Fibroblasts can have subsets too!

CDs Have Fingerprints Too

We introduce a new technique for extracting unique fingerprints from identical CDs. The proposed technique takes advantage of manufacturing variability found in the length of the CD lands and pits. Although the variability measured is on the order of 20 nm the technique does not require the use of microscopes or any advanced equipment. Instead, the electrical signal produced by the photodetecto...

Correlations have fat tails, too

The investment community is, by now, familiar with the idea of fat tails. The concept moved beyond the domain of actuaries and quant geeks with Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s book The Black Swan (2007). Taleb drove home the point that volatility does not tell the whole story of the uncertainty associated with asset returns. In particular, extreme outcomes occur more frequently (i.e., tails are fatter)...

C2 Can Do It, Too

In this issue of Cell, report that the C2 domain of the serine/threonine protein kinase Cdelta is a phosphotyrosine binding domain and present the crystal structure of this C2 domain bound to a peptide containing phosphotyrosine. Prior to this work, C2 domains were thought to bind only to phospholipids or to unphosphorylated proteins, and the SH2 and PTB domains were the only signaling domains ...

Testing Can Be Formal, Too

The paper presents a theory of program testing based on formal specifications. The formal semantics of the specifications is the basis for a notion of an exhaustive test set. Under some minimal hypotheses on the program under test, the success of this test set is equivalent to the satisfaction of the specification. The selection of a finite subset of the exhaustive test set can be seen as the i...

Can We Be Too Careful?