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Trance opera—Spente le Stellebe dramaticmore quotes
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art + design
The 2015 π Day art takes a Mondrain perspective on π. The art was used in a collaboration with Max Cooper for his track Transcendental Tree Map from the album Yearning for the Infinite. Animation by Nick Cobby and myself. Watch the full show at the Barbican Centre.
My SnellenMK font adds lowercase and punctuation to the traditional Snellen design.

Visions of Type

1 · The Intertypes — Spaces Between Letters

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Intertypes: the spaces betwen letters by Martin Krzywinski
INTERTYPES — THE SPACES BETWEEN | Explore the space-glue that holds letters together. (buy artwork / see all my art)

Letters give a type weight. Intertypes give a type cohesion. The “intertypes” (my own term) are the spaces between letters. This poster shows all 26 ×26 = 686 intertypes for Helvetica Neue.

Martin Krzywinski @MKrzywinski mkweb.bcgsc.ca buy artwork
The intertypes of Helvetica Neue. (BUY ARTWORK)

2 · Type Peep Show — Private Curves of Letters

Sometimes to understand the whole, we need to look more closely at its parts. See a little — imagine a lot.

buy artwork Type peep show: Helvetica by Martin Krzywinski
TYPE PEEP SHOW | Typographical intrigue — see a little, imagine a lot. (buy artwork / see all my art)

I include Emigre's Platelet because it's such a goofy and fun font. One look at the lower case b and you know this isn't a type face that wears a tie.

Look more than once. These are great as a set.

buy artwork Type peep show: Franklin Gothic by Martin Krzywinski Type peep show: Dax by Martin Krzywinski Type peep show: Helvetica by Martin Krzywinski
TYPE PEEP SHOW | Typographical intrigue — see a little, imagine a lot. Great as a set — shown here are Franklin Gothic, Dax and Helvetica. (buy “Type peep show: Franklin Gothic” / buy “Type peep show: Dax” / buy “Type peep show: Helvetica” / see all my art)
Martin Krzywinski @MKrzywinski mkweb.bcgsc.ca buy artwork
Bodoni type peep show. (BUY ARTWORK)
Martin Krzywinski @MKrzywinski mkweb.bcgsc.ca buy artwork
Century type peep show. (BUY ARTWORK)
Martin Krzywinski @MKrzywinski mkweb.bcgsc.ca buy artwork
Dax type peep show. (BUY ARTWORK)

Martin Krzywinski @MKrzywinski mkweb.bcgsc.ca buy artwork
Franklin Gothic type peep show. (BUY ARTWORK)
Martin Krzywinski @MKrzywinski mkweb.bcgsc.ca buy artwork
Futura type peep show. (BUY ARTWORK)
Martin Krzywinski @MKrzywinski mkweb.bcgsc.ca buy artwork
Gill Sans type peep show. (BUY ARTWORK)

Martin Krzywinski @MKrzywinski mkweb.bcgsc.ca buy artwork
Helvetica type peep show. (BUY ARTWORK)
Martin Krzywinski @MKrzywinski mkweb.bcgsc.ca buy artwork
Minion type peep show. (BUY ARTWORK)
Martin Krzywinski @MKrzywinski mkweb.bcgsc.ca buy artwork
Platelet type peep show. (BUY ARTWORK)

3 · Type Peep Show — Remix

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Type peep show: Remix by Martin Krzywinski
TYPE PEEP SHOW | Typographical intrigue — see a little, imagine a lot. (buy artwork / see all my art)
Martin Krzywinski @MKrzywinski mkweb.bcgsc.ca buy artwork
Type peep show of nine faces. (BUY ARTWORK)
Martin Krzywinski @MKrzywinski mkweb.bcgsc.ca buy artwork
Type peep show of nine faces. (BUY ARTWORK)
news + thoughts

Convolutional neural networks

Thu 17-08-2023

Nature uses only the longest threads to weave her patterns, so that each small piece of her fabric reveals the organization of the entire tapestry. – Richard Feynman

Following up on our Neural network primer column, this month we explore a different kind of network architecture: a convolutional network.

The convolutional network replaces the hidden layer of a fully connected network (FCN) with one or more filters (a kind of neuron that looks at the input within a narrow window).

Martin Krzywinski @MKrzywinski mkweb.bcgsc.ca
Nature Methods Points of Significance column: Convolutional neural networks. (read)

Even through convolutional networks have far fewer neurons that an FCN, they can perform substantially better for certain kinds of problems, such as sequence motif detection.

Derry, A., Krzywinski, M & Altman, N. (2023) Points of significance: Convolutional neural networks. Nature Methods 20:.

Background reading

Derry, A., Krzywinski, M. & Altman, N. (2023) Points of significance: Neural network primer. Nature Methods 20:165–167.

Lever, J., Krzywinski, M. & Altman, N. (2016) Points of significance: Logistic regression. Nature Methods 13:541–542.

Neural network primer

Tue 10-01-2023

Nature is often hidden, sometimes overcome, seldom extinguished. —Francis Bacon

In the first of a series of columns about neural networks, we introduce them with an intuitive approach that draws from our discussion about logistic regression.

Martin Krzywinski @MKrzywinski mkweb.bcgsc.ca
Nature Methods Points of Significance column: Neural network primer. (read)

Simple neural networks are just a chain of linear regressions. And, although neural network models can get very complicated, their essence can be understood in terms of relatively basic principles.

We show how neural network components (neurons) can be arranged in the network and discuss the ideas of hidden layers. Using a simple data set we show how even a 3-neuron neural network can already model relatively complicated data patterns.

Derry, A., Krzywinski, M & Altman, N. (2023) Points of significance: Neural network primer. Nature Methods 20:165–167.

Background reading

Lever, J., Krzywinski, M. & Altman, N. (2016) Points of significance: Logistic regression. Nature Methods 13:541–542.

Cell Genomics cover

Mon 16-01-2023

Our cover on the 11 January 2023 Cell Genomics issue depicts the process of determining the parent-of-origin using differential methylation of alleles at imprinted regions (iDMRs) is imagined as a circuit.

Designed in collaboration with with Carlos Urzua.

Martin Krzywinski @MKrzywinski mkweb.bcgsc.ca
Our Cell Genomics cover depicts parent-of-origin assignment as a circuit (volume 3, issue 1, 11 January 2023). (more)

Akbari, V. et al. Parent-of-origin detection and chromosome-scale haplotyping using long-read DNA methylation sequencing and Strand-seq (2023) Cell Genomics 3(1).

Browse my gallery of cover designs.

Martin Krzywinski @MKrzywinski mkweb.bcgsc.ca
A catalogue of my journal and magazine cover designs. (more)

Science Advances cover

Thu 05-01-2023

My cover design on the 6 January 2023 Science Advances issue depicts DNA sequencing read translation in high-dimensional space. The image showss 672 bases of sequencing barcodes generated by three different single-cell RNA sequencing platforms were encoded as oriented triangles on the faces of three 7-dimensional cubes.

More details about the design.

Martin Krzywinski @MKrzywinski mkweb.bcgsc.ca
My Science Advances cover that encodes sequence onto hypercubes (volume 9, issue 1, 6 January 2023). (more)

Kijima, Y. et al. A universal sequencing read interpreter (2023) Science Advances 9.

Browse my gallery of cover designs.

Martin Krzywinski @MKrzywinski mkweb.bcgsc.ca
A catalogue of my journal and magazine cover designs. (more)

Regression modeling of time-to-event data with censoring

Thu 17-08-2023

If you sit on the sofa for your entire life, you’re running a higher risk of getting heart disease and cancer. —Alex Honnold, American rock climber

In a follow-up to our Survival analysis — time-to-event data and censoring article, we look at how regression can be used to account for additional risk factors in survival analysis.

We explore accelerated failure time regression (AFTR) and the Cox Proportional Hazards model (Cox PH).

Martin Krzywinski @MKrzywinski mkweb.bcgsc.ca
Nature Methods Points of Significance column: Regression modeling of time-to-event data with censoring. (read)

Dey, T., Lipsitz, S.R., Cooper, Z., Trinh, Q., Krzywinski, M & Altman, N. (2022) Points of significance: Regression modeling of time-to-event data with censoring. Nature Methods 19:1513–1515.


© 1999–2023 Martin Krzywinski | contact | Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences CentreBC Cancer Research CenterBC CancerPHSA