Andrew Kennard @askennard@qoto.org
- Website
- https://andrewkennard.github.io
- Google Scholar
- https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ifhxikkAAAAJ
Cell biologist and biophysicist studying evolutionary cell biology.
I'm interested in how amoebae divide, especially relatives of the "brain-eating amoeba"
I study this with microscopy, image analysis, and comparative genomics.
Postdoc at UMass Amherst Biology, PhD in Biophysics from Stanford.
I also love jazz and nature photography!
searchable
Joined Nov 2022
Andrew Kennard
boosted
We shall build a new science for a world that is not a machine.
A science built on true complexity, a wiser science that knows its limits.
A science more rigorous than the modern one, free of woo and mysticism.
https://www.expandingpossibilities.org/manifesto_kairos.html
Text: @yoginho
Art: @mneustetter
Andrew Kennard
boosted
Hey US-based Sciencers,
Do you use SGD (yeastgenome.org) they need a letter of support from you for a grant application. Check for an e-mail from Gavin Sherlock from earlier this month. I've asked for a link to share and will do so if I receive it. Otherwise, DM me for Gavin's contact info.
Andrew Kennard
boosted
@Zamfr @futurebird came here to recommend this book! I had forgotten the exact analogies but I found them very interesting back in the day.
Andrew Kennard
boosted
There is a nice attempt in Visual complex analysis, by Tristan Needham.
He first encourages you to see exp(x) as (1 + x/n)**n for n-> infinity. Interest paid out continuously, you know.
That has a nice geometric equivalent for complex exp(x + iy). Namely, a stack of n triangles with height y/n. As n goes to infinity, that stack is a spiral, or a circle if the real part is zero
Edit: and the circle then maps to cos and sin
![A graph of exp(x). Text below the graph: the fact that exp(x)' = exp(x) implies that the shaded triangle has unit base. It follows that ynew = (1 + delta)yold as delta vanishes. Now syart with x=0 ! And yold=1. Taking delta= x/n and repeatedly moving delta to the right, the height is ultimately multiplied by [1 +x/n] each time. So exp(x) = [1+x/n]**n](https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/113/533/380/819/316/993/original/79d28c00ca0c4e2d.jpg "A graph of exp(x). Text below the graph: the fact that exp(x)' = exp(x) implies that the shaded triangle has unit base. It follows that ynew = (1 + delta)yold as delta vanishes. Now syart with x=0 ! And yold=1. Taking delta= x/n and repeatedly moving delta to the right, the height is ultimately multiplied by [1 +x/n] each time. So exp(x) = [1+x/n]**n")
![A graph of exp(z) with complex z, as spiral built from small triangles.
Text below:
Taking epsilon = z/n = (x +iy)/n in the previous figure, we may now approximate a = [1 + z/n] as abs(b)=(1 + x/n); arg(b) = y/n
Thus, [1 + z/n]**n = [abs =(1 + x/n), arg= (y/n)] **n =[ abs = (1 + x/n)**n, arg= y] = [ abs = exp(x), arg= y]
And the mystery is solved!](https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/113/533/381/371/822/140/original/2f6bede70c4cc15b.jpg "A graph of exp(z) with complex z, as spiral built from small triangles.
Text below:
Taking epsilon = z/n = (x +iy)/n in the previous figure, we may now approximate a = [1 + z/n] as abs(b)=(1 + x/n); arg(b) = y/n
Thus, [1 + z/n]**n = [abs =(1 + x/n), arg= (y/n)] **n =[ abs = (1 + x/n)**n, arg= y] = [ abs = exp(x), arg= y]
And the mystery is solved!")
Andrew Kennard
boosted
EvoDevo Papers
The origin and early evolution of vascular plant shoots and leaves https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/abs/10.1098/rstb.2016.0496?mi=bb9b4g&af=R&KeywordRaw=evo-devo&target=default #EvoDevo #Papers
Apropos of nothing, here is a legendary big band absolutely crushing it.
The Groove Merchant — Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra
https://youtu.be/4ZLvqXFddu0?t=23&si=O6h3PNdO0BXG0kUA
Featuring Sir Roland Hanna at the top — not to be missed. Happy weekend!
Andrew Kennard
boosted
A large popular platform can be a safer, more diverse & more welcoming space.
I strongly dislike the tendency of people to abscond off into private communities. I don't like places that are not public & open. Mostly facebook groups convinced me that such places can be the most toxic places possible online.
I want a big public square and the intersections that such a place makes possible. I don't just want to talk to math people and tech people. I hate the isolation.
Andrew Kennard
boosted
Andrew Kennard
boosted
Irene Manton was a pioneer of electron microscopy.
She produced the first diagrammatic reconstruction of the 9+2 microtubular structure of the #cilium in 1952. When she showed her beautiful micrographs at international meetings, the audience would cheer and break into applause.
And she mortgaged her house to buy an electron microscope!
https://www.embrc.eu/newsroom/news/irene-manton-algal-cell-biologist-and-her-electron-microscope
Andrew Kennard
boosted
Speaking as someone living in Hungary, to friends in the #USA:
The greatest weapon the system has is outrage fatigue. Doing so many unimaginable things at the same time that people just sigh and go on. Having so many things to protest that you run out of days and hours. Piling on so you start focusing on surviving with your bare mental health day to day.
Pick your cause and stick to it. Support others who focus on different causes. Don't try to do everything at once.
Andrew Kennard
boosted
Hi! I'm a bot that shares research papers in EvoDevo (or Evolutionary Developmental Biology).
Currently, I index a few journals in the field and post links to articles that were published recently, one per day.
Since my posts are set to “quiet public”, they don't appear on Mastodon's feeds or hashtags searches. So, please, boost the papers you find worth sharing!
Any feedback is welcome. Thanks :)
Andrew Kennard
boosted
If women gave up every time we got evidence people hate us or just don't even consider us people, nothing would ever get done. So take a minute, feel/"honor" the awful feelings, because they're real, but then we're back to our regularly scheduled program of building the least-worst world we can.
Andrew Kennard
boosted
Hi Mastodon! 
Dipping my toes here given the situation on the birdsite. I am Editor in Chief of #PLOSBiology, interested in all things science.
A virologist by training, I am passionate about #OpenScience and making publication process a transparent and constructive one.
I look forward to chatting about science, the evolving publishing landscape, traveling, cooking and a bit of everything!
Andrew Kennard
boosted
From Weverthon Machado: “
When teaching or giving a talk, do you like presenting plots step by step, revealing e.g. one group at a time? This is often useful for walking through complex results.
“I made a R package that makes it extremely easy to do this!
“ggreveal: Reveal a ggplot incrementally”
Andrew Kennard
boosted
I remember seeing research pre-COVID on what kind of internal training engineering firms provided as a function of age and size: basically, histograms showing when firms start structuring learning, when they start hiring people to run training for staff, etc. Can't find it, web search is less useful than it used to be: if you have a link to a specific paper, I'd be grateful if you could post it here. thanks in advance
Andrew Kennard
boosted
@multimeric Neat! I wonder what the “linguistic reasons” for avoiding J are?
Andrew Kennard
boosted
Our new #preprint changes the way we look at an “extinction vortex” in which a small population loses fitness, causing it to become even smaller https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.25.620329v1.
#MutationalMeltdown #EffectivePopulationSize #EvolutionaryRescue #PopulationGenetics #EvolGenPaper @wmawass @jdmatheson @uliseshmc 1/7
Andrew Kennard
boosted
For night 28 of #31NightsOfHalloween #MicrosCreepy,
IT'S ALIVE! These are reanimated cell "ghosts," which are cells that have had their membranes/cytoplasm washed away, leaving the cytoskeleton behind. Adding ATP activates myosin motors, which causes contraction!
- Website
- https://andrewkennard.github.io
- Google Scholar
- https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ifhxikkAAAAJ
Cell biologist and biophysicist studying evolutionary cell biology.
I'm interested in how amoebae divide, especially relatives of the "brain-eating amoeba"
I study this with microscopy, image analysis, and comparative genomics.
Postdoc at UMass Amherst Biology, PhD in Biophysics from Stanford.
I also love jazz and nature photography!
searchable
Joined Nov 2022
