{"id":259,"date":"2010-12-29T13:17:50","date_gmt":"2010-12-29T13:17:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/loren\/2010\/12\/29\/interesting-reading-of-late\/"},"modified":"2017-11-14T15:37:27","modified_gmt":"2017-11-14T20:37:27","slug":"interesting-reading-of-late","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/loren\/2010\/12\/29\/interesting-reading-of-late\/","title":{"rendered":"Interesting Reading of Late"},"content":{"rendered":"<div xmlns:mwsh=\"https:\/\/www.mathworks.com\/namespace\/mcode\/v1\/syntaxhighlight.dtd\" class=\"content\">\r\n   <introduction>\r\n      <p>Just recently, I have read a few articles that I found really interesting and wanted to pass along the pointers.<\/p>\r\n   <\/introduction>\r\n   <h3>Contents<\/h3>\r\n   <div>\r\n      <ul>\r\n         <li><a href=\"#1\">The Scientific Method - Inherent Bias?<\/a><\/li>\r\n         <li><a href=\"#2\">Story about Data from Google Books<\/a><\/li>\r\n         <li><a href=\"#3\">Chandrasekhar on Beauty in Science<\/a><\/li>\r\n         <li><a href=\"#4\">Your Reading Recommendations?<\/a><\/li>\r\n      <\/ul>\r\n   <\/div>\r\n   <h3>The Scientific Method - Inherent Bias?<a name=\"1\"><\/a><\/h3>\r\n   <p>In a recent New Yorker magazine, there was an article titled <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/reporting\/2010\/12\/13\/101213fa_fact_lehrer\"><i>Rethinking the scientific method<\/i><\/a>.  I found it interesting because the author showed several cases where scientists were not deliberately looking for a particular\r\n      outcome.  When they got some astonishing results, needless to say, their publications created a buzz.  If they instead found\r\n      a less interesting result, the desire to publish (either the scientist's or the publisher's) may be less, so there tends to\r\n      be a bias for publishing flashy results.  Only problem is, sometimes they are outlier results.  Publishing the updates are\r\n      often deflating, nor do people necessarily buy into the newer information readily.\r\n   <\/p>\r\n   <h3>Story about Data from Google Books<a name=\"2\"><\/a><\/h3>\r\n   <p>The second story is actually one I heard on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\">National Public Radio<\/a> and talked about the contents of an article published in Science magazine: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sciencemag.org\/content\/330\/6011\/1600.summary\"><i>Google Opens Books to New Cultural Studies<\/i><\/a>.  With Google scanning in so many books, some biologists from Harvard are studying the trends in word use over time by authors\r\n      to see what cultural trends emerge.\r\n   <\/p>\r\n   <h3>Chandrasekhar on Beauty in Science<a name=\"3\"><\/a><\/h3>\r\n   <p>Finally, reading my recent copy of Physics Today, which is mostly focused on  the life and scientific contributions of Subrahmanyan\r\n      Chandrasekhar, there is a lovely reprint of a talk Chandrasekhar gave in 1979 on <i>Beauty and the quest for beauty in science<\/i>. I found his thoughts quite poetic.  One reason this resonates with me, even though I am galaxies from his league, is because\r\n      I find that beauty is inherent in well-written code, in well-formed designs, all over the place.  And that it can be a travesty\r\n      to not let the beauty be acknowledged and perhaps help lead choices that need to be made.\r\n   <\/p>\r\n   <h3>Your Reading Recommendations?<a name=\"4\"><\/a><\/h3>\r\n   <p>Do you have any recent technical reading recommendations?  Why not share them <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/loren?p=259\">here<\/a> and spice up people's holiday reading lists!  Happy New Year to all.  See you in 2011.\r\n   <\/p><script language=\"JavaScript\">\r\n<!--\r\n\r\n    function grabCode_bd0a9a3f709347ec8f4631a4465e260d() {\r\n        \/\/ Remember the title so we can use it in the new page\r\n        title = document.title;\r\n\r\n        \/\/ Break up these strings so that their presence\r\n        \/\/ in the Javascript doesn't mess up the search for\r\n        \/\/ the MATLAB code.\r\n        t1='bd0a9a3f709347ec8f4631a4465e260d ' + '##### ' + 'SOURCE BEGIN' + ' #####';\r\n        t2='##### ' + 'SOURCE END' + ' #####' + ' bd0a9a3f709347ec8f4631a4465e260d';\r\n    \r\n        b=document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0];\r\n        i1=b.innerHTML.indexOf(t1)+t1.length;\r\n        i2=b.innerHTML.indexOf(t2);\r\n \r\n        code_string = b.innerHTML.substring(i1, i2);\r\n        code_string = code_string.replace(\/REPLACE_WITH_DASH_DASH\/g,'--');\r\n\r\n        \/\/ Use \/x3C\/g instead of the less-than character to avoid errors \r\n        \/\/ in the XML parser.\r\n        \/\/ Use '\\x26#60;' instead of '<' so that the XML parser\r\n        \/\/ doesn't go ahead and substitute the less-than character. \r\n        code_string = code_string.replace(\/\\x3C\/g, '\\x26#60;');\r\n\r\n        author = 'Loren Shure';\r\n        copyright = 'Copyright 2010 The MathWorks, Inc.';\r\n\r\n        w = window.open();\r\n        d = w.document;\r\n        d.write('<pre>\\n');\r\n        d.write(code_string);\r\n\r\n        \/\/ Add author and copyright lines at the bottom if specified.\r\n        if ((author.length > 0) || (copyright.length > 0)) {\r\n            d.writeln('');\r\n            d.writeln('%%');\r\n            if (author.length > 0) {\r\n                d.writeln('% _' + author + '_');\r\n            }\r\n            if (copyright.length > 0) {\r\n                d.writeln('% _' + copyright + '_');\r\n            }\r\n        }\r\n\r\n        d.write('<\/pre>\\n');\r\n      \r\n      d.title = title + ' (MATLAB code)';\r\n      d.close();\r\n      }   \r\n      \r\n-->\r\n<\/script><p style=\"text-align: right; font-size: xx-small; font-weight:lighter;   font-style: italic; color: gray\"><br><a href=\"javascript:grabCode_bd0a9a3f709347ec8f4631a4465e260d()\"><span style=\"font-size: x-small;        font-style: italic;\">Get \r\n            the MATLAB code \r\n            <noscript>(requires JavaScript)<\/noscript><\/span><\/a><br><br>\r\n      Published with MATLAB&reg; 7.11<br><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<!--\r\nbd0a9a3f709347ec8f4631a4465e260d ##### SOURCE BEGIN #####\r\n%% Interesting Reading of Late\r\n% Just recently, I have read a few articles that I found really interesting\r\n% and wanted to pass along the pointers.\r\n%% The Scientific Method - Inherent Bias?\r\n% In a recent New Yorker magazine, there was an article titled\r\n% <http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/reporting\/2010\/12\/13\/101213fa_fact_lehrer\r\n% _Rethinking the scientific method_>.  I found it interesting because the\r\n% author showed several cases where scientists were not deliberately\r\n% looking for a particular outcome.  When they got some astonishing\r\n% results, needless to say, their publications created a buzz.  If they\r\n% instead found a less interesting result, the desire to publish (either\r\n% the scientist's or the publisher's) may be less, so there tends to be a\r\n% bias for publishing flashy results.  Only problem is, sometimes they are\r\n% outlier results.  Publishing the updates are often deflating, nor do\r\n% people necessarily buy into the newer information readily.\r\n%% Story about Data from Google Books \r\n% The second story is actually one I heard on <http:\/\/www.npr.org National\r\n% Public Radio> and talked about the contents of an article published in\r\n% Science magazine:\r\n% <http:\/\/www.sciencemag.org\/content\/330\/6011\/1600.summary _Google Opens\r\n% Books to New Cultural Studies_>.  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