I'm at a top 5 worldwide grad school in a STEM field. I always assumed that the difficulty of the courses would be much higher here than my old less prestigious school and that everybody would be smarter. But it hasn't been the case. Actually everything here is a lot easier and things are also much less intensively marked. It's easier to do well here than my old school, and I'm noticing that the top of the class here are the type of student with loads of resume padding and not with academic ability.

In fact most of the people here are much less skilled than the people at my old university in terms of academics and yet we're all having opportunities thrown on our laps that simply didn't exist at my old university.

I now realize that prestige matters more than ability in STEM.

Hey,

How do i get better at counting. I have a huge problem woth numbers, they seem sp abstract, when the number gets bigger then 10 i have to use my fingers. I just cant imagine numbers in my head. What is my problem, apart from being stupid. is there a way to train this?

Guys please help me out. What is the charge(in Coulomb) of Argon2plus and how can one know charges of molecules?

Psychology

vs. Cognitive Science

vs. Neuroscience


Let the fight begin!!!

will human evolve in the future ?

Is writing with a grease pencil on window a rite of passage for a mathematician?

Hi /sci/,
I'm not as smart as you guys, but what do you think about CRISPR-Cas9 technology? I find it super cool, like you will be able to make your kid smarter, custom height, eye colour even predisposition to become a pro athlete, etc. They have already tested it on mice/monkeys and changed the fur colours. And even on human embryos. It's pretty fascinating if you ask me.
Also, maybe a dumb question, but if they are able to change these things it mean your kid isn't your kid anymore? I mean if you DNA test your kid it will be not as accurate as before (near 100%), I guess it will depends on how much you modify the DNA.


cool video about it
>http://www.ted.com/talks/jennifer_doudna_we_can_now_edit_our_dna_but_let_s_do_it_wisely

So I've heard from a friend that there is an equation that can solve any math problem. It was made by the Greeks. What are your thoughts on this?

Math PhD student here.

This may be a little off-topic for /sci/, but it seems like the only board that can have a good discussion about this. When I look at it honestly, I can only conclude that "consciousness" is purely a function of the brain. I would expect most of you agree with this. Recently, this has hit very hard. I've never liked the thought, but I've always sort of gone, "whatever, it'll just be like before I was born" and moved on. But I can't seem to do that anymore. I can't get out of bed, and I'm just terrified of that unending void. I'm terrified of not even knowing that I've died. It's crippling, and I can't carry on with courses and research. I have no motivation to do anything.

How do you guys cope with this? Do you simply go "the phenomena of 'consciousness' and 'oblivion' are poorly-defined and we can't really know anything about them?" How do you come to terms with this in an accurate way that doesn't resort to speculation? Even if you say that what we "feel" is purely a function of biological processes, why does that imply that I am stuck to this body and not another? How was this selected?

"A study has shown that X occurs from 3 to 75 percent." What reason would allow you to write such a thing?