Andrew Kennard @askennard@qoto.org

From our SEM collection. A nemertean pilidium larva. Image By Juergen Berger.#microscopy #science

My lab studies the evolution and diversity of the eukaryotic endomembrane system. Its earliest origins and how it has evolved and adapted in the many independent transitions from heterotrophy to parasitism are of particular interest. I am a protistologist, cell biologist, and a molecular evolutionist. I also aspire to be an scholar, an ally, a colleague, and a supporter.

#UAlberta #Division of Infectious Diseases #Department of Medicine #Department of Biological sciences

#UCL #CLOE #CAS

Recommended by a great scientist and great person, @jekely, I'm giving this platform a try.

Please follow or connect or whatever we do here :) Say hi!

#SCOTUS rulings for sale: New report reveals the depth of Clarence Thomas' corruption by conservative ultrawealthy billionaires. https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-other-billionaires-sokol-huizenga-novelly-supreme-court

I'd ordinarily post this on the ex-birdsite (see what I did there) as it's my largest audience, but I am trying to go cold-turkey on it.

At any rate, check out these amazing art of science entries!

https://www.wehi.edu.au/art-of-science/2023/

Our paper on how even experts confuse inferential uncertainty with outcome variability is out today in PNAS! https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2302491120

For a summary, see this amazing thread from @ct_bergstrom https://fediscience.org/@ct_bergstrom/110267907188002904

A special thank-you to all of the faculty who participated in this study.

No, academics do not "forget" to answer emails. They remember and feel bad about them, the guilt slowly building up, until the only way out is to fake their own death and move far, far away under a different identity to build a new life, a better one, with inbox zero and no shame

Anyways, I owe you an email.

This is a great round-up @focalplane_jcs of Advances in Expansion Microscopy by Victoria Alonso. There's so many variations on the method now, I am completely lost (despite the folks in my lab doing one of them!)

https://focalplane.biologists.com/2023/08/04/advances-in-expansion-microscopy/

#Microscopy

Any good recommendations for microscopes for outreach activities? Ideally trinokular and transportable.

Doom is a privilege we can’t afford.

“Some days I think that if we lose the #climate battle, it’ll be due in no small part to this defeatism among the comfortable in the global north, while people in frontline communities continue to fight like hell for survival. Which is why fighting defeatism is also climate work.” - Rebecca Solnit

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jul/26/we-cant-afford-to-be-climate-doomers?CMP=share_btn_tw

An opioid expert from Texas A&M gave a guest lecture and mentioned that Texas lieutenant governor Dan Patrick’s policies were costing lives. Within hours, Patrick’s office got her suspended, formally censored, and nearly fired.

https://www.texastribune.org/2023/07/25/texas-a-m-professor-opioids-dan-patrick/

Instead of just writing the damn program we’re being sold a vision where we will engage a mischievous Djin to do our work for us, and we shall expend our energy desperately trying to spot the ways it has contrived to simultaneously be true our word, and fuck us over.

Sounds exhausting.

#Introduction #FirstToot

Hello everyone, I am a graduate student in Derda Lab at University of Alberta in Edmonton, AB. We use genetically-encoded phage libraries to discover ligands using next-gen sequencing. My research has been focused on creating genetically-encoded multivalent liquid glycan array and probing cell surface glycan binding proteins. My research interests includes glycobiology, bioothgonal chemistry, phage, DEL, and next-gen DNA sequencing. #Glycotime #ChemicalBiology #NGS

Our society treats liberal arts education as a luxury good. Think: Which K12 schools cut supposedly inessential programming to focus on “practical” learning? And which K12 schools still have that supposedly inessential stuff like, say, robust music ensembles?

That is the •same• question as, “Which students does society view as fully privileged, free humans beings, and which does it view as cut out for a life of servitude?”

⚠️ The ⚠️ same ⚠️ question ⚠️
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Here’s the hidden truth of education:

You don’t know what you’re preparing for.

Your teaching doesn’t know. Your future employer doesn’t know. Nobody knows. Not really. What you’re preparing for might not even exist yet. We •hope• it doesn’t exist yet: don’t we educate students in the hope that they will make the world better by changing it? By creating realities that don’t even exist yet?
6/

The second edition of R for Data Science is out now, and it’s been a blast to join @hadleywickham as a co-author! Learn more about the second edition at https://www.tidyverse.org/blog/2023/07/r4ds-2e/, read it for free at https://r4ds.hadley.nz/, or buy a copy at https://amzn.to/3PTdLRQ. #rstats

One of my professors during PhD used to say “you can drive a truck through the holes in any given paper. so you look for what you *can* learn instead.” and being the smartass grad students we used to think driving that truck was fun. After so many years, I now appreciate her wisdom more than ever. All scholarly work has limitations but it’s refreshing when people critically evaluate what’s the actual value of the research. It's about humility, honesty, rigorous intellectual work.

It’s time for the Senate to create a select committee with full subpoena power to investigate the bribery scandal that is roiling the Supreme Court.

#Scotus #corruption

https://www.propublica.org/article/senators-ask-paul-singer-leonard-leo-accounting-gifts-supreme-court https://www.propublica.org/article/senators-ask-paul-singer-leonard-leo-accounting-gifts-supreme-court?utm_medium=social&utm_source=mastodon&utm_campaign=mastodon-post

PNAS commentary on the first year of their Consultative Peer Review Pilot

'The pilot is designed to encourage the submission of research that is sufficiently multidisciplinary and presents a challenge in finding reviewers, is counter to a prevailing view, or is too far ahead of its time to receive a fair review. Authors whose work qualifies for this review option can submit through the pilot to have their work thoroughly and efficiently reviewed by experts in the fields most relevant to their research.'
#PeerReview #sciencecommunication #scientificpublication

https://www.pnas.org/post/update/one-year-look-pnas-consultative-peer-review-pilot