Daniel Dvorkin @medigoth@qoto.org

Hello, all. I've been around for a few days but haven't yet made an #introduction post. So here we go.

I'm a #bioinformatics consultant with [The Bioinformatics CRO](https://www.bioinformaticscro.com/) working on a variety of small and large projects ranging from fundamental genomics to clinical decision support. Before that, for several years I was a postdoc and ORISE fellow specializing in high-altitude medicine and physiology at the University of Colorado Altitude Research Center. My academic background is a nearly even mix of #biostatistics, machine learning, and biology.

The ARC* has been sadly moribund for a few years, but thanks to collaborations with other groups, we're [starting to get more active again](https://harcsummit.org/). Hopefully I will have more to say about that in the future. Meanwhile, feel free to ask me anything about #altitude medicine---I think I still remember most of it.

Years before _that_, I was an Air Force #medic (after a brief stint as an Army infantryman) followed by a couple of years as a civilian EMT. My time in patient care informs my approach to science: the numbers I crunch represent human lives.

Otherwise, I'm an armchair #paleontologist hoping to be able to call myself an _amateur_ paleontologist again one of these days---by which I mean actually spending some time in the field and/or the prep lab---a too-occasional science fiction writer, and chronically sleep deprived. Also, my life is the internet: it's cats all the way down.

*Fellow #Primeval fans may recognize the jacket in the picture. My wonderful fiancée found it for me when I was hired at the ARC, for exactly the reason you think.

"Peer review is the worst method of safeguarding scientific integrity, except for all those other methods that have been tried from time to time." As Churchill might have said if he'd been a scientist rather than a politician.

From a conversation with a friend: https://theconversation.com/peer-review-is-meant-to-prevent-scientific-misconduct-but-it-has-its-own-problems-248015

There are a lot of flaws in #peerreview as it's generally done now, and people working to improve it. But what's the alternative to the concept itself? We know what general public #commentary on #science looks like, and politicians shoehorning science into their #ideologies, and science for #profit without checks on validity ... they're all awful.

None of them can be completely avoided either, any more than the potent combination of authoritarianism and stupidity which is always trying to infect #democratic forms of #government. (Just to choose a random example.) And in fact there *should* be input into science from outside the field, because it doesn't exist in a vacuum any more than defense or education or business or religion or any other large-scale area of human endeavour.

But if there's a better way to keep science more or less on track, I'll be damned if I know what it is. The only people qualified to judge the work of scientists—not the big-picture priorities, and not the utility of the results, but the nitty-gritty of the work itself—are other people knowledgeable in the same line of work, and I don't see that changing. Same as any other job, really.

Like I said above, there are proposals for addressing peer review's flaws, and I'll be happy to expound on that if anyone likes.

Use as needed.

"The #squirrels are really active today."

"Yeah, they're squirreling hard out there. But you know, the other squirrels are squirreling too, and they have to squirrel their hearts out. Squirrel 110%. At the end of the day, all that matters is who has the highest squirrel."

"We're getting dangerously close to #Smurf territory here."

"I kind of imagine squirrels as real-life Smurfs. Like that's the way they think. Everything is 'squirrel this' and 'squirrel that,' and calling them 'squirrely' is the highest compliment you can give."

Pretty much every day at our house.

Like "so, it has come to this" and "as the prophecy foretold," any statement can be answered with "that's just what the Freemasons *want* you to think." Just one of those little life hacks.

I have to admit, I did not have "Go Leopards! My wife didn't need that face anyway" on my bingo card.

A conversation: someone describing all the ways in which #fibromyalgia changed their life, and someone else responding with a cheery "Have you tried giving up all #FODMAPs† yet?" My reply was as follows.

"A friend with fibromyalgia calls this the 'cucumber water' question, as in 'have you tried cucumber water?' Anyone with any #chronic #illness has most likely tried anything you're likely to suggest. Unless they ask you for ideas, sympathy and support are all you should offer."

That was as civil as I could possibly be, and probably more than they deserved. I think there's at least the *possibility* of getting through in this case, which is why I didn't immediately turn green and rip my shirt off.

But having observed in detail the effects of #fibro and other #chronic #diseases on the lives of people I love—

NO. DO NOT.

===

†Fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols ... one or more of which occur in most of the meals most people eat every day. But sure, you should just drastically limit your diet because some stranger on the internet says so.

#Tyrannosaurus #rex by Gerhard Boeggemann. I like how the emphasis isn't on the size of the tyrannosaurs: they and their prey are huge, but they're still a small part of a much larger #ecosystem. Also, this could practically be a scene right out of the WISP (Work In Some Progress) so that's a bonus.

This is good news, if it passes the #Bundesrat. And yes, I'm aware of the historical irony of a descendant of #Eastern #European #Jews cheering on the growth of the #German #military. No permanent allies or enemies, only permanent interests.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62z6gljv2yo

One more time: it's very hard to detect #sarcasm #online. You may think it's obvious that you're #joking or playing a role. It's not. When other people don't know what you meant, take it as a sign to do better and move on.

And if you weren't joking, don't pretend you were. They *will* pick up on that.

My day job is all about #genes, so I applaud the #genomic revolution in #paleontology and #evolutionary #biology. But #evolution really is more than a shift in #allele frequencies over time. It's also change in the #phenotypes those alleles produce, and their #interaction with the world around them.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/paleobiology/article/morphological-evolution-in-a-time-of-phenomics/4A7E3BC775855EC40DE03F9EE567D22A

So I'm equally excited about the #quantitative revolution in describing and cataloguing #traits which until recently could only be analyzed #qualitatively. There's a whole new window opening into the history of life.

I will never not be proud of this.

NB: some sources prefer to write the impact as Marsh-Cope, a.k.a. the "MC Hammer".

https://www.quora.com/Do-paleontologists-still-exist/answer/Daniel-Dvorkin-3

I still get much more interaction on #Facebook than on #Bluesky and #Mastodon combined. Hell, I get more on #Quora, despite that site's demise supposedly being imminent for years. I love the idea of everybody moving to #decentralized social media, but—

Maybe the Russkies would sell #LiveJournal cheap?

I wonder if #Schumer was credibly threatened with window cancer.

And honestly, I kind of hope so, because otherwise he has less than no excuse.

"But remaking the JAG Corps is a priority for #Hegseth, who on Friday commissioned his personal lawyer and former naval officer Tim #Parlatore as a #Navy #Commander to oversee the effort carrying the weight and authority of the #Defense #Secretary’s office."

I see we've reached the "give the hatchetmen shiny uniforms" phase of operations.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/13/pete-hegseth-pentagon-lawyers-rules-of-war

This is really neat. I'm kind of surprised, though, that none of the students ever looked at the rock and said "those sure look like #dinosaur #tracks to me!" Or maybe they did and were roundly mocked for it: I don't claim to know anything about #Australian #highschool culture, but that's likely what would happen at a lot of #American schools. Either way, I'm glad it's finally been identified for what it is.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/dinosaur-prints-rock-australia-queensland-jurassic-paleontology-fossil-rcna195980

"Something much worse than asteroids" is hype: the late-#Devonian and end-#Ordovician were less severe that the end-#Cretaceous, which was definitely† caused by an #asteroid. But this is good work that may help nail down the cause of the earlier #extinctions ... which were still pretty bad!

†Yes.

https://www.earth.com/news/at-least-two-of-earths-mass-extinctions-caused-by-massive-supernova-explosions/

It's the #bacteria's world, you know. Always has been. We're just the scum floating on the surface.

Maaaybe we should stop poisoning the lake.

#VitaminA does not prevent #measles. In patients who are deficient—most aren't—*supervised* supplementation may help lessen the severity, and that's all. It's easy to overdose. The best protection is #vaccination.

Our brains keep us alive. Use yours.

https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/vitamin-a-and-measles-what-the-data