Rafe Sagarin

Rafe Sagarin was an assistant research scientist, marine ecologist, and environmental policy analyst, Institute of the Environment, University of Arizona.

The Premium Rush of Field Ecology

By Rafe Sagarin / On September 4th, 2012

I don’t often endorse late-summer-multiplex-popcorn-with-butter-like-topping fare, but Premium Rush is, for what it is, phenomenal. It’s true, if you watch the trailer, you’ve basically got the whole thing in microcosm, but trust me, it is much better on the big screen. It’s basically a 91 minute movie, of which about 85 minutes are mad chase scenes of our bike messenger hero Wilee (pronounced “wiley,” like the coyote, and

The Natural Side of Big Data

By Rafe Sagarin / On August 21st, 2012

“Big Data” is getting big coverage. For example, this recent column in the New York Times that captures the emergence of Big Data as a cultural meme. Usually, people take a primarily a technophilic view of Big Data. The Times article, for example, describes Big Data as, “applying the tools of artificial intelligence, like machine learning, to vast new troves of data beyond that captured in standard databases.

Correlation, Causation, and the Bravery of Young Observational Scientists

By Rafe Sagarin / On July 26th, 2012

Andy Revkin, who writes the dot Earth blog for the New York Times posted an article on Facebook which describes an apparent link between natural gas “fracking” and low birth weights.