Why Biophysicists Make Models

Why Biophysicists Make Models

For those ion channel biophysicists who are also in the signal transduction business, it can sometimes seem like a marriage of strange bedfellows. In the world of voltage gating and permeation studies the analysis is usually meticulously precise and the results often presented using dense mathematics. Gating charges are calculated to the last e Ϫ , molecular movements debated to the last Å, and...

Why Biophysicists Make Models: Quantifying Modulation of the M Current

For those ion channel biophysicists who are also in the signal transduction business, it can sometimes seem like a marriage of strange bedfellows. In the world of voltage gating and permeation studies the analysis is usually meticulously precise and the results often presented using dense mathematics. Gating charges are calculated to the last e Ϫ , molecular movements debated to the last Å, and...

Why Experts Make Errors

Expert latent f ingerprint examiners were presented with fingerprints taken from real criminal cases. Half of the prints had been previously judged as individualizations and the other half as exclusions. We re-presented the same prints to the same experts who had judged them previously, but provided biasing contextual information in both the individualizations and exclusions. A control set of i...

Why make people patients?

Why markets make mistakes

Many models of markets are based on assumptions of rationality, transparency, efficiency, and homogeneity in various combinations. They assume, at least implicitly, that decision makers understand the structure of the market and how it produces the dynamics which can be observed or might potentially occur. Are these models acceptable simplifications, or can they be seriously misleading? The res...