Lab Rats : Google

Clichés you may want to dump

Seema Singh — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 09:39:00 GMT

Here's a must-read from the science section of Wired- 5 "atrocious science clichés to throw down a black hole". I think they are not only used in science but elsewhere as well, with equal triteness and hit discerning readers with annoying banality.

For those who don't have the time on hand, here's a summary of what sucks in science (according to Wired):

Holy grail
Silver bullet
Shedding light
Missing link
Paradigm shift

What is equally interesting is the readers' own selection of clichés in the comments section - quantum leap, at the end of the day, tip of the iceberg, possibilities are endless...

Anyway, I have my own small list, which incidentally applies more to information and communication technology than to science:

1. Solutions (if it's software, pls say so, if something else, be specific)
2. Platform technology (uhh...explain)
3. Web 2.0, or even 3.0 (come on, don't be lazy; specify which precise tech/tool/apps you'd like to refer to)
4. Innovative (who says he isn't?)
5. Citing the number of hits/trends from Google as if it were the last word... (some Wired readers find this hackneyed as well)
6. Global warming (it's blanket use gives a wrong message, climate change is better since every place is not getting warmer)
7. ‘Peer-reviewed' journal (science writers should know that all academic journals are peer-reviewed [of course with varying standards] and they have to know this fact, not pass on to the readers)

Which clichés would you like to chuck?

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Education enterprise: plural, singular, insular

Seema Singh — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 11:43:00 GMT

India yesterday launched some $1 billion National Mission on Education , (NME) -- a project meant to get all the institutions in the country wired since so far only the well-heeled have been riding on the Internet wagon. Good programme; better late than never, but the only worry is what if we mess it up as it is top-down in planning and execution and hurriedly launched in an election season.

I think the single most crucial thing here -- apart from, of course, the hardware, software, and mindware (I mean the mindsets of the stakeholders) -- is that the government should provide standards and match funds to promote teachers' training. The only way such programmes can contribute to India's economy is when our teachers inspire students to turn ideas into products and products into profits.

If NME is for the masses, the Singularity University, which will admit its first batch of students this summer, is for the brilliant and the affluent. A NASA (Ames Research Centre, to be precise) and Google collaboration and spearheaded by futurists, writers, and entrepreneurs Ray Kurzweil and Peter Diamandis, its curriculum is meant to be "very, very cutting edge" to attract the best and the brightest in Silicon Valley. Being a hop-and-skip from Googleplex makes it even more interesting. Read more about it here.

Now, if you are wondering what insularity has to do with this blogpost, here's a thought from a recent conversation I had on education with a computer science professor at MIT (Mass.). A senior IIT-Kanpur alum, who has spent more than 20 years at MIT and who wants to work with some institutes in India to raise the standard of research in our technical institutes, this MIT professor said he gets several proposals for setting up higher education centres in India.

Interestingly, some of these proposals are from the biggest industrial houses in India. Even though the business groups approaching him are pretty much insulated from the reality of "real" education, they still are interested in the business of it.

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Sergey Brin’s life & cause outside of Google

Seema Singh — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 15:12:00 GMT

Yes, yes, the Google co-founder has started blogging. He calls it too: "It also means ‘in addition', as this blog reflects my life outside of work."

What is striking is the inimitable style and the cause he is espousing (outside of Google) upfront: he is at an increased risk of Parkinson's disease because his mother suffers from it and that he is supporting research both through the Michael J Fox Foundation and his wife's start-up.

You can read the rest of it on his blog, but why Lab Rats picked up his second post (the first is a formality) is to highlight what is characteristically American, at least so far, but can be eminently emulated in other parts of the world, particularly in India. That is, putting ALL celebrity might, largely from the world of business, behind biomedical issues of the day.

Can we have some of our industry stalwarts (no need to name names) take up medical causes and fund focused research?

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Celebrating 10 years of Google...

Seema Singh — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 08:54:00 GMT

...And doing smart science with smart searching.

This week marks the 10^th year of Google. From a small set of donated servers to humungous data centres across the world, Google's voyage also mirrors the avalanche of data in scientific research. It shows how the intelligence of Google's informatics is needed in science today more than ever - to complement scientific hypotheses in exploring the wealth of data.

No wonder Nature this week has a special issue on what huge data sets mean for contemporary science and how they bring unprecedented opportunities and challenges to researchers.

If you want to know how the torrent of bytes are handled, read this first person account of a datacentre: Big Data: Welcome to the Petacentre

The sudden influx of data has caught scientists unaware and experts say most institutions, as well as the culture of science, remain "rooted in pre-electronic era".

It's nowhere more applicable than India. Our university libraries (I'm leaving the handful of national centres), laboratories and their informatics centre tell the tale of how much additional data infrastructure is needed--both technical and cultural. Even the national grid computing initiative Garuda, which promises to ease some computing problems in the country and bring about some standardization in how data are produced and explored, seems stuck in bureaucratic delays.

However, on another note, if 10 years ago Google happened, what's in store 10 years from now? What's The Next Google?

As we look ahead, this fascinating historical essay The Harvard Computers looks back-- at the Harvard Observatory in the early 20^th C and recalls how a group of young women, the ‘human computers', crunched data from photos taken at the observatory, marking the beginning of what has today become a data onslaught.

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