Am I your cause or your effect?

Prof. Bernhard Schölkopf's work never disappoints. Herculean work but worth the effort.

Mooij, J. M.; Peters, J.; Janzing, D.; Zscheischler, J. & Schölkopf, B.,
"Distinguishing Cause from Effect Using Observational Data: Methods and Benchmarks",
Journal of Machine Learning Research, 2016, 17, 1-102

Link to the paper details HERE

Hammers and nails

Simple and very useful:

R. E. Kass, B. S. Caffo, M. Davidian, X. Meng, B. Yu, Nancy Reid* (2016). Ten simple rules for effective statistical practice. PLoS Comput. Biol., 12(6): e1004961. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004961

Old times' sake: "Accuracy, error, precision and uncertainty"

First principles...HERE

Karl Deisseroth and "Comparing Tissue Transparency Methods for Intact Analyses"

I think we are getting closer to have a clear, non destructive and non invasive strategy to create images of the brain at a neural circuitry level.

Images are simply astonishing.

Link to CLARITY HERE

Link to Dr. Karl Deisseroth publications, HERE

And then "one president became another president"

Computer graphics analysis and understanding is evolving at a speed that is really scaring me. A paper recently published in the 2015 edition of the International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV) showed how to process a video with gestures from a person and then create a 3D computer graphics model of another person doing the same gestures.

In the video that can be shown in the following LINK (from minute 1:07 onwards) a 3D computer graphics model of a U. S. president makes the same gestures as those made by another president.

There are moral implications for me in this scenario.  

Joseph Lucas & Guillermo Sapiro: "Cancer: What's luck got to do with it?"

I enjoyed reading a communication by Prof. Joseph E. Lucas and Prof. Guillermo Sapiro about the conclusions that can be drawn from a research paper by Cristian Tomasetti and Bert Vogelstein.

You can read the "comment" HERE

I think we have here an example of at least two assumptions that might be misleading in statistical data analysis:

a) how "population averages" translate into individual "cases". Several different individual "configurations" may give the same "average".

b) consider that (process) variables are independent among them, and therefore if some have an effect-result on others, simply infer that the others do not have a "statistically significant" similar effect ("Environment" and "Genetics" in the "Number of stem cell divisions", Figure 1, in this paper).

Physical Sciences Informatics (PSI) Data Repository open to the public

Imagine a "combustion experiment" at the "International Space Station" (ISS).

How much does an experiment of this kind cost?

Should anyone have access to data associated to each one of these experiments?

NASA thinks so.

Links:

1)  "Physical Sciences Research Program" (HERE)

2) "Physical Sciences Informatics System" (HERE)

3) "Open Science data" (Wikipedia - HERE)

Summing and counting

No better summary than NASA's title:

"Record-Breaking Climate Trends 2016 – Rising Temperatures and Shrinking Sea Ice"

"Qui habet aures audiendi audiat" - Matthew 13 (Link HERE)

The meritocracy that once was?

The term meritocracy has fascinated me for so many years... You can find a good definition even in Wikipedia (HERE):

"Meritocracy (merit, from Latin mereō "I earn" and -cracy, from Ancient Greek κράτος kratos "strength, power") is a political philosophy holding that power should bevested in individuals almost exclusively based on ability and talent.^[1] Advancement in such a system is based on performance measured through examination and/or demonstrated achievement in the field where it is implemented"

In a society I would like to live in, I would like to feel that I am where my effort and capabilities have allowed me to arrive.

I am happy where I am. But not everybody can say the same.

In a study by Emilio J Castilla whose details are:

Gender, Race, and Meritocracy in Organizational Careers
Emilio J. Castilla
American Journal of Sociology
Vol. 113, No. 6 (May 2008), pp. 1479-1526

he shows that even companies that apply policies based on meritocracy, other factors affect decisions about who to hire, how much to pay, etc.

Can't you think of examples in your own life where you say to yourself: "this person should have...but he/she does not and the criteria do not have anything to do with capabilities...". All of us can think of at least one example, and that makes millions of examples in the end.

Therefore, I should think we do not live and will not live even in something similar to a meritocratic social system.

Final note: Even all of the above, I still find it fascinating some Youtube videos like the following one:

"NASA’s Global Tour of Precipitation in Ultra HD (4K)"

Dr. Dorin Comaniciu - Cinematic Rendering technology

Dr. Dorin Comaniciu is the example that shows a company can make a balance between good science and profits.

Why shouldn't Siemens apply the best machine learning tools available?

Why shouldn't a company and "university style research" be together?

The following video showing Siemens Cinematic Rendering technology is simply amazing!

Ron Mello - Kintsugi - My professional life

Ron Mello's studio and gallery web page can be found HERE

Extraordinary new things are always "just around the corner"

Just look and will find.

Walt Whitman - oppression and shame - I sit and look out

List of ongoing armed conflicts.

From Wikipedia: HERE

- And the sea also has a preminence

- And the prisoners

- And the tyranny

- And I read Walt Whitman's "I sit and look out":

"I sit and look out upon all the sorrows of the world, and upon all oppression and shame; 

I hear secret convulsive sobs from young men, at anguish with themselves, remorseful after
 deeds done; 

I see, in low life, the mother misused by her children, dying, neglected, gaunt,
 desperate; 

I see the wife misused by her husband—I see the treacherous seducer of young women; 

I mark the ranklings of jealousy and unrequited love, attempted to be hid—I see these
 sights on the earth;

I see the workings of battle, pestilence, tyranny—I see martyrs and prisoners; 

I observe a famine at sea—I observe the sailors casting lots who shall be
 kill’d, to preserve the lives of the rest; 

I observe the slights and degradations cast by arrogant persons upon laborers, the poor,
 and upon negroes, and the like; 

All these—All the meanness and agony without end, I sitting, look out upon, 
See, hear, and am silent."

"Even if the cold burns, even if fear bites..." - Mario Benedetti

Below you will find a poem by uruguayan writer Mario Benedetti

The spanish only version: HERE

English and spanish: HERE

Noah Smith and "Economics Has a Math Problem"

I found this story almost by chance, and I do not quite agree with this person.

Link HERE

Economics will be "saved" by mathematics, I agree with that, but I do not think it may not be evolving in a mathematical framework.

I am not convinced either by the fact that its guidlines might be "data driven".

Some science disciplines are fact is evolving under two competing "pulses":

a) the need to have a "model" to explain the data

b) the possibility to infer data behaviour without a model (i. e., to use "data driven prediction" tools)

I think there is not a clear answer about which approach is best.

The little boy - Helen Buckley

I could not resist the temptation to write this post.

Text (one option): HERE

A story inspired by that text (sorry, only in spanish):

¿Bailamos? - Shall we dance? (New opportunity)

I have found this video subtitled in french, but not into english, sorry!

Machine Learning for Social Good - II

May be this kind of R&D projects and initiatives is just starting to "take off" and also take a "fair shape" in terms of recognition.

Link (to the information - call) below:

IBM Social Good Fellowship

Do we really want this?

As you can read HERE:

"Earth’s 2015 surface temperatures were the warmest since modern record keeping began in 1880, according to independent analyses by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)..."

Casey Greene and "Why we preprint"

I would recommend you to read the following post by Prof. Casey Greene titled:

"Why we preprint"

That post is in the very center of a "hot" discussion currently happening at the vision sciences community. However, it has been taking part in other fields like biology, physics, etc. for some time now.

Should we publish our work in a freely available public platform, or should we submit our papers and let them get into a typical/traditional peer review process?

There are reasons for both "processes"...

It is "El Niño", stupid!

"El Niño" is going to create severe and prolonged climate changes during the next few months. That is what NASA just released in a Dec. 29 statement (read it HERE).

Please, try not to do the logical inference from "El Niño" -> Temporal change in climate, but the other way round: Climate change -> Change in "El Niño" features.

Better now?

Truth and Fallacy in Educational Theory

I am thinking of buying this book:

I really find it hard:

a) to understand the way we try to teach our "pupils" today. I just inherit the aims others had before for the subjects which I give lectures in the university for.

b) to understand why students today do NOT want to learn.

Will I have to re-invent myself before being able to teach?

Will I have to learn the very basic foundations about how students acquire knowledge?

It doesn't seem to be just a matter of a new way to look at EPISTEMOLOGY

A different way to look at the amazing Earth

Earth's beauty is just one click away.

Go to: "NASA Earth Observatory"

My field has an impact - Data Science for Social Good

I am happy and proud to read how my research field evolves and what some people spend their time in:

DATA SCIENCE FOR SOCIAL GOOD

There are projects particularly interesting for me. For instance:

"College Persistence: Helping Students Beyond High School Graduation"

I am here for you - my son

Please, always remind me that you must grow up the way you WANT

The Aral Sea: the sea that was

We are able to reach the most commendable achievements, but our power to destroy is infinite.

There were port-cities in the Aral sea. The cities are still there, but the sea is not there anymore.

The water was necessary for something else.

15 minutes of fame

I think everybody needs to feel accepted by the community, but the way a person would like them to accept him/her varies substantially among us.

Some people need to hear they are beautiful, some other need to hear they are smart, and others just need to hear they care someone else.

In science, do we need to feel we are "recognised" by our colleages?

How do we need them to recognise us?

Have you never felt you are in a spiral like movement where the more you publish the more you need to?

Why?

What for?

I think only a few things really matter in life.

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

Terminators? No, thank you!

It seems we are within reach to create Artificial Intelligent machines that may be able to autonomously behave like soldiers in the battlefield.

I found an open letter HERE through Prof. Bernhard Schölkopf web page

This is an open debate that is happening now, and should!

Organisations like Future of Life Institute seem to be doing a good job.

Maths And Women

Or (read the following interview to Prof. Ingrid Daubechies):

"Maths is (also) for women"

Amazing grace

8000 years ago, europeans were not white. Please have a look at the following Science journal report HERE

My heart shakes when I see people hate each other because of color skin.

USA is a great country, I can say it, and I can believe it when I hear "Amazing grace" HERE

My son grows up so fast!

"NASA Releases Detailed Global Climate Change Projections"

HERE

Shame on you, humanity: Please give us water!

I have no words for this (LINK)

Journal of Universal Rejection

All the issues are empty? :-)

Link to the journal HERE.

Machines that think (Prof. Tomaso Poggio)

It seems to me we are still far away from the appearance of what we might call an "intelligent machine". In particular, should our definition of an intelligent machine be dependent on new/emergent understanding of what we can even consider that "human intelligence" is?.

I think so. I recommend you to read this short interview to Prof. Tomaso Poggio (link HERE).

In this moment of life - Ruth Bader Ginsburg

I think the following article is worth to be read:

"What Ruth Bader Ginsburg Taught Me About Being a Stay-at-Home Dad" (you can find it HERE)

that I could find when reading Dr. Laura Balzano's Blog

Enjoy!

Impostor Syndrome

I came accross this sentence when I arrived at Alexandra K. Schofield web page. In particular, in her blog

Wikipedia defines this syndrome as (link HERE):

"Impostor syndrome is a psychological phenomenon in which people are unable to internalize their accomplishments. Despite external evidence of their competence, those with the syndrome remain convinced that they are frauds and do not deserve the success they have achieved. Proof of success is dismissed as luck, timing, or as a result of deceiving others into thinking they are more intelligent and competent than they believe themselves to be. Notably, impostor syndrome is particularly common among high-achieving women".

Probably also happens in other situations (under-represented minorities)?.

2014 is the warmest year in record

NASA just published the following release:

http://www.nasa.gov/press/2015/january/nasa-determines-2014-warmest-year-in-modern-record/#.VLk1bStfZ5p

Merry Christmas!

No regrets...

Statistics in perspective

Mathematics are funny:

1) Correlation and causality:

"It is proven that the celebration of birthdays is healthy. Statistics show that those people who celebrate the most birthdays become the oldest" (credited to S. den Hartog)

2) Power of arithmetics:

"A physicist, a biologist, and a statistician see two people enter a house, and then after some time, they see three people leave the house.

The physicist concludes, "My initial observation must have been incorrect." The biologist concludes, "Clearly, the two reproduced..." The statistician concludes, "Well, if one more person enters the house, then there will be no-one in the house!"

3) Bayesian flavour:

"A Bayesian is one who, vaguely expecting a horse, and catching a glimpse of a donkey, strongly believes he has seen a mule".

Bad news by NASA: West Antarctic Glaciers in Irreversible Decline

I will remember these research findings for a long time:

William Freeman's vision about How to Do Research

Around 1.5 years before reading my PhD I bought a book about how to write a PhD. In that book I found some discussions about something more important: which topic you want to work in and how one should try to solve problems one faces when doing research.

Prof. William Freeman's approach is a very efficient way to make oneself a clear and fast idea about the main guidelines:

1) William T. Freeman How To Do Research (Informal note written for new graduate students), March 6, 2013

In this document you will find a link (you can also click HERE) to a presentation where important people in my field have given their opinion about how to do research.

I hope will be useful!.

Gibbs & Simpson: Conditions Under Which Assessment Supports Students’ Learning

I would recommend you to read an article, which can be found HERE by Graham Gibbs and Claire Simpson which:

"... sets out and attempts to justify a set of ‘conditions under which assessment can support learning’. The evidence is rarely conclusive enough to argue that if your assessment fulfils these conditions then learning
will inevitably be more effective. They are offered as a plausible set of guidelines".

Can we make our students learn and underpin the acquired knowledge better with tools different from exams?...

Information based Model for the Classroom

I could not say it better. Made by Robert T. Balder. Link to web page HERE

FameLab Talking Science

The idea is simple:

just try to explain an idea/problem from a scientific point of view in a direct, easy and innovative way. See the following:

- Jonathan Webb FameLab UK 2013 Finalist:

Why not?. You can do it!.

Do you have a dream?. They also had it!

a) Nadra Hatchett: Marshall Space Flight Center, NASA

b) Bill Allen, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) @ NASA

c) Karin Bozak, Glenn Research Center, NASA

BICEP2 and inflation

Imagine Science becomes part of your way to look at life, and the consequences of your work are unimaginable, how would you react?. Look for one minute the video starting at 0:32.

Do schools go (somehow) against creativity?

I had never thought about whether the current hierarchical structure of subjects taught at schools is correct or not, but may be some people leave them because they do not feel integrated or motivated enough.

It might not be a matter of abilities, but a matter to find what you are good at, and be that "discovery" the reason not to "give up".

Please look at the following video. A good story at the end of it!.

Making Open Education Resources (OER) possible

This post is related to my previous OpenStax College post.

You might be interested to have a look at efforts towards making education resources widely accessible. Link is HERE

Conference at a glance (from their web page):

"Each year, the conference brings together over 200 leaders from academia, education, and industry who are seeking solutions to the rising cost of higher education and are poised to initiate change and increased access in their communities.

The 2014 Connexions Conference theme, “Making OER Work,” is an opportunity for educational leaders to focus on pragmatic solutions in open education".

Landfill harmonic

If you are in a hurry just see the video from 0:28 to 1:06...If not, see it completely

It will just cover your face as you wail and cry and scream

Some discussions I have had with people who teach young students is about the main aim they want to achieve when they TEACH.

Making their student feel happy is not what I would expect they would like to obtain, but I feel sometimes education goes in parallel, and sometimes I think this should go first.

Dead Poets Society

And Todd says: "...You push it, stretch it, it'll never be enough. You kick at it, beat it, it'll never cover any of us. From the moment we enter crying to the moment we leave dying, it will just cover your face as you wail and cry and scream."

Simply marvellous. Don't you think so?.

The universal declaration of human rights - Education

February 12th is the International day against the use of child soldiers

I would like to remind you that:

a) there is a Universal declaration of human rights

b) Points (1) and (2) of its Article 26 are:

" (1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.

(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace".

Shall we dance?

This post is of a different nature...I would like to share with you a video that invites us to think about the impact that we (as parents) have on our children and how we would like them to get what we have not been able to. It is in Spanish with no subtitles, sorry! ...

Science and minorities

Did you know the size of the list of african american inventors?.

Are you really aware about women's contribution in science?.

You can start HERE

History of science in books

We can learn many things about our own history when we look at how science has evolved. From my personal background, here you have three titles of books I would recommend you to read:

1) Stephen F. Mason, "A history of the sciences"

2) Alan Chalmers, "Science and its fabrication"

3) Thomas S. Kuhn, "The structure of scientific revolutions"

Enjoy!

No. That's incidental!

We often tend to think that we need to answer correctly to the questions we have, but why don't we think about whether we are doing the right questions?.

It is more important to make GOOD questions, and of course this is more important than to correctly answer to WRONG or bad questions. Tones of knowledge hide simplicity. A long time since Socrates and Marcus Aurelius

and Occam's razor

Karl Popper and the philosophy of science

I recently found a textbook by chance about "philosophy of science", in spanish, written by J. A. Díez and C. Ulises Moulines and titled (translated into english) "Foundations of philosophy of science", and thought "what the ... is this?".

We could think of philosophy of science as the "part" of the Philosophy whose main aim is to analyse the validity of the scientific discovery from a "formal" point of view.

I got my BSc in physics in 1999. I am trying to remember if this subject was elegible during my career and does not seem so to me. Why?. I do not know, but I might make myself an idea...

I am really sorry to have lost the ideas and work of Sir Karl Popper until just recently.

OpenStax College

I promise I do not idolize Prof. Richard Baraniuk, but, all his ideas are SO GOOD! The aim of OpenStax College is:

"...OpenStax College offers students free textbooks that meet scope and sequence requirements for most courses. These are peer-reviewed texts written by professional content developers".

Want to study in a university at an affordable prize in terms of books?. Do it!. We should not lose anyone during their academy trip!.

Richard Feynman - The Uncertainty Of Knowledge

that moves us all...

Global remote sensing research trends during 1991–2010: a bibliometric analysis

This is the title of a paper that can be accessed here whose main aim is:

"...this study evaluated the geographical influence of authors by the new index (geographical impact factor), and revealed the auctorial, institutional, national, and spatiotemporal patterns in remote sensing research".

Two take-home messages:

a) Spain is the 12th world country in terms of remote sensing research (see Table 3). Spain is "overtaken" by the following 5 european countries: UK, France, Germany, Italy and The Netherlands.

b) There are 4 european scientists among the top 20 remote sensing researchers. They are: Lorenzo Bruzzone Jean-Pierre Wigneron Frederic Baret  and Guilles Foody.

Science and humility

May be it has to do with my own way to look at things, but I really think not all kind of personality or life perspective may match scientific spirit. I would recommend you all to read this article

"Who is more humble? The scientist who looks at the universe with an open mind and accepts whatever the universe has to teach us, or somebody who says everything in this book must be considered the literal truth and never mind the fallibility of all the human beings involved?"
Carl Sagan

Peer review process

I am getting older and accumulating experience. Sometimes I am happy with the peer review process and others I am not. As a mean feeling I would say I would agree with a change of this system to an "open peer review" process. I would not change everything in it, but it needs to be more transparent. It is clearly not transparent enough.

Discussions about it are more necessary than ever

I have to admit that the future of pattern recognition belongs to mathematicians...Larry Wasserman, John Lafferty, Emmanuel Candes, Robert Tibshirani, Trevor Hastie, Terence Tao, etc.