Igor Delovski Board

[delovski]

"An article from Wired mentions the surprising number of discoveries
that have been made entirely by accident. In an older article, The
Discovery Channel's site points out a different subset of inventions that
happened by accident. A much older article from PBS goes into more depth
on the subject of accidental discoveries, and gives a great quote from
physicist Joseph Henry: 'The seeds of great discoveries are constantly
floating around us, but they only take root in minds well prepared to
receive them.'"

Slashdot: The Power of Accidental Discoveries

[XNote]

"A recently-released study examined the health implications of living in
an overly hygienic environment. According to the 'hygiene hypothesis,'
living in such an environment early in life can lead to problems with
allergies and autoimmune diseases. The study compared lab rodents with
rats and mice living in the wild."

On Slashdot: Overly Sanitized Environments Lead to Poor Health?

[Jean Jacques]

Are you too old?

"Did you know that mountain bikes were invented by kids who wanted
to ride downhill on their bikes?

...

Recently newspapers have run the story about the Mosquito ring tone, a
high-pitch ring tone kids have been programming their mobiles to use
during class - but inaudible to the teacher."

[Ike]

Emotionally ambivalent workers are more creative, innovative

"People who experience emotional ambivalence -- simultaneously feeling
positive and negative emotions -- are more creative than those who feel
just happy or sad, or lack emotion at all, according to a new study.

That's because people who feel mixed emotions interpret the experience
as a signal that they are in an unusual environment and thus respond to it
by drawing upon their creative thinking abilities, said Christina Ting Fong,
an assistant professor at the University of Washington Business School.
This increased sensitivity for recognizing unusual associations, which
happy or sad workers probably couldn't detect, is what leads to creativity
in the workplace, she added."

[Ike]

Digital Digressions: The Value of Stupid Ideas

"Prior to this Crick had spent time working on anti-ship mines for the
Admiralty and coasted his way through college earning himself a second-
class degree in Physics. Matt Ridley's biography of Francis Crick, the first to
appear since he died in 2004, gives an excellent and fast-paced account of
a long, astonishing life: Crick could serve as exemplar for late starters and
for those who refuse to quit."

[Ike]

Yahoo News: Lab disaster may lead to new cancer drug

"I made a calculation error and used a lot more than I should have. And
my cells died," Schaefer said.

A colleague overheard her complaining. "The co-author on my paper said,'
Did I hear you say you killed some cancer?' I said 'Oh', and took a closer look."

[XNote]

Amazing SawStop Cuts Anything But Your Fingers

"SawStop is a safety feature that immediately stops and retracts a spinning
saw blade if it comes in contact with anything that even remotely resembles
your finger."

[delovski]

Slashdot: Scientists Discover Way to Reverse Memory Loss

"Scientists have accidentally discovered how to reverse memory loss by
stimulating a specific part of the hypothalamus. Good news for people with
Alzheimer's and those that just forgot where he left his car's key."

[Ike]

Meet the 28-Year-Old Grad Student Who Just Shook the Global Austerity Movement

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/04/grad-student-who-shook-global-austerity-movement.html


Herndon became instantly famous in nerdy economics circles this week as the lead author of a recent paper, "Does High Public Debt Consistently Stifle Economic Growth? A Critique of Reinhart and Rogoff," that took aim at a massively influential study by two Harvard professors named Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff.

More - http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1csjcl/the_mysterious_powers_of_microsoft_excel_bbc/