If you enjoy thinking about big numbers, track down a copy of this article, and have yourself a merry time: “Beyond the infinite – tracking bacterial gene expression,” Jack A. Gilbert [pictured here], Microbiology Today. vol. 37, no. 2, pp. 82-86. May 2010. “IF THE NUMBER of known stars in the Milky Way is multiplied by the […]
Tag: numbers
You can count on monsters, mathematically
A book called You Can Count on Monsters, by Richard Evan Schwartz, is designed for children but might also be frighteningly productive for adults to read. Schwartz is a math professor at Brown University. It’s about numbers and the numbers that compose them. And if that sentence is a little scary, try dipping into the […]
How he reads a table of numbers
Peter Freed, feeling provoked, muses about how he reads a science paper (and in this passage, how he reads a table in a science paper): Now listen: most non-scientists see a table like this and freak out. They take around 3 seconds to decide they can’t understand it, get scared of feeling stupid in the face […]
Fun with numbers: Coffee, Sex, Stroke
A new study in the journal Stroke is triggering lots of exciting news stories about sex, coffee, defecation, and other activities. Here are two fairly typical headlines: Common Activities Such As Sex, Coffee Can Cause Stroke [SmartAboutHealth.net] Sex and coffee ‘trigger stroke’ [BBC News] You might enjoy looking at the study itself, and asking yourself […]