Monthly Archives: May 2006
The H-Prize: The ultimate in competitive science
The H-Prize takes its shape and name from the privately funded $10 million Ansari X Prize, which led, in 2004, to the first privately developed manned rocket to reach outer space twice. Members of the House Science Committee said that … Continue reading
Academic papers in Open Access journals receive better recognition
Here’s the abstract of the paper by Gunther Eysenbach. Open access (OA) to the research literature has the potential to accelerate recognition and dissemination of research findings, but its actual effects are controversial. This was a longitudinal bibliometric analysis of … Continue reading
On Roman myths and barbarians
It has been easy to underestimate Celtic technological achievements because so much has vanished or been misunderstood. Of course, it was thoughtless of the Celts not to leave us anything much in the way of written records — they should … Continue reading
Fryer and Levitt on “Racial differences in the mental ability of young children”
Roland G. Fryer and Steven D. Levitt (2006): Testing for racial differences in the mental ability of young children. Here is the abstract: On tests of intelligence, Blacks systematically score worse than Whites, whereas Asians frequently outperform Whites. Some have … Continue reading
Faked research on computer chip design
Here is the NYTimes story that broke the news. The quote below is from the follow-up story: [A] top computer scientist, Chen Jin, … became a national hero in 2003 when he said he had created one of China’s first … Continue reading
Can economic models ‘prove’ anything?
This has something to do with the little ‘just-so’ theory I indulged myself in yesterday. Though my intention was totally non-serious (but not frivolous!), one still has to wonder if serious economic models can ever be said to ‘prove’ something … Continue reading
It’s financial impropriety now
The aftermath of Hwang Woo Suk scandal has taken yet another bizarre turn. He has now been accused of financial impropriety too! Prosecutors on Friday indicted a disgraced cloning scientist on embezzlement and bioethics law violations linked to faked stem … Continue reading
John Kenneth Galbraith
Two links: The first, to a profile in Guardian, is from several years ago. The second, to a NYTimes op-ed by Robert H. Frank, goes into some of the possible reasons for why he didn’t get the Nobel. * * … Continue reading
Quotas are economically efficient!
Alternate title: “Fun and Frolic on the Beaches of the Just-So Land” (from the Annals of Just-So Theories, May 2006) Introduction: In this paper, we propose a simple (heck, it’s even simplistic!) model to show that quotas are economically efficient. … Continue reading
Death of the industrial research lab
Basic research performed in industrial laboratories is declining — is the focus on profitability to the detriment of furthering scientific knowledge? Do read this interesting article by A. Michael Noll (Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California) in Nature … Continue reading
Is the peer review system broken?
The New York Times ran an article yesterday with the following opening: Recent disclosures of fraudulent or flawed studies in medical and scientific journals have called into question as never before the merits of their peer-review system. The system is … Continue reading
Is the peer review system broken?
The New York Times ran an article yesterday with the following opening: Recent disclosures of fraudulent or flawed studies in medical and scientific journals have called into question as never before the merits of their peer-review system. The system is … Continue reading
