Apparently the DTRA DNA grand challenge has run into scoring issues. The story from ScienceInsider is here. I still think this a terrific way to fund scientific and technological progress. As pointed out, putting together a successful grant application does not necessarily imply actual scientific success.
Author: jlolds
Native Angeleno, professor of Neuroscience and Public Policy at George Mason University
The enduring mystery of the orchestra conductor….
From the Spectator, here. I know at least one top flight neuroscientist who, early in his career, used to do the equivalent of air guitar….with a fountain pen.
In any case, the whole deal works for me…in the audience. I say keep them on.
Dolphins use personal names to address one another…
The PNAS paper by King and Janik can be found here.
Note added later: how is this different from individual-specific bird calls?
What’s driving law school enrollment….
Shaking up the social sciences….
Yale University’s Nicholas Christakis advocates for change in the social sciences in the pages of the NYT here. Christakis is co-director of Yale’s Institute for Network Science. Money quote:
For the past century, people have looked to the physical and biological sciences to solve important problems. The social sciences offer equal promise for improving human welfare; our lives can be greatly improved through a deeper understanding of individual and collective behavior. But to realize this promise, the social sciences, like the natural sciences, need to match their institutional structures to today’s intellectual challenges.
I would submit that Krasnow’s own department of Computational Social Sciences represents just such an evolution.
Nature’s MOOC special issue….
More on National Labs reform….
David Malakoff’s excellent news piece in Science, here. My take: these are huge organizations. My 30 years or so in Washington has taught me that the inertia of these places is pretty large even relative to the zeal of powerful reformers.
"Neural Dust" –electrophysiology taken to the next level….
Daniel Akst’s essay on automation….
It’s here in the Wilson Quarterly. It should be read in the context of Tyler Cowen’s long piece, The Great Stagnation, among others.
Akst is a regular WSJ columnist, but he argues rather persuasively for the need to focus on wealth redistribution.
The Amygaloids…making music and repairing memories
From the MIT Technology Review, the story is here. Money quote:
a growing army of like-minded researchers have marshaled a pile of data to argue that we can alter the emotional impact of a memory by adding new information to it or recalling it in a different context.
I suppose learning that the C+ you scored on the final exam was actually the best grade in the class would change a bad memory into a good one…
Discoverers and Discoveries 