There is a point in every family when it's time for the talk. No, not that talk. Not that one either. I'm talking about the science and math talk. The kind of talk that should happen every time your child is having trouble or even just working on their homework. Though most parents, having been through primary school themselves at some point, have a difficult time with this talk. In fact, according to a recent survey conducted through the Intel Corporation parents are more comfortable talking with their kids about drugs than about science and math.There is a point in every family when it's time for the talk. No, not that talk. Not... more
What Joe Lieberman wants, in all probability, is attention.
The reason this is a little scary for Democrats is because the usual things that serve to motivate a Congressman don't seem to motivate Joe Lieberman.
Would voting to filibuster the Democrats' health care bill (if it contains a decent public option) endear Lieberman to his constituents? No; Connecticutians favor the public option 64-31.
Would it make his path to re-election easier? No, because it would virtually assure that Lieberman faces a vigorous and well-funded challenge from a credible, capital-D Democrat, and polls show him losing such a match-up badly.
Would it buy him more power in the Senate? No, because Democrats would have every reason to strip him of his chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee.
Is Lieberman's stance intended to placate the special interests in his state? Perhaps this is part of it -- there are a lot of insurance companies in Connecticut -- but Lieberman is generally not one of the more sold-out Senators, ranking 75th out of the 100-member chamber in the percentage of his fundraising that comes from corporate PACs.
Are there any particular compromises or concessions he wants in the bill? He hasn't stipulated any, at least not publicly.
Might he have a legitimate policy objection to the public option? Certainly there are some legitimate objections -- whether or not you agree with them. But Lieberman's objections don't make any sense. He says he's worried about blunting "the economic recovery we’re in" even though the public option provisions wouldn't kick in until 2013. He says he's worried about debt-reduction when the public option would make the bill more deficit-neutral. And he campaigned on a public-option type alternative called "MediChoice" in 2006.What Joe Lieberman wants, in all probability, is attention.
The reason this is a... more
Rome – After seven years, Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man will again be on exhibit until January 10th at the Academy Gallery where it has been kept since 1822. This is a special occasion because this very famous sketch cannot be kept permanently on exhibit because light would fade the ink and so damage the sketch for all generations. This document doesn’t belong to the art world or the science world but it is an icon of western civilization. Represented in its various interpretations, on all types of objects and in all sorts of ways, this document is a study on the human body inserted in a circle and square which according to Plato are perfect geometric figures. The centre of the circle coincides with the umbilicus indicating the spiritual origin of man and the centre of the square with the genital area, representing man’s physical origin. A teaching workshop involving the schools of Venice has been organized in occasion of the exhibit.
If you would like to learn more about Leonardo and anatomy go to www.leonardoshands.comRome – After seven years, Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man will again be on... more
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. schoolchildren still have work to do when it comes to mathematics, the secretary of education said Wednesday.
Arne Duncan, releasing a report on the Department of Education's latest examination of how well American children are doing in mathematics, said no one should be satisfied with what it found.
"Today's results are evidence that we must better equip our schools to improve the knowledge and skills of America's students in mathematics," he said. "More must be done to narrow the troubling achievement gap that has persisted in mathematics, and to ensure that America's students make greater gains toward becoming competitive with their peers in other countries."
Fourth- and eighth-grade students from more than 7,000 public and private schools nationwide were tested by the National Assessment of Educational Progress for the report, titled "The Nation's Report Card: Mathematics 2009."
Massachusetts students had the highest marks at both grade levels. Other high-performing states were Minnesota, Vermont, New Hampshire and New Jersey.
The area with the lowest marks in both grades was the District of Columbia, though the report showed that the district -- along with Nevada, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont -- had improved its scores since the last tests were taken in 2007.
...More...WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. schoolchildren still have work to do when it comes to... more
What can scientists learn about the world by knowing how all living things are related to each other?What can scientists learn about the world by knowing how all living things are related... more
This video presents a very brief glimpse into what I do as a professional researcher studying "my birds" -- the parrots of the South Pacific Ocean. It features interviews with one of the scientists whom I worked with when I was in grad school at the University of Washington: Scott Edwards, who now is at Harvard University.This video presents a very brief glimpse into what I do as a professional researcher... more
Operator: 911 emergencies.
Boy: Yeah I need some help.
Operator: What’s the matter?
Boy: With my math.
Operator: With your mouth?
Boy: No with my math. I have to do it. Will you help me?
Operator: Sure. Where do you live?
Boy: No with my math.
Operator: Yeah I know. Where do you live though?
Boy: No, I want you to talk to me on the phone.
Operator: No I can’t do that. I can send someone else to help you.
Boy: Okay.
Operator: What kind of math do you have that you need help with?
Boy: I have take aways.
Operator: Oh you have to do the take aways.
Boy: Yeah.
Operator: Alright, what’s the problem?
Boy: Um, you have to help me with my math.
Operator: Okay. Tell me what the math is.
Boy: Okay. 16 take away 8 is what?
Operator: You tell me. How much do you think it is?
Boy: I don’t know, 1.
Operator: No. How old are you?
Boy: I’m only 4.
Operator: 4!
Boy: Yeah.
Operator: What’s another problem, that was a tough one.
Boy: Um, oh here’s one. 5 take away 5.
Operator: 5 take away 5 and how much do you think that is?
Boy: 5.
Woman: Johnny what do you think you’re doing?!
Boy: The policeman is helping me with my math.
Woman: What did I tell you about going on the phone?
Operator: It’s the mother…
Boy: You said if I need help to call somebody.
Woman: I didn’t mean the police.
Click link to listenOperator: 911 emergencies.
Boy: Yeah I need some help.
Operator: What’s the... more
University of Ottawa math professor Robert Smith? and his team recently completed research on the potential battle between zombies and humans. They have found that humans could win out against the slower-moving creatures of the zombie classics.University of Ottawa math professor Robert Smith? and his team recently completed... more
Dogs are as smart as the average two-year-old child, according to research by animal psychologists.
Stanley Coren, an expert on canine intelligence at the University of British Columbia, says dogs can understand up to 250 words and gestures, can count up to five and can perform simple mathematical calculations. They can even deliberately deceive - something young children can't do until later in life.
Border collies are the most intelligent dogs and Afghan hounds are the least intelligent.Dogs are as smart as the average two-year-old child, according to research by animal... more
When mathematicians talk about higher-dimensional spaces, they are referring to the number of variables, or dimensions, needed to locate a point in such a space. The surface of the earth is two-dimensional because two coordinates—latitude and longitude—are needed to specify any point on it. In more formal terms, the standard two-dimensional sphere is the set of points equidistant from a point in 2 + 1 = 3 dimensions. More generally, the standard n-dimensional sphere, or n-sphere for short, is the set of points that are at the same distance from a center point in a space of n + 1 dimensions. Spheres are among the most basic spaces in topology, the branch of mathematics that studies which properties are unchanged when an object is deformed without crushing or ripping it. Topology comes up in many studies, including those trying to determine the shape of our universe.
In recent years mathematicians have completed the classification of 3-D spaces that are “compact,” meaning that they are finite and with no edges [see “The Shapes of Space,” by Graham P. Collins; Scientific American, July 2004]. (A sphere is compact, but an infinite plane is not.) Thus, they have figured out the topologies of all possible universes, as long as those universes are compact and three-dimensional. In more than three dimensions, however, the complete classification has turned out to be intractable and even logically impossible. Topologists had hoped at least that spaces as simple as spheres would be easy enough.
John Milnor, now at Stony Brook University, complicated matters somewhat in the 1950s, when he discovered the first “exotic” 7-sphere. An exotic n-sphere is a sphere from the point of view of topology. But it is not equivalent to a standard n-sphere from the point of view of differential calculus, the language in which physics theories are formulated. The discrepancy has consequences for equations such as those that describe the motion of particles or the propagation of waves. It means that solutions to such equations (or even their formulation) on one space cannot be mapped onto the other without developing kinks, or “singularities.” Physically, the two spheres are different, incompatible worlds.
In 1963 Milnor and his colleague Michel Kervaire calculated the number of exotic 7-spheres and found that there were exactly 27 different ones. In fact, they calculated the number of n-spheres for any n from five up. Their counts, however, had an ambiguity—a possible factor of two—when n is an even number. William Browder of Princeton University later removed that ambiguity, except for dimensions of the type n = 2k - 2, starting with k = 7—specifically, 126, 254, 510, and so on. In other words, mathematicians could only guess the number of exotic spheres in these dimensions to within a factor of two, known as the Kervaire invariant because of its relation to an earlier concept invented by Kervaire.When mathematicians talk about higher-dimensional spaces, they are referring to the... more
A math-based game that has taken the world by storm with its ability to delight and puzzle may now be poised to revolutionize the fast-changing world of genome sequencing and the field of medical genetics, suggests a new report by a team of scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL).
Combining a 2,000-year-old Chinese math theorem with concepts from cryptology, the CSHL scientists have devised "DNA Sudoku." The strategy allows tens of thousands of DNA samples to be combined, and their sequences – the order in which the letters of the DNA alphabet (A, T, G, and C) line up in the genome – to be determined all at once.
This achievement is in stark contrast to past approaches that allowed only a single DNA sample to be sequenced at a time. It also significantly improves upon current approaches that, at best, can combine hundreds of samples for sequencing.
"In theory, it is possible to use the Sudoku method to sequence more than a hundred thousand DNA samples," says CSHL Professor Gregory Hannon, Ph.D., a genomics expert and leader of the team that invented the "Sudoku" approach. At that level of efficiency, it promises to reduce costs dramatically. A sequencing project that costs upwards of $10 million using conventional methods may be accomplished for $50,000 to $80,000 using DNA Sudoku, he estimates.
(more at link)A math-based game that has taken the world by storm with its ability to delight and... more
The AP may be right that Baucus's bill will cost less than $1 trillion, but it accomplishes that by shifting the burden to middle-income families, some of whom have poor balance sheets and will face a really tough choice between paying for health insurance they can't quite afford and facing some kind of penalty. Odds are that many of them will take the penalty, which is why coverage probably won't expand very much. Or, the enforcement mechanisms could be more stringent, in which case they'll have to buy health care, at the cost of reducing their spending in other areas -- and in probably being very teed off at the Democrats who passed the bill**.
This is a pretty poor combination of attributes for a health care reform bill to have.The AP may be right that Baucus's bill will cost less than $1 trillion, but it... more
These 100 websites can help you find a job, network with other mathematicians, and even prepare for part-time work as a tutor, all while practicing your math skills.These 100 websites can help you find a job, network with other mathematicians, and... more
Someone always asks the math teacher, "Am I going to use calculus in real life?" And for most of us, says Arthur Benjamin, the answer is no. He offers a bold proposal on how to make math education relevant in the digital age.Someone always asks the math teacher, "Am I going to use calculus in real life?" And... more
Numbers are everywhere. In a sense, we are what we can count, and our computerised civilisation counts almost everything. Without numbers, it would simply cease to exist.Sometimes the numbers that surround us are simple records, obvious to all: figures that indicate taxes due, the stock market index or the balance in our bank accounts for example. But other numbers - usually hidden in the ceaseless flow of computer data - interact and control.Numbers are everywhere. In a sense, we are what we can count, and our computerised... more
By pulling raw data from the news and plotting it onto a graph, Sean Gourley and his team have come up with a stunning conclusion about the nature of modern war -- and perhaps a model for resolving conflicts.
JoAnn Kuchera-Morin demos the AlloSphere, a new way to see, hear and interpret scientific data. Dive into the brain, feel electron spin, hear the music of the elements ... and detect previously unseen patterns that could lead to new discoveries.
About JoAnn Kuchera-Morin
Composer JoAnn Kuchera-Morin is the director of the Center for Research in Electronic Art Technology (CREATE) at UC Santa Barbara.JoAnn Kuchera-Morin demos the AlloSphere, a new way to see, hear and interpret... more
This fascinating video discusses evolution, mathematics, sea slugs, corals and crocheting as presented by science writer Margaret Wertheim.This fascinating video discusses evolution, mathematics, sea slugs, corals and... more
A TED talk by science writer Margaret Wertheim about recreating the creatures of the coral reefs using a technique invented by a mathematician. The talk starts off explaining why she and her sister began the crocheted reef project, but then delves into the specifics of non-euclidian geometry and how crochet and traditional women's handicrafts have become so useful for modeling mathematical forms which were previously though impossible. Fascinating from beginning to end!A TED talk by science writer Margaret Wertheim about recreating the creatures of the... more
Sometimes sick of your search engine never returning what you're looking for? So were some other people by the sounds of it after they've started using a mathematical technique for 'studying disorder in quantum systems could improve internet keyword searches.'
Apparently, it comes into its own when spotting data patterns in massive stacks of data (i.e webpages and text docs) but could also be used in some kind of genome analysis.
What makes this so special? I hear you ask. Well, it supposedly can tell the keyword' importance, based on where it appears in the document/data field.
"You should be able to detect an intrinsic property of a book without the need to compare it with different books," says Pedro Carpena, a physicist at the University of Malaga in Spain.
Sounds great, how long til Google buy it? ;)Sometimes sick of your search engine never returning what you're looking for? So were... more
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