Pinboard (jm) https://pinboard.in/u:jm/public/ recent bookmarks from jm The Paradox of Medical AI Implementation - by Eric Topol 2026-05-05T10:22:08+00:00 https://erictopol.substack.com/p/the-paradox-of-medical-ai-implementation?r=8tdk6&triedRedirect=true jm[Deep learning-based] AI for medical images, with extensive research dating back more than a decade ago, is not being implemented. Whether it’s a mammogram, a CT scan, a retinal image, or colonoscopy, that have all been extensively studied, their value to improve accuracy and risk assessment in medicine is being missed and essentially disregarded. On the other hand, tens of millions of Americans are using AI chatbots for medical support, as are a substantial proportion of physicians. There are many reasons to use AI here that are easy to support, because they represent an extension of a web/Google search. Just with much more specificity and depth of response, not something that would be subject to regulatory oversight. But when it comes to making a diagnosis or providing a treatment plan there needs to be proof that LLMs are improving accuracy and outcomes. ]]> medicine deep-learning ai genai llms healthcare science imaging chatbots eric-topol https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:cb4c6dfe95b0/ Whole Brain Emulation Achieved: Scientists Run a Fruit Fly Brain in Simulation 2026-03-11T12:00:29+00:00 https://www.rathbiotaclan.com/whole-brain-emulation-achieved-scientists-run-a-fruit-fly-brain-in-simulation/ jm The behavioral repertoire observed in the demonstration included coordinated hexapod locomotion with both tripod and metachronal walking gaits, spontaneous postural correction in response to perturbation, initiation and execution of full antennal grooming sequences with the tripartite synchronization described by Özdil et al., and natural transitions between walking and stationary states. Every behavior arose from the same running brain model - there was no switching between different neural circuits or controllers. This is precisely what happens in a living fly: walking, grooming, and balance are different motor programs that coexist in the same brain and are selected and executed by the same biological circuits depending on the moment-to-moment state of the animal and its environment. Absolutely mind blowing -- a reconstructed, biological brain running in silico.]]> simulation brains uploading drosophila flies emulation science biology neurons https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:7b531082c20a/ Ditching bike helmets laws better for health 2026-02-06T15:58:27+00:00 https://theconversation.com/ditching-bike-helmets-laws-better-for-health-42 jmIn 1991 Australia introduced mandatory bicycle helmet laws requiring all adults and children to wear a helmet at all times when riding a bike, despite opposition from cycling groups. The legislation increased helmet use - from about 30 to 80% - but was coupled with a 30 to 40% decline in the number of people cycling. Rates of head injuries among cyclists, which had been dropping through the 1980s, continued to fall before levelling out in 1993. We didn’t see the kind of marked reduction in head injury rates that would be expected with the rapid increase in helmet use. In fact, any reductions in injuries may simply have been the result of having fewer cyclists on the road and therefore fewer people exposed to the risk of head injuries. One researcher noted that after mandatory helmet laws were introduced there was a bigger decrease in head injuries among pedestrians than there was among cyclists. The improvements in the general road safety environment introduced in the 1980s are likely to have contributed far more to cyclist safety than helmet legislation. And the effects when compared against the benefits of physical activity:
A recent analysis compared the risks and benefits of leaving the car at home and commuting by bike. It found the life expectancy gained from physical activity was much higher than the risks of pollution and injury from cycling. Increased physical activity added 3 to 14 months to a person’s life expectancy, while the life expectancy lost from air pollution was 0.8 to 40 days. Increased traffic accidents wiped 5-9 days off the life expectancy. It is clear that the benefits of cycling outweigh the risks, with helmet legislation actually costing society more from lost health gains than saved from injury prevention.
]]> transport bikes safety health papers science helmets cycling laws australia https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:0a923278298a/ How Slide Rules Work 2025-11-20T10:05:40+00:00 https://amenzwa.github.io/stem/ComputingHistory/HowSlideRulesWork/ jm science maths slide-rules computing history antiques via:hn https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:18f6e7086fdd/ Double harvest: Vertical solar panels and crops thrive side by side 2025-09-22T13:19:58+00:00 https://techxplore.com/news/2025-09-harvest-vertical-solar-panels-crops.html jm agrivoltiacs solar-pv solar-power energy farming science crops https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:e2fc145b753a/ Android Phones Can Detect Earthquakes Before the Ground Starts Shaking 2025-07-21T12:39:44+00:00 https://gizmodo.com/android-phones-can-detect-earthquakes-before-the-ground-starts-shaking-2000629636 jm“The global adoption of smartphone technology places sophisticated sensing and alerting capabilities in people’s hands, in both the wealthy and less-wealthy portions of the planet,” the researchers, including Richard Allen from the University of California in Berkeley’s Seismological Laboratory, wrote in the study. “Although the accelerometers in these phones are less sensitive than the permanent instrumentation used in traditional seismic networks, they can still detect the ground motions and building response in hazardous earthquakes.” According to the study, 70% of the world’s smartphones are Android phones, which by default come with the aforementioned sensing and alerting capabilities. From 2021 to 2024, the AEA system detected an average of 312 earthquakes per month across 98 countries. The earthquakes had a magnitude between 1.9 and 7.8, and the system alerted users of earthquakes at or over a magnitude of 4.5, averaging around 60 events and 18 million alerts per month. The AEA system also collected user feedback, revealing that 85% of users who received alerts experienced shaking, with 36% receiving the alert before, 28% during, and 23% after the shaking began. ]]> seismic data android phones mobile-phones earthquakes science alerting earth https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:7645882aab75/ Black plastic won't kill you 2024-12-17T10:57:28+00:00 https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/black-plastic jmPlastics rarely make news like this. From Newsmax to Food and Wine, and from the Daily Mail to CNN, the media uptake was enthusiastic on a paper published in October in the peer-reviewed journal Chemosphere. “Your cool black kitchenware could be slowly poisoning you, study says. Here’s what to do,” said the LA Times. “Yes, throw out your black spatula,” said the San Francisco Chronicle. Salon was most blunt: “Your favorite spatula could kill you,” it said. [....] The paper correctly gives the reference dose for BDE-209 as 7,000 nanograms per kilogram of body weight per day, but calculates this into a limit for a 60-kilogram adult of 42,000 nanograms per day. So, as the paper claims, the estimated actual exposure from kitchen utensils of 34,700 nanograms per day is more than 80 per cent of the EPA limit of 42,000. That sounds bad. But 60 times 7,000 is not 42,000. It is 420,000. This is what Joe Schwarcz [director of McGill University’s Office for Science and Society] noticed. The estimated exposure is not even a tenth of the reference dose. ]]> cooking research science plastics errors maths math fail papers https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:9a5dd3feb197/ Rediscovering Things of Science 2024-03-26T17:46:17+00:00 http://georgebmoody.com/tos/#uk-tos jm science education things-of-science kits ace https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:5a3b69b10dc4/ A brain implant changed her life. Then it was removed against her will 2024-01-24T19:49:42+00:00 https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/05/25/1073634/brain-implant-removed-against-her-will/ jmLeggett received her device during a clinical trial for a brain implant designed to help people with epilepsy. She was diagnosed with severe chronic epilepsy when she was just three years old and routinely had violent seizures. The unpredictable nature of the episodes meant that she struggled to live a normal life, says Frederic Gilbert, a coauthor of the paper and an ethicist at the University of Tasmania, who regularly interviews her. “She couldn’t go to the supermarket by herself, and she was barely going out of the house,” he says. “It was devastating.” [....] While trial participants enjoyed varying degrees of success, the [experimental brain implant] worked brilliantly for Leggett. For the first time in her life, she had agency over her seizures—and her life. With the advance warning from the device, she could take medication that prevented the seizures from occurring. “I felt like I could do anything,” she told Gilbert in interviews undertaken in the years since. “I could drive, I could see people, I was more capable of making good decisions.” [...] She also felt that she became a new person as the device merged with her. “We had been surgically introduced and bonded instantly,” she said. “With the help of science and technicians, we became one.” Gilbert and Ienca describe the relationship as a symbiotic one, in which two entities benefit from each other. In this case, the woman benefited from the algorithm that helped predict her seizures. The algorithm, in turn, used recordings of the woman’s brain activity to become more accurate. [...] But it wasn’t to last. In 2013, NeuroVista, the company that made the device, essentially ran out of money. The trial participants were advised to have their implants removed. (The company itself no longer exists.) Leggett was devastated. She tried to keep the implant. “[Leggett and her husband] tried to negotiate with the company,” says Gilbert. “They were asking to remortgage their house—she wanted to buy it.” In the end, she was the last person in the trial to have the implant removed, very much against her will. “I wish I could’ve kept it,” Leggett told Gilbert. “I would have done anything to keep it.” Years later, she still cries when she talks about the removal of the device, says Gilbert. “It’s a form of trauma,” he says. “I have never again felt as safe and secure … nor am I the happy, outgoing, confident woman I was,” she told Gilbert in an interview after the device had been removed. “I still get emotional thinking and talking about my device … I’m missing and it’s missing.” Leggett has also described a deep sense of grief. “They took away that part of me that I could rely on,” she said. If a device can become part of a person, then its removal “represents a form of modification of the self,” says Ienca. “This is, to our knowledge, the first evidence of this phenomenon.” ]]> bioethics brain science capitalism ethics medicine epilepsy implants body-modification self-modification https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:659738b001c0/ A startup is pitching a mind-uploading service that is “100 percent fatal” 2023-11-23T10:56:50+00:00 https://www.technologyreview.com/2018/03/13/144721/a-startup-is-pitching-a-mind-uploading-service-that-is-100-percent-fatal/ jmThe product is “100 percent fatal,” says McIntyre. “That is why we are uniquely situated among the Y Combinator companies.”
]]> life-extension science tech y-combinator startups funny fatal braaaains https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:c7537c17fc32/ Insurance companies given access to UK Biobank health data, despite promises 2023-11-13T11:20:11+00:00 https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/nov/12/private-uk-health-data-donated-medical-research-shared-insurance-companies jmWhen the project was announced, in 2002, Biobank promised that data would not be given to insurance companies after concerns were raised that it could be used in a discriminatory way, such as by the exclusion of people with a particular genetic makeup from insurance. In an FAQ section on the Biobank website, participants were told: “Insurance companies will not be allowed access to any individual results nor will they be allowed access to anonymised data.” The statement remained online until February 2006, during which time the Biobank project was subject to public scrutiny and discussed in parliament. The promise was also reiterated in several public statements by backers of Biobank, who said safeguards would be built in to ensure that “no insurance company or police force or employer will have access”. This weekend, Biobank said the pledge – made repeatedly over four years – no longer applied. It said the commitment had been made before recruitment formally began in 2007 and that when Biobank volunteers enrolled they were given revised information.
]]> biobank uk politics health medicine data-privacy insurance discrimination science https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:4c79e5371f73/ Open science discovery of potent noncovalent SARS-CoV-2 main protease inhibitors 2023-11-10T12:22:26+00:00 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abo7201 jm We report the results of the COVID Moonshot, a fully open-science, crowdsourced, and structure-enabled drug discovery campaign targeting the ... SARS-CoV-2 main protease. We discovered a noncovalent, nonpeptidic inhibitor scaffold with lead-like properties that is differentiated from current main protease inhibitors. Our approach leveraged crowdsourcing, machine learning, exascale molecular simulations, and high-throughput structural biology and chemistry. We generated a detailed map of the structural plasticity of the SARS-CoV-2 main protease, extensive structure-activity relationships for multiple chemotypes, and a wealth of biochemical activity data. All compound designs (>18,000 designs), crystallographic data (>490 ligand-bound x-ray structures), assay data (>10,000 measurements), and synthesized molecules (>2400 compounds) for this campaign were shared rapidly and openly, creating a rich, open, and intellectual property–free knowledge base for future anticoronavirus drug discovery. [....] As a notable example for the impact of open science, the Shionogi clinical candidate S-217622 [which has now received emergency approval in Japan as Xocova (ensitrelvir)] was identified in part on the basis of crystallographic data openly shared by the COVID Moonshot Consortium.]]> crowdsourcing science research covid-19 covid-moonshot open-science drugs ensitrelvir ip https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:0a0e5d1878a2/ Scientists Witnessed The Birth Of A New Accent In Antarctica 2023-08-21T22:30:28+00:00 https://www.iflscience.com/scientists-witnessed-the-birth-of-a-new-accent-in-antarctica-70287 jm Over the course of the stay, the researchers noticed significant changes in the [winter-overs'] accents. One of the main shifts was how the study group started pronouncing their words with longer vowels. Furthermore, there was evidence of linguistic innovation in the group. Towards the end of their stay in Antarctica, the residents were pronouncing “ou” sounds – like those found in the words “flow” and “disco” – from the front of their mouth, as opposed to the back of their throats. [...] "The Antarctic accent is not really perceptible as such – it would take much longer for it to become so – but it is acoustically measurable," Jonathan Harrington, study author and Professor of Phonetics and Speech Processing at the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich, told IFLScience. "It's mostly an amalgamation of some aspects of the spoken accents of the winterers before they went to Antarctica, together with an innovation," added Harrington. "It's far more embryonic [than conventional English accents] given that it had only a short time to develop and also, of course, because it's only distributed across a small group of speakers." (via Sean Michaels)]]> accents antarctica language science https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:c3a46bd69f11/ Geoffrey Hinton/Oppenheimer comparison 2023-07-31T17:39:59+00:00 https://twitter.com/blairasaservice/status/1653196500317491200 jm The keynote speaker at the Royal Society was another Google employee: Geoffrey Hinton, who for decades has been a central figure in developing deep learning. As the conference wound down, I spotted him chatting with Bostrom in the middle of a scrum of researchers. Hinton was saying that he did not expect A.I. to be achieved for decades. “No sooner than 2070,” he said. “I am in the camp that is hopeless.” “In that you think it will not be a cause for good?” Bostrom asked. “I think political systems will use it to terrorize people,” Hinton said. Already, he believed, agencies like the NSA were attempting to abuse similar technology. “Then why are you doing the research?” Bostrom asked. “I could give you the usual arguments,” Hinton said. “But the truth is that the prospect of discovery is too sweet.” He smiled awkwardly, the word hanging in the air — an echo of Oppenheimer, who famously said of the bomb, “When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it, and you argue about what to do about it only after you have had your technical success.” ]]> research science discovery oppenheimer geoffrey-hinton ethics ai https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:97822316e794/ On Climate Change and (Active) Climate Management 2023-07-31T09:11:00+00:00 https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/on-climate-change-and-management/ jm climate geoengineering bert-hubert future climate-change science https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:5e5eb04580a8/ Report claims super funds are lying to their members on climate risk - Michael West 2023-07-28T09:44:13+00:00 https://michaelwest.com.au/report-claims-super-funds-are-lying-to-their-members-on-climate-risk/ jmFor several years, [Steve] Keen has been a vociferous critic of mainstream climate economics. He certainly pulled no punches with a 2020 paper, titled 'The Appallingly Bad Neoclassical Economics of Climate Change'. He describes this strand of climate economics as “easily the worst work I have read in half a century”. These economists “don’t deny that climate change is happening,” Keen told MWM, “but they effectively deny that it really matters.” One of Keen’s primary targets is William Nordhaus, who won the 2018 Nobel Prize in economics for his work on climate economics and has been a major influence in his discipline. Nordhaus has claimed that a 6-degree increase in global temperature would cause global gross domestic product to fall by less than 10 per cent. Figures like this stand in stark contrast to the view of most climate scientists, who warn of massive, catastrophic risks from anything over 2°C. The economists “are doing impeccable econometrics on stupid f..king numbers that they’ve made up that bear no relation whatsoever to the catastrophe we’re approaching,” Keen told MWM via email. ]]> economics steve-keen climate-change science william-nordhaus https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:be45584a5fbc/ Photoferrotrophic Bacteria Initiated Plate Tectonics in the Neoarchean 2023-07-03T10:52:19+00:00 https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2023GL103553 jm papers bacteria life tectonics earth climate iron science geology https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:0ab08c4eb0ae/ Sleep Apnea Directly Tied to Early Cognitive Decline 2023-06-30T09:47:18+00:00 https://scitechdaily.com/startling-link-uncovered-sleep-apnea-directly-tied-to-early-cognitive-decline/?expand_article=1 jmresearchers from the UK, Germany, and Australia have shown for the first time that in middle-aged men, OSA can cause early cognitive decline, even in patients who are otherwise healthy and not obese. The results were recently published in the journal _Frontiers in Sleep_. “We show poorer executive functioning and visuospatial memory and deficits in vigilance, sustained attention, and psychomotor and impulse control in men with OSA. Most of these deficits had previously been ascribed to co-morbidities,” said Dr. Ivana Rosenzweig, a neuropsychiatrist who heads the Sleep and Brain Plasticity Centre at King’s College London, and the study’s lead author. “We also demonstrated for the first time that OSA can cause significant deficits in social cognition.” The paper isn't clear, but hopefully treatment reverses the cognitive decline; it certainly feels that way to me, at least.]]> sleep sleep-apnea cognition brains sleeping science papers https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:cfda6414b953/ Pop Culture Pulsar: Origin Story of Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures Album Cover 2023-03-20T11:04:51+00:00 https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/sa-visual/pop-culture-pulsar-origin-story-of-joy-division-s-unknown-pleasures-album-cover-video/ jmThis plotting of sequences like this, it started just a little bit earlier when we were looking at potentially drifting subpulses within the major pulse itself. So, the thought was, well, is there something like this peak here, which on the next pulse moves over here, and then moves over here, and over there. Actually, would be moving this way in that case – either way. I think Frank Drake and I published a paper in Science Magazine on exactly that issue – suggesting there might be drifting subpulses within the major pulse, which would then get back to the physics of what was causing the emission in the first place. So, then the thought was, well let’s plot out a whole array of pulses, and see if we can see particular patterns in there. So that’s why, this one was the first I did – CP1919 – and you can pick out patterns in there if you really work at it. But I think the answer is, there weren’t any that were real obvious anyway. I don’t really recall, but my bet is that the first one of these that I did, I didn’t bother to block out the stuff, and I found that it was just too confusing. So then, I wrote the program so that I would block out when a hill here was high enough, then the stuff behind it would stay hidden. And it was pretty easy to do from a computer perspective. ]]> design joy-division music science physics pulsars astronomy cp1919 dataviz https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:5857d82604fc/ Calling Bullshit 2022-09-01T10:39:12+00:00 https://www.callingbullshit.org/ jmThe world is awash in bullshit. Politicians are unconstrained by facts. Science is conducted by press release. Higher education rewards bullshit over analytic thought. Startup culture elevates bullshit to high art. Advertisers wink conspiratorially and invite us to join them in seeing through all the bullshit — and take advantage of our lowered guard to bombard us with bullshit of the second order. The majority of administrative activity, whether in private business or the public sphere, seems to be little more than a sophisticated exercise in the combinatorial reassembly of bullshit. We're sick of it. It's time to do something, and as educators, one constructive thing we know how to do is to teach people. So, the aim of this course is to help students navigate the bullshit-rich modern environment by identifying bullshit, seeing through it, and combating it with effective analysis and argument. ]]> learning science teaching tutorial courses bullshit scepticism facts https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:611ec2e256f9/ How a theory about transgender contagion went viral - MIT Technology Review 2022-08-18T16:53:31+00:00 https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/08/18/1057135/transgender-contagion-gender-dysphoria/?truid=8c8f2699f50eb3b9985a111121cfee47&mc_cid=ac68f8ae20&mc_eid=eaf496ebe1 jmThe paper, which was based on parent surveys recruited from explicitly anti-trans or trans-skeptical websites and forums, almost immediately drew criticism. Shortly after its publication in August 2018, PLOS One, a peer-reviewed open-­access journal covering science and medicine, issued a comment that questioned Littman’s methodology. Brown University, her then-employer, retracted its press release about the study. In early September, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health put out a statement saying ROGD “constitutes nothing more than an acronym” and urged restraint in using the term. Six months after that, PLOS One reissued the study with a large correction emphasizing that Littman’s paper was simply a “descriptive, exploratory” one and had not been clinically validated. In 2021, the Journal of Pediatrics published a comprehensive study that found no evidence for ROGD’s existence. More than 60 psychology organizations, including the American Psychological Association, called for elimination of the term. The scientific community, in short, agreed there was no such thing as ROGD. But did it matter? ]]> rogd transgender politics gender papers science plos https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:cf810b8d8602/ What the Science on Gender-Affirming Care for Transgender Kids Really Shows - Scientific American 2022-08-12T14:53:15+00:00 https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-the-science-on-gender-affirming-care-for-transgender-kids-really-shows/ jm Data from more than a dozen studies of more than 30,000 transgender and gender-diverse young people consistently show that access to gender-affirming care is associated with better mental health outcomes—and that lack of access to such care is associated with higher rates of suicidality, depression and self-harming behavior. (Gender diversity refers to the extent to which a person’s gendered behaviors, appearance and identities are culturally incongruent with the sex they were assigned at birth. Gender-diverse people can identify along the transgender spectrum, but not all do.) Major medical organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the Endocrine Society, the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association, have published policy statements and guidelines on how to provide age-appropriate gender-affirming care. All of those medical societies find such care to be evidence-based and medically necessary. ]]> trans gender science biology transgender https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:8f01e282dd0d/ Researchers Pinpoint Reason Infants Die From SIDS 2022-05-13T08:57:24+00:00 https://www.biospace.com/article/researchers-answer-how-and-why-infants-die-from-sids/?hss_channel=fbp-10530620221 jmSIDS refers to the unexplained deaths of infants under a year old, and it usually occurs while the child is sleeping. According to Mayo Clinic, many in the medical community suspected this phenomenon could be caused by a defect in the part of the brain that controls arousal from sleep and breathing. The theory was that if the infant stopped breathing during sleep, the defect would keep the child from startling or waking up.  The Sydney researchers were able to confirm this theory by analyzing dried blood samples taken from newborns who died from SIDS and other unknown causes. Each SIDS sample was then compared with blood taken from healthy babies. They found the activity of the enzyme butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) was significantly lower in babies who died of SIDS compared to living infants and other non-SIDS infant deaths. BChE plays a major role in the brain’s arousal pathway, explaining why SIDS typically occurs during sleep.  Previously, parents were told SIDS could be prevented if they took proper precautions: laying babies on their backs, not letting them overheat and keeping all toys and blankets out of the crib were a few of the most important preventative steps. While safe sleep practices are still important for protecting infants, many children whose parents took every precaution still died from SIDS. These parents were left with immense guilt, wondering if they could have prevented their baby’s death. Dr. Carmel Harrington, the lead researcher for the study, was one of these parents. Her son unexpectedly and suddenly died as an infant 29 years ago. In an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Harrington explained what she was told about the cause of her child’s death.  "Nobody could tell me. They just said it's a tragedy. But it was a tragedy that didn't sit well with my scientific brain.”  Since then, she’s worked to find the cause of SIDS, both for herself and for the medical community as a whole. She went on to explain why this discovery is so important for parents whose babies suffered from SIDS.  "These families can now live with the knowledge that this was not their fault," she said. (via Damien) ]]> healthcare medicine parenting science via:damienmulley sids diseases neurochemistry https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:fc646fefc553/ New lithium-air battery technology doubles current battery performance 2022-02-07T13:05:24+00:00 https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220120140724.htm jm climate-change flight travel power batteries lithium-air science tech https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:2d7bad05d0dd/ How COVID-19 vaccines reduce transmission 2021-11-15T21:23:35+00:00 https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/how-vaccines-reduce-transmission jm via:meehawl science covid-19 sars-cov-2 vaccines transmission https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:02f4f6dcd463/ Scientists: don’t feed the doubt machine 2021-11-04T15:12:33+00:00 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02993-7 jmThe field of agnotology shows how ignorance and doubt can be purposefully manufactured. [...] In September, Katharine Hayhoe, chief scientist at the Nature Conservancy, a non-profit organization based in Arlington, Virginia, quoted environmentalist Bill McKibben on Twitter in regard to climate change: “We spent a long time thinking we were engaged in an argument about data and reason .... But now we realize it’s a fight over money and power.” Hayhoe elaborated: “‘Objections’ were always, entirely, professionally, and verrrry cleverly couched in scientific terms. They [industry] focused their lasers on the science and like cats we followed their pointer and their lead.” ]]> science fud greenwashing covid-19 pr doubt distraction agnotology https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:28f46be579a5/ Top climate scientists are sceptical that nations will rein in global warming 2021-11-02T13:22:06+00:00 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02990-w jm climate environment reality science climate-change ipcc 2100 future https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:702e39299eb7/ Forrest Fleischman on "trillion trees" projects 2021-10-03T21:25:47+00:00 https://twitter.com/ForrestFleisch1/status/1444008823350603780 jmA project whose goal is to plant a certain number of trees is particularly vulnerable to failure because its counting the wrong thing. If the goal is to absorb emissions, we should count the carbon, not the trees. A few small large absorb more carbon than a bunch of little trees. When we plant trees with carbon uptake or forest restoration as a goal, we don't try to maximize the number of trees. We try to maximize long-term carbon uptake, and this might actually mean planting fewer trees up front. ]]> forestry science data climate-change planting trees forests carbon-capture carbon https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:0d01467d826c/ Covid-19 and the new merchants of doubt 2021-09-14T08:39:05+00:00 https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/09/13/covid-19-and-the-new-merchants-of-doubt/ jmHow best can scientists push back against [science denialists]? There is a range of evidence-based strategies. These include: “Public inoculation”–warning people about the risk of being misled and drawing attention to who is pushing the contentious information and their financial competing interests; Highlighting scientific consensus; and Mapping the institutional networks who are pushing controversial information and then using political and legal strategies to counter them. For physicians, scientists, and public health officials to be effective countering efforts like the [Great Barrington declaration], it will be absolutely critical for them to realize that they are not dealing with an orthodox scientific debate based on sound data and evidence, but a well-funded sophisticated science denialist campaign based on ideological and corporate interests. ]]> denialism climate-change covid-19 science communication astroturf fakes evidence fake-news https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:7f0213363f87/ Twitter thread on droplet transmission 2021-05-10T10:34:26+00:00 https://twitter.com/jljcolorado/status/1391111720526024708 jm aerosols airborne medicine history covid-19 droplets infection transmission science https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:33dd3e4b4f45/ Genomics and epidemiology of P.1 SARS-CoV-2 lineage 2021-04-19T09:20:05+00:00 https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2021/04/13/science.abh2644 jmCases of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Manaus, Brazil, resurged in late 2020, despite previously high levels of infection. Genome sequencing of viruses sampled in Manaus between November 2020 and January 2021 revealed the emergence and circulation of a novel SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern. Lineage P.1, acquired 17 mutations, including a trio in the spike protein (K417T, E484K and N501Y) associated with increased binding to the human ACE2 receptor. Molecular clock analysis shows that P.1 emergence occurred around mid-November 2020 and was preceded by a period of faster molecular evolution. Using a two-category dynamical model that integrates genomic and mortality data, we estimate that P.1 may be 1.7–2.4-fold more transmissible, and that previous (non-P.1) infection provides 54–79% of the protection against infection with P.1 that it provides against non-P.1 lineages. Enhanced global genomic surveillance of variants of concern, which may exhibit increased transmissibility and/or immune evasion, is critical to accelerate pandemic responsiveness. ]]> p1 sars-cov-2 covid-19 epidemiology transmission science papers https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:02d6576002df/ The Gaslighting of Science - Insight 2021-04-11T21:18:02+00:00 https://zeynep.substack.com/p/the-gaslighting-of-science jmPut all three together: airborne transmission, clusters driving the epidemic, and presymptomatic transmission. Not only do we get a clear and consistent picture of many things that have happened since, we also get the mitigation strategy. Further, all three dimensions support each other: transmission from people not (yet) coughing or sneezing very much argues in favor of aerosol transmission, which explains how large clusters can be driving the epidemic and how transmission in a situation like that ship can occur. And the mitigation and other strategies become clear: pay attention to clusters and ventilation, universal masks, different policies for indoors and outdoors, etc.  ]]> zeynep-tufekci coronavirus science covid-19 aerosols transmission clusters https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:697b6ca481c2/ a Paediatric Registrar on B.1.1.7 in children 2021-03-11T12:23:44+00:00 https://twitter.com/apsmunro/status/1369981734922637313 jm science covid-19 b.1.1.7 variants children schools https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:a82f087c77e9/ Attributes and predictors of long COVID | Nature Medicine 2021-03-11T10:52:25+00:00 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01292-y jmFor individuals who had a positive swab for COVID-19 (n = 4,182 from the UK, the US and Sweden), the overall median symptom duration was 11 (interquartile range (IQR), 6–19) days, with 558 (13.3%) people who met the LC28 definition (median (IQR), 41 (33–63) days). Of those, 189 (4.5%) met the definition for LC56 (duration ≥ 56 d) and 108 (2.6%) for LC84 (duration ≥ 84 d; all percentages were calculated with respect to the overall sample, n = 4,182). ]]> covid-19 nature science medicine long-covid papers https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:a5dbb4e9f7b3/ Reverse Engineering the source code of the BioNTech/Pfizer SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine - Articles 2020-12-26T23:24:02+00:00 https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/reverse-engineering-source-code-of-the-biontech-pfizer-vaccine/ jm biology rna science covid-19 sars-cov-2 vaccines biontech https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:15faffa83bf1/ ‘It’s been so, so surreal.’ Critics of Sweden’s lax pandemic policies face fierce backlash | Science | AAAS 2020-10-08T09:26:20+00:00 https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/10/it-s-been-so-so-surreal-critics-sweden-s-lax-pandemic-policies-face-fierce-backlash jmTHE SWEDISH EXPERIMENT is coming to an end, as its policies fall in line with those of its neighbors. FoHM [the country’s public health authority, the Folkhälsomyndigheten] officials are “quietly changing their approach,” Einhorn says. [....] FoHM “should have listened more carefully to the scientific community both inside and outside the country,” Hansson says. Still, he predicts the rifts will eventually heal. “I am sure we will continue to argue, but I don’t see permanent damage,” he says. “We’ll move on. We’ll go back to complaining about grants.” But Ewing worries the fight has left permanent scars. He says at least three more members of the Vetenskapsforum are considering leaving Sweden, as Brusselaers did. And even if it turns out that the country has built up enough immunity to evade a new wave of disease, he says, the price has been too high. “I worry that countries around the world are going to say, ‘We can try what Sweden did.’ But we have killed too many people already.” ]]> sweden covid-19 science herd-immunity https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:2ba5bd8488a8/ Andrew Flood on Michael Levitt 2020-09-17T10:50:38+00:00 https://twitter.com/andrewflood/status/1298648756200636416 jm michael-levitt covid-19 covidiots twitter andrew-flood science https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:6f7ca53f7640/ Keith Dawson on This Week in Virology 2020-09-06T11:22:54+00:00 https://suddenlyathome.net/this-week-in-virology/ jm podcasts twiv virology covid-19 science medicine https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:3d1e38852523/ Top Scientists Just Ruled Out Best-Case Global Warming Scenarios - Bloomberg 2020-07-23T10:29:20+00:00 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-22/top-scientists-just-ruled-out-best-case-global-warming-scenarios jm global-warming climate-change future climate science https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:1f4f2bf99a99/ _Opportunistic Paper about COVID-19 using my Favorite Theoretical Approach_ 2020-06-17T09:32:10+00:00 https://twitter.com/masonporter/status/1273054551583555585/photo/1 jm _Opportunistic Paper about COVID-19 using my Favorite Theoretical Approach_ Abstract: COVID-19 is a disease that is killing a lot of people. It really sucks. To help save the world (or at least add to my publication list), I examine the dynamics of COVID-19 transmission using my favorite theoretical approach, whether or not there is any justification or relevance for it. I do some curve fitting with previous data, and my theory seems to match the data pretty well (at least for some parameter values). I also find some evidence for universality, which may be interesting from the perspective of fundamental theory. A more practical application of my work is its influence on the signal-to-noise ratio of COVID-19 papers on preprint servers. I am here to help.]]> funny papers preprints science physicists pet-theory latex argh https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:64b9511192c8/ Will there be a second Covid wave? 2020-06-02T11:26:52+00:00 https://unherd.com/2020/06/should-we-expect-a-covid-second-wave/ jmin science, you hold all your variables constant except one: keep the lid on your styrofoam cup and your china cup. That’s true, and if we were doing pure science — if we only cared about finding out what lockdown measures worked and which didn’t — then it would be simple: introduce measures one at a time, wait and see, do it slowly.  But we’re not doing pure science. We’re also trying to make a country that works for its citizens, in conditions that change daily. “We’re trying to build a plane as we fly it,” my US epidemiologist told me. The most important thing, according to Javid, will be “nimbleness; being able to change policy in the light of new evidence”. If it turns out opening schools was wrong, then close them again. And we in the media need to be wary of shouting about mistakes and U-turns and instead say: when the facts change, you change your mind. ]]> science epidemiology covid-19 second-wave lockdown medicine u-turns https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:69328dc97af7/ An open letter to software engineers criticizing Neil Ferguson's epidemics simulation code 2020-05-18T13:56:40+00:00 https://blog.khinsen.net/posts/2020/05/18/an-open-letter-to-software-engineers-criticizing-neil-ferguson-s-epidemics-simulation-code/ jmthe main message of this letter is something different: it’s about your role in this story. That’s of course a collective you, not you the individual reading this letter. It’s you, the software engineering community, that is responsible for tools like C++ that look as if they were designed for shooting yourself in the foot. It’s also you, the software engineering community, that has made no effort to warn the non-expert public of the dangers of these tools. Sure, you have been discussing these dangers internally, even a lot. But to outsiders, such as computational scientists looking for implementation tools for their models, these discussions are hard to find and hard to understand. There are lots of tutorials teaching C++ to novices, but I have yet to see a single one that starts with a clear warning about the dangers. You know, the kind of warning that every instruction manual for a microwave oven starts with: don’t use this to dry your dog after a bath. A clear message saying “Unless you are willing to train for many years to become a software engineer yourself, this tool is not for you.” ]]> software coding engineering science teaching c++ https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:379ea18e947c/ Projecting the transmission dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 through the postpandemic period | Science 2020-04-14T22:42:00+00:00 https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/04/14/science.abb5793 jmWe used estimates of seasonality, immunity, and cross-immunity for betacoronaviruses OC43 and HKU1 from time series data from the USA to inform a model of SARS-CoV-2 transmission. We projected that recurrent wintertime outbreaks of SARS-CoV-2 will probably occur after the initial, most severe pandemic wave. Absent other interventions, a key metric for the success of social distancing is whether critical care capacities are exceeded. To avoid this, prolonged or intermittent social distancing may be necessary into 2022. Additional interventions, including expanded critical care capacity and an effective therapeutic, would improve the success of intermittent distancing and hasten the acquisition of herd immunity. Longitudinal serological studies are urgently needed to determine the extent and duration of immunity to SARS-CoV-2. Even in the event of apparent elimination, SARS-CoV-2 surveillance should be maintained since a resurgence in contagion could be possible as late as 2024. ]]> covid-19 forecasting papers science medicine pandemics sars-cov-2 herd-immunity epidemiology https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:7ab32cc04632/ WHO endorses voluntary patent pool to develop Covid-19 products 2020-04-07T11:19:58+00:00 https://www.statnews.com/pharmalot/2020/04/06/covid19-coronavirus-patents-voluntary-pool-world-health/ jmThe World Health Organization director-general has endorsed the idea of creating a voluntary pool to collect patent rights, regulatory test data, and other information that could be shared for developing drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics. The concept was proposed two weeks ago by Costa Rican government officials amid mounting concerns that some Covid-19 medical products may not be accessible for poorer populations. By establishing a voluntary mechanism under the auspices of the WHO, the goal is to establish a pathway that will attract numerous governments, as well as industry, universities and nonprofit organizations. “I support this proposal, and we are working with Costa Rica to finalize the details,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a statement on Monday. "Poorer countries and fragile economies stand to face the biggest shock from this pandemic, and leaving anyone unprotected will only prolong the health crisis and harm economies more. I call on all countries, companies and research institutions to support open data, open science, and open collaboration so that all people can enjoy the benefits of science and research.” ]]> patents covid-19 who ip medicine pharma science research open-data open-science collaboration https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:3e77ddc48d4e/ "A recent Nature paper reveal a remarkable trick SARS-Cov-2 learned that makes it nastier than the first SARS" 2020-04-06T09:09:07+00:00 https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1246975275021348865.html jm viruses sars covid-19 sars-cov-2 medicine science https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:8dcd0a0c6047/ 'They are leading us to catastrophe': Sweden's coronavirus stoicism begins to jar | World news | The Guardian 2020-03-31T09:26:40+00:00 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/30/catastrophe-sweden-coronavirus-stoicism-lockdown-europe jmA petition signed by more than 2,000 doctors, scientists, and professors last week – including the chairman of the Nobel Foundation, Prof Carl-Henrik Heldin – called on the government to introduce more stringent containment measures. “We’re not testing enough, we’re not tracking, we’re not isolating enough – we have let the virus loose,” said Prof Cecilia Söderberg-Nauclér, a virus immunology researcher at the Karolinska Institute. “They are leading us to catastrophe.” ]]> sweden fear covid-19 europe politics science https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:cb54a97611c2/ Carl T. Bergstrom on Twitter 2020-03-26T21:52:46+00:00 https://twitter.com/CT_Bergstrom/status/1243252341756669953 jmthe fight against misinformation is not merely a scientific communication issue. It's a vital public health necessity. [...] In all the years of studying infectious disease and planning for this day, I never dreamed that when it came I'd be opposed by my own federal government, a non-trivial fraction of my fellow citizens, and as yet undetermined fraction of hostile foreign actors. ]]> disinformation misinformation propaganda trump covid-19 scicomm science public-health social-media twitter pandemics https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:5e4c198d44e7/ Jen Heemstra on Remdesivir 2020-03-23T12:02:12+00:00 https://twitter.com/jenheemstra/status/1241823517181698052 jm remdesivir viruses science chemistry medicine drugs covid-19 treatment https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:ab0845dd7de2/ Connectivity at the origins of domain specificity in the cortical face and place networks | PNAS 2020-03-03T14:51:02+00:00 https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/02/25/1911359117 jmWhere does knowledge come from? We addressed this classic question using the test cases of the cortical face and scene networks: two well-studied examples of specialized “knowledge” systems in the adult brain. We found that neonates already show domain-specific patterns of functional connectivity between regions that will later develop full-blown face and scene selectivity. Furthermore, the proto face network showed stronger functional connectivity with foveal than with peripheral primary visual cortex, while the proto scene network showed the opposite pattern, revealing that these networks already receive differential visual inputs. Our findings support the hypothesis that innate connectivity precedes the emergence of domain-specific function in cortex, shedding new light on the age-old question of the origins of human knowledge. ]]> brains vision babies knowledge learning science biology https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:54e5d8be1755/ Methane as a greenhouse gas 2020-02-24T12:36:54+00:00 https://twitter.com/hausfath/status/1230573108949446657 jm ch4 methane ghgs atmosphere climate-change science https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:a21928eabfab/ Elon Musk, SpaceX Unveil Latest Starlink Plans, Creating An Astronomical Emergency 2019-12-11T11:26:33+00:00 https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2019/12/11/elon-musk-spacex-unveil-latest-starlink-plans-creating-an-astronomical-emergency/ jmA responsible entity would address the problems they're actively creating and exacerbating before accelerating their launch schedule. A responsible entity would ask for the approval of all affected parties before proceeding further. A responsible entity would honestly and accurately address the real issues at hand, and would demonstrate that they've listened to communities beyond their own through their actions. On the other hand, an exploitative entity would pay lip service to the communities they affect while continuing to actively harm them. They would ramp up their launch schedule. They would continue to send up offensive, unaltered satellites while putting minimal effort into solving problems that have been raised. They would invite consultants, but would squash any objectionable voices. They would distort the truth about concerns that have been raised. They would put their business interests — such as lucrative potential government contracts — ahead of any human interests. And they would deflect criticism by running PR campaigns that draw attention away from the real issues. ]]> starlink elon-musk light pollution astronomy science space https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:035556b5980f/ Climate models have been correct for literally 40 years 2019-12-04T12:12:26+00:00 https://heated.world/p/climate-models-have-been-correct jmAccording to the research published today, almost every peer-reviewed climate model of human-caused global temperature rise dating back to 1970 lines up with the warming we see today. “In scientific terms, we'd say there's no bias,” the paper’s co-author Henri Drake, a PhD candidate at MIT, told me over the phone. “Once we accounted for the differences in CO2 emissions, 14 of the 17 models we analyzed were consistent with current observations.” “Taken together,” he added, “these climate models have always been quantitatively accurate.” ]]> climate-change climate modelling simulation science history co2 ghgs https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:e1916127d568/ China Uses DNA to Map Faces, With Help From the West - The New York Times 2019-12-04T11:39:49+00:00 https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/03/business/china-dna-uighurs-xinjiang.html jmThe Chinese government is building “essentially technologies used for hunting people,” said Mark Munsterhjelm, an assistant professor at the University of Windsor in Ontario who tracks Chinese interest in the technology. In the world of science, Dr. Munsterhjelm said, “there’s a kind of culture of complacency that has now given way to complicity.” ]]> grim-meathook-future china racism science surveillance dna phenotypes https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:9e538350ffb4/ luftdaten.info 2019-10-27T21:39:22+00:00 https://luftdaten.info/ jm air-quality metrics pm2.5 pm10 particulates europe citizen-science science measurement https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:4fbd20cebefe/ Scott Aaronson on Google's quantum supremacy leaked paper 2019-09-26T10:35:26+00:00 https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=4317 jmIt’s like, have a little respect for the immensity of what we’re talking about here, and for the terrifying engineering that’s needed to make it reality. Before quantum supremacy, by definition, the QC skeptics can all laugh to each other that, for all the billions of dollars spent over 20+ years, still no quantum computer has even once been used to solve any problem faster than your laptop could solve it, or at least not in any way that depended on its being a quantum computer. In a post-quantum-supremacy world, that’s no longer the case. A superposition involving 250 or 260 complex numbers has been computationally harnessed, using time and space resources that are minuscule compared to 250 or 260. I keep bringing up the Wright Flyer only because the chasm between what we’re talking about, and the dismissiveness I’m seeing in some corners of the Internet, is kind of breathtaking to me. It’s like, if you believed that useful air travel was fundamentally impossible, then seeing a dinky wooden propeller plane keep itself aloft wouldn’t refute your belief … but it sure as hell shouldn’t reassure you either. ]]> google programming quantum-computing qubits future science qc history research https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:a377f8b61791/ A deconstruction of the BBC's "windmills actually increase global warming" article about SF6 from last week 2019-09-23T11:04:58+00:00 https://twitter.com/KetanJ0/status/1173087544642297857 jm sf6 emissions wind electricity global-warming climate-change bbc bias science https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:726cf1d6639f/ The Problem With Sugar-Daddy Science - The Atlantic 2019-09-18T12:45:48+00:00 https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/09/problem-sugar-daddy-science/598231/ jmThe pursuit of money from wealthy donors distorts the research process—and yields flashy projects that don’t help and don’t work. ]]> science funding millionaires donors research ai mit jeff-epstein media-lab https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:f68577a2b14e/ TIL: bananas contain the primary compound in the honeybee's "alarm" pheromone 2019-09-09T09:29:22+00:00 https://blythewoodbeecompany.com/put-down-that-banana-beekeeper/ jmScience helps us explain the phenomena. Turns out bananas contain a compound called isoamyl acetate (also known as isopentyl acetate) – the very same as that which is in honeybees’ alarm pheromone. Pure banana oil (used in emollients, perfumes, and to broaden the flavored milk range) is nothing but this colorless liquid ester, occasionally mixed with other chemicals. While bees’ alarm pheromone isn’t just isoamyl acetate – in fact there are over 40 compounds in the cocktail – it is the main active component. Guard bees, who patrol the entrance, and stinger bees, who comprise the militia, are the two castes within the hive most likely to release the pheromone. Both of these are worker bees (i.e. female) around 2-3 weeks old – the time it takes for their endocrine system to reach its prime. The scent – excreted from the Koschevnikov gland and other glands around the sting shaft – is released either when the bee pops out its stinger (like a cat retracting its claws), or goes full kamikaze and harpoons the mouse, robber bee or luckless human, rear-end first (inevitably dying in the assault). Having volatile properties, the ester evaporates and disperses rapidly from the origin point of the bee’s butt, making it suitable as a swift communication carrier. Once registered, it alerts the colony to the presence of an intruder or threat, lifting their aggro, and effectively coordinating an en masse defensive response. Any stray, lingering waft of a banana about you, then, will trigger a similar reaction (if slightly less intense). Don’t put too much faith in your smoker to avail you either. ]]> bees honeybees science pheromones fruit bananas factoids https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:672bffd297fa/ Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP) in cardiac bypass patients: A multicenter randomized trial of uncertainty and certainty of receiving intercessory prayer - ScienceDirect 2019-09-05T09:19:32+00:00 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0002870305006496?via%3Dihub jmIntercessory prayer itself had no effect on complication-free recovery from [coronary artery bypass graft surgery], but certainty of receiving intercessory prayer was associated with a higher incidence of complications. ]]> prayer religion funny papers science research health medicine surgery https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:d2d7bef97fc3/ Irish National Open Research Forum national framework published 2019-06-10T09:32:00+00:00 http://norf-ireland.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/National-Framework-for-transitioning-to-Open-Research_FINAL.pdf jm via:donmarti open open-access science public ireland funding research https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:6ba675730ffa/ Risky business: linking _Toxoplasma gondii_ infection and entrepreneurship behaviours across individuals and countries | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 2019-01-02T15:54:24+00:00 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rspb.2018.0822 jmUsing a saliva-based assay, we found that students (n = 1495) who tested IgG positive for Toxoplasma gondii exposure were 1.4× more likely to major in business and 1.7× more likely to have an emphasis in ‘management and entrepreneurship' over other business-related emphases. Among professionals attending entrepreneurship events, T. gondii-positive individuals were 1.8× more likely to have started their own business compared with other attendees (n = 197). Finally, after synthesizing and combining country-level databases on T. gondii infection from the past 25 years with the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor of entrepreneurial activity, we found that infection prevalence was a consistent, positive predictor of entrepreneurial activity and intentions at the national scale, regardless of whether previously identified economic covariates were included. Nations with higher infection also had a lower fraction of respondents citing ‘fear of failure' in inhibiting new business ventures. While correlational, these results highlight the linkage between parasitic infection and complex human behaviours, including those relevant to business, entrepreneurship and economic productivity. ]]> science biology infection toxoplasmosis parasites humans behaviour entrepreneurs business brains economics https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:d60371f8ab12/ A Controversial Virus Study Shows Flaws in How Science Is Done - The Atlantic 2018-10-10T11:21:25+00:00 https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/10/horsepox-smallpox-virus-science-ethics-debate/572200/ jmAbsent clearer guidelines, the burden falls on the scientific enterprise to self-regulate—and it isn’t set up to do that well. Academia is intensely competitive, and “the drivers are about getting grants and publications, and not necessarily about being responsible citizens,” says Filippa Lentzos from King’s College London, who studies biological threats. This means that scientists often keep their work to themselves for fear of getting scooped by their peers. Their plans only become widely known once they’ve already been enacted, and the results are ready to be presented or published. This lack of transparency creates an environment where people can almost unilaterally make decisions that could affect the entire world. Take the horsepox study [the main topic of this article]. Evans was a member of a World Health Organization committee that oversees smallpox research, but he only told his colleagues about the experiment after it was completed. He sought approval from biosafety officers at his university, and had discussions with Canadian federal agencies, but it’s unclear if they had enough ethical expertise to fully appreciate the significance of the experiment. “It’s hard not to feel like he opted for agencies that would follow the letter of the law without necessarily understanding what they were approving,” says Kelly Hills, a bioethicist at Rogue Bioethics. She also sees a sense of impulsive recklessness in the interviews that Evans gave earlier this year. Science reported that he did the experiment “in part to end the debate about whether recreating a poxvirus was feasible.” And he told NPR that “someone had to bite the bullet and do this.” To Hills, that sounds like I did it because I could do it. “We don’t accept those arguments from anyone above age 6,” she says. ]]> the-atlantic science news smallpox horsepox diseases danger risk academia papers publish-or-perish bioethics ethics biology genetics https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:7848b9738f56/ The 2018 Nobel Prize is a reminder of the outrageous cost of curing cancer 2018-10-02T12:55:23+00:00 https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/10/1/17923720/immunotherapy-cancer-cost jmOne final disturbing aspect of the cancer cost conundrum: Public money helped pay for many of the drugs that patients can’t afford to access. In a recent analysis, published in the journal PNAS, researchers found that American tax dollars helped fund the basic research that went into every single one of the drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration between 2010 and 2016 — including several cancer immunotherapies. All told, $100 billion in National Institutes of Health research grants helped advance the science behind those drugs. So the Nobel Prize this week is a reminder of the great promise of these drugs — and the incredible, lifesaving science that led to their discoveries. But it should also be a moment to reflect on who is benefiting from them and who isn’t. How will the 1.7 million Americans who are diagnosed with cancer per year gain access if prices keep rising and we don’t address this cost conundrum soon? ]]> cancer immunotherapy drugs costs money pharma science medicine research https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:c1b638cdcd35/ Surprisingly Little Evidence for the Accepted Wisdom About Teeth - The New York Times 2018-09-14T13:55:42+00:00 https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/30/upshot/surprisingly-little-evidence-for-the-usual-wisdom-about-teeth.html jmA systematic review in 2011 concluded that, in adults, toothbrushing with flossing versus toothbrushing alone most likely reduced gingivitis, or inflammation of the gums. But there was really weak evidence that it reduced plaque in the short term. There was no evidence that it reduced cavities. That’s pretty much what we learned recently. ]]> teeth dentistry dental health medicine statistics science https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:79ed3cc85695/ Science Europe – cOAlition S 2018-09-04T10:54:33+00:00 https://www.scienceeurope.org/coalition-s/ jmcOAlition S signals the commitment to implement, by 1 January 2020, the necessary measures to fulfil its main principle: “By 2020 scientific publications that result from research funded by public grants provided by participating national and European research councils and funding bodies, must be published in compliant Open Access Journals or on compliant Open Access Platforms.” The 11 national research funding organisations that form cOAlition S have agreed to implement the 10 principles of Plan S in a coordinated way, together with the European Commission including the ERC. Other research funders from across the world, both public and private, are invited to join cOAlition S. I am extremely happy to see SFI on this list! (Via Cathal Garvey)]]> sfi ireland funding science open-access open papers journals via:cathalgarvey https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:2810e9725a64/ One in five genetics papers contains errors thanks to Microsoft Excel | Science | AAAS 2018-08-22T22:24:45+00:00 https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/08/one-five-genetics-papers-contains-errors-thanks-microsoft-excel jm science microsoft excel spreadsheets autoformatting clippy fail papers genetics https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:143492bf59ec/ How my research on DNA ancestry tests became "fake news" 2018-07-13T13:27:08+00:00 http://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2018/07/12/written-in-blood/ jmI was not surprised to see our research twisted by fake news and satire websites. Conspiracy theories are meant to be just as entertaining as they are convincing. They also provide a way out of confronting reality and reckoning with facts that don’t confirm preexisting worldviews. For white nationalists and racists, if test results showed traces of African American or Jewish ancestry, either the tests did not work, or the results were planted by some ideologically motivated scientists, or the tests were part of a global war against whites. With conspiracy theories, debunking is rarely useful because the individual is often searching for an interpretation that confirms their prior beliefs. As such, DNA conspiracy theories allow white supremacists to plan new escape routes for the traps they laid for themselves long ago. With DNA testing, the one-drop rule—a belief made law in the 1900s that one drop of African blood makes one Black—becomes transmuted genealogically into the one-percent rule, according to which to remain racially white, an individual’s results must show no sign of African or Jewish origin. Through the genealogical lens, American white nationalists consider “one hundred percent European” as good results, which in turn substantiates their “birth right” to the United States as a marker of heredity and conquest. ]]> racism science fake-news conspiracy genealogy dna dna-testing https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:1ea9a3a486ad/ Dormio: Interfacing with Dreams to Augment Human Creativity — MIT Media Lab 2018-07-02T09:49:24+00:00 https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/sleep-creativity/overview/ jmUsing Dormio you fall asleep as you normally would, but the transition into stage 2 sleep is tracked and interrupted. This suspends you in a semi-lucid state where microdreams are inceptable, allowing direction of your dreams.  ]]> dreaming dreams science neuroscience brain sleep lucid-dreaming via:fp dormio https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:adade499b3c9/ Louise Kenny's repeal facts and FAQs 2018-05-22T11:02:02+00:00 https://www.dropbox.com/s/eprz9qb29429ezb/repealfacts%20and%20FAQs_update.pdf?dl=0 jm science medicine louise-kenny repealthe8th abortion https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:bd056b232b1d/ repealfacts and FAQs.pdf 2018-04-29T22:18:04+00:00 https://www.dropbox.com/s/deglzs4i2ss282w/repealfacts%20and%20FAQs.pdf?dl=0 jm repeal repealthe8th science biology medicine pregnancy abortion pro-choice ireland miscarriage https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:42f341c2db9d/