How to beat the Original I.Q. Tester

Randy Olson shows you how to beat the Original I.Q. Tester during a trip down memory lane.
Published on March 26, 2024 | 10 min read

The Optimal U.S. National Parks Centennial Road Trip

Randy Olson shows how to create an optimized road trip that visits the U.S. National Parks.
Published on July 30, 2016 | 4 min read

Computing optimal road trips on a limited budget

Randy Olson shows you how to compute an epic road trip across the U.S. when you're on a limited budget.
Published on June 05, 2016 | 12 min read

TPOT: A Python tool for automating data science

Randy Olson demonstrates why designing machine learning pipelines is difficult, and how it can be automated using TPOT.
Published on May 09, 2016 | 8 min read

Can the Name Age Calculator guess how old you are?

Randy Olson demonstrates how you can guess someone's age when all you know is their name.
Published on August 14, 2015 | 3 min read

144 years of marriage and divorce in 1 chart

Randy Olson charts out 144 years of marriage and divorce in the U.S. to see how the institution of marriage has evolved.
Published on June 15, 2015 | 3 min read

Computing the optimal road trip across the U.S.

Randy Olson shows you how to compute an epic road trip across the U.S.
Published on March 09, 2015 | 10 min read

Here's Waldo: Computing the optimal search strategy for finding Waldo

Randy Olson uses machine learning techniques to find the best search strategy for finding Waldo.
Published on February 03, 2015 | 7 min read

What makes for a stable marriage?

Randy Olson reviews a research paper that outlines what makes for a stable marriage in the U.S.
Published on October 11, 2014 | 5 min read

How to make beautiful data visualizations in Python with matplotlib

Randy Olson provides code examples and explanations for a handful of beautiful data visualizations.
Published on June 28, 2014 | 14 min read

A data-driven exploration of the evolution of chess: Popularity of openings over time

Randy Olson analyzes over 650,000 chess tournament games to explore how chess openings have grown and waned in popularity over time.
Published on May 26, 2014 | 7 min read

Things I can lift: How I visualize my strength training progress

Randy Olson demonstrates a humorous yet useful way to visualize strength training progress.
Published on April 15, 2021 | 2 min read

A data-driven look at marble racing

Randy Olson looks at the new marble racing phenomenon through the eyes of a data scientist. Do marbles have measurable "skill"?
Published on May 24, 2020 | 10 min read

Does batting order matter in Major League Baseball? A simulation approach

Randy Olson uses data science to learn whether batting order matters in Major League Baseball.
Published on July 04, 2018 | 13 min read

Traveling salesman portrait in Python

Randy Olson shows how you can create your own traveling salesman portrait using Python.
Published on April 12, 2018 | 3 min read

How many college football teams can you watch in-person in one football season?

Randy Olson uses machine learning to discover how many college football teams can you watch in-person in one football season, which results in a 3 1/2 month long trip around the USA.
Published on March 21, 2018 | 10 min read

How Americans make a living based on their age

Randy Olson revisits the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics employment data to look at how Americans make a living based on their age.
Published on March 06, 2018 | 2 min read

Top 10 oldest and youngest industries in the U.S.

Ever wondered what industries employ the youngest and oldest people? Wonder no more. Randy Olson analyzes the Bureau of Labor Statistics' employment data to discover the oldest and youngest industries in the U.S.
Published on March 05, 2018 | 1 min read

Machine Learning Madden NFL: The best player position switches for Madden 17

Randy Olson uses machine learning to figure out the best player position switches in Madden 17.
Published on January 21, 2017 | 3 min read

Machine Learning Madden NFL: How Madden player ratings are actually calculated

Randy Olson uses machine learning to learn how Madden calculates a player's overall rating.
Published on January 10, 2017 | 8 min read

Republican-leaning states tend to have more traffic deaths

Randy Olson explores an odd statistic about Republican-leaning states.
Published on September 04, 2016 | 1 min read

Python 2.7 still reigns supreme in pip installs

Randy Olson analyzes trends in Python package installs to observe how the transition from Python 2 to 3 is progressing
Published on September 04, 2016 | 4 min read

Evolution of active categorical image classification via saccadic eye movement

Randy Olson presents demo videos showing a new approach to image classification, where the machine scans and classifies the image the same way humans would.
Published on August 13, 2016 | 1 min read

How long does the average man last in bed?

Randy Olson turns to the data to shed light on how long men last in bed.
Published on May 31, 2016 | 2 min read

Why is Reddit replacing Imgur?

Randy Olson looks into the data to find out why Reddit is trying to replace Imgur.
Published on May 25, 2016 | 1 min read

Why did so many Japanese families avoid having children in 1966?

Randy Olson delves into supervision and astrology to explain why so many Japanese families avoid having children in 1966.
Published on May 08, 2016 | 2 min read

Spurious Extrapolations: Novel and unique research abstracts

Randy Olson explores what would happen if the trend of using "novel" and "unique" in research abstracts continues upwards.
Published on April 04, 2016 | 2 min read

Spurious Extrapolations: What if U.S. college tuition costs keep rising?

Randy Olson embarks on a nonsensical journey exploring what would happen if U.S. college tuition costs keep rising at the rate they have been.
Published on March 26, 2016 | 4 min read

The correct way to use pie charts

Randy Olson defends the infamous pie chart and explains the correct way to use them.
Published on March 24, 2016 | 6 min read

Why posts get removed from /r/DataIsBeautiful

Randy Olson delves into the data to show why posts get removed by the moderators of /r/DataIsBeautiful.
Published on March 18, 2016 | 3 min read

What data visualization tools do /r/DataIsBeautiful OC creators use?

Randy Olson delves into Reddit comment data to find out what data visualization tools /r/DataIsBeautiful OC creators use.
Published on March 11, 2016 | 4 min read

Major League Baseball home run leaders, 1871-2016

Randy Olson highlights one example where animated data visualization outperforms static visualizations.
Published on March 11, 2016 | 3 min read

Revisiting the vaccine visualizations

Randy Olson revisits the popularized vaccine visualizations published by WSJ and provide a fresh look on the data.
Published on March 05, 2016 | 8 min read

Analyzing MMA: The Ultimate Fighting Championship

Randy Olson analyzes MMA fighters and fights in UFC, the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
Published on February 25, 2016 | 4 min read

Introducing TPOT, the Data Science Assistant

Randy Olson introduces TPOT, an Automated Machine Learning tool intended to be your Data Science Assistant.
Published on November 16, 2015 | 5 min read

Visualizing Indego bike share usage patterns in Philadelphia (Part 2)

Randy Olson revisits the Indego bike share station usage data to find better ways to visualize the daily usage patterns.
Published on September 05, 2015 | 2 min read

Small multiples vs. animated GIFs for showing changes in fertility rates over time

Randy Olson demonstrates how small multiples can be used to communicate data more effectively than animated GIFs.
Published on August 23, 2015 | 5 min read

U.S. college majors: Median yearly earnings vs. gender ratio

Randy Olson explores a curious correlation showing that female-dominated college majors earn less than male-dominated majors.
Published on August 17, 2015 | 6 min read

Analyzing the health of Philadelphia's bike share system

Randy Olson analyzes Philadelphia's bike share system to explore how often the bike stations are available for use.
Published on August 16, 2015 | 4 min read

The New York Times weather chart redux

Randy Olson shows how to recreate the famous New York Times weather charts in Python.
Published on August 14, 2015 | 3 min read

Use the Baby Name Explorer to find out when your name was popular

Randy Olson demonstrates a web app for exploring trends in American baby names.
Published on August 14, 2015 | 1 min read

Visualizing Indego bike share usage patterns in Philadelphia

Randy Olson visualizes the Indego bike share usage patterns in Philadelphia to see how the locals are making use of the bike share program.
Published on July 19, 2015 | 6 min read

Rethinking the population pyramid

Randy Olson critiques the popular population pyramid that the U.S. census likes to use so frequently to display population statistics.
Published on July 15, 2015 | 6 min read

Artificial Intelligence has crushed all human records in 2048. Here's how the AI pulled it off.

Randy Olson analyzes the AI that beat all of the human records in the video game "2048" to find out how it works.
Published on April 28, 2015 | 7 min read

Optimized walking tours of New York City and Philadelphia

Randy Olson shows how machine learning can be used to optimize walking tours in New York City and Philadelphia.
Published on March 25, 2015 | 6 min read

Pure Michigan road trip, optimized

Randy Olson computes the optimal road trip to experience Pure Michigan.
Published on March 19, 2015 | 2 min read

Computing the optimal road trip across South America

Randy Olson shows you how to compute an epic road trip across South America.
Published on March 14, 2015 | 2 min read

Computing the optimal road trip across Europe

Randy Olson shows you how to compute an epic road trip across Europe.
Published on March 11, 2015 | 2 min read

Top 25 richest living comedians

Randy Olson charts the top 25 richest living comedians to see how they made their riches doing comedy.
Published on March 05, 2015 | 2 min read

Revisiting the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

Randy Olson revisits the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon to see if Kevin is really the Center of the Hollywood Universe.
Published on March 05, 2015 | 4 min read

Design critique: Putting Big Pharma spending in perspective

Randy Olson critiques a recently popular infographic on the odd spending habits of Big Pharma companies.
Published on March 02, 2015 | 6 min read

Python usage survey 2014

Randy Olson explores why Python users aren't upgrading to Python 3.
Published on January 31, 2015 | 6 min read

The Shrinking Battleground: Every 4 years, fewer states determine the outcome of the Presidential election

Randy Olson delves into voting data to find the states that determine the outcome of the Presidential election.
Published on January 13, 2015 | 4 min read

A data-driven guide to creating successful reddit posts, redux

Randy Olson revisits an old analysis to find out what makes for a successful reddit post.
Published on January 12, 2015 | 6 min read

Over half of all reddit posts go completely ignored

Randy Olson delves into the data to find that over half of all reddit posts go completely ignored.
Published on January 11, 2015 | 5 min read

The biggest box office booms and busts since 1982

Randy Olson charts out the films that have made and lost producers the most money over the past three decades.
Published on December 30, 2014 | 4 min read

Does a bigger film production budget result in more ticket sales?

Randy Olson explores whether a bigger film production budget results in more ticket sales.
Published on December 30, 2014 | 2 min read

Top 10 grossing film studios in the U.S. (1982-2014)

Randy Olson charts the top grossing films studios in the U.S.
Published on December 30, 2014 | 1 min read

Top 25 most gender-neutral names in the U.S.

Randy Olson charts the top 25 most gender-neutral names in the U.S.
Published on December 06, 2014 | 1 min read

What caused the upsurge of unique American baby names in the 1970s?

Randy Olson explores the role of the Black Power movement in how American babies were named in the 1970s.
Published on December 06, 2014 | 3 min read

The most-viewed YouTube videos

Randy Olson charts out the most-viewed YouTube videos and highlights Gangnam Style's unprecedented rise to over 2 billion views.
Published on December 04, 2014 | 2 min read

Is reddit experiencing "upvote inflation"?

Randy Olson delves into 6 years of reddit posting data to discern whether reddit is experiencing "upvote inflation."
Published on November 27, 2014 | 4 min read

MMORPG Popularity, 1998-2013

Randy Olson charts the popular MMORPGs from 1998 through 2013.
Published on November 12, 2014 | 4 min read

Do women on OkCupid follow the Standard Creepiness Rule?

Randy Olson checks if women on OkCupid follow the Standard Creepiness Rule when it comes to dating.
Published on November 09, 2014 | 2 min read

What makes for a stable marriage? Part 2

Randy Olson reviews more of a research paper that outlines what makes for a stable marriage in the U.S.
Published on November 07, 2014 | 4 min read

Where Democrats and Republicans want their tax dollars spent

Randy Olson charts out where Democrats and Republicans want to see their tax dollars spent according to a nationally representative poll.
Published on November 06, 2014 | 2 min read

The evolution of chess openings and why GIFs make for bad data visualizations

Randy Olson revisits the "evolution of chess openings" visualization to illustrate why videos and GIFs make poor visualization tools.
Published on November 03, 2014 | 2 min read

The reigns and deaths of the Roman Emperors

Randy Olson visualizes the reigns and deaths of the Roman Emperors over a 400 year period.
Published on October 29, 2014 | 2 min read

The age divide in where Americans want their tax dollars spent

Randy Olson visualizes the age divide in where Americans want to see their tax dollars spent.
Published on October 28, 2014 | 2 min read

The reddit world map

Randy Olson presents the interactive reddit world map.
Published on October 27, 2014 | 3 min read

The ebb and flow of movies redux

Randy Olson attempts to revive and update the popular "ebb and flow of movie ticket sales" graphic.
Published on October 27, 2014 | 3 min read

Is 2014 the most unpredictable year of college football?

Randy Olson charts the Top 25 AP Poll college football rankings to provide a historical perspective on how the top teams have fared.
Published on October 22, 2014 | 2 min read

Who's responsible for gas prices at the pump?

Randy Olson digs into the data to find out who's responsible for gas prices at the pump.
Published on October 17, 2014 | 2 min read

The most upvoted post on reddit every day

Randy Olson analyzes over half a decade of reddit posting data to discover the most upvoted posts on reddit.
Published on September 28, 2014 | 4 min read

Do men on OkCupid follow the Standard Creepiness Rule?

Randy Olson checks if men on OkCupid follow the Standard Creepiness Rule when it comes to dating.
Published on September 16, 2014 | 1 min read

Who are the climate change deniers?

Randy Olson analyzes the latest American opinion poll results to answer the question, "Who are the climate change deniers?""
Published on September 14, 2014 | 4 min read

Clash of Clans Troop Efficiency

Randy Olson analyzes all of the troops in Clash of Clans and discovers which ones give you the biggest bang for your buck.
Published on September 09, 2014 | 4 min read

Where the U.S. gets its oil from

Randy Olson dispels some common misconceptions about where the U.S. gets its oil from.
Published on August 28, 2014 | 2 min read

The myth of the smarter Atheist

Randy Olson explains why we should put the myth of the smarter Atheist to rest.
Published on August 25, 2014 | 3 min read

The best and worst times to have your case reviewed by a judge

Randy Olson discusses the best and worst times to have your case reviewed by a judge, based on research data.
Published on August 24, 2014 | 2 min read

Average IQ of students by college major and gender ratio

Randy Olson charts out the IQ of students by their major's gender ratio and reveals a startling trend.
Published on June 26, 2014 | 4 min read

Why the Dutch are so tall

Randy Olson charts out the median male height in various countries from 1820-2013 and explains why the Dutch are so tall.
Published on June 23, 2014 | 3 min read

We can only forecast the weather a few days into the future

Randy Olson shows why we can only forecast the weather a few days into the future
Published on June 22, 2014 | 2 min read

Accuracy of three major weather forecasting services

Randy Olson charts out the accuracy of three major weather forecasting services.
Published on June 21, 2014 | 3 min read

Dolla dolla bill y'all: Relative volume and value of U.S. currency in circulation by bill denomination

Randy Olson visualizes the relative volume and value of U.S. currency in circulation from 1993 to 2013.
Published on June 20, 2014 | 2 min read

Percentage of Bachelor's degrees conferred to women, by major (1970-2012)

Randy Olson charts out the percentage of Bachelor's degrees conferred to women (by major) and makes some startling findings.
Published on June 15, 2014 | 3 min read

Football referees are unfair when awarding penalty kicks

Randy Olson explains why football referees are unfair when awarding penalty kicks.
Published on June 14, 2014 | 3 min read

College degrees awarded per capita in the U.S.A.

Randy Olson visualizes how many degrees have been awarded in the U.S.A. between 1987 and 2010.
Published on June 12, 2014 | 3 min read

The key to Magnus Carlsen's success as a chess grandmaster

Randy Olson explains the key to Magnus Carlsen's success as a chess grandmaster.
Published on June 07, 2014 | 2 min read

Fastest growing and declining surnames in the U.S.

Randy Olson charts the fastest growing and declining surnames in the U.S. according to the U.S. Census.
Published on May 31, 2014 | 1 min read

Celebrating 2 years of research blogging by analyzing my blog

Randy Olson celebrates his blogiversary by analyzing 2 years of web traffic to the blog.
Published on May 28, 2014 | 6 min read

A data-driven exploration of the evolution of chess: Moves, captures, and checkmates

Randy Olson analyzes over 650,000 chess tournament games to explore how common chess moves have changed over time.
Published on May 27, 2014 | 6 min read

A data-driven exploration of the evolution of chess: Game lengths and outcomes

Randy Olson analyzes over 650,000 chess tournament games to explore how chess has evolved over time.
Published on May 24, 2014 | 5 min read

Chess tournament games and Elo ratings

Randy Olson analyzes over 675,000 chess games to explore the role of Elo ratings.
Published on May 24, 2014 | 6 min read

Programming Language Breakdown for the HealthCare.gov Website

Randy Olson breaks down the code base under the HealthCare.gov website.
Published on May 22, 2014 | 1 min read

Skyrocketing student enrollment is partly to blame for rising college costs

Randy Olson explains why skyrocketing student enrollment is partly to blame for rising college costs.
Published on May 21, 2014 | 3 min read

Virality trends in reddit's default subreddits

Randy Olson outlines how the new reddit default configuration has affected the subreddits involved.
Published on May 16, 2014 | 2 min read

Rising and falling subreddits according to virality trends

Randy Olson lists several subreddits that are rising and falling in popularity according to virality trends.
Published on May 16, 2014 | 2 min read

Virality trends in niche subreddits

Randy Olson maps out virality trends in niche TV show and video game subreddits on reddit.
Published on May 16, 2014 | 1 min read

Popular subreddits have predictable cycles of virality

Randy Olson maps out the cycles of virality on reddit's front page.
Published on May 16, 2014 | 4 min read

U.S. Racial Diversity by County

Randy Olson maps out racial diversity in the U.S.
Published on April 29, 2014 | 2 min read

If every U.S. state had a surname for bastards, like Game of Thrones, what would each state's name be?

Randy Olson maps out the Game of Thrones-like bastard surnames of the USA.
Published on April 27, 2014 | 0 min read

Visualizing evolution in action: Dynamic fitness landscapes

Randy Olson and Bjørn Østman use fitness landscapes to demonstrate the effect of dynamically changing environments on evolving populations.
Published on April 18, 2014 | 1 min read

Visualizing evolution in action: Density-dependence and sympatric speciation

Randy Olson and Bjørn Østman demonstrate how sympatric speciation can occur via density dependence using fitness landscapes.
Published on April 18, 2014 | 1 min read

Visualizing evolution in action: Survival of the flattest

Randy Olson and Bjørn Østman demonstrate the concept of "survival of the flattest" using fitness landscapes.
Published on April 18, 2014 | 1 min read

It’s impossible to work your way through college nowadays, revisited with national data

Randy Olson explains why it's nearly impossible to work your way through college nowadays.
Published on March 30, 2014 | 2 min read

It's impossible to work your way through college nowadays

Randy Olson explains why it's impossible to work your way through college nowadays.
Published on March 22, 2014 | 3 min read

The window of virality on Reddit

Randy Olson visualizes when posts go viral and when they fade into obscurity on Reddit.
Published on March 22, 2014 | 2 min read

The cost of war in Iraq and Afghanistan

Randy Olson visualizes US soldier fatalities from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Published on March 11, 2014 | 2 min read

Harnessing Hashtagify.me and social network analysis to maximize your brand's reach on Twitter

Randy Olson explains how to use Hashtagify.me and social network analysis for Twitter.
Published on March 06, 2014 | 10 min read

A Song of Ice and Fire by the numbers: Chapter titles

Randy Olson takes a bird's eye view at the "A Song of Ice and Fire" book series by looking at the chapter titles.
Published on February 13, 2014 | 4 min read

Movies aren't actually much longer than they used to be

Randy Olson takes a look at IMDB data to see if movies are actually longer than they used to be.
Published on January 26, 2014 | 5 min read

A tech-focused guide to increasing your influence on Twitter

Randy Olson explains how you can use technology to increase your influence on Twitter without spending a dime.
Published on January 24, 2014 | 8 min read

More lies and bad analyses by Shareaholic are misleading the public

Randy Olson debunks Shareaholic's claim that Reddit referral traffic is declining.
Published on January 14, 2014 | 5 min read

A look at sex, drugs, violence, and cursing in film over time through MPAA ratings

Randy Olson explores sex, drugs, violence, and cursing in films over time by looking at MPAA film ratings.
Published on January 12, 2014 | 5 min read

3 easy steps to avoid deceitful data visualizations

Randy Olson explains how you can save yourself from getting duped by bad infographics.
Published on January 07, 2014 | 5 min read

Top 25 most murderous directors of all time

Randy Olson visualizes and discusses the top 25 deadliest actors of all time.
Published on January 05, 2014 | 1 min read

Has violence been vanquished? Not in the film industry

Randy Olson discusses violence in the film industry and its implications for modern society.
Published on January 04, 2014 | 4 min read

Top 25 most violence packed films of all time

Randy Olson visualizes and discusses the top 25 most violence packed films of all time.
Published on January 01, 2014 | 1 min read

Violence has been on the rise in the film industry

Is the film industry becoming more violent over time? Randy Olson explores this question by looking at the data.
Published on January 01, 2014 | 2 min read

Top 25 deadliest actors of all time by on-screen kills in movies

Randy Olson visualizes and discusses the top 25 deadliest actors of all time.
Published on January 01, 2014 | 1 min read

Top 25 deadliest films of all time by on-screen death counts

Randy Olson visualizes and discusses the top 25 deadliest films of all time.
Published on January 01, 2014 | 2 min read

Political polarization of the U.S. Senate: Is the data fooling us?

Randy Olson suggests that the data visualizations showing the sudden "polarization of the U.S. Senate" may be telling us a lie.
Published on December 21, 2013 | 4 min read

Sharing your passion for science with the world through reddit: Interview with Unidan

Randy Olson interviews "reddit celebrity" Unidan about his experience teaching science to the public on reddit.
Published on November 15, 2013 | 7 min read

The curious case of the closed access data set in the open access journal

Randy Olson ponders how studies using proprietary data should be handled when published in open access journals.
Published on November 14, 2013 | 4 min read

Answering people's pressing science questions on reddit: Interview with Tobias Landberg

Randy Olson interviews /r/AskScience moderator Tobias Landberg about his experience teaching the public about science on reddit.
Published on November 12, 2013 | 9 min read

Discussing evolution on reddit: Interview with Bjørn Østman

Randy Olson interviews evolutionary computational biologist Bjørn Østman about his experience giving a reddit IAmA.
Published on November 12, 2013 | 4 min read

Which social media platform offers the biggest bang for the buck for science outreach to the public?

Randy Olson outlines why he thinks reddit IAmAs are one of the better choices for science outreach on social media.
Published on November 04, 2013 | 3 min read

Sagemath Cloud makes collaborating with IPython Notebooks easier than ever

Randy Olson provides a brief overview of the Sagemath Cloud web service, focusing on the IPython Notebook live collaboration features.
Published on November 02, 2013 | 4 min read

Evolving ecosystems can change more than previously thought

Randy Olson discusses a recently published paper that suggests that evolution plays a large role in shaping ecosystems than previously assumed.
Published on July 31, 2013 | 5 min read

Evolution isn't over until you click stop

Randy Olson discusses why it is important to make longer runs in Evolutionary Computation and Digital Evolution research.
Published on July 21, 2013 | 6 min read

A short guide to using statistics in Evolutionary Computation

Randy Olson discusses how and why Evolutionary Computation researchers should incorporate statistics into their research.
Published on July 20, 2013 | 10 min read

Evolved artificial intelligence can play video games better than humans

Have you ever wondered if an AI could outplay you at Space Invaders? Randy Olson talks about an evolved AI that actually can.
Published on June 10, 2013 | 2 min read

Bigger groups make better decisions

Randy Olson reviews a research paper that shows us how bigger groups can make more accurate decisions.
Published on May 18, 2013 | 6 min read

How and why do animals evolve grouping behavior?

Randy Olson discusses the latest research trying to understand how and why animals evolved grouping behavior.
Published on April 24, 2013 | 10 min read

Is the Open Science movement prone to call-outs, and is that a good thing?

Randy Olson ponders if the Open Science movement is prone to call-outs, and whether that can be damaging to scientist's careers.
Published on March 30, 2013 | 4 min read

Could the reddit model replace the current scientific publication system?

Randy Olson discusses how we could replace the current scientific publishing model with a model similar to reddit.
Published on March 24, 2013 | 6 min read

A data-driven guide to creating successful Reddit posts

Randy Olson provides a data-driven guide to making your Reddit posts visible to the broadest audience possible.
Published on March 15, 2013 | 14 min read

Retracing the evolution of Reddit through post data

Randy Olson explores how the Reddit community has changed over time since its inception in 2005 by analyzing posts that were submitted to the various subreddits.
Published on March 12, 2013 | 19 min read

Why I love open source, and wish science worked this way

Randy Olson discusses open source and how its philosophies could benefit the scientific process.
Published on March 02, 2013 | 0 min read

Fun with the Python Reddit API Wrapper and word clouds

Randy Olson demonstrates a new Python library that scrapes word frequencies from Reddit and make word clouds with them.
Published on March 02, 2013 | 1 min read

How do you maximize the Tweetability of your presentations?

Given the rising popularity of Twitter reporting at conferences, how do we make our presentations more accessible to Twitter?
Published on February 17, 2013 | 2 min read

IPython Notebook workshop report: still plagued by installation issues

A brief report from a workshop run to teach scientists how to use IPython Notebook for scientific computing.
Published on January 25, 2013 | 2 min read

Filling in Python's gaps in statistics packages with Rmagic

Randy Olson shows how to use IPython's Rmagic package to seamlessly integrate R code with the IPython interface.
Published on January 15, 2013 | 5 min read

Neuroevolution: an alternative route to Artificial Intelligence

Randy Olson discusses neuroevolution as an alternative route to Artificial Intelligence.
Published on August 13, 2012 | 4 min read

Insight from "Don't be such a scientist"

Randy Olson discusses his insight from the other Prof. Randy Olson's book, "Don't be such a scientist."
Published on August 11, 2012 | 2 min read

Statistical analysis made easy in Python with SciPy and pandas DataFrames

Randy Olson demonstrates how to use SciPy and pandas DataFrames to perform commonly-used statistical analyses and tests in Python.
Published on August 07, 2012 | 11 min read

David Eagleman: are we taking the right approach to Artificial Intelligence?

Randy Olson ponders David Eagleman's suggestion that we are taking the wrong approach to Artificial Intelligence.
Published on June 28, 2012 | 4 min read

Using pandas DataFrames to process data from multiple replicate runs in Python

Randy Olson demonstrates how to use pandas DataFrames to process data from multiple replicate runs in Python.
Published on June 26, 2012 | 5 min read

A short demo on how to use IPython Notebook as a research notebook

Randy Olson provides a short demo on how to use IPython Notebook as a research notebook.
Published on May 13, 2012 | 4 min read

IPython Notebook: Finally, the research notebook I've always been looking for is here!

Randy Olson discusses the new digital research notebook provided in the IPython library.
Published on May 11, 2012 | 1 min read