Science and Stuff

Good news! I’ve spent some time over the holidays writing a nice little analytics package for the data I’m collecting. It’s written in R, since I really prefer the gnuplot look over any plotting that can readily done with ruby, the other language I was considering.

I’ve modeled different scoring function for each daily objective (running, eating fish etc). I’m trying to get the scores to agree with the measured effects on neurogenesis in the animal model. So if the experimental data indicates that i. e. the beneficial aspect of walnuts is logarithmic (i. e. eating 1kg/day has double the effect of eating 100g/day), the scoring function should reflect that. I’m collecting the raw data and will update the scoring functions and results whenever I find new evidence.

The somewhat bad news is that the official start of my little experiment will be January 1st. It’s partly because of a lapse in discipline (you try finding kiwis in that backwater place my parent inhabit) but mostly because it makes the data processing easier to start at the beginning of a year.

The rest of the holidays was spent reading Feynman’s Lectures and dreaming up things to do with openCL.

The Neurogenesis Experiment biology, neurogenesis, neurology, updates

Don’t worry, I don’t plan to bore you with daily news about my progress, so future updates will be on a weekly schedule.

The first day was almost perfect. Somehow, I managed to get by without cigarettes, but could not avoid getting (and drinking) a coffee. I guess it felt like the lesser sin. Since neurogenesis takes at least three weeks to kick in, most of the effect I’m feeling (insomnia and soreness) are probably results of nicotine withdrawal and exercise.

I’ll probably write a small script later this week to plot my compliance and test results, so future updates should be all pretty and colorful.

The Neurogenesis Experiment biology, neurogenesis, neurology, updates