[Weekly Discussion Thread] Scientists, what are the biggest misconceptions in your field?

fastparticles · 2012-05-25T04:23:07.793790+00:00

There is no need to worry about "breaking the basics of math." Math is just a set of (hopefully) consistent axioms, and the conclusions we deduce from them. Therefore, we are free to consider a number system in which division by zero is allowed. It then necessarily follows that there is only one number in this system, namely the number zero. This is a boring system, so we instead usually consider the more interesting systems; the ones where we don't give a meaning to division by zero.

fastparticles · 2012-05-25T04:18:24.003678+00:00

There's no real problem, it's just that the system you end up describing has only one element in it (namely 0), which is not very interesting, so for me, ruling out division by zero is just to rule out the boring case.

fastparticles · 2012-05-25T04:14:53.653976+00:00

Math is extremely creative. It's like being a painter, but instead if paint, you paint with ideas. Of course, there are rules, but there are also rules in painting. However, the rules in painting are more arbitrary and are established essentially by asthetics, whereas the rules of math are just there because the universe doesn't fit together in certain ways.

fastparticles · 2012-05-25T04:07:17.436468+00:00

I don't know if I'd call PDEs "hard calculus problems." This is certainly a fitting description of ODEs, but with PDEs, suddenly you have several interacting topologies, which is a fairly major distinction. With Calculus, and its big brother ODEs, there is just one topology, so we can all relax and watch the adorable little critters run around in their finite-dimensional playground.

kyleclements · 2012-05-24T23:58:32.615549+00:00

This looks great. However, when I try it, I get:

The program 'grub' is currently not installed.  You can install it by typing:
sudo apt-get install grub

This seems odd, because I though grub came pre-installed. Maybe I should just install grub, but this seems like it could be a bad idea. (I always get a little bit afraid when I mess with grub.) I'm using Ubuntu 12.04, 64bit, so maybe it's a grub/grub2 issue?

What do you guys think: is installing grub harmless, or do I need to use another method to get this working?

benjyw · 2 days

Yes.

uvtc · 2 days

It accesses the Xorg selection and clipboard buffers. It comes in handy in all kinds of little ways. I usually use it for quick parsing of text. For example, suppose you see a huge string of commands on a webpage, but the jerk who wrote them up put his user name on every directory. You can just strip them all out in one command by highlighting them and then doing:

xsel | sed 's/his_name/my_name/g' | sh

Of course, you could do this by copying/pasting in a file, then replacing, and then executing, but who has time for that? It can also be used for put input and output. Say you have a bunch of text you find online that contains a big table, and you want to strip out column #3 and paste it in a document. Just highlight, and then do this:

xsel | awk '{print $3}' | xsel

and then middle-click in the new document. Sure, this could be done a different way, but it's hard to beat this kind of efficiency.

jakefortress · 3 days

No, he just got a tan.

uvtc · 4 days

sudo apt-get install xsel

How I ever lived without this, I don't know.

uvtc · 4 days

Next time, try putting /home on its own partition. This can save a ton of time, and makes things a bit safer. For example, in case you accidentally overflow you disk space by writing to /home, you're hard drive won't lock up (not as bad anyway). It's really easy, and worth a try!

SatchelAdair · 6 days

I'm pretty sure these guys have something to do with the process.

sumsh · 6 days

Reveren'!

cyberbet · 7 days

On digg they used to...

Oh really?

xcoasterx · 7 days

So, did it make you unable to enjoy nerdy silliness?

xcoasterx · 7 days

I find your mix of 25¢ words and lol-catz vocabulary... disturbing (or at least a bit jarring to read).

Blarg23 · 7 days

You don't think somebody would do that, do you? Just write a book and tell lies?

xcoasterx · 8 days

Is nobody else going to point out that comparing prokaryotes to eukaryotes is quite silly? I mean, they're not even he same taxonomic domain. At least say something like "bread is murder," or "beer is murder," since at least in that case you are killing yeast, which is much more human than bacteria.

Edit: Some of you are taking this a little too seriously. I meant it to be in a humorous tone.

ibleedblu7 · 10 days

Fuck Yeah, Fluid Dynamics

Kim-Jong-Chil · 10 days

Same here, but I just figured it was because I'm not much of a Batman reader. I had read "The Killing Joke", and a few other random Batman issues (of course I've seen all the movies), but I don't really feel like I "get" Batman. I should probably read some more issues and then go back to TDKR.

liquid_gravity · 10 days

These look great! I would be a little worried that the spray paint will make the boxes stick together in a few years, but you could probably get around this by applying a nice gloss coat with a brush or something. That's just icing on the cake though; they look fantastic!

ianrey · 12 days

If you want to learn more about this kind of thing, check out, e.g., "The Selfish Gene", by Richard Dawkins.

ianrey · 12 days

I'm not an expert, on this, but there have been many reasons proposed as to why homosexuality remains in our society (and in many animal societies as well). For example, there is the idea of "homosexual aunts and uncles." It could be that in recent history (e.g., 10,000 years ago when we lived in small groups, where most of the genes were shared by all members of the group), if there were a gene prevalent that lead to, say, 10% of the population being homosexual, these people would presumably not be distracted by children of their own, and could instead help raise other people's children. Therefore, if such a gene arose in a group of people, the gene might be successful at making more copies of itself, since the children of the group would have more caretakers (e.g., a gay aunt or gay uncle), and might have a better chance at living to adulthood. Therefore, such genes might flourish.

Indeed, a similar mechanism arises in colony societies, such as termites. The queen termite is the only female that can reproduce, and yet all the other termites help her, since they all share genes that program them to help the queen, and those genes flourish not by making every termite capable of reproduction, but by pouring resources into a single reproducer; namely, the queen. Also, if you want a non-insect example of this mechanism, naked mole rats have a similar structure in their society.

I'm not saying that is why homosexuality exists. Indeed, it could be a by-product of some other mechanism that leads to overall reproductive success (for example). I'm just pointing out that genes which prevent (or reduce) reproduction in certain individuals may promote the reproductive success in other individuals. The fact that there are so many homosexuals in human society probably means that homosexuality is (or was in the past) overall beneficial to reproduction, and is probably not "genetic suicide," since any genes causing "genetic suicide" tend to die out extremely quickly (e.g., in a single generation), and are very unlikely to flourish.

kevroy314 · 13 days

You can do it!

cowgod42 · 13 days

You don't have to be a dick. I was pretty clear about wanting an exercise alternative to going to the gym. This doesn't equate to "I want results without any effort". I already do run hike and bike, and I am just getting skinnier by doing it. If I could replace those activities with strength-building activities, but do it without avoiding the gym, I would be happy.

cowgod42 · 13 days

Whoops! I thought I read through all the relevant parts, but apparently I missed that. Sorry for the post. I'll delete it now.

cowgod42

TROPHY CASE

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