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Category Archives: Science
The Kingdom of Physics
Props to kottke for the pointer. More info about this strange map via Quantum Pontiff.
How many time zones are in our galaxy?
“Oh, man.” (Props to kottke for the pointer.)
Geminid meteor shower update
Hey, do you love meteor showers as much as we do? Via nasa.gov: “The 2014 Geminid meteor shower is forecast to be a lively meteor shower with great views in the skies over Earth. The week of Dec. 8 is … Continue reading
Is science a pyramid or a circle?
These images appear in Scott Alexander’s blog post “The control group is out of control.” (By the way, props to Cliff for bringing Alexander’s important post to our attention.) Back to Alexander’s post. He writes (the last ellipsis is in the original): … Continue reading
Posted in Philosophy, Science
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Testing our scientific tests
We recently reviewed the abstract and slides of Deborah Mayo’s 3 Dec. 2014 presentation at Rutgers University. Her excellent talk was titled “Probing with severity: beyond Bayesian probabilism and frequentist performance.” (Both the abstract and the slides of her lecture … Continue reading
Gaming the peer review system
Check out this exposé of peer review scams. Among other things, Cat Ferguson, Adam Marcus, and Ivan Oransky write: In the past 2 years, journals have been forced to retract more than 110 papers in at least 6 instances of peer-review rigging. What all these … Continue reading
The evolution of deception
What do fork-tailed drongos, tufted capuchin monkeys, Mexican free-tailed bats, Tiger moths, and humans have in common? Check out this beautiful essay by Lesley Evans Ogden describing various forms of deception in nature. Props to Tyler Cowen for the pointer. Here is another … Continue reading
Alternative visualizations of the periodic table
Check out these competing visualizations of the periodic table of elements. Which version do you prefer? A or B? Also, what criteria inform your choice (e.g., information content, parsimony, beauty, etc.), and how do you weight them? A B Hat tip … Continue reading
Human-dolphin cooperation
Cooperation often occurs in the most unexpected places. Check out this original research paper — “The structure of a bottlenose dolphin society is coupled to a unique foraging cooperation with artisanal fisherman” — by Fabio Daura-Jorge, Mauricio Cantor, Simon N. Ingram, David Lusseau, and Paulo C. Simões-Lopes. Note: the authors of … Continue reading
Legal confidence men
Jane Hu explains in this excellent essay why so-called “scientific jury selection” is not really scientific. But her essay misses the most compelling reason why trial consultants are basically high-priced charlatans: there is no way testing or falsifying their predictions! Karl Popper, anyone? What … Continue reading
Posted in Law, Science
Tagged falsification, Jury Selection, Karl Popper, Philosophy of Science, Replication
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prior probability 