Readit Newsakoluthic commented on The decline of unfettered research (1995) dtc.umn.edu/~odlyzko/doc/... · Posted by u/KKKKkkkk1
I was lucky to take a grad-level math course in error correcting codes from Dr. Andrew Odlyzko, the author of the essay.
I read a lot of his papers ( http://www.dtc.umn.edu/~odlyzko/ ) in the hopes that I would learn something to improve my exam scores, but he has a knack for asking questions so fundamental that they have almost never even been properly formulated before.
If you have some time, I recommend reading a few of his papers. He completely changed my view of mathematics.
Wow, what a diverse body of work. Could you give an example of a paper that you feel fits your description of having "almost never even been properly formulated before"?
akoluthic commented on Ask HN: What you up to? (Who doesn't want to be hired?) · Posted by u/capableweb
Making a video game about symbiosis, metamorphosis, and mutation, all wrapped up in a tower-defense/strategy-like package, called Chrysalis. https://metamorph.games
Artificial hearts already work since quite a while.
It is amazing, but real organs can sustain themself - artificial mechanical ones not. And need surgery for replacement.
I have my hopes on artificial real organs and see the mechanical ones as a intermediate solution.
A miraculous breakthrough could be on two fronts: artificial "meat organs" for those whose life is at immediate risk and need a transplant, and regenerative biotech/medicine to repair those with damage without requiring surgery.
Either way, implanted devices can be a good bridge from our current situation.
akoluthic commented on Why America has a school bus driver shortage thehustle.co/why-america-... · Posted by u/stephsmithio
In our local district, rather than have individual buses for elementary, middle school, etc., they are having one driver pick up the elementary kids, drop them off, the go back out and pick up the older kids. They had to change the start times for elementary and high school to make this work, and they're also paying the drivers more, but it seems to be working. One issue is that if a single driver goes down (illness, etc.) it's a huge hit to logistics, and subs are hard to come by. But mostly they've made it work.
akoluthic commented on Smart kids should skip high school (2015) sonyaellenmann.com/2015/0... · Posted by u/exolymph
If you have a plan and motivation, go for it. Assuming you need to make money, you can either be self employed, in a partnership, or employed by someone else. The first requires you be a good business person, which is not a common innate trait but can be learned to some extent. The second is often a great option if you have equally motivated partners with complementary strengths. The third usually requires some sort of signalling to get employers to hire you. Having a degree is part of that signalling. This is, of course, completely ignoring that some professions require a degree, like being a doctor, which is rewarding work. As a teenager, you often have no idea what you will find meaningful and rewarding later in life, making this type of decision quite risky.
akoluthic commented on Transport noise linked to increased risk of dementia, study finds theguardian.com/society/2... · Posted by u/adamjb
The most astonishing recent news about dementia surfaced in April, here on HN: A recent Tdap vaccination correlates very, very robustly with a 40% reduction in dementia risk (doi:10.1093/gerona/glab115).
Nobody knows how to interpret it. 40% is a huge effect size! (I doubt aspirin shows up as more effective against headache.) Is it the tetanus, the diphtheria, the pertussis antigen? Something else they put in the vaccine?
You can get a Tdap at any pharmacy, on demand. I did.
This isn't a randomized controlled trial, so I wouldn't put much stock in the results, although it should provide a catalyst for further study (if it hasn't already).
akoluthic commented on Fish eyes grown in a petri dish from embryonic stem cells phys.org/news/2021-09-fis... · Posted by u/rbanffy
Cutting edge work in bioelectrical fields (see Michael Levin's lab) looks quite promising, although quite a long way off in terms of human applications. They can do all sorts of seemingly miraculous things in planaria.
Levin gave a mind boggling talk about some of their work a couple years ago: https://youtu.be/RjD1aLm4Thg
Dr. Allison recently was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his persistent decades-long pursuit of using our own immune system to combat cancer. I was diagnosed with Stage 4 melanoma in early 2017, and I have been cancer-free for almost five years. Thank you, Jim.