Around the Web #1
Around the Web #1
My RCC paper, historical Adam, and MBB grant updates
1. [Biomedicine/Machine Learning] In collaboration with oncologists, surgeons, and chemists, I showed, in my latest publication, that it is possible to stage kidney cancer using urine samples powered by metabolic phenotyping and machine learning. The study was published in the journal Cancers. You can read it for free here.
2. [Environmental Science] If you live in a big city, you might be running the risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer's disease. A study out of Emory and Georgia Tech shows that long-term exposure to air pollution may increase the risks of developing dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Here is the media release from Georgia Tech College of Sciences. The paper was published in nature communications.
"Of the pollutants analyzed, exposures to PM2.5 and NO2 showed the greatest risk for incidence of dementia and Alzheimer's disease (AD), with effects being the strongest for PM2.5. Putting these findings into context, the national average PM2.5 is around 7 micrograms per cubic meter of air (µg/m3). In looking at larger cities, like Houston and Los Angeles, annual levels in 2020 were above 10 µg/m3."
PM2.5 are inhalable particulates with a size of 2.5 micrometers or smaller, while nitrogen dioxide (NO2) are pollutants, emissions from cars, buses, trucks.
3. [Science/Theology] The philosopher-theologian William Craig recently released a book about historical Adam. I am keenly interested in the subject, but I haven't read the book yet. Here is a review in the journal Science by a computational scientist, which appears to be mildly friendly. And here is a podcast by the author replying to the review and other comments about the book.
4. [Machine Learning] This young man got a job as a research engineer at DeepMind, without any ML/CS degrees. There are many reasons not to go to college or grad school these days, depending on your course of study. A reminder that while PDFs and YouTube did not exist 60 years ago, it does today.
5. [Philosophy/Theology] A short YouTube video from the Thomistic Institute about Aquinas on the eternity of the world. If you are into natural theology, you will enjoy it.
6. [Music] One of my favorite musicians is Commander Ebenezer Obey. I have probably listened to all his records, so I was pretty excited to see him perform, now at the age of 79. Link
7. [Theology] If you have read my essay Aquinas on Trial, you will recall that one recurring theme in the essay was the original sin, except that I didn't fill in the gaps to expatiate on what it is. This is partly because the essay was already long enough, partly because it was slightly above my pay grade. However, this brilliant essay on original sin by Prof Feser seems to fill in that gap, and it was the first time I heard of Geach.
"One way to interpret the notion of the "flawed nature" entailed by original sin, then, is as a "second nature" that is superimposed on and frustrates the fulfillment of human nature – but, in this case, a "second nature" that is in some sense inherited from our first parents rather than acquired after birth.”
8. [AI] Meta (Facebook) research released an AI-powered animation tool. That takes children's drawing and turn them into animation. It uses methods like image segmentation, human pose detection, and the like. See the blog post from Meta. If you have kids at home or teach kids, you should try it.
9. [Science/Humanities] Some 2021 Nobel laureates sat down to talk. COVID-19, climate change, global trend of immigration, labor market economy, the biology of pain, happiness, were all on the table.
MBB grant update
I have received only 15 applications so far. First, I want to believe that many smart young Nigerians need financial help to complete their projects. Second, the signal-to-noise ratio is low. I need high-quality applications. A few notes:
First, write good English. Many of the submitted applications are poorly written.
Someone wrote, "I would like to know if I could apply as a student in the "sciences" to fund part of my research with the grant, rather than "technology" as specified in the call?" and I answered, "You can. The most important factor is the impact of the potential work."
I would like to see more software projects, African studies projects, humanitarian projects, etc.