Links 5/11/11

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We've written before about how stereotypes can impair performance on math tests: for example, when women are told they are taking a math test for a study about gender differences in math ability, they perform more poorly than men. However, if they are first taught about how stereotypes can impair…
In which the skewing of a data plot in Ron Unz's epic investigation of college admissions makes me more skeptical of his overall claim, thanks to the misleading tricks employed. ------------ Steve Hsu has a new post on a favorite topic of his, bias against Asians in higher ed admissions. This is…
I probably shouldn't read two excellent and critical genomics posts back to back. But this excellent post by Daniel MacArthur about the issues surrounding the sequencing using Ion Torrent of a human genome got me thinking about this post by Marian Turner about the pettiness issues surrounding…
If you have not read it, go check out Nicholas Wade's article on doctored images in scientific publications. This is especially pertinent given the recent Hwang Woo Suk stem cell debacle. There is nothing all that revolutionary, but Wade gives a nice review and introduces us to some of the…

New Scientist: "In the 1980s, two weeds were found to be resistant to weedkillers that had never been used in the field. In other words, says Powles, weeds can evolve resistance to herbicides that have not even been developed yet."

At last! Scientific proof of the psychic power of plants!

;)

Thanks for the link. Odd I almost didn't post that post, since I thought that everyone who knows what inflation is also knows that most people think it means rising prices and shrinking real incomes by definition.

Yeah, and they are shape-shifters too. In rice, barnyardgrass evolves to mimic rice at the stage where hand weeding occurs.

Until we have weed-killing robots that do instant DNA tests, it's probably a Red-Queen's race even with herbicides and integrated pest management techniques.

Brad