Author Archives: Dan Gezelter

The Loh-Down on Science

I’ve been a fan of Sandra Tsing Loh’s NPR & Marketplace commentaries for years. I had no idea she had training as a physicist. And now, via Cosmic Variance, I find out she’s got a new show called The Loh-Down … Continue reading

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Yacas

YACAS is an easy to use, general purpose Computer Algebra System, a program for symbolic manipulation of mathematical expressions. It uses its own programming language designed for symbolic as well as arbitrary-precision numerical computations. The system has a library of … Continue reading

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K3DSurf

We have a new software entry today for K3DSurf in our Mathematics section. K3DSurf is a program for visualizing and manipulating multidimensional surfaces by using Mathematical equations. It’s also a “modeler” for POV-Ray in the area of parametric surfaces. It … Continue reading

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Let data speak to data

There’s a wonderful editorial in Nature titled Let data speak to data, which starts the conversation on more open methods of communicating results including: Creative commons licenses for scientific data High impact factors for blogs Centralized monolithic shared databases Go … Continue reading

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Best. I. D. Post. Ever.

Adam Felber delivers a great version of the incompetent design argument here. Just an excerpt from the masterwork: GOD: THOU SHALT TELL ME YOUR GRIPES! [Thunderclap.] STAN: Okay, okay. Uh… GOD: Go on. STAN: Okay. Putting the reproductive stuff so … Continue reading

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The Royal Society lays a big one

What are they thinking? The Royal Society wants to keep science off the web because it might hurt the society journals in some disciplines. Although I might have some sympathy for the plight of society journals, the journals that will … Continue reading

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http://k3dsurf.sourceforge.net/

K3DSurf is a program for visualizing and manipulating multidimensional surfaces by using Mathematical equations. It’s also a "modeler" for POV-Ray in the area of parametric surfaces. It features 3D, 4D, 5D, and 6D HyperObjects visualization, full support for all functions … Continue reading

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The Tryptophan Myth

Happy Thanksgiving! I thought I’d post and give everyone some ammunition for the inevitable arguments with distant relatives over the cause of post-turkey sleepiness: Myth: Eating turkey makes you sleepy – discusses the sleep-inducing property of purified tryptophan, but points … Continue reading

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Incompetent Design

Seed magazine is going to be very very very good. Here’s their article on Incompetent Design Theory, and their great Force Diagram of Bill Frist. Found via Not Even Wrong [tags]magazines, science[/tags]

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Intelligent Evolution

Edward O. Wilson has a wonderful article titled Intelligent Evolution in the November-December 2005 issue of Harvard Magazine. It is largely an introduction to a new four-volume set of Darwin’s writings. In it, we find this beautiful quote from On … Continue reading

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