Thiago Carvalho @cyrilpedia@qoto.org

If thoughts and prayers did any good, all of mine would have seen Ted Cruz lose his job long ago.

I wrote this little program to visualise biological tracking data from #microscopy. We used it a lot for sense checking and verifying a lot of our data, but sadly it won't make it into our next paper. Anyway, today I tidied it up a bit and will make it available with all the rest of the code for others to use.

#reproducibility #CellBiology #ScienceMastodon

This is an outstanding reply to, and analysis of that Pamela Paul column in the New York Times that began this way:

"A paper that says science should be impartial was rejected by major journals. You can’t make this up."

Dave Karpf, an academic, takes it apart. He also testifies as a particiant in the peer review system. Worth your time.

https://davekarpf.substack.com/p/pamela-paul-cancel-culture-grifters?utm_medium=ios

#nytimes #journalism #peerreview #science

Jack promoting RFK Jr. on Bluesky demonstrates that Bluesky intends to best Twitter in key time-to-enshitification metric.

What a great cover.
From the NYT obit for artist Bruce McCall

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/05/arts/bruce-mccall-illustrator-dead.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Obituaries

'In Japanese, human survivors of the atom bomb are called hibakusha. These surviving trees have a name as well: hibakujumoku.'

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/05/opinion/hiroshima-japan-trees.html

'Their work paved the way for companies such as GSK, Pfizer and Moderna to develop the RSV vaccines in the pipeline today. “This is my lifetime's work. It’s very gratifying to see this finally happening,” Graham says. “It’s a good day for RSV.”

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-01529-5

“Older adults, in particular those with underlying health conditions, such as heart or lung disease or weakened immune systems, are at high risk for severe disease caused by RSV,” said Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, in a statement. “Today’s approval of the first RSV vaccine is an important public health achievement to prevent a disease which can be life-threatening and reflects the FDA’s continued commitment to facilitating the development of safe and effective vaccines for use in the United States.”

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/03/health/first-rsv-vaccine-approved/index.html

Great #opportunity to submit a #proposal for a session at the #ScienceSummit at the UN General Assembly:
https://sciencesummitunga.com/call-for-sessions-proposals/

🔬🧪🧑‍🔬🔬🧪👩‍💻🔬🧪🧑‍🔬🔬🧪👩‍💻
Deadline: June 12, 2023

#UNGA78

@cyrilpedia @NicoleCRust I totally agree with this as an issue. In general, there is a worrying trend that today's academic grants want to achieve *all* the things: not just cool research projects, but more/better communication &outreach, be translational, pursue open science, achieve gender equality... All of these goals are worthwhile, but expecting every scientist/project to achieve everything at once is misguided. Having targeted programs addressing these could be much more impactful.

Herd- or group-think in drug development:

"Large companies are the biggest contributors to this phenomenon, with an estimated 68% of the portfolios of the top 10 companies going after targets with a significant amount of herding. And one of the reasons mentioned for this is the increasing number of combination therapies (especially in oncology), where organizations want their own drug candidates in that mix, rather than relying on having their new drug dosed with somebody else’s."

https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/thundering-herd

From Oliver Sacks, "River of Consciousness".

#Books #Bookshelf #BookClub #consciousness #SciComm #readerlife #bookstodon

@cyrilpedia
Thanks - I look forward to listening.

It is tricky. So much of the science ethos is "figure it out". We aren't taught to teach, but we do, etc. The investment required to do SciComm well is underestimated (and the ability to do it is undervalued). But it's also a good thing and should be incentivized. I guess that's the solution - incentivizes (as opposed to requirements) are probably the way to go here.

📣 New on my blog:

Re-opening the discussion on mRNA decay inside P-bodies💥

#mRNA #mRNADegradation #Pbodies #phototoxicity

@biorxivpreprint

https://greenfluorescentblog.wordpress.com/2023/05/04/re-opening-the-discussion-on-mrna-decay-inside-p-bodies/