Here’s your algorithmic lens

In studies of breast cancer cells, [senior investigator Dr. Bert] O’Malley and his colleagues showed how the clock works. Using steroid receptor coactivator-3 (SRC-3), they demonstrated that activation requires addition of a phosphate molecule to the protein at one spot and addition of an ubiquitin molecule at another point. Each time the message of the gene is transcribed into a protein, another ubiquitin molecule is chained on. Five ubiquitins in the chain and the protein is automatically destroyed.

A counter on a separate work tape: neat !

Main article at sciencedaily; link via Science and Reason.

Numb3rs wins NSF award

I used to blog every episode of Numb3rs in its first season, and got bored of doing this soon after. However, I’ve continued to watch the show; I don’t have the heart to avoid watching a show that involves mathematics (and more often than not, computer science). It’s been surprisingly decent in its three years, as long as you’re willing to concede all kinds of miraculous data mining feats performed in the span of a few hours.

However, I always wondered if it could make it on a mainstream network for very long. After all, ratings are king, and how long could such a tech-heavy series last ? After all, the crime procedural aspects of the show are hardly unique, and with the monster success of CSI, even more scientifically oriented crime series were clogging up the airwaves.

Thus, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that Numb3rs is now the “most-watched show” on Friday nights, clocking in at around 12 million viewers. It’s been picked up for a fourth season, and ended season three with a dramatic moment, as well as interesting existential angst for the main characters. In fact, I suspect one of the reasons Numb3rs has done so well is that they’ve done a fairly realistic job of portraying some of tensions inherent in the life of the researcher (even if the mathematics itself, and the way the characters talk about it, is still somewhat cringeworthy).

The NSF (or technically, the NSB, the board that oversees the NSF) has recognized the success of Numb3rs as well. The show and its creaters were just given a public service award for

…extraordinary contributions to increase public understanding of science. Recipients are chosen for their contributions to public service in areas such as: increasing the public’s understanding of the scientific process and its communication; contributing to the development of broad science and engineering policy; promoting the engagement of scientists and engineers in public outreach; and fostering awareness of science and technology among broad segments of the population.

Computer Scientist:Programming::Mathematician:Arithmetic

One of the things that continues to exasperate me on a regular basis is the conflation of computer science with programming. Consider two recent gems (emphasis mine):

1. From a press release for Microsoft TechFest 2007:
   

   Boku, a virtual robot in a simulated world, debuted as a research project to teach kids basic programming skills in a fun and entertaining way. “There is an ongoing and deepening crisis in computer science,” Rashid said. “Our goal is to stem the tide by showing young kids the magic of software programming.”

2. From an article on changing perceptions of computer science at college and K-12 level:
   

   East Allen County Schools is working to make sure students are exposed to computer careers, whether they think they might be interested or not. All students are required to take a computer course before graduating, and those who know they are interested can take in-depth courses, including training on Cisco computer networks…

Sigh. Ok people, say after me, slowly: Computer Science IS NOT programming. How many musicians do you think you’re going to attract by preaching the exquisite beauty of scales and arpeggios to little kids?

As Lance mentions, the closure of stores like CompUSA is a harbinger of the end of computer science as “television science”. The more familiar people get with computers, the more they treat them as appliances rather than as complex devices worthy of worship.

What does this mean ? You aren’t going to attract people to a field by saying, “Lookee here! here’s a neat television ! Let me show you how to build one. It’s FUN!!!!”. First of all, people ain’t stupid. Secondly, there’s a lot more to computer science than programming.

Thankfully, we do see here and there the signs of a manifesto for computer science that doesn’t involve actually programming a computer: From Jeanette Wing’s CACM article:

Computer science is the study of computation: what can be computed and how to compute it.

Amen to that. And notice how different it sounds to the version you might get from the random person on the street:

Computer science is the study of computers.

If I had to preach the gospel of computer-science-as-computation, I’d probably riff off three things:

• The above mentioned CACM article. Message: Computer science is the study of algorithms and abstractions.
• Bernard Chazelle’s IPod essay. Message: Algorithms are the language of modern science
• Scott Aaronson’s ‘Logicians on Safari’ article. Message: Computer science is quantitative epistemology.

‘Nuff said.

p.s Chazelle is quickly becoming the poet-laureate for 21st century computer science: check out the table of contents for his course titled, “What do your DNA and your iPod have in common ?”

Three thoughts on Anatoly Vershik’s article…

Via Peter Woit and Luca Trevisan comes a pointer to an article by Anatoly Vershik in the new Notices of the AMS, lamenting the role of money prizes in mathematics. Three thoughts:

• “the newspapers, especially in Russia, are presently “discussing” a completely different question: Is mathematical education, and mathematics itself, really necessary in contemporary society “. At the risk of sounding patronizing, I find it terribly worrisome that the place that spawns such amazing mathematicians, and has such a legendary training program for scientists, should even indulge in such a discussion. Especially now, with all the handwringing in the US about the lack of mathematical training at school level, it seems a particularly bad time to abdicate what is a clearly a competitive advantage.

• He talks about not understanding “the American way of life” as regards how money is viewed. There’s a juxtapositon of images that I’ve always been struck by, and that tennis lovers will recognize: At Wimbledon, the winner is crowned with a fanfare, royalty, and a trophy (or plate); the prize money is never really discussed. At the US Open on the other hand, along with the fanfare comes the huge check handed out by some corporate sponsor while the PA blares out the amount. The trophy presentation, although making for good photo-ops, seems almost anticlimactic.

  I am a little skeptical though whether offering prizes like the Clay prize convinces people that mathematics is a lucrative profession. After all, this hasn’t happened for the Nobel prizes.

• On the false-duality: I’ve heard a variation of this argument many times. It goes basically like this: “Either you’re interested in subject X and don’t need motivation, or you aren’t, in which case no amount of motivation is going to help”. This is possibly true for identifying students likely to make the transition to being professionals in subject X. In fact, I’ve heard an anecdote from the world of music, about a maestro who would tell all his students that they would fail professionally at being musicians. His argument was that only the ones who cared enough to prove him wrong had what it took to survive.

  One has to realize though that the teaching of a subject is not about creating Mini-Mes: only a small fraction of the students we come in contact with will become professional computer scientists/mathematicians/whatever. But a large fraction of these students will vote, many of them will go onto position of influence either in industry or government, and they will all contribute to a general awareness of the discipline. So it’s a mistake to give up on motivating students; even if they never end up proving theorems for a living, a better appreciation for those who do will help all of us.

Categories:

• outreach