On the unexpected sensitivity of rare events
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. We will be interested in events that are very rare.
Enough flip-flopping! How to keep your coarse-grained lipids where they belong
Lipid membranes are fundamentally important structures in all branches of life. Not only do they form the boundary of living cells, they also perform a multitude of roles within them. To deeply understand these fluid membranes and their properties is then essential for explaining the mechanics of life at these scales…
How do I write a Statement of Purpose for my grad school application?
It’s that time of the year again: grad school applications are soon due! You have dutifully selected a good set of schools, following the “reach/middle/safe” principle; you’ve secured writers for your letters of recommendation; you’ve filled out forms; maybe you also have submitted GRE or TOEFL or IELTS scores—and now you need to do that dreaded SOP…
It takes a membrane to raise a lipid
The basic structural component of cellular membranes are lipid molecules, of which a typical cell contains about a thousand different types. This is an amazingly large number, considering that a single species of lipid suffices to make a perfectly nice membrane. Over the past two decades biologists and biophysicists have come to appreciate that membranes are more than […]
A poor Covid test can be a good Covid pre-test
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...
Active nematics on a sphere
Nematic liquid crystals are soft matter systems in which elongated molecules align and form long-range oriented fields, in 2 or 3 dimensions. They have a long history, many practical applications, and are increasingly recognized for the many roles they play in...
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