From the category archives:

Structure of knowledge

The importance of seeing what isn’t there

January 17, 2010

The Edge Annual Question — 2010 —
The Edge Annual Question — 2010 asks “How is the Internet changing the way you think?”, with answers by (to borrow from the Edge description) “an array of world-class scientists, artists, and creative thinkers” that includes technology analyst Nicholas Carr, social software guru Clay Shirky, science historian George Dyson, [...]

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Evolution: The concept and how we talk about it

January 3, 2010

Note: I’m in the middle of writing a series on the history and prospects of advanced nanotechnology, prompted by the recent 50th anniversary of Feynman’s historic talk, “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom”. The next will discuss what the U.S. National Research Council has said about advanced molecular manufacturing, including its recommendations.

I’ve been asked [...]

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For Darwin’s sake, reject “Darwin-ism”
 (and other pernicious terms)

December 31, 2009

On this last day of the bicentennial of Darwin’s birth, I’d like to suggest that we honor Darwin by rejecting the dubious term “Darwinism”.
To call something an “ism” suggests that it is a matter ideology or faith, like Trotskyism or creationism. In the evolution wars, the term “evolutionism” is used to insinuate that the modern [...]

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Khan Academy:
On a mission to educate the world (for free)

December 28, 2009

I got a pointer to a free, online educational resource today.
It deserves more attention.
The eyeballs of a few million students might be a good start. Students in elementary school, grad school, rural Africa… places like that.
It consists of 1000+ brief lectures on YouTube.
It centers on math, but goes beyond.
Here are a few samples that [...]

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Molecular Manufacturing: Where’s the progress?

December 19, 2009

Part 2 of a series on the history and prospects of advanced nanotechnology concepts, prompted by the upcoming 50th anniversary of Feynman’s historic talk, “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom”.

John Stewart Mill Debugging defects in human thought

As cognitive psychologists know, we human beings suffer from multiple, systematic cognitive biases, aberrations of intellectual vision that [...]

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How many minds produce knowledge
(and how they don’t)

December 11, 2009

A review of Infotopia
I’ve been discussing problems with public information and ways to improve it with Michael Nielsen, and on this topic, he recommended Infotopia: how many minds produce knowledge by Cass Sunstein. Having just finished reading it, I recommend it too.
With a solid grounding in experiments and studies of group behavior (and enlightened common [...]

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Quantum-coupled single-electron
thermal to electric conversion

December 4, 2009

An analysis in the current Journal of Applied Physics shows how to achieve solid-state conversion of thermal energy to electrical power by exploiting the physics of coupled quantum dots, delivering high power density at an efficiency close to the Carnot limit. The work also provides an excellent example of the methodology of exploratory engineering.
The approach [...]

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Great Science, Great Scientists, and Icons

November 27, 2009

Working as a young, self-funded, independent investigator, Charles Darwin formulated the theory of evolution by variation and natural selection.
Modern science funds independent investigators differently:

It has become increasingly difficult for young U.S. researchers to win funding for their ideas.
(See also: “More about less opportunity for young scientists”)
Unfortunately, our iconic images of great scientists distort perceptions of [...]

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Followup discussion
of quantum information and science hype

November 17, 2009

My recent post on quantum computation drew comments from quantum information scientist Robert Tucci, which led us into a discussion of hype in science, the pervasive mistake of equating quantum parallelism with parallel computing, and then to Bayesian quantum networks (see Robert’s wide-ranging blog on developments in quantum information science and technology).
You can read the [...]

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Nanotechnology research papers:
The world’s most prolific authors

October 30, 2009

Today, while reading about patterns of research publication in nanotechnology, I came across as striking table that presents the number of nanotechnology papers published by the world’s most prolific authors, listing them together with their countries and institutions:

 

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Knowledge about Knowledge:
The most popular posts in the first year

October 29, 2009

Metamodern’s readership shows what I consider to be good taste. Five of the six most popular posts in the blog’s first year (and several more in the top 20) have been, not about news or about the specifics of a technology, but instead about something deeper and more durable: knowledge itself — the structure of [...]

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First Anniversary
(and the scientific method revisited)

October 25, 2009

Metamodern is one year old today, and I wish I’d started a blog years earlier. I have some notes on popular posts in the last year — there are some interesting patterns that I’ve been pleased to see — but here, today, it seems fitting to revisit the first.
My 25 October 2008 post, “The Data [...]

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