I’m a sucker for any game which involves time travel. If only now I could go back in time and use my time more wisely than I did by playing that silly game.
Scientists Without Borders
Interesting new website from the New York Academy of Sciences: Scientists Without Borders:
Scientists Without BordersSM aims to mobilize and coordinate science-based activities that improve quality of life in the developing world. The research community is already promoting areas such as global health, agricultural progress, and environmental well-being, but current communication gaps restrict its power. Organizations and individuals do not always know about one another’s endeavors, needs, or availability, which limits the ability to forge meaningful connections and harness resources. This situation is especially striking in light of the growing realization that integrated rather than focused approaches are crucial for addressing key challenges such as extreme poverty and the glaring health problems that accompany it.
The concept
Opportunities to foster synergy in the capacity-building arena would explode if an effective information-sharing tool existed. Institute leaders, project officers, and individual investigators could gather advice, other forms of human capital, and material assets. Furthermore, a central knowledge store about science-based capacity-building activities would help funding agencies and other institutions apply their efforts efficiently.
The solution
Scientists Without BordersSM is building a Web portal whose cornerstone is a database that serves as a digital repository for such information. The database will provide a way to match needs with resources. This tool will eventually create a record of accomplishments that also identifies the next steps for solving specific problems.
Political Interpretations of Quantum Theory
Over at the Optimizer’s place, the Optimizer compares libertarians and those who believe in the many worlds interpretation of quantum theory. (Key Ron Paul apologists in three, two, one…) An amusing comparison. So if many worlders are the libertarians of interpretations of quantum theory, what political parties do the other interpretations of quantum theory fall under?
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Thinking of Hiking in the Olympics…
Be sure to watch out for the Pacific Northwest tree octopus!
Teacher of the Year
For a second straight year, the winner of the U.S. Teacher of the Year, is a University of Washington graduate. Of course I’m not supposed to say that, as not bragging is an sacred northwest tradition. (Did you know that the University of Washington receives the second most federal research funding of any institute in the United States?)
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Video Games for Science
Science is full of hard problems. One hard problem is protein folding. Indeed vast amounts of computer power have been thrown at this problem. So one wouldn’t think that the computer we’ve got sitting on top of our body would be much use for this problem. But is this true? Can humans fold proteins better than computers? Enter onto the scene foldit developed by a group of researchers here at the University of Washington.
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Automata
From a student today in office hours before today’s midterm: “How many times will the word automata appear in the test, including its use in acronyms like DFA, NFA, GNFA, and WTFA?”
Algorithmic Steampunk?
From the annals of “is that really the word you wanted?” from a New York Times article on steampunk:
“There seems to be this sort of perfect storm of interest in steampunk right now,” Mr. von Slatt said. “If you go to Google Trends and track the number of times it is mentioned, the curve is almost algorithmic from a year and a half ago.” (At this writing, Google cites 1.9 million references.)
Certainly I can interpret this as saying that the trend has a curve which can be generated by an algorirthm, but I’m guessing Mr. von Slatt meant something else, considering that the curve which is always zero is also algorithmic.
Turok New PI Director
Of interest to quantum computeristas: Cosmologist Niel Turok has been named the new director of the Perimeter Institute. Onward and upward!
BQP, NP, and All That
The mothership, aka Seed magazine, has a crib sheet for quantum computing. Its not half bad, considering how bad things like this can go. And of course this is probably due in part to the fact that they list the Optimizer as a consultant. But the real question is whether that little shade of black outside of NP is an illustrators trick or the result of a complexity theorist being the person they asked to vet the cheat sheet?