![\"1406885412391\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/files\/2014\/08\/1406885412391-300x168.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThis morning I was treated with one of the best lectures of the forum – Stacy Williams speaking on “Being a Scientist in the Financial Markets”:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
After starting his education as a physicist, Williams was swept into the mammon sector and soon became respected as a mathematical modelling expert. The nice thing about his presentation is his casual, approachable demeanor which generated remarkable audience participation. I was pleased (a little boasting) to answer two of his questions to a surprisingly accurate extent.\u00a0 “How could we better represent this data?” he asked referring to a ghastly grid of numbers (matrix) representing market correlations. This reminded me of similar modelling in physics and I responded “perhaps as a 2D false color grid, say, with red areas representing high correlation and blue for low”. Apparently refreshed by my prediction of his next slide, Dr. Williams asked if I had seen this work before and laughingly offered me a job.<\/p>\n
We watched how the square color map of stock correlations evolved around the 2008 financial crash and learned how this could be used to communicate overall market stability – very interesting!<\/p>\n Our typical packed lunchies afterward were frankly despised by many of the participants who at this point were getting “fed up” with the synthetic sandwiches and KitKat overdose.<\/p>\n Since the staff suggested I reserve “O Canada” for the Traditions of Home night, I scrambled for a Plan B to perform tonight. Remembering last night’s singing, Ben suggested we try “Down by the Sally Gardens” – a beautiful old Irish tune. But before we could practice there was a lecture on the biology and mechanism of ageing by Dr. David Gems.<\/p>\n He explored an interesting new theory where ageing is seen as a disease in contrast with the traditional oxidative damage model where it is viewed as a healthy natural process. This is being studied in C. Elegans worms as guinea pigs for treatments that may one day combat age-related maladies in humans.<\/p>\n Immediately afterwards the group split into tours of the Museum of Natural History and the Science Museum. Having explored the former with the boys back on Saturday, I charted the Science Museum exhibits. First, we encountered Identified Flying Objects (IFOs) on exhibit from a variety of space programs including the Apollo Lunar Lander:<\/p>\n The link between the past and the future in a science context:<\/p>\n I was especially inspired by Faraday’s original induction coil which I’ve always admired. Also these books representing the volumes of our genome were quite humbling:<\/p>\n On a frightening note, consider the exhibit of a typical dentist’s practice in the 30s:\u00a0 <\/p>\n There is so much to cover here I won’t go any further. Suffice it to say that the Science Museum is rich and exciting collection!<\/p>\n I booked it back to the Beit residence to find Ben and throw together an act for tonight. After a few runs through, I saw something great coming together. Time was running out fast and practicing continued on the road to the Old Chelsea Hall:<\/p>\n Everyone was madly rehearsing at the hall; everything from group dances to comedies:<\/p>\n The Australians had quite the furry act:<\/p>\n I can’t mention all the groups that performed, but the Indians and the Russians were so amazing!<\/p>\n Ah yes, Ben and I also did jolly good for the amount of practice – definitely not without mistakes, but most people really enjoyed it.<\/p>\n After such a stunning evening, everyone wanted a photo with everyone else while the LIYSF staff had plans for us to disperse (snicker). \u00a0Having a glimpse into each other’s cultures really worked to strengthen our friendships and stir our curiosity about these amazing counties.<\/p>\n The fun continued in the common room where poor little me tried working on this blog… Etienne<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This morning I was treated with one of the best lectures of the forum – Stacy Williams speaking on “Being a Scientist in the Financial Markets”: After starting his education as a physicist, Williams was swept into the mammon sector and soon became respected as a mathematical modelling expert. The nice thing about his presentation … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[114],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-in-london"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/108"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1375"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1581,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1375\/revisions\/1581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"1406884998691\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/files\/2014\/08\/1406884998691.jpg\")
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