PhyloNet: Using Bayesian Inference and Network Theory to Map Life
In the highly influential Origin of Species, Darwin proposed the tree as the principle evolutionary model of life. An evolutionary tree is based on the vertical inheritance of genetic material. Over 1.5 centuries have passed since the publication of Origin of Species, and there are now many different methods to predict the likelihood of trees […]
Doctors don’t know Bayes’ Theorem
The article I read was about probability in medicine. It turns out, most doctors don’t know actually know probability. The article mainly concerns Gerd Gigerenzer, the director of the Harding Center for Risk Literacy in Berlin, who wrote a book called Risk Savvy which “takes aim at health professionals for not giving patients the information […]
The Mathematics of Hipster-ism
You heard me right. Mathematician and neuroscientist Jonathan Touboul, PhD, has recently released a draft of a paper examining the relationship between neuroscience and the behavior of “hipsters” in modern society. In short, a “hipster” is defined as one who constantly makes a conscious effort to go against the norm, or “mainsteam.” That is if […]
Information Cascades in the Economy and Elsewhere
Information cascades can be seen in a wide range of forms in today’s society. One of the most obvious of these is in the economy. As the article I linked points out, information cascades can have huge effects on stock prices. One specific company highlighted by the article is Netflix. Over time, the share price […]
Believe it or not!
My mom called me several days ago and shared this headline: “17 Texas Kindergarteners Contract Ebola After Exposure To Liberian Foreign Exchange Student” After lecturing me about keeping safe for what seemed to be an eternity, she told me to read the article and said that she was going to call my sister to also […]
Network Effects: Facebook
Facebook has become a “power-house” when it comes to running the show on the social media forefront. It’s number of users far surpasses any of its counterparts or those who may be trying to overtake its place in the type of website. How exactly did this come to be? Why did it happen? What occurred […]
Regulating Social Media Promotion and the Spread of Information
Sponsored advertisements have become an ever increasing part of the advertising market on the internet. In fact, the Federal Trade Commission looked at sponsored advertisements through various social media sites and developed sets of guidelines to control how people are able to use sponsored advertisements on various social media platforms. The main goal with these […]
Information Cascades in Swarms
In 2012, five affiliates of CSIRO Information and Communication Technologies Centre in Australia took on the task of finding what social interactions are in play when a swarm of animals moves a certain direction. They observed that the spatial position of an individual in a group of animals such as a school of fish or a […]
The Network Effect and the Qwerty Keyboard
You may be surprised to learn that the layout of the keyboard you have been typing on was originally conceived in the early 1880’s by E. Remington and Sons. The Qwerty keyboard was originally implemented as a de-facto standard for typewriters which were used at the time to transcribe Morse code messages. This keyboard layout was […]
Cascading Behavior in Networks of Internet in Korea: Galapagos Syndrome of Internet in Korea
Korea used to be the innovative country in terms of developing many new internet services. Even though its size and population are very small compared to that of Japan and China in northeast Asia, its broadband infrastructure is so good that many internet services preceded any other countries’. For example, one of the famous social […]
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