Mathematical design, mathematical art?

.

Two interesting programs allow the developing of mathematical designs (the program "surfer") and mathematical art (the program "Aaron"). The programs provide an excellent example of the requirements of creativity. Although these programs can be considered as tools that allow us to play creatively with mathematical formulae, it is only the human user who creates meaning with them. Only this act of perceiving and creating a socially relevant meaning render these mathematical sculptures creative or not. The following sculptures I just developed with the program "surfer" may serve as an example: Except the last one I would not consider them creative at all, although they might be of some general mathematical or basic aesthetic interest:

.

1: "spear head"

2: "the wave"

3: "double hat"

4: "the blue room"

5: "carafe"

New large-scale genome analysis gives insight on details of our way "out of africa"

.
Li et al. (2008) conducted a large-scale genome-analysis of 938 humans from 51 populations. He found a clear-cut relationship between haplotype heterozygosity and geography, which not only supports the "out of africa"-hypothesis of a single origin in sub-Saharan Africa. The correlations also indicate our genetical proximity and therefore can show us details on the history of our way out of africa (see Figure 1).


Figure 1: Individual Ancestry Diagram. Each individual isrepresented by a vertical line partitioned into colored segments whose lengths correspond to his/her ancestry coefficients in up to seven inferred ancestral groups.


In detail the findings show that the mean heterozygosity across autosomal haplotypes is negatively correlated with distance from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with a correlation coefficient r of –0.91 and a slope of –1.1 × 10−5 per km (see Figure 1). This trend supports a serial founder effect, a scenario in which population expansion involves successive migration of a small fraction of individuals out of the previous location, starting from a single origin in sub-Saharan Africa.


Figure 2: Analysis of molecular variance and correlation between haplotype heterozygosity
and geographic distance.


Source:
Li et al. 2008. Worldwide Human Relationships Inferred from Genome-Wide Patterns of Variation. Science. Vol. 319, pp. 1100-1104

Vilajanur Ramachandran on Capgras delusion, phantom limbs, and synesthesia

Listen to the worthwile talk of Vilajanur Ramachandran, neurologist and professor in the Psychology Department and Neurosciences Program at the University of California, San Diego, on on Capgras delusion, phantom limbs, and synesthesia. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilayanur_S._Ramachandran)

Dan Dennet: Applying Evolutionary Thinking to Thinking

Listen to Dan Dennett's worthwile 2002 TED-talk "Ants, terrorism and the awesome power of memes":

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/116