Why DTLR?

Some readers may be wondering about the name of this blog, “The Diffusion Tensor Literary Review.” Obviously I am not blogging about diffusion tensors! Some of you know that a diffusion tensor is a mathematical construct used to represent non-isotopic diffusion of (usually) water in some medium, like brain or muscle tissue, and it finds particular application in magnetic resonance imaging. Years ago I did have collaborators who were doing diffusion tensor imaging, but that is not what this blog is about. The blog's name is a little bit of a joke, as I've appropriated some obscure, narrow-sounding techno-babble to describe a blog that I hope will range widely in subject matter.

Actually, not quite. I like the name for deeper reasons. Both the American Physical Society and the American Institute of Physics have in their mission statements (and I paraphrase) the advancement and diffusion of the knowledge of physics. While I don't plan to do any advancing of knowledge here, I surely hope to diffuse some. And why stop at diffusion? I'll try to convect and radiate knowledge too!

And what about “tensor”? Back in college, I was the back-page columnist for the Math Club's newsletter (which had only one issue in its then-incarnation). My column was named “The Tensor.” That too was a joke, for in mathematics the word “column” reminds one of a column vector in matrix algebra, and matrices are kind of like tensors! (Rest assured, the Math Club was highly proficient in bad puns and lame humor.)

Hence, the Diffusion Tensor Literary Review. It is indeed primarily a literary review, in the sense of a journal club and book club, and not in the literal sense of reviewing (fictional) literature. The recent series of posts on Michael Marder's book, Research Methods for Science, is an example of what I hope to do on this blog.

Finally, what about the blog's avatar? It is a Computerworld button that I saw at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. It reads, “Garbage in, gospel out.” Of course, computer scientists are fond of the opposite saying, “Garbage in, garbage out.” The button stating “Garbage in, gospel out” represents a certain attitude that the output of a computer is gospel. This attitude can be more generally held for the output of statistical analysis, or indeed of any scientific endeavor. I think of “Garbage in, gospel out” as a motto for non-reproducible research, an issue that plagues the biosciences in particular these days. Non-reproducible research, particularly when enabled by the use of statistical methodology (as opposed to statistical thinking), will continue to be a pivotal concern of this blog.