Books
Books that I have written.
Media Appearances
Podcasts and Videos in which I have appeared or which I have created.
pyndamics3
Dynamical systems simulation in Python. Includes both continuous and stochastic simulation.
Stats for Everyone
An introductory stats book from a Bayesian perspective, including Python software.
I am a Scientist, Skeptic, and Professor at Bryant University. My goal is to make technical subject matters widely accessible and to use my analytical and computational skills to assist anyone with their science-related problems.
Blog
Chemical Reaction Dynamics Reproducing a Computational Paper
As an exercise, I like to reproduce computational papers, but with my own tools. This let's me know that I understand completely what is being written and in many cases …
#science
Simulating Stochastic Processes Gillespie Algorithm
In this post we are going to explore the simulation of stochastic (i.e. random) processes, and work our way to understanding how the Gillespie algorithm works. We'll be using …
#science
Science as a metal detector
In my post about "naturalism of the gaps" I stated that in evaluating claims,
- Methodological naturalism is the only choice we have available, because no one has demonstrated any procedure …
#religion
Bad Apologetics Ep 18 - Bayes Machine goes BRRRRRRRRR
In this YouTube episode, Bad Apologetics Ep 18 - Bayes Machine goes BRRRRRRRRR I join Nathan Ormond, Kamil Gregor, and James Fodor to discuss Timothy and Lydia McGrew's article in The …
#media
Stats 101 Examples with MCMC Part 4 Estimating a central value with a Cauchy Distribution
This is another in the series of "Statistics 101" examples solved with MCMC. Others in the series:
#math
Convert mp3 files to audiobook for Apple Books ...youtube playlists, cds, and more...
The Mac/iPhone Books app has some issues. Before switching the content out of iTunes into a separate app, audiobooks were housed in the same app as music. You could …
#programming
Stats 101 Examples with MCMC Part 3 Estimating a proportion
This is another in the series of "Statistics 101" examples solved with MCMC. Others in the series:
In all of …
#math
Stats 101 Examples with MCMC Part 2 Estimating mean with unknown 𝜎
This is another in the series of "Statistics 101" examples solved with MCMC. The previous in the series can be found here. In all of these posts I'm going to …
#math
Stats 101 Examples with MCMC Estimating mean with known 𝜎
I'd like to walk through some of the "Statistics 101" examples (e.g. estimating <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><semantics><mrow><mi>μ</mi></mrow><annotation …
#math
Gravitational Attraction
What would happen if two people out in space a few meters apart, abandoned by their spacecraft, decided to wait until gravity pulled them together? My initial thought was that …
#science
Fitting parameters in dynamics systems using lmfit with pyndamics
A while ago I wrote this little package called pyndamics which was a thin wrapper around the scipy odeint function. Since then I migrated it using nbdev to experiment with …
#programming
Bayes vs Apologetics
In this episode, David (the Graceful Atheist and I explore how Bayes theorem can structure our thinking. We bounce ideas off each other, talk about injecting information into arguments, and …
#media
A Simple Physics Problem Gets Messy
A physics problem from a practice AP test came to my attention, when my daughter was in AP physics this past spring. I went over her solutions when she did …
#science
Skepticism and Dubious Medical Procedures
In my discussion with Jonathan McLatchie on the Still Unbelievable podcast, I said that there hasn’t been a verified miracle claim even since Hume’s essay on miracles. Here I look into the papers he references in response.
#religion
Something Satisfying About Building Pelican Themes
Pelican is a Python package for developing static websites. I started out my blog with Wordpress and then toyed with Wix and Weebly. But I found I didn't like the …
#programming
Talking Bayes
In this episode, Andrew and Matthew invite me back to talk about Bayes, what it is and how to apply it. We explore the structure of Bayes, when it can …
#media
Jonathan and Brian in conversation
Matthew hosts a conversation between myself and Jonathan McLatchie to further the conversation on why Jonathan is confident that the resurrection of Jesus can be accepted as an historical event …
#media
Advocating for Bayesian Inference
In this episode I discuss my approach to teaching statistical inference including taking the Bayesian approach first instead of delegating it to an advanced or elective topic. We talk about …
#media
Common Python Pattern - Building Up Lists To Plot
I find that a common pattern I implement again and again in Python is to build up a list (or multiple lists) in a loop and turn them into arrays …
#programming
What is Panpsychism?
In this episode, Andrew and Matthew invite myself and Prof. Philip Goff to discuss Panpsychism. What is it, why should we take it seriously and can we test it? I …
#media
Becoming Superman - a review
I find it hard to overestimate the positive effect J. Michael Straczynski (or jms) has had on me. My first introduction to him was in the TV series Babylon 5 …
#articles