tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31969655276426498512012-02-22T13:18:19.325+01:00Articles about topics ranging from technology and software to scientific research. Occasional book reviews. Topics of general interest such as lifestyle, and nutrition. Exploration of blogs and the technical side of blogging.Benjamin Auffarthhttps://profiles.google.com/118440342400845052454noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196965527642649851.post-57923776565431052282011-09-14T22:11:00.000+02:002012-01-27T16:23:02.000+01:00

Scientific excellence is often burned down to some numbers. For academics, it is publish or perish and bibliographic analysis is an important factor for academic careers. A bibliographic analysis includes how many papers somebody published, where they published, and how many citations their publications received. One of the numbers that sums up the quality of publications is the impact factor,

Benjamin Auffarthhttps://profiles.google.com/118440342400845052454noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196965527642649851.post-71022878385485459922011-02-08T22:04:00.005+01:002011-02-09T13:14:58.831+01:00

Minuscule particles between dermal ridges in the hand, hardly seen by the naked eye. via wikipediaI don't think I am obsessed with personal hygiene, although, I am averse to certain behaviors, such as when you pick your nose next to me and then flip your snot in my direction, or when you reach out to touch me after having been touching dirty things on the street. What sometimes sets me off is

Benjamin Auffarthhttps://profiles.google.com/118440342400845052454noreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196965527642649851.post-78759742900192345862011-02-07T22:56:00.004+01:002012-01-27T12:56:48.412+01:00

The rate of atheism or agnosticism in different countries is a question which can commonly sneak up in discussions over dinner or lunch. Atheist writers, such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, argued that belief in "a bearded man in the sky" — to take a somewhat provocative verbal expression — interferes with perception of reality. While there are few people who would go as far as to

Benjamin Auffarthhttps://profiles.google.com/118440342400845052454noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196965527642649851.post-40572236343720042312011-01-29T19:07:00.000+01:002011-01-29T19:07:11.098+01:00

Sleep is not the same over a human life time. The time to fall asleep, the efficiency of sleep, and the amount of sleep vary with age. I found a great article about age-related changes in sleep patterns and thought it is of general interest to show some of the graphs that show these changes. It also shows that there is a difference between depressed and normal people. Read on to see them. I

Benjamin Auffarthhttps://profiles.google.com/118440342400845052454noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196965527642649851.post-30955201859347113332009-11-28T13:10:00.031+01:002009-11-30T00:03:52.973+01:00

Can you imagine an egg which unscrambles? Or a jet engine that takes ambient heat and exhaust fumes to generate kerosene and oxygen? I suppose you can't. In physics, the Second Law of thermodynamics, establishes that it is not going to happen. In this post I explain the second law of thermodynamics and discuss whether it can be violated or not.This post is part of the initiative "El Carnaval de

erolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02068704520874426154noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196965527642649851.post-1909393105606800672009-11-15T23:27:00.013+01:002011-02-08T22:07:35.922+01:00

How fast do fingernails grow and from what does the speed of their growth depend? Certainly good to know, if only for curiosity or so you can adjust the speed with which you bite off your nails. After reading this post you'll know better how fast nails grow and which factors relate with the growth. The Image shows short-trimmed finger nails with some bite marks. Credit goes to Sue Bailey on

Benjamin Auffarthhttps://profiles.google.com/118440342400845052454noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196965527642649851.post-34358942419983575452009-10-08T02:55:00.002+02:002010-12-24T11:57:10.726+01:00

This is a close translation of an earlier article which was written in Spanish by Erola Pairó, as part of an initiative to protest against the Spanish government's decision to reduce expenditure in science and development. The earlier article was called la ciencia no necesita tijeras, literally science doesn't need scissors. As an answer to the economic crisis, the Spanish government has decided

Benjamin Auffarthhttps://profiles.google.com/118440342400845052454noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196965527642649851.post-52647997642207901202009-10-07T03:04:00.007+02:002010-12-24T12:04:13.059+01:00

This article is written in Spanish as part of an initiative to protest against the Spanish government's decision to reduce expenditure in science and development. A translation will follow up as another article, called Don't cut back on Spanish science! Como respuesta a la crisis económica el gobierno español ha presentado unos presupuestos que prevén un recorte de un 17,7 por cien en I+D+i [

erolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02068704520874426154noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196965527642649851.post-72833620358068533322009-09-19T22:10:00.002+02:002010-12-24T12:03:22.978+01:00

There are two important distinctions of simulators, with respect to level of detail and to scale. Simulations can be simplified, which means they only represent few properties of the system, or biologically detailed/realistic, which means they model more biological aspects, such as ion channels and multiple compartments in neurons and synapses. The network can be reduced or broad-scale.

Benjamin Auffarthhttps://profiles.google.com/118440342400845052454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196965527642649851.post-36698034436646508092009-09-17T11:53:00.007+02:002011-02-08T01:11:34.521+01:00

People often talk about dumb America and Jesusland when creationism comes up or the latest Gallup poll shows that less than half of Americans believe in evolution. However, thinking of it, also in Europe there are a lot of people, who are more, say, spiritual. What do people believe all over the world? Do they believe in evolution or do they think it is false? You might also be interested in my

Benjamin Auffarthhttps://profiles.google.com/118440342400845052454noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196965527642649851.post-35646689742103001692009-07-27T14:20:00.005+02:002009-11-15T23:48:03.983+01:00

I just found a paper called Top 10 algorithms in data mining. By mixture of expert committee and voting the IEEE International Conference on Data Mining (ICDM) identified the 10 most imfuential data mining algorithms. These are C4.5, k-means, support vector machine, Apriori, expectation maximization, page rank, AdaBoost, k-nearest neighbors, Naive Bayes, and CART. Algorithms are explained in the

Benjamin Auffarthhttps://profiles.google.com/118440342400845052454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196965527642649851.post-48524170199861157532009-07-26T16:21:00.010+02:002010-12-24T11:58:29.631+01:00

Aready some time ago, I read Ray Kurzweil's book The Age of Spiritual Machines. Now I saw his talk at TED. There is also a documentary out, The Transcendent Man (official site). The message is very simple and often repeated: we are developing faster. He is the techno-cult guru and his message may be a consolation for people afraid of technological change or afraid of dying. In this post I will

Benjamin Auffarthhttps://profiles.google.com/118440342400845052454noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196965527642649851.post-73437227289171173572009-06-22T17:53:00.006+02:002009-11-20T20:11:15.381+01:00

The hippocampus is essential for learning, memory, and mood regulation. Given the high metabolic demands of hippocampal neurons, it is not surprising that the function of hippocampal cells would be influenced by energy expenditure and intake and that the energy budget in turn would influence brain function. This is what this post is about. I just read two reviews about this topic and would like

Benjamin Auffarthhttps://profiles.google.com/118440342400845052454noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196965527642649851.post-16140434293387489832008-09-13T17:32:00.010+02:002009-11-15T23:48:03.994+01:00

I am currently attending the Barcelona Cognition, Brain, and Technology summer school, where I am learning about a broad range of topics including theories of attention, models of brain function, brain prostheses, and consciousness. I am highly impressed by some of the speakers, many of which are luminaries of their fields. I think one of the finest talks in terms of rhetorics, structure, and

Benjamin Auffarthhttps://profiles.google.com/118440342400845052454noreply@blogger.com0