A/B tests are an important part of many businesses’ digital presence. Like randomised control trials, they test hypotheses by presenting two versions of a web page where everything is identical save for one detail. It aims to establish which features are better for business, trying to find a causal relationship between implemented features and customer retention. For example, Google conducted 40 A/B tests before settling on a link colour that drew people’s attention and made them more appealing to click on. Read full article here
Oddities
The Curious Case of the Ancient Brain
In 2008, archaeologists examining the University of York discovered something strange: the decapitated head of an Iron Age man and his very shrivelled but very much intact brain. How a centuries-old brain was preserved is still unknown, but research suggests that it could have been because of brain diseases like dementia. The Yorkshire man’s brain’s proteins were bunched up together, much like how dementia causes brain proteins to bunch up into plaques. This bunching up, or aggregation, could continue even after death, turning regions of the brain into hard masses. Read full article here
Merv
September 30, 2022
