InforMattics
informattics.bsky.social
InforMattics
@informattics.bsky.social
Machine Learning Engineer
Reposted by InforMattics
CERN's ALICE experiment used gold ions to recreate conditions similar to the early universe, observing how light converts into matter. By colliding ultra-relativistic gold nuclei, they captured rare photon-photon interactions that generated electron-positron pairs
#CERN
#LHC
#quantum
#physics
🧪
ALICE detects the conversion of lead into gold at the Large Hadron Collider
In a paper published in Physical Review C, the ALICE collaboration reports measurements that quantify the transmutation of lead into gold in CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
phys.org
May 9, 2025 at 2:02 AM
Reposted by InforMattics
I filled in this form just now and was emailed an API key a few seconds later, strongly recommend doing the same
Want to use federal data? The U.S. government used to have a prominent link to sign up for API access; that link has been removed, but the form to get it remains operative. You may wish to sign up now, on the premise you might not be able to later. api.data.gov/signup/
February 13, 2025 at 9:08 PM
Reposted by InforMattics
For ~40 yrs my mom taught students with multiple disabilities — ✨ kids who used wheelchairs + communication boards and would never live independently. They and she were vital parts of their primary school communities. It’s 💔 to think of the immediate + societal repercussions of their neglect.
"The future of the [DOE]—and of the students with disabilities who depend on it—will likely hinge less on the person appointed to lead it than on the world views of two billionaires who abhor what they perceive as weakness and waste."

The plan to "euthanize" pub ed & its impact on the vulnerable.
What the Assault on Public Education Means for Kids with Disabilities
The future of the Department of Education may hinge on the world views of two billionaires who abhor what they perceive as weakness and waste.
www.newyorker.com
February 13, 2025 at 9:17 PM
Reposted by InforMattics
Sometimes, scientists put their own body on the line in the name of science - in this case a parasitologist decided to become a temporary host in order to investigate the life history of an enigmatic nose leech
#Invertebrate 🧪
dailyparasite.blogspot.com/2019/10/dino...
<i>Dinobdella ferox</i>
When it comes to parasitology, sometimes you have to get really up close with your study organism, as one researcher in Taiwan did in trying...
dailyparasite.blogspot.com
January 26, 2025 at 1:34 AM
Reposted by InforMattics
OK, so I'm watching the NORAD Santa Tracker. I just saw him go from Indiana to Illinois to Iowa to Indiana, and now he's heading back to Iowa again. Does Santa not know anyone in operations research?
December 25, 2024 at 5:32 AM
Reposted by InforMattics
all of unix is a lesson in the importance of defaults. clobber as default, append as an additional keystroke is one of the most bizarre ones.

[bet there's an abe simpson story like "oh back in the 70s you needed to club a baby seal to death to write a new line, so we chose to minimise seal death"]
December 13, 2024 at 10:01 PM
Reposted by InforMattics
After working on this paper for three years, delighted to see it out - we propose a way to defuse the tension between data openness and responsible dat management, by pushing the FINDABILITY of data and the opportunities for connections among data users #philsci #openscience
December 13, 2024 at 8:41 AM
Reposted by InforMattics
Last week the Python package "Ultralytics" suffered a supply-chain attack on its build and release process. This is a review of the attack from @pypi.org's perspective.

There's plenty of advice for how Python projects can increase their #security posture:

blog.pypi.org/posts/2024-1...
Supply-chain attack analysis: Ultralytics - The Python Package Index Blog
Analysis of a package targeted by a supply-chain attack to the build and release process
blog.pypi.org
December 11, 2024 at 3:22 PM
Reposted by InforMattics
Teacher: Now let's learn regular expressions. Regular expressions are a limited form of computation that can match many kinds of strings, but not parse recursively or execute arbitrary programs.

Student: And ^.?$|^(..+?)\1+$ determines if a number is prime.

Teacher: wtf
December 9, 2024 at 4:04 AM
Reposted by InforMattics
New York and Erie Railroad, "Diagram Representing a Plan of Organization, exhibiting the division of academic duties and showing the number and class of employees engaged in each department," by D.C. McCallum + G.H. Henshaw, 1855, via Library of Congress

blogs.loc.gov/maps/2024/11...
December 8, 2024 at 6:13 AM
Reposted by InforMattics
Very cool initiative in Los Angeles has provided new opportunities for homeless people to vote by bringing polling centers directly to shelters & service centers, and reminding people that they can legally vote without having to demonstrate a fixed physical home address:
Pop-Up Voting Centers Bring the Polls Directly to Unhoused Angelenos
Nationwide, unhoused people have some of the lowest turnout among all voters. Los Angeles County is trying to change this with flexible polling centers that meet people where they are.
boltsmag.org
December 5, 2024 at 8:42 PM
Reposted by InforMattics
1st post on bsky - about bsky! I was fascinated with academic starter packs and made an interactive network to see academic communities and how they connect - a map of knowledge! link to an interactive & searchable network: ketikagarg.github.io/blueSkyAcade...
December 1, 2024 at 3:18 PM
Reposted by InforMattics
(0/13)
A 🧵 about helping children you care about to learn maths. And you don't even have to be a mathematician, or even "good" at #maths, to do it. You just have to model resilience and positivity towards what they're doing, and to avoid reinforcing negative tropes.

Here's how:
November 15, 2024 at 10:50 PM
Reposted by InforMattics
Umberto Eco describing LLMs in 1976
February 18, 2024 at 12:47 AM
Reposted by InforMattics
Came across this "pink" grasshopper while hiking! It's the result of a rare genetic mutation -- supposedly there's a 1% chance of seeing them in a lifetime. There were thousands of (normal) grasshoppers hopping around, so I guess that helped our chances.
🧪
August 21, 2023 at 6:39 PM
Reposted by InforMattics
government agences 'treat Musk like some kind of unelected official'. Just call him Octavian. How long before we start to call him adulescens carnifex?
Ronan Farrow’s deep dive on Elon Musk is required reading. Incredibly revealing and consequential reporting. But I keep coming back to this. RW folk fear-monger about the state, put placing administrative power in the hands of individuals is markedly worse.
August 21, 2023 at 7:47 PM
Reposted by InforMattics
Is everyone still happy to see pictures of the bear currently in my pool or are you monsters?
August 3, 2023 at 12:22 AM
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I prefer the original Godzilla design
July 30, 2023 at 1:18 AM
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Every day I try to be a real amiable sort of freak, just keeping pace
July 25, 2023 at 6:57 PM
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Oh yeah, this week on Counting Stuff, I started wondering what the heck SPF really means and learned.... it's not all that useful. Also fell down a rabbit hole involving solar radiation and UV spectra... because of course.
https://counting.substack.com/p/spf-is-a-pretty-unhelpful-unit
July 25, 2023 at 11:18 PM