Subject Zero
Subject Zero is the lab mascot; he joined the lab January 10th, 2013. The name Subject Zero comes from the fact that a particular experiment in the lab took a long time to publish; thus, subjects must have been recruited when dinosaurs roamed the earth. Even though his brethren fell to (ClimateChange / Volcanoes / Asteroids / Hemorrhoids / Disease / MammalianCompetition / ContinentalDrift / PlungingStockMarkets / ConservativeControlledSenate / Hipsters), Subject Zero still survives. We believe he may have cryogenically frozen himself, scheduling his thaw date to be the year 2013 in order to bring joy to a research laboratory in Chicago. His body, alas, has not been located. (Though if it ever is, we will have to hang it on the wall in the other room directly opposite his head…)
Subject Zero hangs out in room 1479, keeping an eye on everyone in the lab and making sure we all stay productive. This year, we’re hoping Subject Zero will be able to attend some conferences. He might even get to meet famous neuroscientists!
Subject Zeros’s office
Subject Zero just move to his new office at Ability lab. He takes control all the grant applications and feeding all post-doc in the Kording lab with vegetarian meat, poultry and fish.
Subject Zero’s Status
Subject Zero went to Cosyne with Daniel, Pavan, and Hugo, but they didn’t let him out of the hotel room. So he can say he’s been in Utah, but he’s never actually seen it. Of course, they could have just been playing a cruel practical joke on him…
Subject Zero’s Interests
Subject Zero is really interested in center-out reaching because he can’t do it himself.
Subject Zero’s hero is T-Rex from the constrained comic Qwantz. He (and Hugo) particularly enjoy adding words to the end of other’s sentences.
Sometimes during late evenings in the office, he, Max, and Hugo commiserate together, as all three of them have had friends who died 65 million years ago.
Subject Zero enjoys memes. Sometimes he prints them out and puts them on the back of Max’s chair. The girl who others know as Philosoraptor was his high school girlfriend, Tina.
Subject Zero likes jokes. He has a few:
- A joke for Bayesian statisticians: “A Bayesian is one, who, vaguely expecting a horse and catching a glimpse of a donkey, strongly believes he has seen a mule.”
- A joke for frequentists: “A Bayesian sees a flock of sheep and says, ‘Look! All of the sheep have been shorn!’ The frequentist replies: ‘Well, on the sides facing us!’ “
- A joke for experimentalists: “How do you keep a silly person in suspense? … I’ll tell you tomorrow.”
Subject Zero’s Accomplishments
- Subject Zero invented the term “Hugonizing” after watching Hugo spend a long time making very small changes to his figures that didn’t produce any noticeable improvements. This term can be applied to endlessly critiquing any process that makes it more accurate, but not appreciably better.
- Subject Zero has never once done the dishes in the lab.
- Konrad got a banner for the lab and put it up above our door. One night, Subject Zero added names of old mathematicians, mischievously mixing in the name of one lab member.
- Subject Zero had a character in Mortal Kombat named after him.
- Subject Zero has inspired many Kording Lab members.
Subject Zero’s with Neuroscientists
Subject Zero traveled to University of Minnesota to give a lecture in Computational Neuroscience. He took pictures with many famous neuroscientists including: Prof. Reza Shadmehr (John Hopkins), Prof. Gelsy Torres-Oviedo (U Pitts), Prof. Gunnar Blohm (Queen’s), Prof. Paul Schrater (U Minnesota), Prof. Adrian Haith (John Hopkins) and Prof. Alaa A. Ahmed (U of Colorado Boulder).