"Beginning with a historical account of the spectral classification, its refinement through additional criteria is presented. The line strengths and ratios used in two dimensional classifications of each spectral class are described. A parallel classification scheme for metal-poor stars and the standards used for classification are presented. The extension of spectral classification beyond M to L and T and spectroscopic classification criteria relevant to these classes are described. Contemporary methods of classifications based upon different automated approaches are introduced."

"We present morphological classifications obtained using machine learning for objects in SDSS DR6 that have been classified by Galaxy Zoo into three classes, namely early types, spirals and point sources/artifacts. An artificial neural network is trained on a subset of objects classified by the human eye and we test whether the machine learning algorithm can reproduce the human classifications for the rest of the sample. We find that the success of the neural network in matching the human classifications depends crucially on the set of input parameters chosen for the machine-learning algorithm. The colours and parameters associated with profile-fitting are reasonable in separating the objects into three classes. However, these results are considerably improved when adding adaptive shape parameters as well as concentration and texture. …"

"The primary exploratory target of this research project is to find a strategy hopefully better than any other known for evolving, through genetic algorithms, cellular automata rules for global synchronization tasks. By better we mean that synchronization rules need to emerge more consistently, faster and with higher probability compared to previous studies under the same initial conditions."

"Open source, if we view it through a different lens, is really more about a distributed methodology for software development. The burden of creation is widely distributed across a massive community with more-or-less equal access to tools and systems. In this context, the role of the legal tool is more akin to an enzyme. It was an essential piece of a puzzle, but it was not the only piece. In fact, without the rest of the infrastructure (connectivity, tools, and people) the legal tool on its own would not have led us to GNU/Linux."

"How fast is this going to happen? Well, Khan is already becoming famous. Last year CNN gave him airtime to explain the financial crisis. Why him, and not an economics Ph.D. type, you ask? Because he is understandable, and because some genius at CNN figured out that at least some of their viewers were able and willing to learn a little bit in order to understand what is going on."

"Solving the current problems in science communication requires the intervention of strong companies such as Google. But it will take more than technical advances to provoke scientists into taking full advantage of the web. We need pressure, and perhaps compulsion, from journals and funders to raise publishing standards to the new level made possible by such tools. Google Wave may not be, indeed is probably not, the whole answer. But it points the way to tools that build records and reproducibility into every step. And that has to be good for science."