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Deep Learning Boosts The Performance Of Particle Detectors

Deep Learning Boosts The Performance Of Particle Detectors

Jan 11 2022 | comment(s)

The title of this post is no news for particle physicists - particle detectors are complex instruments and they work by interpreting the result of stochastic phenomena taking place when radiation interacts with the matter of which detectors are built, and it looks only natural that deep learning algorithms can help improve our measurements in such a complex environment.

However, in this post I will give an example of something qualitatively different to providing an improvement of a measurement: one where a deep convolutional network model may extract information that we were simply incapable of making sense of. This means that the algorithm allows us to employ our detector in a new way.
Air Pollution From Wildfires Can Do In One Day What PM2.5 'Virtual' Pollution Never Will

Air Pollution From Wildfires Can Do In One Day What PM2.5 'Virtual' Pollution Never Will

Jan 10 2022 | comment(s)

When you see a TV weather personality put up an air quality map for the last 10 years, it might make you believe that pollution is far worse than when you were young.
A Picture Of The James Webb Space Telescope, Taken With An Earthbound Telescope.

A Picture Of The James Webb Space Telescope, Taken With An Earthbound Telescope.

Jan 10 2022 | comment(s)

  At least one Astronomer has shared an image of the James Webb Space Telescope taken from an Earth-bound telescope.  This is what it looks like in all its glory but you may wonder why it is we cannot get a better image of it.  It is huge and made of very reflective materials.  Why no camera on it to take a selfie or monitor it visually for any faults?  

Exoplanets Were Discovered For The First Time Using A Sophisticated Radio Antenna

Exoplanets Were Discovered For The First Time Using A Sophisticated Radio Antenna

Jan 10 2022 | comment(s)

As was reported in

Blade Runners Do Not Have A Competitive Advantage

Blade Runners Do Not Have A Competitive Advantage

Jan 10 2022 | comment(s)

Do amputee sprinters using running prostheses, or blades, have a competitive advantage?

The world’s fastest 400-meter sprinter, Blake Leeper, was ruled ineligible to compete in the Tokyo Olympics due to having an assumed advantage, but a new study with the most comprehensive set of data ever collected from elite runners with bilateral leg amputations compared performance data from Leeper, South African “blade runner” Oscar Pistorius and other bilateral amputee sprinters with those of the best non-amputee sprinters in the world across five performance metrics and found no advantage.
When Adult Children Cut Ties With Their Parents, Parents Believe Differently Than The Kids About Why

When Adult Children Cut Ties With Their Parents, Parents Believe Differently Than The Kids About Why

Jan 09 2022 | comment(s)

A survey of over 1,000 mothers who were part of the Understanding Parental Estrangement Survey conducted by the University of Wisconsin Survey Center in 2019 and estranged from their adult children revealed a disconnect between what the kids might say is the reason and parents believe. 
Everything The Anti-Vaccine Right Does Not Like Will Be Mass Formation Psychosis.

Everything The Anti-Vaccine Right Does Not Like Will Be Mass Formation Psychosis.

Jan 09 2022 | comment(s)

Mass formation psychosis does not exist as a term used in psychology, or social psychology according to two professionally done fact checks by Reuters and the Associated Press.

A PETA Psychologist Claims Science Can Be Done Without Animals Models - They're Wrong

A PETA Psychologist Claims Science Can Be Done Without Animals Models - They're Wrong

Jan 05 2022 | comment(s)

With the departure of NIH legend Dr. Francis Collins, political allies are calling on President Biden to appoint a non-scientist to run that National Institutes of Health. Perhaps someone like their resident psychologist, Katherine Roe, PhD, who believes that animals are little people.

In the science world, not one defined by getting a graduate degree dealing with "psychology, language, and social and cultural issues", mice are not little people. That is why animal models and epidemiology are in the "exploratory" section. If scientists see something that looks like more than correlation, something that may have a plausible biological mechanism involved, they will tackle it.
Omicron Data Show We're Beating COVID-19 But It's Hard To Know That From Social Media

Omicron Data Show We're Beating COVID-19 But It's Hard To Know That From Social Media

Jan 05 2022 | comment(s)

If you read social media, you might believe we're teetering on the brink of societal collapse due to COVID-19 but one metric tells the real health story; ICU beds.

Deaths have been cut almost in half from this time last year while ICU occupancy is down 40 percent. If you're a positive person, you'll note that this is a win and big thanks go to the health care system that critics demand be replaced by something like VA hospitals, which very few veterans agree is good, or Medicare, which very few old people think is good. You'll also note that vaccines work, and those are the product of Big Pharma that similar critics decry as greedy evil opportunists.
In Severe Scoliosis, Growth-Friendly Surgeries Cause More Complications Than Single Spinal Fusion

In Severe Scoliosis, Growth-Friendly Surgeries Cause More Complications Than Single Spinal Fusion

Jan 04 2022 | comment(s)

Early-onset scoliosis is a potentially deadly curve in the spine that can damage a child’s heart and lung function as it progresses. Adolescents with scoliosis are traditionally treated with a single spinal fusion, where rods and screws are inserted to fuse the spine in a straighter position.

Parents want to make informed choices and a new study finds that preadolescent children with severe neuromuscular scoliosis who are treated with growth-friendly surgery prior to spinal fusion have more complications and unplanned subsequent surgeries than those who only have the spinal fusion.
Do Lunar And Solar Gravity Impact The Behavior Of Life On Earth?

Do Lunar And Solar Gravity Impact The Behavior Of Life On Earth?

Jan 04 2022 | comment(s)

It is well-known that the gravity from the moon impacts ocean tides, sailors knew it long before anyone knew what gravity even was. 

A new literature review and small meta-analysis hopes to add to the body of work showing how much gravity impacts plants and animals as well. The meta-analysis was of three previously published cases in which gravitational causality was not fully explored: the swimming activity of isopods, small shell-less crustaceans whose appearance on Earth dates from at least 300 million years ago; reproductive effort in coral; and growth modulation in sunflower seedlings inferred from autoluminescence. 
Cancer Deaths Rose To 10 Million Worldwide But That Is Still Good News

Cancer Deaths Rose To 10 Million Worldwide But That Is Still Good News

Jan 04 2022 | comment(s)

Cancer deaths rose to 10 million globally in 2019, up from 2010 when total cancer deaths numbered 8.29 million worldwide - but the headline masks some important health progress.

Cancer is not going up, despite claims by those who believe modern food, energy, and medicine are harming us. Diagnoses are going up, which means deaths are now more successfully categorized than in the past. And tracheal, bronchus, and lung cancer, the leading causes, will decline as the inroads America has made against smoking propagate throughout Europe and developing nations.
2022 Is The Year 'Soylent Green' Took Place - Here's How Food Science Saved The World Instead

2022 Is The Year 'Soylent Green' Took Place - Here's How Food Science Saved The World Instead

Jan 03 2022 | comment(s)

In the 1966 Harry Harrison novel "Make Room! Make Room!" concerns about population control were the driver of the plot and the storytellers were various people in New York City when the world has reached a population of 7 billion. You have probably never heard of the novel, but you likely have heard of the movie version, "Soylent Green", starring the incomparable Charlton Heston.
How Idealizations Make Physics Simple

How Idealizations Make Physics Simple

Jan 03 2022 | comment(s)

One of the constant things that one encounters in the world of science is idealization.
The Mushroom Renaissance

The Mushroom Renaissance

Jan 03 2022 | comment(s)

From wellness influencers to medical experts, everyone seems to be talking about mushrooms these days. Traditionally relegated to the dinner plate, an afterthought next to other vegetables, these humble fungi are experiencing what Vox refers to as a “mushroom renaissance.” 

These are not the button mushrooms you remember growing up. Instead, they are “functional mushrooms” used in Eastern and North American medicinal practices for centuries that have recently caught the attention of wellbeing experts in the West.  
Tetra-Neutronium!

Tetra-Neutronium!

Jan 01 2022 | comment(s)

The neutron, discovered in 1932 by Chadwick, is a fascinating particle whose existence allows for the stability of heavy nuclei and a wealth of atoms of different properties. Without neutrons, Hydrogen would be the only stable element: protons cannot be brought together and bound in a stable system, so e.g. Helium-2 (an atom made of two protons with two electrons) is very short-lived, as are atoms with more protons and no neutrons. So our Universe would be a very dull place.
Keurig K-Supreme Plus SMART Review: Needing An App Is Less Customization, Not More

Keurig K-Supreme Plus SMART Review: Needing An App Is Less Customization, Not More

Jan 01 2022 | comment(s)

For Christmas, my wife purchased a Keurig K-Supreme Plus SMART, the latest iteration in coffee pod machines from the company. It came out a few months ago, I even got a special pre-order offer, but when I went to the website a few times there were persistent failures in being able to buy it. So I forgot about it.

After using it, you may be wondering if the website issues were created by the same groups doing the code for the machine. When it works, it is fine. The problem is it does not work too much of the time.

The encapsulated introduction to it is that this is a smart device. It is hooked up to your network and using an app you can customize your coffee to your preferences. That sounds great, but there are caveats.

Tesla Owner Blows Up His Car Rather Than Pay $22K For A New Battery

Tesla Owner Blows Up His Car Rather Than Pay $22K For A New Battery

Dec 30 2021 | comment(s)

Electric vehicle owners get subsidized buy the poor to adopt an environmental halo. They use electricity, not fossil fuels, they believe, so they are saving the planet.

The environmental reality is much starker and just like ethanol and natural gas, which environmental groups once lobbied heavily to get into common use, they are going to turn on electric cars the minute the lawsuits look profitable.

The science community already knew that the batteries haven't improved in decades, hype claims aside, recycling even a fraction of them takes more energy than they are worth, and if they are not recycled they are toxic waste.
Outside Efforts To Change Team Names And Mascots May Increase Prejudice Against Native Americans

Outside Efforts To Change Team Names And Mascots May Increase Prejudice Against Native Americans

Dec 29 2021 | comment(s)

Though efforts to change mascots and team names have had some success, like the Washington Redskins and Cleveland Indians, more than 2,000 mascots referencing Indigenous terms and images are estimated to exist in the U.S. today, from high school to pro sports, including the Atlanta Braves, with their “tomahawk chop” chant that gained renewed attention during the 2021 World Series.
The COVID-19 Pandemic Reduced Stigma About Depression

The COVID-19 Pandemic Reduced Stigma About Depression

Dec 29 2021 | comment(s)

There has long been something of a stigma about mental health issues. If a celebrity goes into an alcohol or drug clinic, 30 days later their career is back on track, but a reputation for depression makes filmmakers worry they won't be able to take the stress of a new project.

The COVID-19 pandemic, and depression brought on by isolation and non-stop media coverage, changed all that.  For the first time since national data have been tracked in the United States, stigma toward people with depression has declined,  There has even been a statistically significant drop in social rejection for people described as having major depression.