Estimating the number of unseen species: A bird in the hand is worth $\log n $ in the bush · HackerPapers discussions

Estimating the number of unseen species: A bird in the hand is worth $\log n $ in the bush — mentioned by tgb

Tue, 08 Dec 2020 20:02:17 GMT

Here's a wonderful one I read a little over a year ago: "Estimating the number of unseen species: A bird in the hand is worth log(n) in the bush" https://arxiv.org/abs/1511.07428 https://www.pnas.org/content/113/47/13283 It deals with the classic, and wonderful, question of "If I go and catch 100 birds, and they're from 20 different species, how many species are left uncaught?" There's more one can say about that than it might first appear and it has plenty of applications. But mostly I just love the name. Apparently PNAS had them change it for the final publication, sadly.

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

Estimating the number of unseen species: A bird in the hand is worth $\log n $ in the bush — mentioned by tgb

Thu, 15 Nov 2018 13:17:30 GMT

I thought this meant insects and that reminded me of a favorite paper with the subtitle "A bird in the hand is worth log n in the bush" https://arxiv.org/abs/1511.07428 In this different problem (estimating the number of species you have yet to encounter based off the number of individuals from that species you have observed so far), the cute answer is that you're "done" finding new species when you have found at least two individuals from each species. Would this generalize to software bugs by saying that at least two testers had found each bug in order to assume that the software was…

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.