Jeffrey Perkel

2 days ago | nature.com | Jeffrey Perkel

Each year, the code-sharing platform GitHub releases its ‘State of the Octoverse’ report, which among other things ranks the popularity of programming languages. The latest report, released in October 2024, had some good news for pythonistas, as Python programmers are called: for the first time in ten years, the language JavaScript had been bumped from the top of the leader board and replaced by Python.

Apr 29, 2024 | nature.com | Jeffrey Perkel

When it comes to single-cell gene-expression data, biologists face an embarrassment of riches. There are thousands of data sets to choose from. Unfortunately, those data sets have not all been processed in the same way; they might use different names for similar or identical cells or tissues; and they are scattered across the Internet — or available only on request. Smart software untangles gene regulation in cells Using any one data set is relatively straightforward.

Mar 11, 2024 | nature.com | Jeffrey Perkel

In late 2021, midway through the COVID-19 pandemic, George Stagg was preparing to give exams to his mathematics and statistics students at the University of Newcastle, UK. Some would use laptops, others would opt for tablets or mobile phones. Not all of them could even use the programming language that was the subject of the test: the statistical language R. “We had no control, really, over what devices those students were using,” says Stagg.

Sep 27, 2023 | nature.com | Richard Van Noorden |Jeffrey Perkel

Nature (Nature) ISSN 1476-4687 (online) ISSN 0028-0836 (print)

Aug 21, 2023 | nature.com | Jeffrey Perkel

Empire of the Sum: The Rise and Reign of the Pocket Calculator Keith Houston W. W. Norton (2023)As a child during the late 1970s and early 1980s, I recall some of my classmates coming to school sporting digital watches with built-in calculators. With their microscopic buttons and tiny liquid-crystal displays, these devices were the acme of cool: as well as doing maths on their wrists, the kids could also play Space Invaders.