For heavier computations, scientists generally have access to supercomputers, clusters and the like, so the CPU/GPU capability should not be an issue. Also, it's obvious that the laptop should be able to run Linux, there's really no question about it. For example, you'll want to develop your code locally before booking supercomputer time, and once you get there, it's nice to X11 there directly.

It might be a good idea to get a proper AMD/Nvidia GPU, both for 3D visualizations and GPU computing -- of course, it won't be hugely powerful, but it's the same point about local development before farming out.

Yup, I bet it does if you're used to something like Python or Matlab for your data munging.

Just don't use Python.

Screwing around with micro-usb is a lot more practical when you don't have to worry about a wet environment. Of course, there are also waterproof and otherwise more rugged phones, so inductive charging makes more sense for them.

Also, in such a comparison, you need to consider how many lives are actually saved by _easier_ charging -- somehow most people manage to keep their phones charged with old-fashioned connectors, and only a tiny fraction of all phone usage is related to saving lives. Of course you'll get a non-zero number; now compare that to infections, heart disease etc. caused by not keeping your teeth healthy.

On a more general note, I think charging should be as simple as possible, not just for the user, but on a technical level to keep things more reliable (hence saving more lives). A lot of phones manage to screw up this idea even with wired connections: for example, you cannot run a phone off a charger alone, without a battery.

I imagine wireless charging hardware is not just a dumb induction loop, and some device identification/negotiation needs to take place first. For example, leaving metallic objects on the charging pad might be hilarious without such considerations. This IMHO is needlessly complicated for something that should be simple and reliable. At least, the extra comms takes up some power, making the efficiency even worse.

Moleculers! Moleculers! Moleculers! Moleculers!

Then don't look at the phones. Close your eyes and feel the lack of thickness.

Real Nerds know that you need AC for wireless charging, DC just won't cut it.

Seriously though, my opinion as a physicist/engineer is that wireless charging is a little dumb. It wastes a lot of power in an age where energy conservation is paramount, for what exactly? It's not like you can charge your phone from a distance. Inductive charging is a sensible tradeoff in things like dil^Welectric toothbrushes -- just because it can be done, doesn't mean it's great for everything.

This. In fact, there are some nice examples how primality shows up in different bases. For instance, Mersenne primes are all ones when written in binary, where the number of ones itself is a prime.

This. I think the current idea of time zones is somewhat OK to keep things convenient, but the reference should always be solar time, where 12 at noon means the sun at its highest point. If someone has a better way of defining time, I'm all ears, but arbitrarily moving/renaming things around is no way to standardize them. In fact, we might as well rename current hours as foo, bar, quux, etc. to indicate their complete detachment from nature, logic and math. Physical units strive for independent, natural definitions, and I don't think clock time deserves anything less.

Of course, there's the obligatory argument with early birds: if you want to wake up one hour earlier, then please do, by all means. I think you can do that without messing with my and nature's time.

I wonder if there are such countries. Here in Finland, most people seem to have greyish eyes with green or blue overtones, but a lot of natives also have very dark eyes, not to mention immigrants. So we do regard blue eyes as somewhat special and attractive -- though we also have "blue-eyed" as a synonym for "gullible".

At school we were taught that the gene for blue eyes is recessive when compared with brown eyes, which might explain the global trend, but it didn't matter either way to our class of 25 shades of grey.