by Markus Deserno | Jan 22, 2022 | Science Vignettes
This blog post started as a humble thread on Twitter, which turned out to be unexpectedly popular. Several readers commented that the subject might be easier to digest in a format that’s more appropriate for long-form presentations. And so I’ve decided to...
by Markus Deserno | Aug 10, 2021 | Science Vignettes
The arrival of several highly effective vaccines has dramatically changed the landscape of the Covid-19 pandemic. Remarkably, though, a considerable fraction of people are hesitant to get immunized—for reasons that would be fitting material for a different blog post,...
by Markus Deserno | Jan 9, 2021 | Science Vignettes
A delightful pastime in mathematics is to think about really big numbers. And unlike many other mathematical mind games, this is one that has captured the imagination of a much wider community. It is fun to think about a million, a billion, or a trillion, and then...
by Markus Deserno | Dec 29, 2020 | Science Vignettes
Towards the end of the year, here’s one more blog post that’s a bit wonkish, but teaches an important lesson. It’s about statistics, and about one of the many ways in which it can be counterintuitive. Almost all statistics discussed in the everyday press deals with...
by Markus Deserno | Sep 1, 2020 | Science Vignettes
Warning: this post is a bit wonkish. Math ahead! Controlling the Covid-19 pandemic requires testing and contact tracing, but the usefulness of tests declines if getting results takes too long: a week is no longer unusual, and there have been reports of three week...
by Markus Deserno | Aug 9, 2020 | Science Vignettes
Gerrymandering describes the practice of engineering the boundary of political districts in such a way as to give one party (almost invariably the one that draws the districts) an advantage in elections. This has often given rise to highly convoluted district...
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