Last week, Dr. Lisa Chabrier successfully defended her PhD work on calculating SHAP values and using them to do differential network analysis. Whilst SHAP values are a popular framework for local explanations of machine learning predictions, they come with a serious computational cost. Lisa developed an approximation algorithm to avoid calculating lots of SHAP values … [Read more…]
A couple of years ago I learned that Guillaume Beslon and Paulien Hogeweg were collaborating under the umbrella of the EvoEvo project (link). Naturally, that caught my attention. Now the project is finished and I have selected some juicy bits. Enjoy the long version or skip to the take-home messages. The central idea of EvoEvo … [Read more…]
Digital experiments of how the process of evolution works—also known as in silico (experimental) evolution or simply evolutionary simulations—have been explored and studied since the early days of computing. Nowadays, while using the computer to simulate evolution is a well-accepted approach, not everyone is clear about what it teaches us. As I use such simulations … [Read more…]
Some notes: There are some great videos on swarming behaviour of animals. Here are just two quick examples: a starling murmuration and a school of tuna. Segmentation stripes are formed in the first hours of a fly’s development. They are the molecular markers that give rise to the actual body segments of a fly. More … [Read more…]
Society has been educating a huge amount of PhD’s and postdocs. All these scientists have project-based positions and after a two, three years they are on the job market again. That has not always been a problem. Two decades ago you could relatively easily move on to more permanent position, such as lecturer, staff scientist, … [Read more…]