I got interested in data visualisation after I started appreciating the power of Microsoft Excel. I self-taught Excel entirely through the YouTube channel ‘Excelisfun‘. I then enrolled in Daniel Ferry’s ‘Excel Hero Academy‘ and learnt to a certain extent Excel VBA (visual basic for application). I quite liked Stephen Few’s books (Show me the numbers, Now you see it) and is a good starting point … Continue reading Data visualisation Part I
Microsoft Excel enthusiasts often recreate existing visualisations which were made using other softwares. Here is one such example from Chandoo.org where he recreates the highly interactive NYT post on Olympic medals. In this video below, he explains how he accomplished this feat in Excel. The Guardian has a Data blog and they have done their version of Olympics data visualisation. Continue reading Olympic Medals Visualisation
Source: The Guardian Scientists have for the first time used DNA to encode the contents of a book. At 53,000 words, and including 11 images and a computer program, it is the largest amount of data yet stored artificially using the genetic material. The researchers claim that the cost of DNA coding is dropping so quickly that within five to 10 years it could be … Continue reading Book written in DNA code
Biophony is the collective sound vocal non-human animals create in each given environment. The term was coined by Dr. Bernie Krause. The study of natural soundscapes is called soundscape ecology (wikipedia). In this video, Dr. Bernie Krause, creator of Wild Sanctuary, demonstrates that every living organism produces sound. This presentation focuses on the symbiotic ways in which the sounds of one organism affect and interrelate … Continue reading The Great Animal Orchestra
Most high students must be aware of The Khan Academy videos. Khan videos are good at ‘How to’ when it comes to solving problems but may not offer in-depth explanation per se. I taught AS statistics (Cambridge International Examinations, UK) last year and I found these videos very helpful. They are available on iTunes U as well as on YouTube. Prof Herbert B. Enderton was an excellent … Continue reading Statistics for AS and A2 students in the UK
Source: The New Yorker If the science truly succeeds, it will make it possible to supplant the world created by Darwinian evolution with one created by us. The first time Jay Keasling remembers hearing the word “artemisinin,” about a decade ago, he had no idea what it meant. “Not a clue,” Keasling, a professor of biochemical engineering at the University of California at Berkeley, recalled. … Continue reading Synthetic life
Source: Harvard Business Review Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka, authors of the HBR article “The Wise Leader,” explain how the best executives strive for the common good. The Idea in Brief Business now demands a different kind of leader—one who will make decisions knowing that the outcomes must be good for society as well as the company. Leaders must keep a higher purpose in mind. Although such … Continue reading Wise Leadership
A fantastic book for anyone who wants to learn about the basics of sustainability and do some simple calculations on energy usage. David John Cameron MacKay, FRS, is the professor of natural philosophy in the department of Physics at the University of Cambridge and chief scientific adviser to the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). Before being appointed to the DECC, MacKay was most well known as author of the book Sustainable Energy — Without the … Continue reading Sustainability without the hot air
Source: The New Yorker If you’re like many people, you’ve probably come across Theo Jansen’s kinetic sculptures in videos online. Jansen, aged sixty-three, is a Dutch artist who lives in Delft, near the North Sea. For the past twenty-one years, he has devoted himself to constructing animals that can walk on the beach powered only by the wind. His name for his animals is Strandbeests, … Continue reading Wind Powered Sculpture
Directed in 1971 by Robert Alan Weiss for the Department of Chemistry of Stanford University and imprinted with the “free love” aura of the period, this short film continues to be shown in biology class today. Narrated by Paul Berg, 1980 Nobel prize for Chemistry. Dance begins at 3:12 minutes. ♦♦♦ Dance your Phd: Every year there is a competition, the aim of which is to … Continue reading Art and Science
Perpetual Motion of Thought 