastination can be a dangerous thing, leading to lost productivity and sloppy work products, as well as real losses such as from putting off getting medical treatment, etc. (since I'm fairly confident that 'productivity' is a real thing like, say, health it), and knowing more about it could inform on all sorts of aspects of behavior.
Needless to say, I saw and bookmarked this press release a few days ago.
Procrastination can be a dangerous thing, leading to lost productivity and sloppy work products, as well as real losses such as from putting off getting medical treatment, etc. (since I'm fairly confident that 'productivity' is a real thing like, say, health it), and knowing more about it could inform on all sorts of aspects of behavior.
Needless to say, I saw and bookmarked this press release a few days ago.
Labels: Canada, equation, math, procrastination, science, Tmporal Motivation Theory
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Divide by Zero
You can't divide by zero. Computers and mathematicians choke up, and you'll never get an answer. That's assuming, of course, Dr. James Anderson, of the University of Reading, is not batty. The professor has come up with a new mathematical concept, which he calls 'nullity,' that allows you to divide by zero. I don't really understand the math, possibly because the explanation is so brief, but I think it's cool, even if it is just an example of something that pisses me off: making up a new 'imaginary' number to solve a real problem you can't just solve.
It's a big day for the previously-believed-impossible: analysis of satellite imagery suggests that there may be periodic flash floods on Mars. Liquid water on Mars would change how we think about the planet, and what life might be like there. Also, the Conservative Jewish movement has decided to allow gay marriage and ordination of gays. But it still bans anal sex. This is a major step in a good direction; I hope that it will be followed soon with full 'decriminalization' - these rabbis (even, or perhaps especially, those who resigned in protest) know that there are bigger gefilte fish to fry.
Similarly improbable, researchers claim that MRI scans of the temporal gyrus reveal pre-schizophrenia. If this turns out to be real, it is a massively huge finding - even if nothing can be done really to prevent the disease today, knowing that such 'priming' conditions exist would give researchers all kinds of direction in searching. Very cool!
It's a big day for the previously-believed-impossible: analysis of satellite imagery suggests that there may be periodic flash floods on Mars. Liquid water on Mars would change how we think about the planet, and what life might be like there. Also, the Conservative Jewish movement has decided to allow gay marriage and ordination of gays. But it still bans anal sex. This is a major step in a good direction; I hope that it will be followed soon with full 'decriminalization' - these rabbis (even, or perhaps especially, those who resigned in protest) know that there are bigger gefilte fish to fry.
Similarly improbable, researchers claim that MRI scans of the temporal gyrus reveal pre-schizophrenia. If this turns out to be real, it is a massively huge finding - even if nothing can be done really to prevent the disease today, knowing that such 'priming' conditions exist would give researchers all kinds of direction in searching. Very cool!
Labels: aliens, gay marriage, gays, Jews, Judaism, Mars, math, MRI, nature, nullity, schizophrenia, science, space, tempoal gyrus, water, zero
