Leonard Mlodinow
Home Bio Books Pictures Teaching Links Contact Authors@Google talk on YouTube New York Times Interview New York Times Essay on the Need for Control Wall Street Journal Essay on Wine Ratings Wall Street Journal Essay on Hot Streaks and Joe DiMaggio Wall Street Journal Interview LA Times Magazine cover story on Randomness in Hollywood Newsweek cover story on Star Trek Wall Street Journal Drunkard's Walk Randomness Quiz Forbes article on The Meritocracy Paradox	TEACHING Introduction to Probability, Statistics, and Random Processes COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course will explore the theory of random processes with an emphasis on understanding its application in experimental science, engineering, and popular culture. The course will first develop the basic notions of probability such as sample spaces, probability densities and distributions, random variables, Bayes' theorem, expectation, limit theorems, and standard error, and then examine how those are applied to develop theories of statistical estimation, hypothesis testing, correlation and regression. Finally, it will touch on the basic theory of random walks, and Brownian motion. The course has no prerequisites and is open to all graduate students and undergraduates. Not offered 2011-2012 Writing about Scientific Research COURSE DESCRIPTION: This will be a hands-on course in which students learn how to write a long essay or a book explaining complex scientific research. The course will focus on learning to write clearly and compellingly, to rewrite and edit, and, especially, to find one's own writing voice. In the first part of the course, students will read, analyze, and critique published works, including some early drafts of well-known books. Together, we will study different writing styles; how chapters, articles, and books are structured; and basic narrative techniques and their execution. In the second part of the course students will select a cutting-edge scientific research topic to write about and produce a book chapter on that topic. Students' works-in-progress will be analyzed each week in class. The finished chapters will be included in a manuscript for a book one might call The Caltech Student's Guide to the Most Awesome Cutting Edge Science, 2012. Limited enrollment. Website: under construction.	Latest Book: April 24, 2012 review in The Economist Prior (solo) Book: a New York Times bestseller, editor's choice, and notable book of 2008 Amazon.com "one of the Ten Best Science Books of 2008" Shortlisted for Royal Society Science Book Award Fortune Magazine review of Drunkard's Walk ("mind-bending") Barron's review of Drunkard's Walk ("intriguing and well-written") New York Times review of Drunkard's Walk ("writes in a breezy style... a readable crash course in randomness") .