Reproducibility is one of the cornerstones of science. Made popular by British scientist Robert Boyle in the 1660s, the idea is that a discovery should be reproducible before being accepted as scientific knowledge.
In essence, you should be able to produce the same results I did if you follow the method I describe when announcing my discovery in a scholarly publication. For example, if researchers can reproduce the effectiveness of a new drug at treating a disease, that’s a good sign it could work for all sufferers of the disease. If not, we’re left wondering what accident or mistake produced the original favorable result, and would doubt the drug’s usefulness.
For most of the history of science, researchers have reported their methods in a way that enabled independent reproduction of their results. But, since the introduction of the personal computer – and the point-and-click software programs that have evolved to make it more user-friendly – reproducibility of much research has become questionable, if not impossible. Too much of the research process is now shrouded by the opaque use of computers that many researchers have come to depend on. This makes it almost impossible for an outsider to recreate their results.
Recently, several groups have proposed similar solutions to this problem. Together they would break scientific data out of the black box of unrecorded computer manipulations so independent readers can again critically assess and reproduce results. Researchers, the public, and science itself would benefit.
(cont'd). Thinking of buying an ipad mini (the cheapest one). What do you know about this product? Can I attach it to a little keyboard so i can type on the crunchy keys? Is it a worthwhile investment? Are there other products you think would be a viable alternative? Your help is much appreciated.
Anonymous
Hello anonymous, you have come to the right person. I am going to present you with a few options, based on convenience and risk of loss.
1) if you want to keep your 4S, an iPad mini will indeed make a full computer companion for most things (no mouse support on iOS though), however an iPad mini is expensive and may be at risk for breakage or theft more than other comparable products
2) upgrade your phone to an unlocked 6+ (iOS), Nexus 6 (Android), or Nokia Lumia (Windows). This will allow you to have one product that could do both tasks, and you wouldn’t need a tablet. Buy an unlocked phone and then if it gets lost or stolen you’re not paying for it for another two or three years.
3) keep your iPhone 4S and buy a cheap Android or Windows tablet. You can buy amazing Android and Windows (full Windows 8.1) tablets for around Can$100. Tether your tablet to your phones data for a full computer experience with keyboard and mouse. The current generation of Windows tablets are no different from a desktop as far as function goes, and Android is a close second. iOS has the most apps, but it is not intended to replace a full computer, unlike Windows which is the same OS, and Android, which does appear on some desktops.
If you want a few suggestions for an Android tablet that would fit your bill, check out this one: a Toshiba Excite @ US$80
“Even though it’s looking increasingly likely that humanity will find a way to wipe itself off the face of the Earth, there’s a chance that our creative output may live on. Servers, hard drives, flash drives, and disks will degrade (as will our libraries of paper books, of course), but a group of researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology have found a way to encode data onto DNA—the very same stuff that all living beings’ genetic information is stored on—that could survive for millennia.
One gram of DNA can potentially hold up to 455 exabytes of data, according to the New Scientist. For reference: There are one billion gigabytes in an exabyte, and 1,000 exabytes in a zettabyte. The cloud computing company EMC estimated that there were 1.8 zettabytes of data in the world in 2011, which means we would need only about 4 grams (about a teaspoon) of DNA to hold everything from Plato through the complete works of Shakespeare to Beyonce’s latest album (not to mention every brunch photo ever posted on Instagram).
There are a growing number of tech entrepreneurs who believe that we’ll soon all be having better sex than ever, thanks largely to
advances in wearable technology. And we won’t even need to be in the
same room, town or time zone as our partners…
LAS VEGAS— You can always know who’s at your door— even if you’re not home.
That’s the promise of the Ring, a Wi-Fi-enabled doorbell that allows you to see and speak with everyone who comes to your door from your smartphone, regardless of where …
Hey, this post may contain adult content, so we’ve hidden it from public view.
Anonymous
