From Matthew Hutson at Science: Ali Rahimi, a researcher in artificial intelligence (AI) at Google in San Francisco, California, has charged that machine learning algorithms, in which computers learn through trial and error, have become a form of “alchemy.” Researchers, he says, do not know why some algorithms work and others don’t, nor do they have rigorous criteria for choosing one AI architecture over another. Now, in a paper presented on 30 April at the International Conference on Learning Representations in Vancouver, Canada, Rahimi and his collaborators document examples of what they see as the alchemy problem and offer prescriptions for bolstering AI’s rigor. … (paywall) Science 04 May 2018: Vol. 360, Issue 6388, pp. 478 DOI: 10.1126/science.360.6388.478More. AI, meaning Read More ›

Off topic, that is, unless you are thinking of going into debt for someone’s education. From California educator Steven Ma at his blog: The SAT and ACT are important standardized tests in the college admissions process that is inundated with more applications than there is time to read. However, the article in the Wall Street Journal (March 8, 2018) by Nathan Kuncel and Paul Sackett (K&S) is exceptionally misleading regarding evidence that “research is clear: [the SAT/ACT] is an invaluable measure of how students are likely to perform in college and beyond.” The authors state six myths about “standardized tests,” though they primarily are discussing the SAT and ACT, but offer evidence that undermines their own claims as to why Read More ›

Anatomy category: From Rui Diogo at Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution: Just-so stories are prominent in human evolution literature because of our tendency to create simple progressionist narratives about our “special” place in nature, despite the fact that these stories are almost exclusively based on hard tissue data. How can we be so certain about the evolution of human facial communication, bipedalism, tool use, or speech without detailed knowledge of the internal anatomy of for instance, one of the two extant species more closely related to us, the bonobos? Here I show how many of these stories now become obsolete, after such a comprehensive knowledge on the anatomy of bonobos and other primates is finally put together. Each and every Read More ›

A few days ago, Denyse published the following, very interesting, OP: Laszlo Bencze offers an analogy to current claims about evolution: Correcting an F grade paper Considering that an example is often better than many long discussions, I have decided to use part of the analogy presented there by philopsopher and photographer Laszlo Bencze to show some important aspects of the concept of isolated islands of complex functional information, recently discussed at this OP of mine: Defending Intelligent Design theory: Why targets are real targets, probabilities real probabilities, and the Texas Sharp Shooter fallacy does not apply at all. and in the following discussion. So, I will quote here the relevant part of Bencze’s argument, the part that I will use Read More ›

Readers may well remember Adam Perkins, a scientist who has spoken out on the importance of free speech in science. Why? From Sarah Chaffee at ENST: Adam Perkins, King’s College London lecturer in Neurobiology of Personality, was scheduled to deliver a talk at his institution. But King’s College cancelled the event because they considered it too “high risk.” What was he going to say that was so “risky” that he needed to be shut down? … He starts off with a bang. “We need free speech in science because science is not really about microscopes, or pipettes, or test tubes or even Large Hadron Colliders. These are merely tools that help us to accomplish a far greater mission, which is Read More ›

It seems we cannot escape epistemological questions when we address ID issues. AK opens the squeaky-hinged door yet again in the US National Association of Scholars thread. My comment: KF, 9: >>[AK,] I see your: If they are published in reputable peer reviewed journals, they are scientific findings. We need to distinguish key terms and address underlying issues on logic and warrant. Truth (following Ari who got it right) says of what is that it is and of what is not that it is not — accurate description of reality. As potentially knowing, rational and responsible subjects, we face the challenge that we are finite, fallible, morally struggling (is is not ought) and too often ill-willed. To credibly know objective Read More ›

From professor of electrical engineering Karl J. Stephan at MercatorNet: “For one low price,” the magician said, “I can give you the power to change your servants into perfectly obedient machines. They’ll look just like they do now, but you won’t have to feed them or let them sleep or rest. And they will do your every bidding exactly the way you want.” “Hmm,” said the king. “Sounds too good to be true.” “I have references!” said the magician. And he pulled out a sheaf of letters written by kings of nearby kingdoms, some of whom King Minsky even knew. They all swore by the magician’s abilities and said they were delighted with what he was offering. “Well, all right, Read More ›

The eukaryote smashes and rearranges its genome. Our results show that a great diversity of scrambled gene maps are present in the germline genome of O. trifallax. The presence of such highly nested architectures was a surprise and suggests that layers upon layers of MDS and gene translocations constantly alter the genome, while the detection of highly scrambled patterns reveals architectures that transcend simple twists and turns of the DNA. We present new metrics of topological genome complexity, that go beyond the linear nature of eukaryotic chromosomes and consider their deeply structured and layered history. While several models of genome rearrangement have been reported, the unprecedented levels of rearrangements in this system necessitate additional descriptive and mathematical tools, some of Read More ›

About time too. From Jim Daley at The Scientist: The biological species concept, proposed by Ernst Mayr in the 1940s, defines a species as a group of individuals that can make fertile offspring only with one another, a notion he termed “reproductive isolation.” But that idea doesn’t jibe with Detwiler’s observations of monkeys in Gombe. By analyzing the mitochondrial DNA from epithelial cells found in 144 monkeys’ poop, she showed that red-tailed guenons (Cercopithecus ascanius) and blue guenons (C. mitis) have been mating and producing hybrid offspring for many generations. Using the sequencing data, she found that all of the monkeys in the park—hybrids, red-tails, and blues alike—can trace their ancestry back to an original group of female red-tailed guenons Read More ›

Sometimes, but not necessarily. Despite the powerful cultural messages around the subject. From Susan Milius at ScienceNews: Many creatures that routinely kill their own kind would be terrifying, if they were larger than a jelly bean. Certain male fig wasps unable to leave the fruit they hatch in have become textbook examples, says Mark Briffa, who studies animal combat. Stranded for life in one fig, these males grow “big mouthparts like a pair of scissors,” he says, and “decapitate as many other males as they possibly can.” The last he-wasp crawling has no competition to mate with all the females in his own private fruit palace. In contrast, big mammals that inspire sports-team mascots mostly use antlers, horns and other Read More ›

Asks Columbia mathematician Peter Woit at Not Even Wrong: University press offices and grant agencies put out irresponsible hype about the work of one their faculty or grantees. In this case, it’s Taming the multiverse: Stephen Hawking’s final theory about the big bang from Cambridge, and Stephen Hawking’s last paper, co-authored with ERC grantee Thomas Hertog, proposes a new cosmological theory, in which universe is less complex and finite from the European Research Council. And, of course, pop science media run with it, even if it’s old and debunked news. Woit laments, This is rather depressing, making one feel that there’s no way to fight this kind of bad science, in the face of determined efforts to promote fake physics Read More ›

From Daniel Muth at Living Church, reviewing Steve Meyer’s Darwin’s Doubt: I am fairly certain that there are thoughtful and potentially influential intellectual movements that have been subjected to more shameful and inexcusable misrepresentation and ill treatment than Intelligent Design (ID), but the list is not long (Roman Catholic teaching on artificial birth control comes to mind). To be fair, ID theorists have invited critique in no small part by tending to hold theirs out as a valid area of scientific research while mainly publishing popular books rather than peer-reviewed articles. If their intention was not to be lumped in with creationists, it has not worked. From the disastrous Dover School Board lawsuit to the propaganda screeds of the New Read More ›

From Brian Miller at ENST: In a previous article I described how scientific training can condition some scientists’ minds to resist the evidence in nature for intelligent design. Now, I will demonstrate the effects of this process using as a case study the book Adam and the Genome: Reading Scripture after Genetic Science, co-authored by Dennis Venema. I must begin by stating that I have never met Dr. Venema, but I have met several of his colleagues, and from my encounters with them I have no reason to doubt that Venema desires to operate with complete integrity and to present scientific claims and arguments that are of the highest academic quality. The challenge he faces lies not with his character Read More ›

From Alex Berezow at ACSH: Randa Jarrar, an English professor at Fresno State, is rightfully in hot water. In a Twitter tirade, she called the recently deceased Barbara Bush an “amazing racist” and said she was “happy the witch is dead.” For good measure, she wished death upon the rest of the Bush Family. Let’s set aside the issues of free speech and tenure to focus on a bigger underlying concern: The psychology of pure, unadulterated hatred. How does a person become so consumed with animosity for a fellow human being? Apparently, the subject has been studied, and Berezow provides some helpful pointers from an FBI analyst: Though his article is about the behavior of hate groups, such as Neo-Nazis, Read More ›

From David Nguyen at Think Tank, TTC Learning: Many other science-related claims made in popular media seem to confuse causation and correlation. Dr. Nguyen’s vids are a clear, simple resource for students and interested adults who appreciate tips on sorting the claims out: Cause or correlation? See also: Science vs Scientists, with David Nguyen. Asking, what is more prone to error: Science or scientists