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.
