Gregg R Thomas

I was just talking about Rosalind Franklin yesterday to someone! Her data was shared with Watson and Crick without her consent, via Wilkins and indirectly through Max Perutz. Her intellectual contribution was not recognized in 1953 the way it should have been, so by 1962 the Nobel committee did not see her as a third discoverer. Crick later said…[Read more]

Proof for Dracula.

The Nobel is about the invention, not the person. Shockley won his Nobel Prize for his role in the invention of the transistor. Late in life he spiralled into racist pseudoscience, eugenics, and intellectual self-destruction.

Pauling won his first on chemical bonding which was foundational. His work underpins everything from protein structure to…[Read more]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
AI is destroying learning at university.

I’m not sure it is that simple.  In the UK, the universities are having trouble funding themselves, and it sounds similar in the US.  I don’t know all the reasons for that, and the two may have the same causes.  So, they want to save money, so they cut courses and “o…[Read more]

@theencogitationer – if you do that math, it’s 1-2-3-4 gruesome.

Why is Jesus not upside down, or at a quarter to, or quarter past?  Why that particular orientation of feet down?

Yes, Telly on the telly had the lollipoppy, to be Frank.

I wonder which university this boy will attend?

Yes Jake, I agree with “it depends on how we view the proximate cause of its ruination.” 

The proximate cause depends on which lens you pick up. AI isn’t the culprit here, it’s the accelerant. It exposes the cracks and widens them, but it also widens the horizons for anyone who does think. The tragedy is that the number who engage critically has…[Read more]

Jake – Barney Fife? We are all caught in this circus together….

Many universities have become revenue-maximizing businesses, visa mills and research output farms. They have become corporations and this has diluted standards. They are no longer hostile to sacred cows and are willing to deplatform anyone who might upset them emotionally. Dissenting views are punished and a student’s “lived experience” trump…[Read more]

Yikes, I remember watching Mannix……and Frank Cannon too. That’s his name and he is a private investigator. Now I want a lollipop!

@jakelafort – I disagree with the post above that AI is destroying learning. AI isn’t the end of higher education, but it does demand a serious overhaul of how we teach, assess, and value learning. Universities are suffering structural rot, and many have become expensive credential factories. If a single tool can automate the output of a degree, t…[Read more]

Have a great week everyone!