Ben Folds Five + Fraggles: Reminding Me of the Virtues of a Large Sample Size


I have a soft spot for Muppets and for the Ben Folds Five. The Muppets require no explanation. Ben Folds Five might do1.

The Ben Folds Five played the “Last Day of Classes” event at Duke University my freshman year (1998)2. I was having a good day (was named captain of the rugby team) and they rocked. At the time, the combination of good music and sun dresses convinced me that the “Last Day of Classes” was a day of eternal magic. Being a mere freshman, I had not yet learned that music selections by university entertainment committees are almost universally horrible3. The choice of Ben Folds Five was a statistical aberration that gave me an inaccurate expectation for the next year’s festivities due to the small sample size.

Looking back, the next three years of disappointment were well worth it to have that statistical lesson tattooed on my soul.

NOTES
1. For the metaphorical Philistines amongst you.
2. Having been college, these dates may or may not be accurate.
3. They also managed to bring in Kevin Nealon to do stand-up comedy when I visited the campus as a high school senior – an event that certainly influenced my choice of higher education institution. Vanderbilt’s dean of admissions mocking Nashville’s storied country music history may have also helped.

Doing Science on the “Fiscal Cliff”

Sequestration. It’s a dirty word for anyone whose job or paycheck relies on Federal funding. Scientists are particularly vulnerable because research plans tend to extend beyond just a few months. Often federal grant money is spent early in the funding period and a sudden budget cut could mean personnel cuts. The Budget Control Act of 2011  hoped to reduce the deficit by $1.2-$1.5 trillion dollars over the next ten years. As an insurance policy, the act included sequestration; meaning, should the committee fail to make a plan, a drastic, across the board cut would be enacted January 1, 2013.

So far, the committee has been unsuccessful in devising a plan to reduce the deficit. After the November election, Congress has been in a flurry trying to formulate a plan both parties support and get it approved in time. Continue reading “Doing Science on the “Fiscal Cliff””

Meet the Pselaphinae

A Snapshot of Pselaphine Beetle Diversity: plates from Raffray’s Étude sur les Psélaphides (1890)

Guest post by Joseph Parker, Coleopterist, Columbia University.

If you’ve ever been fortunate enough to walk through a rainforest, you’ll probably have noticed huge numbers of ants patrolling the ground at your feet. Ants dominate forest environments, dismembering other arthropods, harvesting honeydew from plant sucking bugs, and waging war on neighbouring colonies.

But amongst the ants exists another, far more poorly known group of creatures… a group of beetles called Pselaphinae (SEH-LA-FIN-EE). In terms of species richness they rival—and may even surpass—ants. These beetles are remarkable, being one of the most morphologically diverse groups of organisms out there, with a seemingly endless range of bizarre body forms. Continue reading “Meet the Pselaphinae”

Science Caturday: Fud Coma Edition

Scientists generally scoff at the idea that the the presence of the common amino acid tryptophan in turkey is the cause of the familiar post-Thanksgiving dinner sleepiness syndrome. Likelier culprits are booze and overeating. We don’t care. We blame the turkey ’cause it’s a stoopy big dino-bird.

via Cheezburger.com

Boring, soul-crushing routine tasks are unavoidable in science

Aspiring scientists need to know that a science career is not an exception to the universal requirement for routine drudgery that applies to all real jobs:

Back in my freshman year of college, I was planning to be a biochemist. I spent hours and hours of time in the lab: mixing chemicals in test tubes, putting samples in different machines, and analyzing results. Over time, I grew frustrated because I found myself spending weeks in the lab doing manual work and just a few minutes planning experiments or analyzing results. After a year, I gave up on chemistry and became a computer scientist, thinking that I would spend less time on preparation and testing and more time on analysis. Continue reading “Boring, soul-crushing routine tasks are unavoidable in science”