Good Morning world! Here is the first edition of LEARN, your favourite weekly blog series from now on! This is the recap of what I have learnt last week:
Monday: Hough transform – Despite being extremely surprised that on a Monday I was motivated enough to learn new things, the hough transform was extremely fun to learn. It has a very simple math that allows you to extract linear features of an image. I needed that for extracting some information on sine waves in my pictures. Although for my problem I would need to define my own transform for sine waves decompositions, the simple application of the simple hough transform creates damn-good-looking images!
Tuesday: I learn that I could spend a week implementing my hough transform, or using the properties of my image to do a simpler analysis in just one afternoon (thanks to the suggestions of a clever friend of mine).
Wednesday: Some of my experiments involve chicken embryos, during development. In total, from fertilisation to hatch it takes 20-21 days. In my study, though, I am looking just at the first 2 stages, during the first 6-7h of the embryo. In particular I am interested in the transition between stage 1, when the embryo is formed just from the area pellucida (a thin layer of epithelial cells) and a collar all around called area opace, and stage 2, when it start to develop what is called the primitive streak. What I learn on Wednesday is that the feature that appears in this transition, Koller’s Sickle, last just 30 min (at most). So this would be the timeframe of my experiments!
Thursday: After a disturbing intro about Lotus Birth, and still pondering about chick embryos development, another one of my clever friend pointed out how convenient would it be for humans to develop in elastic eggs. His argument was based on the fact that the humans’ head size is limited by the way we deliver our offspring. In fact, we have merely a brain:body ratio of 1:50, while small ants would go up to 1:7. One could argue that the number of neurons in ants is more than 300000 times smaller than humans, but I would reply by warning them about the secret plan ants must have. In fact, while one might think the humans are the highest source of change on planet earth, they move just about 35 billion tons of earth every year against the about 50 billion ants move around the globe*. And since ants have a very strong social intelligence, it is reasonable to ask “Why are they moving all this stuff?”, “How are they organising it?”, “Are they aiming to rule Earth?” and more importantly “Why isn’t Antman the most powerful superhero of all?”
Friday: Finally, just before to head to the pubs for drink, another clever friend of mine (that unfortunately does not have a blog to link to) explained me about Principal Component Analysis. I found it extremely clever, and I suggest you to check this interactive explanation! (It’s 01.21 am- I am quite tired, and still need to shower and I also hope to get some sleep before working: sorry if I don’t explain it myself)
See you all next week! In the meantime, don’t forget to LEARN Every day A Remarkable Notion! 😉
