This piece was originally published in the Daily Northwestern Rebecca Blank is Northwestern’s next university president, and some of the expectations for the role have not changed that significantly over the University’s 170-year history. Just as was asked of Clark Hinman and Henry Noyes, President-elect Blank is expected to keep ...
Dispatches
How do we tell whether a scientific technology has reached maturity?
Life sciences research is in the midst of an extraordinary fruitful period. New technologies are enabling researchers to probe biological phenomena with ever increasing time and spatial resolution, ever greater selectivity, and ever greater coverage. Researchers can sequence thousands of mRNAs and determine their expression levels in single cells, image ...
An outlook of the fight against climate change
According to the Paris Agreement (also known as the Paris climate accord), which was initialed in 2015 and signed by more than 190 countries all over the world, we all human beings are in a war against the global climate change and should work together to curb the greenhouse emissions. The Paris Agreement has a very specific goal to limit a global temperature rise within 2 Celsius degrees compared with the pre-industrial levels. Otherwise, the temperature rise will be irreversible and lead to sea level rising and more frequent extreme weather conditions threatening millions of lives.
Artificial intelligence is the future, is it?
Many believe that, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to revolutionize the future. During the Cold War, then-Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson believed that “whoever wins the space race would gain control over the Earth”. Today, AI development is the new space race. Recently, Russian President Putin said, “Whoever becomes the leader in this sphere will become the ruler of the world”. Despite the hyperbole in this statement, the importance of technology’s power should never be overlooked and artificial intelligence is truly today’s hot topic.
Do it live!
Code at rest is a dreary thing. Worse, it’s often ignored. Distributing your lifeless code is nice and all, but running it for others can be even better.
Thought about imperial units
As a European, I’ve never been interested in working with the imperial units. But today I want to talk about a good point I discovered in it.
post hoc != propter hoc
Lest I scare you away immediately, let me clarify that the topic of this blog is only marginally about the ethics of animal research. Rather, it’s about making a cogent argument. And more specifically, about the sense of nausea I feel when reading terrible arguments from people who should know ...
Interesting facts about China
It surprises me that there exists so many misconceptions about China, my homeland. Some of them are really hilarious, while others are both funny and annoying. Let’s begin with some famous American Chinese food. Only after I found myself chewing a piece of paper did I realize what the fortune ...
Unintended effects of data privacy in healthcare
I would like to draw attention to an instance where I believe the pendulum has swung too far: the Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
Environment issue in my hometown
At the end of each day of work, I look up at the blue sky and smell the aroma of the flowers as I make my way back to my apartment. On some weekends, I wander around the shore of Lake Michigan and feel the breeze blowing across the lake. I believe that the pleasant natural environment, such as the green plants and the blue sky and lake, is always a good stress reliever. However, whenever I am enjoying these gifts of nature, one question nags at my mind: What has happened to the environment back to my country?
Toward a Social Contract in Data Journalism
In the ongoing saga of American politics, we the voters have seen some pretty improbable things this election cycle. But to many, the starkest instance of the improbable has been Donald Trump’s rise to presumptive nominee for the GOP. But I won’t be talking about the situation in question – instead I want to discuss the state of data journalism in the wake of this campaign season.
The Problem with Intuition
Today I want to talk about quantum entanglement. No, not the details but the idea of entanglement and how it, and other radical ideas like it, can challenge our intuition.
No tienes...
Yesterday, the day before Thanksgiving break, was a really quiet morning. I could write about thanksgiving, something about the Spanish perspective, but we had a funny afternoon and I prefer to talk about it. We had lunch around noon and we talked about our annual “Trivia Tournament”. The rules are simple: each of us writes at least five questions; a “referee” mixes the questions into a single PowerPoint and hides the answers. During the tournament, the referee presents the questions and scores the players: one positive if the answer is correct, one negative if the answer is incorrect. There are three winners: who has the most positive points, the most negative points, and the most total points (positive plus negative points).