Artificial Intelligence Disappoints

Author(s): Giovanni Vannucci

Source: Science, New Series, Vol. 322, No. 5907 (Dec. 5, 2008), pp. 1463-1464
Published by: American Association for the Advancement of Science
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20176933 .
Accessed: 28/02/2014 12:00
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

American Association for the Advancement of Science is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and
extend access to Science.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 129.174.21.5 on Fri, 28 Feb 2014 12:00:34 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

MENTARY
Life science prize essay

Seeking out darkmatter

Foryounger readers

LETTERS I BOOKS

I POLICY FORUM

I EDUCATION FORUM

duce

LETTERS
edited by Jennifer Sills

Spore Show Not Gaming the Science System

I
WAS
SURPRISEDTO SEETHENEWSOF THEWEEK STORYBY]. BOHANNON ("'SPORE'Docu
mentary spawns protest by scientists who starred in it,"24 October, p. 517) about our television
documentary How toBuild a Better Being, inwhich we used the video game Spore as away to
explain the latest ideas in evolutionary biology.
Contrary to the implication inBohannon's story, any objective viewer will see a show replete
with science and scientists, excitedly explaining theirwork and ideas.We used Spore as an
entree into that scientific world as ameans of informing a young audience that typically doesn't
watch

science

programming.

Itwas

an approach

to edu

designed

cate a larger audience about this dynamic field of study, and we

are proud of the result.
As we

said

to Bohannon,

our producers

were

transparent

with

all of the scientists included in the film. Inmany cases Spore cre
atorWill Wright visited their labs to conduct interviews, and inno
case did we attempt to disguise the premise of the show once it
was developed. The reaction we have received from those who
participated in the documentary has been uniformly positive.
Making

complex

science

understandable

to a mass

audience

is a difficult challenge. In this production, we decided to take an

unconventional approach by using a vernacular familiar tomil
lions of videogame users as a tool for exploring evolutionary biology. I deeply regret that
Bohannon

chose

to interpret

this as crass

commercialism,

rather

than what

uine effort to reach viewers who don't normally tune in to science.

it really

is?a

the results

I PERSPECTIVES

in a straightforward

manner."

Indeed, the principle of full disclosure is an

essential element of the scientific method.
Given the fundamental importance of proce
dural clarity, I strongly disagree that "[t]he ap
propriate place formost of this information is
in the easily expandable Supplementary
Materials that accompany each article." This
informationmust be in themain text, not in an
online

supplement.

There are traditionally four main sections

of a scientific article: Introduction,Materials
andMethods, Results, and Discussion. Of the
24 possible permutations of these sections,
only the one listed yields a logically ordered
presentation. Some journals have opted for
placing the Materials and Methods section
after the Results and the Discussion sections.
Other journals have almost completely moved
theMaterials andMethods section from the
main
nals

text

to online

are conveying

supplements.
the message,

These
however

jour
inad

vertent, that the sine qua non of the scientific

method, theMaterials andMethods, is the least
important part of a scientific publication.
DANIEL
SHRINER
13533 Aston Manor Way, Apartment K, Silver Spring, MD
20904, USA. E-mail: dshrinerster@gmail.com

gen

FELD
MICHAEL
ROSEN

President, National Geographic Television, 1145 17th Street, NW,Washington, DC 20036, USA. E-mail: mrosenfe@ngs.org

Artificial Intelligence
Disappoints
ITISVERYINFREQUENT
THAT
THECOVER
OF

Limitingthe Impact
of the ImpactFactor

Science evokes depressing thoughts. The 12

backing of the non-commercially beholden
is one of them. Itwas
issue's cover
AAAS has theprofile to defend itself and scien
September
as a graduate
stu
35 years ago when,
tists from enslavement to the impact factor's
exactly
a
course
one-semester
in
Artificial
I
took
MISUSED IMPACT absurdly one-dimensional parameterization
K. SIMONS'SEDITORIAL
"THE
dent,
factor" ( 10October, p. 165) remindedme of the of achievement.
Intelligence. I had an excellent textbook:
B.A.GREEN
Methods inArtificial Intel
not
him
in
which
his
brother
tells
JEREMY
Problem-Solving
story
Tolstoy
to think about a white bear:When you say,
ligence by Nils Nilsson. Itwas a fascinating
Department of Developmental Cell Biology, King's College,
London, UK. E-mail: jeremy.green@kcl.ac.uk
"Don't think about it," itbecomes hard to think
subject; at the time, researchers earnestly felt
thatwonderful capabilities were just around
of anything else. Instead,AAAS and Science
the corner, if only w? had somewhat more
should take the lead by defining some declara
tive "bibliometric postulates" that specify a
computers.
powerful
I did not pursue a career in Artificial
code of conduct for the use of simplified
indices. Postulates might include "numerical
Intelligence. I regretted that for a long time,
PUBLISHINGbut looking at this issue's cover story, Iwon
INHISEDITORIAL
"SCIENTIFIC
z factors applied to journals should not be used to
0
der ifmy regrets were misplaced. After 35
standards" (5 September, p. 1271), B. Alberts
evaluate individuals"or "numerical journal fac
on
insist
never
wrote
"must
that
scientific
tors
disclaimers
should
be
without
years, is reCAPTCHA the state of the art in
journals
quoted
U:
Artificial
methods
of
all
of
the
detailed
include
falsified
that
Intelligence? What happened? If I
descriptions
papers."
they
explaining
a
so as to allow other scientists
to repro
time
machine
that allowed me to go back
had
an
with
the
like
Science
used,
organization
Only

PuttingMaterials and
Methods inTheir Place

www.sciencemag.org

SCIENCE

VOL 322

5 DECEMBER 2008

This content downloaded from 129.174.21.5 on Fri, 28 Feb 2014 12:00:34 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

1463

I LETTERS
in time to 1973 to show today's Science cover
story to the people working in Artificial
Intelligence at that time, I wouldn't do it.
Nobody would ever believe me. I find it hard
to believe itmyself that, in the 21st century,
transcription of printed text still requires
human

GIOVANNI VANNUCCI

intervention.

Milvius Research, LLC,Red Bank, N] 07701,

ChemCam's Cost a Drop

intheMars Bucket

future

launches,"

A.

Lawler,

26

September, p. 1754), ChemCam, depicted in

the

image,

contributed

less

not

The

redesigned.

some
rocks

distance
are

from

covered

one

than

two

hundredth of the overall overrun for the proj

ect. A collaboration between CNES and
NASA, ChemCam is one of the least expen
sive MSL instruments from a NASA stand
point, although its role will be significant.
The ChemCam mast unit, including the laser,

instru

even when

the

a feat

that

dust,

could not previously be accomplished. We are

proud of this innovative instrument and its

in sub-Saharan

ChemCam Principal Investigator, Los Alamos, NM, USA.

2ChemCam Deputy Principal Investigator, Toulouse, France.

countries

should be addressed.

E-mail:

southeast

Africa,

where

subsistence
are human

inates. Aflatoxins

a consequence,

use

to consider
tion. However,

in the prevention
of malnutri
we would
like to sound a cau

cell-based

peanuts

between

exposure

monitoring

for accurate

assessment

assay!
Intuitive,
versatile
software
1 runs on
Mac or
PC.

quantitatively and in real time. The ECIS Z & Z9 are

the new standard in life sciences for impedance
based quantification of cell behavior invitro.

] w! i

learn more or to demo ECIS visit

or call 1.866.301

.ECIS (3247).

i
i

BioPhysics

Sensing
.impedance

Quantifying Cell Behavior

1464

farming
predom
liver carcinogens
and

impair

of products

such

5 DECEMBER 2008

VOL 322

SCIENCE

of aflatoxin

is

not a trivial exercise given the heterogeneity of

are rapid, accurate and highly repro

ducible. ECIS monitors cell behavior in tissue culture

the

as Plumpy'nut for aflatoxins is essential. It

THE NEWS FOCUS STORYBYM. ENSERINK becomes particularly critical tomaintain qual
("The peanut butter debate," 3 October, p. 36)
ity control as the production isfranchisee!, as
a peanut
discusses
the value of Plumpy'nut,
described in the article by Enserink, to numer
ous production sites inAfrica or even adopted
containing ready-to-use food (RTUF), dis
tributed to treat severe malnutrition. This is on a small scale at the local village [for one
a
when
extended
area, particularly
complex
example, see (7)]. Representative sampling of

Measurements

www.biophysics.com

and

ment of child growth (3-5). Evidence of acute

toxicity and immunomodulation in people
and animals has also been described (6). As

25 years of experience with

ceil assays
impedance-based
put into one instrument line!

To

Asia,

(2). More recent research also demonstrated

an association

An Order of Plumpy'nut
Hold theAf latoxins

the

Redefining

laser-based

the rover,
by Mars

*Towhom correspondence
rwiens@lanl.gov

IN THE NEWS OF THEWEEK STORYABOUT

the ChemCam
instrument on the Mars
Science Laboratory (MSL) rover ("Rising
costs could delay NASA's next mission to
and

was

ment will measure the composition of rocks

tionary note, a subject of much discussion

that was absent from the article: the risk of
contamination of the peanuts (groundnuts)
with aflatoxins.
Aflatoxins are fungal metabolites ubiqui
tous inmany staple foods, including peanuts,

southern United States (7). Regulation and

to planetary
future contributions
science.
testing limit human exposure in richer coun
ANDSYLVESTRE
ROGER
C.WIENS1*
MAURICE2 tries but are ineffective inmany low-income

USA. E-mail:

gv@milvius.com

Mars

was provided by CNES at no charge to

NASA. Contrary to your caption, the laser

www.sciencemag.org

This content downloaded from 129.174.21.5 on Fri, 28 Feb 2014 12:00:34 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions