My name is Mason Porter. I am a Professor in the Department of Mathematics at UCLA. Previously I was Professor of Nonlinear and Complex Systems in the Mathematical Institute at University of Oxford. I was also a Tutorial Fellow of Somerville College.
Thursday, August 31, 2017
"Everything Sounds Better with Mathematics"
Damn right!
For example, cavities are "just point discontinuities of oral hygiene!"
Wednesday, August 30, 2017
Fake µs
It's too bad, though, that "µ" is the standard notation for kinematic viscosity, as the title would be even more amusing with the notation "𝜈" for dynamic viscosity. It would then be "Fake 𝜈s". In any event, I approve! (And things are open for a sequel paper about dynamic viscosity.)
Also, I like viscous puns.
I previously used a variant of this pun, as you can see below.
I am spreading fake gnus. (This had to be done.) pic.twitter.com/eUcmp3qouZ
— Mason Porter (@masonporter) February 11, 2017
Update (8/31/17): Thanks to Peter Mucha for the comments about kinematic versus dynamic viscosity. This helped me improve my comments above.
"Skype a Scientist" Program
Fellow scientists: You should sign up for this! It's a really good cause!
"Skype a Scientist matches scientists with classrooms around the world! Scientists will skype into the classroom for 30-60 minute Q and A sessions that can cover the scientist’s expertise or what it’s like to be a scientist. We want to give students the opportunity to get to know a “real scientist”, and this program allows us to reach students from all over the world without having to leave the lab!"
Update (9/06/17): I now have been matched with a second classroom. I believe I indicated that I was happy being matched with up to two classrooms.
Sunday, August 27, 2017
Another Cool Visual Illusion
Just a reminder that reality happens in the mind. pic.twitter.com/svqAl4xjze
— Science (@scienmag) August 27, 2017
(Tip of the cap to Justin Lanier.)
Saturday, August 26, 2017
Will Love Tear this Research Apart?
Even if love doesn't tear their paper apart, the referees surely will.
I also wrote about this here and here.
Nothing beats the moment of revelation when you suddenly realize why they're called "joyplots". pic.twitter.com/8sbmDWGWg9
— Stuart Ritchie (@StuartJRitchie) August 25, 2017
(Tip of the cap to MathFeed.)
Update (8/27/17): You can also see some discussion of this visualization in my Facebook post.
Friday, August 25, 2017
Popsicle-Stick "Cobra Wave"
The cobra wave is a physical phenomenon arising from the explosion of a metastable grillage made of popsicle stickshttps://t.co/ISGSN8GCyY pic.twitter.com/5iFhkGgANC
— Physical Review Lett (@PhysRevLett) August 25, 2017
We got the video from PRL's tweet.
Thursday, August 24, 2017
Quote of the Day: Moscow Student Sex Survey from 1903
My favourite response from a Moscow student sex survey, 1903: 'In order to suppress sexual passion, I entered the faculty of mathematics'
— Siobhán Hearne (@siobhanhearne) August 23, 2017
(Tip of the cap to Craig Montuori.)
Wednesday, August 23, 2017
28th Anniversary of Ejection from a Game of Expos' Mascot
The antics that the Phillie Phanatic would pull with Tommy Lasorda were even funnier.
Monday, August 21, 2017
"Subtitles: What the Book is Actually About"
Wednesday, August 16, 2017
Eclipses Go Meta
"Total Eclipse of the Heart" during the total solar eclipse? Bonnie Tyler will perform her hit during the eclipse. https://t.co/G8ouPpTmeM pic.twitter.com/cOYJ20ryrx
— The Boston Globe (@BostonGlobe) August 16, 2017
(Tip of the cap to several people for this news. I got the tweet from Cathy O'Neil.)
Monday, August 14, 2017
What Happens in Edmonton Stays in Edmonton
I will be giving an invited talk at a (mostly)
Sunday, August 13, 2017
A Sweet Early Calculator!
The first calculator to be able to perform all 4 operations automatically was invented by Anton Braun, a German optician, in 1727 pic.twitter.com/j8tj7LTUIA
— Fermat's Library (@fermatslibrary) August 13, 2017
(Tip of the cap to Daniele Avitabile.)
Saturday, August 12, 2017
Differential Equations and "General Fiction"
The journey is turning into a book tour in itself: signed Beyond Infinity at O'Hare and How to Bake Pi at LAX...in self-improvement!! pic.twitter.com/KqhdGnvoCR
— Dr Eugenia Cheng (@DrEugeniaCheng) August 13, 2017
Thursday, August 10, 2017
A Tetris-Themed Glass Window (and Other Nerd Furniture)
Update (8/11/17): Initially I described the Tetris window as a "stained-glass window". As Aaron Clements pointed out on my Facebook post, a correct description is actually "colored glass blocks with mortar".
(Tip of the cap to Rachel Simmons Carter.)
Another Optical Illusion: How Many Circles Can You Find?
In this image there are 16 circles. Don't you find them? Look again carefully & discover the 'coffer illusion' https://t.co/zPpephKSos pic.twitter.com/fnzOFI83GP
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) August 9, 2017
Wednesday, August 09, 2017
"Core-Periphery Structure in Networks (Revisited)"
Title: Core-Periphery Structure in Networks (Revisited)
Authors: Puck Rombach, Mason A. Porter, James H. Fowler, and Peter J. Mucha
Abstract: Intermediate-scale (or “meso-scale”) structures in networks have received considerable attention, as the algorithmic detection of such structures makes it possible to discover network features that are not apparent either at the local scale of nodes and edges or at the global scale of summary statistics. Numerous types of meso-scale structures can occur in networks, but investigations of such features have focused predominantly on the identification and study of community structure. In this paper, we develop a new method to investigate the meso-scale feature known as
core-periphery structure, which entails identifying densely connected core nodes and sparsely connected peripheral nodes. In contrast to communities, the nodes in a core are also reasonably well-connected to those in a network’s periphery. Our new method of computing core-periphery structure can identify multiple cores in a network and takes into account different possible core structures. We illustrate the differences between our method and several existing methods for identifying which nodes belong to a core, and we use our technique to examine core-periphery structure in examples of friendship, collaboration, transportation, and voting networks. For this new SIGEST version of our paper, we also discuss our work’s relevance in the context of recent developments in the study of core-periphery structure.
"A Roadmap for the Computation of Persistent Homology"
Title: A Roadmap for the Computation of Persistent Homology
Authors: Nina Otter, Mason A. Porter, Ulrike Tillmann, Peter Grindrod, and Heather A. Harrington
Abstract: Persistent homology (PH) is a method used in topological data analysis (TDA) to study qualitative features of data that persist across multiple scales. It is robust to perturbations of input data, independent of dimensions and coordinates, and provides a compact representation of the qualitative features of the input. The computation of PH is an open area with numerous important and fascinating challenges. The field of PH computation is evolving rapidly, and new algorithms and software implementations are being updated and released at a rapid pace. The purposes of our article are to (1) introduce theory and computational methods for PH to a broad range of computational scientists and (2) provide benchmarks of state-of-the-art implementations for the computation of PH. We give a friendly introduction to PH, navigate the pipeline for the computation of PH with an eye towards applications, and use a range of synthetic and real-world data sets to evaluate currently available open-source implementations for the computation of PH. Based on our benchmarking, we indicate which algorithms and implementations are best suited to different types of data sets. In an accompanying tutorial, we provide guidelines for the computation of PH. We make publicly available all scripts that we wrote for the tutorial, and we make available the processed version of the data sets used in the benchmarking.
Tuesday, August 08, 2017
"Opposite" Jobs
According to this, the most different job from "mathematician" is "mine shuttle car operator".
Huzzah!
Cassandra
Naturally, the first thing that came to my mind that Sam mentioned Cassandra was not the prophet, but rather the ABBA song (which turns out to be a B-side). And checking the lyrics, the song does indeed refer to the prophet.
Monday, August 07, 2017
Awesome Optical Illusion: Bathroom Tile Edition
Terrific optical illusion by Victoria Skye. @RichardWiseman @chriscfrench pic.twitter.com/IeSFupAcfU
— Martin S Taylor (@martinstaylor) August 7, 2017
Saturday, August 05, 2017
Dodgers Have Best 50-Game Run Since 1912!
Friday, August 04, 2017
A Multiplex Network of Relations Between Probability Distributions
(There are quite a few comments on the tweet. I haven't looked at them, but I wonder if people are picking apart inaccuracies? I haven't spent the time to vet this diagram, but I really like the idea!)
how probability distributions are related pic.twitter.com/1i8VHEHdy5
— hardmaru (@hardmaru) August 2, 2017
A Classic Article: "More is Different"
(Tip of the cap to Michael Stumpf.)
Thursday, August 03, 2017
What is the Weirdest Historical/Superstitious Practice in Academia?
I saw this yesterday, but I didn't post it because the embedded tweet wasn't showing the original question. I should have taken a screenshot and posted it. :)
Publish in journals. https://t.co/U2Oiin9Hu3
— Michael Hendricks (@MHendr1cks) August 2, 2017
Tuesday, August 01, 2017
Mathematicians and Physicists on Twitter
Here is a list of physicists on Twitter with 1000+ followers. I am not on this list either, though it can be argued that I am also a physicist (in addition to being a mathematician).
Update (8/03/17): My account is now on the list of mathematicians.