Dutton presents a theory, based on a broad variety of intriguing insights, that our perception of beauty has far less to do with our cultural upbringing and much more to do with evolution. For example, Dutton points out that beautiful landscapes with grass, some body of water (or evidence of a body of water in the distance), trees (preferably ones that would be easier to climb), evidence of wildlife and with a path are considered beautiful the world over, even in places without such nature. This, Dutton points out, is reminiscent of the savannah environment that we grew up in.
Category: Notes
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“The Signal and the Noise: Why so many predictions fail–but some don’t” by Nate Silver
Though a long, dense read, Silver delves into the delightful world of data analysis with full force, sometimes barely slowing long enough to give a primer to the uninitiated. Topics range from the recent housing market crash to baseball. With each examination, Silver explain how data analysis function in the given field and work he has done in the field (if not to improve the analysis itself then to review the poor work of others).
Interesting tidbit: Statistical analysis today is based mostly on the work of a man named Fisher who (in 1959) was arguing that there was no correlation between smoking and lung cancer.
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Anthony Atala: Printing a human kidney
Using 3D printing technology combined with recent development in cellular science (as in “cells” not “cell phones”), Atala is leading a project that is “printing” new organs. They demonstrate a kidney that they were printing during the presentation and even bring in a printed-kidney-transplant patient.
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Allan Jones: A map of the brain
New technologies, and the application of older technologies, are allowing us to map the brain like never before. Jones is working to build a collection of brain maps to be able to allow other scientist to better understand the relationship between brain related illness and functions.
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Vaclav Havel: The Economics of Good and Evil
Havel discusses in length about economic cycles and how we have ended up in our current economic crisis because we spend too much when things were good and thus we were already in debt when we ran out of money.