I know it's a running joke that dads are obsessed with turning the thermostat down, but I'm currently living in my parents' house because my dad is unwell and he fiddled with the thermostat using his phone app FROM HOSPITAL.
“The vaccine has been developed too quickly and is unsafe” Here are some things you should know about why the
#COVID19
#vaccine
has got here so fast and where huge amounts of time have been saved… (clue – it’s not in the testing). Thread...
Somatic mutations accumulate similarly in cells that actively divide (mitotically active) and cells that don't (post-mitotic), which means the major cause of somatic mutations is not DNA replication error, as was believed previously. Fascinating!
I don't have a SoundCloud, I just want to be able to stop worrying about accidentally killing my elderly parents by giving them what will very shortly become a vaccine-preventable disease. Thanks for reading.
This politician on the Today programme is ‘sick of the science changing’. This is why more scientists need to go into politics, and politicians need to have a better understanding of how science works.
ETA: Vaccines have risks, which we can't 100% quantify over the long term or for everybody but can estimate pretty well from trials as being very small. COVID has risks, which we can estimate pretty well from the 1.5 million people who have died already with it. Choose wisely.
@Kat_Arney
1) Money. Relatively few in the scientific, pharma & policy worlds care about vaccines compared w/ drugs. Most vaccine programmes are underfunded as they’re perceived as not profitable, only relevant to LMICs, & have few research groups/companies working on them
@Kat_Arney
Getting funding & research capacity for vax usually takes months/years.
#COVID19
#vaccine
was a massive global research effort w/ $millions for multiple groups/projects in weeks. Years of funding cycles & lab research happened in months, huge amount of time saved
@Kat_Arney
2) Trials. It takes months/years to get approval for trials, set up the infrastructure and recruit enough volunteers, especially for less common diseases. Again, this happened in weeks as vax trials were prioritised for regulatory approval over anything else
@Kat_Arney
We’re in a global pandemic – the vaccine is being tested in places with very high community prevalence, so trials can hit pre-determined statistical milestones very quickly. Huge amount of time saved
@Kat_Arney
Of course we can’t get long term data on safety and efficacy yet, and that will come (NB Oxford viral vax is built on previous technology that has been trialled before). Generally, we would expect any serious issues to show up quickly - oldest trials are 6+ months now
@Kat_Arney
Setting up a trial also takes time, money and infrastructure.
#COVID19
#vaccine
trials plugged straight into existing trial sites around the world w/ 10000s volunteers wanting to do their bit to get life back to normal. Huge amount of time saved
@Kat_Arney
3) Prevalence. To show vax effectiveness, you need a high number of people with the disease in the population – big problem with the Ebola vax is that it took so long to develop the outbreak was over & the couldn’t get enough numbers to conclusively show it worked
What kind of twisted horrible world do you live in where you believe that dedicated and highly trained paediatricians would actively want to kill a child? Every doctor I've ever met is working to alleviate suffering, usually in very difficult and emotional situations
#AlfieEvans
@Kat_Arney
These are just my immediate thoughts – would love to see if anyone has done a calculation on exactly where/how much time has been slashed from the vax devt process just by everything moving faster & being properly funded or other areas where time has been saved. /end
OK who wants to read a book on cancer genetics & evolution, containing stories about asshole amoebas, mummified mice, swearing, ranting, jokes, memes & Pixies references? Because that's what I've nearly finished writing & could do with some cheerleading to get me over the line.
Given that this started because a news outlet wanted to only call medical docs Dr, let us not forget that a PhD is an actual doctorate, and the medical title is an honorific
"3,000 acupuncturists stand ready to help NHS fight coronavirus" - I bloody hope they're planning to fight it by closing their quack clinics and staying at home unless they've got actual medical training...
The three kinds of emails you get when you've written a science book:
"Why didn't you cover my paper on [niche topic that you only mentioned in passing] from 1985?"
"Why didn't you include this/put in pictures/do it differently?"
"hElLo HeRe iS mY TheOrY..."
Science is a process, not a product. People who communicate research for a living need to move away from the press release model of "scientists have found a thing, do you like it?" to telling stories that reveal the context & questions that drive research
Exceptional clarity from
@IanDunt
on the epic clusterfucktastrophe that is facing the UK as Johnson and his team have to Get Brexit Done. Spoilers: they can't, at least not without breaking an awful lot of things.
He is Onon a Cuckoo. This bird was in Kenya on 29th April. Today he is in Madhya Pradesh. He has completed his crossing of the Arabian Sea to India and, for good measure, flown another 600 km inland also. It is 5000 Kms flying in a week. Feel that amazing feat.
@BirdingBeijing
Honoured to have won the first Gordon McVie award for cancer reporting
#mjaawards
- he was such an incredible science communicator and voice for cancer research
Potential dog names that have already been vetoed by my joyless boyfriend:
Ronnie Barker
David Bowwowie
Isambard Kingdom Bonel
Napoleon Bone-apart
Mark Ruff-alo
Update: Here are a couple of useful references that have been brought to my attention that explain more about where the vaccine development process has been accelerated: and
Hello, my name is Kat. I have a PhD in genetics and write about DNA for a living. I still have to do a little mime to remember which way the double helix goes. Every. Single. Damn. Time.
Translation: we've got a massive online shop and we're doing really well but some people think it's a bit ... cheap. We bought Debenhams so we could use the name to get into a posher market with fancy brands.
This 2,200 year old mosaic panel from Ptolemaic Egypt, with an adorable dog seated next to a knocked-over gold wine jug, is one of my favorite mosaics.
It once graced a floor in the royal quarter of Alexandria and is now located in the modern library of Alexandria.
Do you have a vagina? Do you like vaginas? Do you think people should know more about vaginas in general? You can help support the world's very first Vagina Museum:
@vagina_museum
@DrJenGunter
He mentions humans only once in the Origin, but turned his eye to our species in the Descant of Man in 1871. It is a book of similar levels of scientific insight, though also contains sentiments and language that we might find unpalatable today.
Amazon built an AI to rate job applications. It analyzed 10 years of (male dominated) hires. Then it started penalizing resumes that included the word “women’s,” downgrading graduates from all women's colleges, and highly rating aggressive language.
Ah joy - first cancer conspiracy related email arrived today... "havent read your book, but im almost sure you DONT know what cancer really is (its a TREE FUNGUS) English Doctors knew this 250 yeras ago!!!!"
Jillian Epperly’s recipe for a fermented cabbage slurry that makes “waterfalls” of diarrhea made her the head of what she called a “poop cult.” Thousands followed her dangerous science before a grassroots movement shut her down when Facebook wouldn’t.
Three in 10 families in England are left with little choice but a faith school while thousands are forced into faith schools against their wishes every year, our research has found.
Another case to add to the evidence for the 'Rule of Assholes' - if someone is dodgy in one aspect of their life (eg financial dealings), they're probably dodgy in others (working relationships), because fundamentally they don't respect other people:
Twitter hive mind: looking for awesome women scientists of colour or science-adjacent people (ideally life sciences) for a panel event on amplifying voices & stories of women in science. Evening of 20th March in London. Any ideas???
I'm currently looking into the use of aromatherapy in NHS maternity care. Here's a table from one NHS Trust set of policies on what aromatherapy oil to use for what situation. This, IMO, is entirely inappropriate: these are serious symptoms, and shouldn't be 'treated' with smells
👇👇👇 This. I'm baffled by orgs/corps who think social media is a trivial task that can be outsourced for pennies. Managing the public face of a brand is a big responsibility. Generating quality content & driving engagement is hard. And no, we can't just "make it go viral" 🙄
#SciComm
#ProTip
- just saw another small NGO advertising a student internship to run their social media. Sure, the youths know how to use internetz, but they probably don’t know your org’s history or even current stances, or communications strategy in general... be careful!
Important finding: sorting your email is pointless. Putting email in folders wastes an an average of 67 hours of your life a year. People who use folders take MORE time to find stuff compared to searching & are no more accurate in finding what they want.
When the death of one woman causes this much panic about the stability of your entire democracy, something has gone very badly wrong. Rest in power, RBG, what an incredible life. Looking to my US friends and family to honour your legacy.
Me, a professional writer, when I am not writing: I LOVE WRITING! WHEEEE MY JOB IS AMAZING!
Me, a professional writer, the very second I actually have to start writing something: AAAAAAAAAARRRGGGGGHHHH MAKE IT GO AWAY
(This post is brought to you by the end of a very long week)
It's here! Delighted to announce that my 3-part
@BBCRadio4
documentary series, Bug In The System, about the past, present and future of
#cancer
will be airing from next week: Huge thanks to my amazing producer
@BethSF
who made it happen & all our guests
Roundup of the past decade: Great wedding, shit marriage 😥
Horrible "Hot Mess" years 2012-2015 😢
Quit job, got divorced, built successful freelance career, wrote 3 books & started my own business 💃💪
Found someone amazing & moved out of London ❤
Bring on 2020... 🎉✨
For years afterwards Boris cursed that they didn’t just read his CV, with its mesmerising Latin quotes, but unfortunately they asked him to demonstrate his skill set.
The universe seems to be expanding at a faster rate than cosmologists expect. Physicists’ proposed explanations largely relate to two unknowns: dark matter and dark energy.
Three years ago today, my sci comms company,
@FirstCreateMe
, was born. Today we're a team of 5+ taking on the world. It's a wild ride but I wouldn't have it any other way. Thanks as always to my *ahem* strategic business partner
@mjrobbins
for coming along the journey.
“The results are going to be messy,” he said. “You test 30,000 people so that the messiness kind of averages out.”
STAND BACK EVERYONE - THIS GUY JUST INVENTED CLINICAL TRIALS!
No annual roundup, no resolutions. I'm just grateful to be scraping myself over the finish line of an unfeasibly long year with a particularly brutal end, hugely thankful to my family, team, friends & amazing partner for being there through it all. Here's to 2022, stay well x
#OnThisDay
1879: Scientist Maud Menten was born. She co-devised the Michaelis-Menten equation, one of the fundamental models in enzyme kinetics
#WomenInSTEM
Pre-existing conditions include many people you know, love, work with: People with autoimmune conditions, people with heart issues, people with diabetes, people with asthma, people undergoing cancer treatment and more...
OK twitter: I'm so proud & excited to launch my next book, Rebel Cell, in August. But it's not a great time to be launching a book so I need your help... Any ideas/contacts for online events/talks/Q&A, podcasts, reviewers etc? Hit me up, I'm here for it!
OK
#sciencetwitter
, don't let me down.. Need a name for a 5-part Radio 4 series about genes. Current ideas: Gene Genie. The Notorious ACTG. Inside your genes. Stranded. Strands of Life. The Secret Life of Genes. Recipes for Life. The Human Blueprint... Can you do better???
So angry. I will lose my current EU-based work (& £ I get paid for it!) if we leave the single market, as will many other small/sole-trader businesses. It's clear Corbyn is NOT pro-UK workers at all, just hates the EU.