Monthly Archives: June 2010

Journalists, you are fallible. Get off the pedestal and join the common herd

Note: some of these words were originally written by Simon Jenkins. Some were not. Others are responsible for encouraging this. So journalists are human after all. They are no different from bankers, politicians, lawyers, estate agents and perhaps even scientists. … Continue reading

Posted in Silliness | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Book Review: Elegance in Science

Elegance in Science: The Beauty of Simplicity Ian Glynn, Oxford University Press, 2010 OUP, UK Amazon, US Amazon The aesthetics of mathematics and science is a tricky subject. There are some theories and theorems that are admired for their elegance … Continue reading

Posted in Books | 4 Comments

Phew, what a busy week

I’ve barely seen The Beast in the last week. Aside from writing a grant application at the last moment, I went to a stats conference in Norway. Unfortunately I couldn’t stay, because my institute held its annual retreat, and I … Continue reading

Posted in The Society of Science | 11 Comments

Abstruse Goose: It’s so true

Well, not quite: all those equations are deterministic – nothing for us statisticians to get our teeth into. Grrr. Source

Posted in Friday Fun | Tagged | 7 Comments

Introducing Knot Theory

This is too silly not to do… If I were a Springer-Verlag Graduate Text in Mathematics, I would be W.B.R. Lickorish’s An Introduction to Knot Theory. I am an introduction to mathematical Knot Theory; the theory of knots and links … Continue reading

Posted in Silliness | 2 Comments

More on Mendel’s Manuscript

A couple of week ago I asked if anyone knew about the whereabouts of Mendel’s manuscript. Nobody seemed to know, but now the New York Times has an article about it. The short version is that the ownership is now … Continue reading

Posted in The Society of Science | 3 Comments