Andrew Kennard @askennard@qoto.org

Our latest paper https://elifesciences.org/articles/87335
directly measures the #EffectivePopulationSize that matters to #NearlyNeutralTheory / #DriftBarrier theory, as the degree to which #CodonBias differs from expectations from GC content. Surprisingly, stronger #NaturalSelection -> higher #IntrinsicStructuralDisorder proteins
#MolecularEvolution #PopulationGenetics #EvolgenPaper 1/

“It was a simple but brilliant design stroke: rather than a window where people paste text and allow the LLM to extend it, ChatGPT framed it as a chat window.”

"The practical risks of AI are not that they become super capable thinking machines. It is building complex systems around machines we falsely assume are capable of greater discernment and logic than they possess."

Just two of the excellent insights in this piece.

https://www.techpolicy.press/challenging-the-myths-of-generative-ai/

Fascinating preprint on how (slowly) we think: "The Unbearable Slowness of Being"
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2408.10234

Happy #MicroscopyMonday! Here are somme amoebae crawling into channels

Kevin Gross and I have a new paper out in PLOS Biology about how the ubiquitous incentive structures that motivate hard work also discourage scientists from taking on high-risk, high-return research projects.

https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3002750

This is fascinating and surprising: mineral deposits in the deep ocean can generate oxygen from seawater. It was such a weird finding that the scientists who first detected it thought for years that their instruments were wrong https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/dark-oxygen-discovered-coming-from-mineral-deposits-on-deep-seafloor/

Reuters - The US military launched a clandestine program amid the COVID crisis to discredit China’s Sinovac inoculation – payback for Beijing’s efforts to blame Washington for the pandemic. https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-covid-propaganda/

someone check the flag at the alitos' house

'The computerization of everything, from tractors to toothbrushes, has compelled fervent activism under the banner of “right to repair.” Advocates aim to secure a universal legal right for consumers to modify and repair the things they own, including tools used in essential activities, like growing food.'

https://placesjournal.org/article/step-by-step-repair-manuals-political-ecology/

After years in academia I no longer floss every single day for my dental health, I floss every single day so someone will compliment me on what a great job I'm doing twice a year

Research Associate/Staff Scientist, Schroeder Lab

UT Southwestern

The Schroeder lab is hiring a research associate! Join a team of passionate evolutionary cell biologists at UT Southwestern.

See the full job description on jobRxiv: https://jobrxiv.org/job/ut-southwestern-27778-research-associate-schroeder-lab/?feed_id=74339

#biochemistry #cell_biology #cytoskeleton #drosophila #microscopy #Scien...
https://jobrxiv.org/job/ut-southwestern-27778-research-associate-schroeder-lab/?feed_id=74339

Brits ask “A penny for your thoughts?” and Americans respond with “Just my two cents”. At current exchange rates ($1.00 = £0.80) this means Brits are receiving 1.6p of American thoughts for just 1p. In this paper we propose an alternative asset pricing model for the marketplace of ideas, considering—

Our latest #preprint https://ecoevorxiv.org/repository/view/6959/ explains why fitness can be defined in so many ways, and which version(s) you should use when. Fitness quantifies what #NaturalSelection favors. @gdoulcier #EvolGenPaper #Evolution 1/

I believe that in order to stay sane during a #PhD, we need a hobby that allows us to relax our minds.

I love drawing and painting scientific illustrations, and I'm very proud to be featured in this month's SciArt profile of @the_node!

https://thenode.biologists.com/sciart-profile-maja-mielke/science-art/

#sciart #illustration #PhDlife

It takes most students a long time to learn HOW/HOW NOT to cite (e.g., "In a 2020 study, Jones (2020) found that water is wet, which was also found later...").

This is one of the better refs I've found giving students advice beyond punctuation/formatting.
https://www.writingclearscience.com.au/when-to-cite/

Professors: you can use yt-dlp to download YouTube videos and add them to directly your presentations.

I've seen so many lectures get derailed by an embedded YouTube video breaking in PowerPoint. Or they minimize their presentation, open up a browser and navigate to YouTube (revealing embarrassing personal recommendations), then make a lecture hall full of people sit through an ad for some fly-by-night home security system or whatever.

https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp

#education #teaching #academia