I've long thought it would be awesome if someone started a business along these lines: a news source driven by data analysis; like fivethirtyeight but for analysis of all sorts of news and current events, not just elections.
I'm currently struggling to find a satisfactory IDE for python for this exact reason. This seemingly obvious feature has to be hacked on to just about every popular coding tool. The best things I've found so far are the ipython web notebook (the only problem being that it stores my code as JSON and has poor/no keybindings) and emacs python-mode (which is buggy as all hell).
NB: The only tool I've ever found that works in the manner I want it to as far as REPL languages go is RStudio. If I had an RStudio that was language agnostic so it could work with python, ruby, lisps, or what have you, I would be a happy, happy man.
edit: if anyone has any suggestions in this regard, please, leave a comment!
That math app sounds amazing. I think this is something that would be great to have in a Surface-type device with a touchscreen and a keyboard — I would love to have that sort of input integrated with Mathematica or sympy or what have you. I would never need to fiddle with LibreOffice Math ever again!
The degree to which this is possible has been hugely exaggerated. Yes, you can have DNA mailed to you, but not DNA as its packaged in the human genome.
When you order from NEB or Sigma-Aldritch, what you get is a short DNA sequence (usually on the order of hundreds to thousands of basepairs) in a buffer solution. When forensic scientists do DNA preps of cellular samples from a crime scene or for a paternity test, they purify genomic DNA. This is millions of basepairs coiled around storage proteins to form a densely packed material called chromatin. The procedures used to purify chromosomal DNA would wash away any of the much smaller, synthesized fragments of the sort that you can order from a company, meaning that faking a paternity test in this manner is impossible.
Biotechnology is exciting, but not so exciting as University press offices might have us believe :(
Putting your genome online in this manner is more of a concern for insurance than anything else, I think— although as others have pointed out, discriminatory insurance practices based on preexisting conditions will soon be illegal in the U.S. . . . still, better not to take any chances.
Can you suggest any resources for learning about profiling in python? I'm just getting into scientific computing with numpy,scipy,etc. and I'd be interested to learn more.
Nostalgia is universal, but Britain is in the somewhat unique position of having once been a hyperpower and today being substantially less relevant on the world stage.
Hmmm I use python for most scientific computing applications, but I do a lot of statistical things in R. I've been interested in trying pandas for a while, might be time to give it a shot . . .
My initial thought was that while I've never done any 3D printing so I'm not how hard the plastic is, it might be possible to print something in the right shape and use it to unscrew these? Its an interesting idea, but the screws are likely in tight enough that only a solid metal screwdriver would be able to remove them.
I for one love LibreOffice Writer and find it to be much more intuitive and configurable than Word. Draw and Calc leave something to be desired, but the needs they fill are better served by Adobe products and R respectively, imho.
This is exactly what I do. The device doesn't have the password to my wifi so it can't phone home. I have no need to connect it to the internet — I just transfer files from my computer over USB. Couldn't be happier with the setup.
The problem isn't just what journals will publish, its how funding is distributed: the modern NIH/NSF grant process gives money for likelihood of producing positive results, which might sounds reasonable on the surface but which leads to perverse incentives like these.
Agree. I just started doing scientific computing in python/scipy/numpy/matplotlib and it is fantastic. I see python going nowhere but up in the scientific community.