• Rabiner & Juang: Fundamentals of Speech Recognition (1993)
• Huang, Ariki, & Jack: Hidden Markov Models for Speech Recognition (1990)
• Young & Bloothooft: Corpus-Based Methods in Language and Speech Processing (1997)
• Jelinek: Statistical Methods for Speech Recognition (1998)
• O’Shaughnessy: Speech Communications: Human and Machine (1999)
• Huang, Acero, Acero, & Hon: Spoken Language Processing: A Guide to Theory, Algorithm, and System Development (2001) [I have]
• Chou & Juang: Pattern Recognition in Speech and Language Processing (2003)
• Schroeder: Computer Speech: Recognition, Compression, Synthesis (2004)
• Rabiner & Schafer: Introduction to Digital Speech Processing (2007)
• Jurafsky & Martin: Speech & Language Processing (2008) [I have]
• Deller, Hansen & Proakis: Discrete Time Processing of Speech Signals (1999)

Machine Learning

• Mitchell, Carbonell, & Michalski: Machine Learning: A guide to current research (1986)
• Hastie, Tibshirani, & Friedman: The Elements of Statistical Learning (2001)
• Bishop: Pattern Matching and Machine Learning (2006)
• Duda, Hart, & Stork: Pattern Classification (2006)
• Haykin: Neural Networks (1999)

Signal Processing

• Rabiner & Shafer: Digital Processing of Speech Signals (1978)
• Proakis & Manolakis: Digital Signal Processing: Principles, Algorithms, and Applications (2006)

Algorithms & General Computer Science

• Stark & Woods: Probability, random processes, and estimation theory for engineers (1986)
• Sedgewick: Algorithms in Java (2003)
• Aho: Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools (2007)
• Grune & Jacobs: Parsing techniques: A Practical Guide (2008)
• Cormen, Leiserson, Rivest & Stein: Introduction to Algorithms (2nd Edition) (2001) [I have]

Natural Language Processing / Computational Linguistics

• Winograd: Language as a Cognitive Process (1983)
• Allen: Natural Language Understanding (1995)
• Young and Bloothooft: Corpus-Based Methods in Language and Speech Processing (1997)
• Manning & Schütze: Foundations of statistical natural language processing (1999)
• Mitkov: The Oxford Handbook of Computational Linguistics (2003)

Speech UI Design

• Chafe: Discourse, Consciousness, and Time: The Flow and Displacement of Conscious Experience in Speaking and Writing (1994)
• Bullinger & Ziegler: Human-computer Interaction: Ergonomics and User Interfaces (1999)
• Weinschenk & Barker: Designing Effective Speech Interfaces (2000)
• Jacko & Sears: The Human-Computer Interaction Handbook: Fundamentals, Evolving Technologies, and Emerging Applications (2003)
• Kotelly: The Art and Business of Speech Recognition: Creating the Noble Voice (2003)
• Cohen & Giangola: Voice User Interface Design: User Interface Design (2004)
• Harris: Voice Interaction Design: Crafting the New Conversational Speech Systems (2004)
• Sims: Berkshire Encyclopedia of Human-computer Interaction: Volume 1 (2004)
• Dahl: Practical Spoken Dialog Systems (2005)
• Nass & Brave: Wired for Speech: How Voice Activates and Advances the Human-computer Relationship (2005)

• Brian Greene explains superstring theory.
• Brian Cox talks about the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, Switzerland:

The basic idea is to use “wasted human cycles”, as Luis calls them, to solve problems computers can’t solve yet. Luis defines our interactions with computers to be very parasitic (in which we are the parasites) and wants to shift it to a more symbiotic relationship. In order to show how important and relevant the topic is, Luis goes on to compare how much time people played solitaire online to how much time it took to build the Empire State Building.

Luis is a very good speaker, which makes this talk even more interesting. It’s easy to follow, with just the right amount of details, you’ll see, it’s hard to stop watching! Let me know what you think.

• Ernst Mayr: What Evolution Is
• Steve Jones: Darwin’s Ghost: The Origin of the Species Updated
• (Or Charles Darwin: The Origin of Species directly if you have the patience and the wits…)

I’ve tried to give a certain order to the following list. The most influencial writers in comtemporary evolution theory come first. For example, Maynard Smith and Ernst Mayr are two very good writers and researchers from the 20th century. Super important stuff. One interesting note here, Niles Eldredge was the co-inventor of the theory of Punctuated equilibrium, on which you can read a really interesting article from Stephen Jay Gould’s free online archive.

• John Maynard Smith: Evolution and the Theory of Games
• John Maynard Smith: Evolutionary Genetics
• Ernst Mayr: Toward a New Philosophy of Biology: Observations of an Evolutionist
• Carl Zimmer: Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea.
• Stephen Jay Gould: Ontogeny and Phylogeny
• Richard Dawkins: Climbing Mount Improbable
• Richard Dawkins: The Selfish Gene
• Niles Eldredge: Reinventing Darwin
• Niles Eldredge: The Natural History Reader in Evolution
• Jared M. Diamond: Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
• Jared Diamond: The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal
• Daniel C. Dennett: Darwin’s Dangerous Idea
• Michael T. Ghiselin: Metaphysics and the Origin of Species
• P.J. Greenwood, et al.: Evolution
• Matt Ridley: The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature
• Daniel C. Dennett: Freedom Evolves
• Nils L. Wallin, et al.: The Origins of Music

[The study] identifies close to 200 mutated genes, now linked to these cancers, most of which were not previously recognized as associated with tumor initiation, growth, spread or control.

Because no two patients are the same with breast and colon cancer, therapies are very hard to administer. Ultimately, once we know enough about all of the implicated genes, it will be possible to find out which of a particular patient’s genes are affected and treat only those genes. From the BBC Article:

Dr Anna Barker of the National Cancer Institute said: “Maximising the numbers of targets available for drug development in a specific cancer means that patients will ultimately receive more personalized, less toxic therapies.”

She also said: “In the future, scientists hope to be able to tailor plans for preventing or treating cancer to each person’s individual genetic profile. Studies like this can help us to accomplish this goal.”

Read more:

• BCC Article: Experts crack cancer ‘gene codes’
• John Hopkins Hospital News: GENOME CODE CRACKED FOR BREAST AND COLON CANCERS
• Science Article: The Consensus Coding Sequences of Human Breast and Colorectal Cancers [pdf]

US biotech firm Allerca says it has managed to selectively breed them by reducing a certain type of protein that triggers allergic reactions.

Read the full article on the BBC site

1. is in orbit around the Sun
2. is large enough that it takes on a nearly round shape
3. has cleared its orbit of other objects

We understand the ambiguity when we consider the previous definition of a planet: a celestial body moving in an elliptical orbit round a star. (Oxford Dictionary). A quote from the BBC’s article on the subject explains the history behind the debate:

Pluto’s status has been contested for many years. It is further away and considerably smaller than the eight other “traditional” planets in our Solar System. At just 2,360km (1,467 miles) across, Pluto is smaller even than some moons in the Solar System.

But the real reason for Pluto’s demotion came with a discovery in 2003, which seemed to indicate that if Pluto was in fact a planet, then a number of other celestial bodies should be considered a planet, adding about 20 new planets to our Solar System.

The critical blow for Pluto came with the discovery three years ago of an object currently designated 2003 UB313. After being measured with the Hubble Space Telescope, it was shown to be some 3,000km (1,864 miles) in diameter: it is bigger than Pluto.

One thing is for sure, my kids are now going to have to learn new rhymes for the names of the eight planets of the Solar System: “My Very Expensive Mercedes Just Smashed Up a Nissan”. Or the less common “My Very Elderly Mother Just Sat Upon a Needle”. Gone are the days of ‘New Porches’ and ‘North Poles’. Too sad.

Information on Pluto (From the BBC’s article)

It was named after the god of the underworld in Roman mythology.

Orbits Sun every 248 years
Diameter of 2,360km
Has at least three moons
Rotates every 6.8 days
Gravity about 6% of Earth’s
Surface temperature -233C
Nasa probe visits in 2015

Related Articles

• A Newsvine Seed by Ekibitz: Pluto is Not a Planet Anymore
• A BBC News report on the subject: Pluto loses status as a planet

It thus refutes the notions that all stem mysticetes were filter-feeders, and that the origins and initial radiation of mysticetes was linked to the evolution of filter-feeding. Mysticetes evidently radiated into a variety of disparate forms and feeding ecologies before the evolution of baleen or filterfeeding.

This fossil represents a previously unknown species, named after its teenage finder Staumn Hunter, who noticed it in an exposed boulder while surfing in 1997. The species is believed to have lived about 9 to 25 million years ago after the last common ancestor of the toothed and baleen whales. As I pointed out earlier, the previously found fossil whales did not elucidate the origins and early evolution of baleen whales from their lack of a different manner of feeding. So transitional fossils like this one found in Australia can usually explain many hypotheses scientists have on the subject. This one is no exception.

The phylogenetic context of the new whale indicates that basal mysticetes were macrophagous predators that did not employ filter-feeding or echolocation, and that the evolution of characters associated with bulk filter-feeding was gradual.

Finds like these also present scientists with new hypotheses and new questions to be resolved. For example, how did whales evolve drastically different eating habits more than 34 million years ago ? One thing is for sure, this find will clearly make it into the (children) books on the dangerous and mystical monsters of the Pre-historic times.

Age and Paleontogical Information on the Fossil

• ERA: Cenozoic
• PERIOD: Tertiary
• EPOCH: Oligocene
• AGE: 23.8 to 33.7 Million Years Ago

Related Articles

• A Newsvine Seed by Miguel: Whale Fossil Sports Fierce Teeth
• A BBC News report on the subject: What Fossil Sports Fierce Teeth

References:

• [1] Fitzgerald, E.M.G. (2006) A bizarre new toothed mysticete (Cetacea) from Australia and the early evolution of baleen whales, Proceedings of the Royal Society B.