PI @theMehtaLab at @KU_Leuven. Prev @UAlberta @ETH_en, @imperialcollege. Fmr Early Career Advisor @eLife. he/him @devangm.bsky.social
๐ฎ๐ณโก๏ธ๐ฌ๐งโก๏ธ๐จ๐ญโก๏ธ๐จ๐ฆโก๏ธ๐ง๐ช
- Tweets 30,104
- Following 2,341
- Followers 3,455
- Likes 34,548
My inaugural lecture at @KU_Leuven from ~2 weeks ago. Presented the lab's plans, as well as my experiences with racism in science, and how this relates to reforming science publishing (this part starts at 16:35).
piped.video/_aS55QgOgfw?si=rCkIโฆ
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My first hire as a PI will be a moderately motivated postdoc because no one seems to want to hire those.
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Since this is going beyond BioSci twitter, here's a ๐งต about who Mike Eisen is and why I care so much that he isn't fired from @eLife:
First: Mike, as EiC of eLife, is trying to overturn the idea of prestige publishing
elifesciences.org/articles/8โฆ
This man is "investigated", ppl tag his employers to fire him, tag funders to pull $$, call on him to resign as EIC, & he deleted his Twitter account. All because he showed support for Palestinians while noting that he is Jewish with family in Israel & condemning Hamas's attacks.
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Donโt conference organizers ever get tired of seeing the same talks by the same people at every conference?
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๐งตI'm beyond excited to share that I've accepted a tenure-track research professorship at @KU_Leuven in @biosystkuleuven & the @LeuvenPlantInst!
@MehtaLab_KUL will study & engineer latitudinal adaptation in plants w/ an experimental systems biology lens: mehta-lab.com
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PLEASE RT: We're looking for FIVE new members of @eLife's Early Career Advisory Group! The ECAG is an international group of early career researchers (PhD students, postdocs, PIs <5 years) that directly advises eLife's leadership & shapes policy.
Brief thread about the position:
ALT Members of the Early Career Advisory group standing on a staircase at the eLife Annual General Meeting 2020, held at Janelia Farm in Virginia.
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Feel profoundly betrayed by an org. which so many Early Career Advisors (ECAG) spent so many hours help build. And grieving for its excellent staff coz there is no coming back from this for @eLife. Here's a ๐งตof the amazing things we did that the Board has damaged so grievously.
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scientists from the first world really have no conception of the gap between their experience of science and that of all other scientists on the planet.
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New Article out with @CellAtlas colleagues:
โWe believe that it is finally time for the plant biology community to retire the western blot as a means to โvalidateโ quantitative proteomics dataโฆโ
rdcu.be/c0Owx
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In this weekโs @nature WorldView column, I write:
โThe EU can and should play a greater part in ensuring global food security. I urge both ministers and legislators toโฆresist calls to further limit this technology.โ #NGT #CRISPR
nature.com/articles/d41586-0โฆ
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You know what's hypocritical? Trashing the @NatureComms paper authored by people in Abu Dhabi but giving this equally bad @NatureComms paper a pass just coz the authors are based in the West and are friends with influential scientists and journos.
nature.com/articles/s41467-0โฆ
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how do other #newPIs respond to reviews that say โthe grant requests a postdoc but the applicant is a new PI and has never supervised a postdoc.โ?
Like, how are we supposed to start supervising people if we donโt get the chance to hire them first anyways?
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Iโm so fucking sick of biologists treating societal engagement as a scientific weakness.
(excuse my French)
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250 scientists have signed on to support our nomination of @MicrobiomDigest for the John Maddox prize!
Sign here to add your support: forms.gle/1gkEfSG9qwfzfc1y5
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Last chance to join nearly 600 scientists in supporting this nomination of @MicrobiomDigest for the 2021 John Maddox Prize to give recognition to her tireless efforts to champion scientific integrity.
Sign here: forms.gle/DpiPAekAvRgmsENC6
(form will close this weekend)
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A massive thank you to the over 800 of you who supported the nomination of @MicrobiomDigest for the John Maddox Prize by @senseaboutsci!
Just submitted our nomination and I really hope Dr Bik gets the recognition she so richly deserves for her work.
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I write in @NatureNews: "If the reluctance of junior researchers like me to talk about racism is regrettable, the silence, and hence complicity, of senior faculty members is unconscionable." nature.com/articles/d41586-0โฆ
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Please share! I'm recruiting a fully-funded PhD student for an exciting project on plant circadian biology and genetic engineering at KU Leuven in Belgium! #PlantSciJobs
kuleuven.be/personeel/jobsitโฆ
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A one-sided article about the changes at @eLife. @alison_c_abbott makes much of critical letters from a few editors, but we submitted a support letter to the Board with 153 signatories incl. >70 editors from 30+ countries that doesnโt get even a mention๐
nature.com/articles/d41586-0โฆ
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People harp on about the "professionalism" a scientist must have, they don't realise that often "professionalism" is just code for maintaining an inequitable status quo. Great leaders speak their mind honestly, we should respond with honesty too.
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Nothing in the last decade has revolutionized the culture of life science research as much as @biorxivpreprint!
I've posted all my first author research papers here, and will continue preprinting for my entire career.
Happy Birthday /congratulations to @cshperspectives & co
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The constant RT'ing of @edyong209's terrible piece on the new @elife virology paper by respected scientists prompted me to vent in a blog post about overselling results in science and its role in selective publishing.
@PlantEvolution @mbeisen
medium.com/@devang/overstatiโฆ
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Don't understand how institutes that don't have a single lab studying plants can claim they study "all areas of biology". I mean "all areas of biology except 80% of the biomass of the planet" is more accurate, no?
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Today in @NatureNews
I describe the story behind my last paper and how it taught me that "Scientists have become so accustomed to celebrating only success that weโve forgotten that most technological advances stem from failure." nature.com/articles/d41586-0โฆ
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Kathryn Paige Harden would like a future where for $75 we identify kids that are "genetically less-likely in 30 years to have graduated from college or gotten a PhD". It should shock and anger all biologists that this is now considered respectable science.
piped.video/J97rj__zCxE
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Please Share: I'm recruiting a fully-funded PhD candidate in bioscience engineering at @KU_Leuven. The candidate will work on an exciting project to engineer latitudinal adaptation for climate change in plants.
(A Master's degree is required)
Apply here: kuleuven.be/personeel/jobsitโฆ
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the glyphosate verdicts have to be just incredibly depressing for anyone who works in plant science or agriculture. it's so difficult to make people understand just how hard it is to find as safe and effective a weedkiller, and what losing it will do to farms around the world.
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430+ scientists have signed on to support our nomination of @MicrobiomDigest for the John Maddox prize!
Help us get to 500! Sign here: forms.gle/1gkEfSG9qwfzfc1y5
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A paper in @nature this week that starts, โIn evolutionary theory, natural selection describes why some things exist and others do notโฆNeither (sic Darwin & Modern Synthesis) addresses the space in which new phenotypic variants are generated.โ ๐คฆโโ๏ธ nature.com/articles/s41586-0โฆ
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Our ECAG Correspondence in @Nature is out, setting the record straight about the very high level of support
@eLife's new peer review model enjoys among its community. We also highlight why journalists should always interact with early career stakeholders.
nature.com/articles/d41586-0โฆ
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We're almost at 75 signatures supporting this nomination of @MicrobiomDigest for the John Maddox Prize. Sign here to support!
forms.gle/1gkEfSG9qwfzfc1y5
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Latest piece out!
"Why I'm quitting GMO research", where I take out my frustrations with anti-GMO activists and fellow scientists in equal measure and explain why I'm somewhat glad to be moving towards new horizons in science.
massivesci.com/articles/gmo-โฆ via @massivesci
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He's been at this for a while. He co-founded @PLOS, kickstarting the Open Access movement in biology, allowing students in the Global South (like I was at the time) access to cutting edge research.
He's also a vocal advocate for greater EDI in science. elifesciences.org/articles/5โฆ
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His style is brash, radical, speaks truth to power. Many colleagues wish he would "tone down" his tweets. Not me. I found Mike's Twitter in grad school. Every action I've taken to promote EDI since has been a direct consequence of reading Mike's critiques of the status quo here.
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Finally out and under review! We found that (unlike previous reports and editorials in @NaturePlants) it's a bad idea to use Cas9 to engineer DNA virus immunity in plants. It's not efficient *and* it leads to the creation of a relatively abundant new virus!
CRISPR-Cas9 interference in cassava linked to the evolution of editing-resistant geminiviruses biorxiv.org/cgi/content/shorโฆ #bioRxiv
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From critiquing the Nobel Prizes, to calling out the racism I witnessed in grad school, to working for diversity at every institution I've joined since, all of it is because of Mike's "harsh" tweets and those of people like him. And I'm sure there are others he inspired like me.
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People on hiring committees, please please stop requesting letters of recommendation before shortlisting.
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Read our detailed appeal on #NGTs to the @EU_Commission @EUCouncil @EUparliament in @NatureBiotech:
โWe appeal to EU legislators: prioritize scientifically informed decision-making over arbitrary rules that hinder innovation.โ #GiveGenesAChance
rdcu.be/dl9Y6
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To end, Mike's always stood up for those whose voices don't count in the dominant culture of science. It's time we return the favour.
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Honestly didnโt expect so many people to so openly admit that they just publish and pay to publish just to have specific journal titles in their publication lists rather than for peer review. Shows how completely warped our value systems in science have become.
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๐ข I am recruiting a fully-funded 4 year PhD student to work on an exciting project to engineer the plant circadian clock, at KU Leuven in Belgium!
Review of applications begins July 22nd. #plantscijobs #PlantBio2022
Apply now!
kuleuven.be/personeel/jobsitโฆ
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*shouts into the void* No one forces you to publish with Cell, Nature, Science etc.
This makes me so mad. We acknowledged a NCI Moonshot grant in one of our publications. This funding mechanism requires immediate open access publishing. The cost of open access for this @CellCellPress paper: $9,900.
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one of the weirdest parts of modern biology is that if you discover a single regulatory interaction it's considered a great feat of understanding but if you discover thousands you're just producing more data.
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An abysmally clear case of xenophobia and then gaslighting of the victim by this German university.
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Today, for the first time ever, eLife's Early Career Advisory Group (ECAG) is making public recommendations to @eLife for radical changes the journal should take in order to make publishing fairer and more inclusive. (thread)
doi.org/10.7554/eLife.60438
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You could've credited @SJB_SynBio as the source of this image.
link.medium.com/bM5Jsp1MMsb
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Some have told me he's not a team player, or his style can't bring people along. Nothing could be further from the truth. His cheerful radicalism gives others around him the courage to push boundaries, and work to see their values realised, instead of just overlooking inequities.
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.@elife is looking for FIVE new Early Career Advisors. I've been one for almost 4 years and it's been an incredibly enriching experience--highly recommended for anyone interested in changing paradigms in science publishing! Apply by May 24.
elifesciences.org/inside-eliโฆ
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I've had heated arguments with him (sadly/ironically on freedom of speech too). He's always been generous in listening and gentle in disagreement, even when I wasn't. When I needed a ref. letter coz one fell through (authorship dispute), he wrote one enthusiastically, no Qs asked
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Feel like there's a generation of scientists that's far too much in awe of Crick, Brenner-type of wild hypothesizing and not enough in awe of the insights that actually having a ton of data allows.
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Francophone scientists across the Atlantic take a public stance on media misreporting the facts on vaccines, homeopathy, glyphosate, GMOs, climate change and nuclear energy!
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I'm going to fill this out to nominate @MicrobiomDigest this weekend. The form has doesn't make it easy so I will be making a sign-up sheet for anyone who wants to support the nomination. (you absolutely should do the full nomination if you have the time and a referee)
Nominations are now open for the 2021 John Maddox Prize for Standing up for Science. The award recognises the work of any individual who promotes science and evidence on a matter of public interest in the face of hostility. Find out more: go.nature.com/3mPXsVp
ALT John Maddox Prize 2021. Nominations close 14 June 2021.
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Hiring committees, please don't ask for reference letters up front. Its just a pain for everyone involved? No committee is going read 200*3 letters+the average postdoc applies to several tens of positions and its inconsiderate to have to ask v. busy profs to write so many letters
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A massive thank you to the over 800 of you who signed my nomination of @MicrobiomDigest for the John Maddox Prize. And thanks to @hv_lab for serving as referee. A very well-deserved honour!
What a night. Congratulations @MicrobiomDigest and @MohammadRazai. Many thanks to @ExploreWellcome for hosting us, #MaddoxPrize partner @SpringerNature and presenters @Magda_Skipper, @bronwenmaddox and Tracey Brown, plus all the judges, nominators, and our supporters.
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Here's what @eLife's new process means for you as an author:
โก๏ธYou decide whether to respond to reviewers
โก๏ธYou decide whether to revise your paper
โก๏ธYou decide when to publish a final version of record
โก๏ธYou have less reason to moan about reviewers at lab meetings ๐
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At @NCBS_Bangalore now, looking forward to giving my first scientific presentation in India :)
Many thanks to P V Shivakumar and @RedkarAmey for hosting!
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As promised, here's the recording of @mbeisen's fantastic talk at @MolCellSys last week.
But here's the deal: you have to promise to watch this the next time you're deciding where to submit your paper, and whether you'll @biorxivpreprint it, okay?
piped.video/Py1lOUEl6uk
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Really excited to share something we've been working on for a long time at @eLife: our first Open Call for new editors. Read on to find out why this is such an important step for community publishing๐งต(1/4):
elifesciences.org/inside-eliโฆ
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Note: African scientists have already created GMO maize varieties that can control this insect. They're just not allowed to release it.
An invasive insect is forcing smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa to turn to pesticides. But improper use of the pesticides -- as well as some unscrupulous agrochemical dealers -- is putting those farmers at additional risk americanscientist.org/blog/mโฆ by @LauraJoanKraft
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People got what they wanted, Mike has been fired. Young scientists are now more afraid than ever to share their opinions.
And yet folk still continue to misrepresent his past tweets without context. Incredibly bad faith behaviour. (Yes, I know itโs Twitter but still).
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I wish I could share with all of you jaded PIs the 300+ applications we received from junior scientists all over the world for the ECAG at @eLife. They are filled with so much frustration with the current system but also so much optimism and hope for change!!
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We recieved an incredible 366 applications for 5 spots on @elife's Early Career Advisory Group! That's 361 ECRs around the globe who want to shape research culture but won't have an avenue to do so.
I beg you, make one for them in your societies, journals and institutions, folks!
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I've seen this first-hand at eLife, having joined the org. as an advisor before him. He transformed the organisation in just a few years, giving people new energy and always listening to us early career scientists, instead of seating us at the kids table like other senior folk.
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"Organic farming doesnโt even feature once in the chapters of the #IPCC report dedicated to food security. This is because it is one of the very worst ways of farming if your objective is to conserve land." massivesci.com/articles/ipccโฆ
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๐ฏ this may sound uncharitable but honestly, I too look at papers that never appeared on bioRxiv with greater scrutiny, wondering what the authors were trying to hideโฆ
โScientists, have we lost the plot?โ by KamounLab
kamounlab.medium.com/scientiโฆ
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8 years in plant science and just learned what happens if you make bread with sulphur deficient wheat:
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๐งตWhy publishing in selective journals costs so much:
Journals pay staff to handle papers (& pissed-off authors). If a journal gets 200 papers a month, pays 2 staff to handle them, but only publishes 20 papers, those 20 authors must pay the full cost of the staff salaries. (1/8)
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When a Masters student nervously asks if a negative result will result in lower grades (before even starting a project),you know that positivity bias in science has gone wayyy too far.
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Here's to ending the #plantsci tradition of coming in to water your plants on long weekends and holidays!
Instructions to setup a simple timed irrigation (and fertilization) system online on our lab website:
uhriglab.com/timed-watering-โฆ
Tested w/ Arabidopsis, Benthamiana and Petunia
Just installed a simple timed watering system and now I don't know why more plant labs don't do this, not all #plantsci students have green thumbs y'know.
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As @Europarl_EN debates #NGTs, I urge legislators to move past outdated arguments & free EU science to once again lead the world in Ag-innovation! ๐
rdcu.be/dhhW0
@tomvdkendelaere
@Frederiqueries
@guyverhofstadt
@hildevautmans
@kvanbrempt
@marctarabella
@OChastel
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Plus, we collected 153 signatures in less than a week at that. eLife new model and @mbeisenโs leadership has strong support from scientists at all career stages (unlike the opposition) and this article misrepresents the reception to the model.
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Nothing gives me more hope for a kinder scientific community than meeting @elifeโs incredible Early Career Advisors. If eLifeโs vision for a journal-free future succeeds itโll be because of the positivity they bring to the adversarial system of research communication we inherited
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oh c'mon, this is such a BS paper. At what point do we start demanding more evidence prior to making claims like this?
MIT study: Moderna, Pfizer, AstraZeneca and other vaccines may not do as well covering people of Black or Asian genetic ancestry as they do for white people
zdnet.com/article/mit-machinโฆ
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"Dr Coatesโ analysis found that 82.8% of coronavirus-related preprints and 92.8% of non-coronavirus-related preprints saw no material change to their conclusions upon journal publication."
So much for the "peer review adds value to the paper" argument.
economist.com/science-and-teโฆ
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So good to finally move into an apartment, Ikea bags and all, after a month and a bit of hotel rooms and BnBs.
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It is a shame that 20 years since Golden Rice was first announced, scientists still have to write editorials like this. Anti-GMO activists have blood on their hands.
pnas.org/content/118/51/e212โฆ
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If you've had a conference talk cancelled due to #COVID19 #ShutItDown, @eLife is making it possible for ECRs to present their research virtually!
Sign up here:
elifesciences.org/inside-eliโฆ
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Amid all the chaos, happy to present our latest work on CIDER-Seq, expanding the method's utility to sequence viruses AND eccDNA, and a step by step protocol for new users. (1/6)
rdcu.be/b3n2m
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I'm so glad to see this, for @MicrobiomDigest of course, but also because it means that even if scientific leaders and their institutions don't recognise the work people put in to make science better, others do.
Over the past six and a half years, @MicrobiomDigest has identified more than 4,900 scientific articles containing potentially doctored images, using her eyes and memory alone. nyer.cm/vDfBcfl
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Well after a few bureaucratic delays, a lot of paperwork, and a weekโs travel, finally made it to Leuven!
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So if you're someone who's dissatisfied with the status quo in science, and has the time and will to catalyse reform, join us!
Apply here by March 22nd & feel free to reach out if you have Qs:
elifesciences.org/inside-eliโฆ
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๐งตWith the exception of perhaps my first 1-2 papers (incl. as co-author), Iโve tried my very best to ensure code and data is reproducible and provided in great detail in all my papers. Unfortunately, this transparency is more often punished rather than rewarded in peer review.
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Btw, here's the preprint that divided reviewers so much that one called it "excellent (and to my knowledge unique)", another said it was "rampant and unsupported speculation", and a third called it "excellent, in design and execution". Decision: Rejected. biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/โฆ
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It's great that universities are stepping up to support Ukrainian students, but it's at least a little racist(?) that they are fine not giving those supports to students from all the other major warzones (dark red) on the planet right now.
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It is perfectly possible to explain V(D)J recombination without leaning into an anti-vaxxer lie ๐คท๐พโโ๏ธ
Yes, the vaccine does change your DNA, but only indirectly, as I try to explain in my latest Forbes piece here forbes.com/sites/stevensalzbโฆ
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Well they finally did it: theyโve chased one of the most progressive voices in science, someone who gave many young scientists incl. myself hope that change is possible, off this site.
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Dunno about you but imo writing a long article to rant about young scientists wasting time by being โtoo onlineโ seems to be the greater waste of timeโฆ
Science in the age of selfies | PNAS pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.16โฆ
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Referees (esp. senior PIs), if you have a student you who you think deserves success, please be enthusiastic about them, because I promise other PIs *are* boosting their students, and science *is* a competitive world.
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That's it for scientists then
Optimism turns out to be a huge predictor of extraordinary longevity. Two studies, one 30 years long and the other 10 years, found that high optimism was linked to 11%-15% greater lifespans, even taking into account socioeconomic factors, health & more. pnas.org/content/pnas/116/37โฆ
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In another world where the culture of science wasn't all about hierarchies, credentialism, and arrogance, this whole zoonosis v. lab leak thing could've been avoided...
Alina Chan, a young scientist who raised early questions about Covid's origins, has faced scathing criticism. A new report from the Biden administration, due shortly, may help shed light on the pandemic's beginnings.ย nyti.ms/3DfrbyJ
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Not content with changing @mbeisen off this site theyโre now going after his funding. Truly abominable behaviour by science โcelebritiesโ.
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