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The End of Science

Scientists are trained to recognize that correlation is not causation, that no conclusions should be drawn simply on the basis of correlation between X and Y (it could just be a coincidence). Instead, you must understand the underlying mechanisms that connect the two. Once you have a model, you can connect the data se ts with confidence. Data without a model is just noise.

There is now a better way. Petabytes allow us to say: “Correlation is enough.” We can stop looking for models. We can analyze the data without hypotheses about what it might show. We can throw the numbers into the biggest computing clusters the world has ever seen and let statistical algorithms find patterns where science cannot. Via Computer Program Self-Discovers Laws of Physics.

Read the article: The End of Theory: The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Method Obsolete

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Business Education Finance History Innovation Life Productivity Social Technology

Light and Cheap, Netbooks Are Poised to Reshape PC Industry

Get ready for the next stage in the personal computer revolution: ultrathin and dirt cheap. Personal computers — and the companies that make their crucial components — are about to go through their biggest upheaval since the rise of the laptop. Netbooks are a big success story in the PC industry, with sales predicted to double this year, even as overall PC sales fall 12 percent, according to the research firm Gartner. By the end of 2009, netbooks could account for close to 10 percent of the PC market, an astonishing rise in a short span.

The new breed of netbooks, built on cellphone innards, threatens to disrupt that oligopoly. Intel and Microsoft, which make the chips and software that run most PCs — face an unprecedented challenge to their dominance. The big winners in the rise of netbooks that use cellphone chips could be the cellphone carriers, which would have access to a whole new market: PC users.

Read the article: Thin and Inexpensive Netbooks Affect PC Industry

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Business Education Finance History India Life Science Social

Why India Has Escaped the Downturn

India has multiplied its per capita income levels many times over since 1950, and has done so far faster in recent years than Britain or the United States did during and after the industrial revolution. In the last 15 years, India has pulled more people out of poverty than in the previous 45 – 10 million people a year on average in the last decade. The country has visibly prospered, and, despite population growth, per capita income has grown faster than ever before. The current financial crisis is unlikely to change the basic success story.

Read the article: Resilient India

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Business China Education Finance Life Science

Will China global currency idea fly?

China’s central bank has called for the creation of a new global currency as an alternative to the dollar, in the latest sign of that country’s growing assertiveness on the international stage. But would the idea even work? China has more than $1 trillion in U.S. Treasuries and other government securities, analysts estimate — and the country doesn’t keep all of that money in its own currency because that would cause inflation. Also, by buying assets in dollars, China keeps the yuan from strengthening too much against the U.S. currency — which would make its goods more expensive to American consumers and hurt Chinese exports. But as the U.S. government ramps up spending to stimulate the economy and assist the battered financial sector, Chinese officials are worried that inflation will result — and that would erode the value of their dollar holdings, economists said.

Read the article: Will China global currency idea fly?

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Business Innovation Life Productivity Technology

Undo sent email (well, within 5 seconds)

Have you ever sent an email, and just as it was going on its merry way, you realize you misspelled something or you sent it to the wrong person. Well, now you can take advantage of that delay to “undo” the message. Just enable the feature in Gmail Labs in Settings. It only works during that 5 second delay between the time you hit send and the time that Gmail actually sends the message.

Read the article: Gmail Undo Send

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Business Education Finance Life Social

Europe’s Top B-Schools 2009

English-based and bilingual MBA programs in Europe have given their American counterparts a run for their money in recent years. As international experience becomes increasingly desirable in financial, managerial, and operations employment, a strong history of trans-border ties gives the Old World an edge. Shorter programs, lower tuition, and healthy starting salaries for grads also make for attractive choices. Here’s a list compiled by BusinessWeek, arranged in alphabetical order.

Read the article: Europe’s Top B-Schools 2009

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Business Education Health Life Nature Science Social

How Much Energy Goes Into Making a Bottle of Water?

Researchers have calculated that the energy required to produce bottled water is up to 2,000 times more than the energy required to produce tap water. Most people who buy bottled water have access to clean drinking water virtually for free (in the US, tap water costs less than a penny per gallon, on average). Nevertheless, the consumption of bottled water continues to grow, far surpassing the US sales of milk and beer, and second only to soft drinks.

Read the article: How Much Energy Goes Into Making a Bottle of Water?

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Business China Education India Life Science Social

Indian Americans: The New Model Minority?

Indian Americans are in fact a new “model minority.” Despite constituting less than 1% of the U.S. population, Indian-Americans are 3% of the nation’s engineers, 7% of its IT workers and 8% of its physicians and surgeons. The overrepresentation of Indians in these fields is striking–in practical terms, your doctor is nine times more likely to be an Indian-American than is a random passerby on the street. So why do Indian Americans perform so well? A natural answer is self-selection. Someone willing to pull up roots and move halfway around the world will tend to be more ambitious and hardworking than the average person.

Read the article: Indian Americans: The New Model Minority

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Art Business China Education Finance History India Innovation Life Productivity Science Social Technology

An idea whose time has come

Entrepreneurialism has become cool. Victor Hugo once remarked: “You can resist an invading army; you cannot resist an idea whose time has come.” Today entrepreneurship is such an idea. The triumph of entrepreneurship is driven by profound technological change. A trio of inventions—the personal computer, the mobile phone and the internet—is democratising entrepreneurship at a cracking pace. Today even cash-strapped innovators can reach markets that were once the prerogative of giant organisations. An activity that was once regarded as peripheral, perhaps even reprehensible, has become cool, celebrated by politicians and embraced by the rising generation.

Read the article: A special report on entrepreneurship: An idea whose time has come

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China History India Life Social

Fifty Years in Tibet

A half-century after the Lhasa uprising, it’s time for China to learn from its past mistakes. China has little to lose and much to gain from engaging in serious talks. The Dalai Lama alone is capable of uniting Tibetans behind an agreement with the Chinese government, and at 73, may not be around much longer to seal a deal. China may think that it can hold on until he passes. But the Dalai Lama is the voice of moderation, while the younger generation is pushing for independence and a more radical approach.

Read the article: Fifty Years in Tibet