All ideas
Inferring the existence of gravitons from the gravitational wave spectrum
If gravitational waves exist, we might observe them with LIGO sometime in the next decade. Just as the existence of quantized energy (photons) was inferred by the distribution of the blackbody spectrum, the existence of gravitons can be inferred... continue reading
Systems analysis of cancer progression
It is well-known that the stage of the cancer at diagnosis is significantly correlated with the survival odds of the patient, and the chances of survival fall off rapidly with the progression of cancer. Despite this, few efforts address the... continue reading
Establishment of a World Dinosaur Congress/Organisation
Dinosaurs are the most popular and well known extinct animals known to humankind. They have been regarded with awe since the first discovery of Megalodon and the coining of the term dinosaur by Richard Owen. In the 1950s they experienced... continue reading
Partial replacement of the FairTax prebate by a wage subsidy
The proposed FairTax Act (H.R.25/S.155) would replace most U.S. federal taxes, including payroll tax and all forms of income tax, with a retail sales tax. To compensate for the rise in prices of necessities, the legislation provides for an annual... continue reading
Altmetrics are aimed at capturing the amount of attention a paper gets. The adoption has been significantly encouraged by services provided by, for example, Altmetric.com, ImpactStory, and PlumX, which serve the same role as Google Scholar for... continue reading
Learning computationally expensive functions
Analysing data from an experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN requires large amounts of computing power.
In addition to large amounts of experimental data, each individual analysis requires large amounts of simulated data. This... continue reading
Sulfur-Bearing Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Interstellar Environments
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are widely studied in an astrophysical context. Studies have also been performed on nitrogen-bearing PAH species (Hudgins+2005) and unsuccessful searches... continue reading
The greatest diversity of killer whale forms–or possible (sub)species – is in the Antarctic. One reason may be because killer whales originated in, or near, the Antarctic, which would also explain their large size - an example of Bergmann’s rule... continue reading
Are male killer whale (Orcinus orca) dorsal fins indicators of fitness?
The females of many animals may assess the fitness and health of males via displays or physical features, such as the tail of a peacock [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signalling_theory]. Physical features may be a “handicap” that fit males can... continue reading
How friendships evolve: being alike may matter more than being related
A half century ago, Hamilton (1964) attempted to explain the conditions surrounding the evolution of social behaviours. To enhance direct and indirect fitness individuals should adapt their behaviours towards conspecifics based on the degree of... continue reading
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