PopTech

There’s been plenty of oohing and ahhing over the opening of New York’s Museum of Math, and for good reason. It’s remarkable how fun math can be in the hands of the right curator. To wit: The inaugural installation by artist and perceptual scientist Matthew Brand. Brand is the inventor of something called the specular hologram, a type of optical illusion that tricks your eye into thinking a 2-D object is 3-D.

When will data-powered personalized health hit ‘escape velocity’?

A handful of leaders in health data suggest that data-driven personalized health approaches could achieve mainstream adoption in five years, with some saying valuable but intermittent work could happen even sooner.

From gadgets that monitor our activity and vital signs, to startups that let us explore our own DNA - there are more technologies than ever for collecting and analyzing personal health data.

For now, the applications of personal health data are mostly the stuff of “Quantified Self” hobbyists and experimental research. But some say it may not be too long before personal health data becomes a powerful part of the mainstream clinical experience.

(via futuramb, smarterplanet)

Will.i.am and Simon Cowell Developing 'X Factor for Tech' →

Will.i.am is working with Simon Cowell to develop an “X Factor for tech,” the singer told a technology conference in London, according to The Telegraph.

Technology has become increasingly prevalent in pop culture, with startup founders now starring in consumer ad campaigns for marketers including Best Buy, Virgin America Airways, J. Crew and The Gap. Bravo is preparing to air a reality show called “Silicon Valley,” executive produced by Randi Zuckerberg. And Steve Jobs is a bigger role model in the U.K. than Beyonce, a recent survey found.

But will the public be interested in a televised search for the next tech genius?

“It’s about getting in touch with youth and giving them a platform to express themselves — whether that’s in science or mathematics,” said Will.i.am, who wrote about creativity and marketing for Ad Age last fall and is director for creative innovation at Intel.

Tatiana Plakhova - Music is Math (2010)

(via alecshao)

I’ll start, as I perhaps should have done, with the case against statistics. Suppose you were exposed to that subject as a sub-cabalistic ritual of manipulating sums of squares and magical tables according to rules justified (if at all) only by a transparently false origin myth — that is to say, you had to endure what is still an all-too-common sort of intro. stats. class — or, perhaps worse, a “research methods” class whose content had fossilized before you were born. Suppose you then looked at the genuinely impressive things done by the best of those who call themselves “data scientists”. Well then no wonder you think “This is something new and wonderful”; and I would not blame you in the least for not connecting it with statistics. Perhaps you might find some faint resemblance, but it would be like comparing a child’s toy wagon to a Ducati.

— Cosma Shalizi unpacks the scope of statistics, the teaching of statistics, and “data science”.

mirandamolina:

In the left, the original Jansen’s mechanism with it’s walking curve, and in the right, a simplified version.

A la izquierda, el mecanismo original de Jansen y su “curva de caminata”, y a la derecha una versión simplificada.

(vía Geometría Dinámica » El mecanismo de Jansen)

Blending the line between art and engineering, Theo Jansen (PopTech 2005), a Dutch visual artist creates “life” in the form of “animals” that walk the beach in the Netherlands.

mothernaturenetwork:

What does pi sound like (besides delicious)?
In honor of National Pi Day, listen to what happens when musicians set some of the never-ending digits of pi to song.

mothernaturenetwork:

Meet the whiz kids of the Intel science fair
These impressive high school students focused on solving medical issues, providing a small snapshot of the 40 finalists who will participate in the Intel Science Talent Search this week.

At PopTech 2010 we heard from Palestinian students Asil Abulil, Nour Al-Arda, and Asil Shaar and their teacher Jameela Khaled, who, inspired to help a blind friend navigate the streets of their West Bank refugee camp, designed a cane that beeps and vibrates, which won an award at Intel’s 2010 International Science and Engineering Fair.

I’m the only 13-year-old in the world to have venture capitalists friend me on Facebook.

— Aidan Dwyer, age 13, was one of twelve students to receive the 2011 Young Naturalist Award from the American Museum of Natural History in New York for creating an innovative approach to collecting sunlight in photovoltaic arrays. Dwyer’s investigation into the mathematical relationship of the arrangement of branches and leaves in deciduous trees led to his discovery that these species utilized the Fibonacci Sequence in their branch and leaf design.

2010 Science Fellow Sean Gourley is a mathematician and co-founder of Quid, who has spent the last seven years using math to understand war and insurgency. He is now applying that understanding to develop ways to map technology companies – in search of the “technology genome.”