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Thread: A look back at the top 10 most-read @undarkmag stories published in 2020, starting with…

 #10: I had not personally heard of the Voynich manuscript — a cryptic, centuries old “text” that still baffles researchers — until super-smart @jillianefoley brought this story idea to us. If you don’t know about this puzzle, prepare to be fascinated:
https://t.co/ZNEBudrssi
#9: A riveting review by @Svobodster of @jameshamblin's book "Clean" and our collective obsession with "surface notions of cleanliness."
https://t.co/KR1xW0qt8H
#8: My personal favorite headline of the year, which I continue to argue contains a gift to any budding garage band looking for a name. (You’re welcome). Story by the always excellent @DianeEPeters
https://t.co/6jx7sEptGB
#7: Written all the way back on April 16th, @kategammon’s smart look at the anti-vaxx community’s then-percolating suspicions around the hunt for a Covid-19 vaccine seems eerily prescient as vaccine roll-outs get underway now.
https://t.co/ZzLihsMtaQ
#6: She started writing for us almost three years ago, and since then, @Inkfish has become one of our most reliable and thought-provoking contributors. Here she tackles the science on Covid-19 in breast milk, finding it is “not a fluid to fear.”
https://t.co/SKbk0dAagj
#5: Contributing editor Michael Schulson (not on Twitter) was one of the first journalists to examine the backlash against Stanford's John Ioannidis (also not on Twitter). It’s a measured look at a scientific debate that still ruffles feathers.
https://t.co/U8gNoGY5KB
#4: This October entry from Johannesburg-based journalist @EdStoddardZA proved so popular with readers that we’ve considered establishing a chinchilla vertical at Undark. (Not really.) Good stuff on a pressing issue:
https://t.co/XnPyBckR0V
#3: From our opinion silo: As the full breadth and threat of the Covid-19 pandemic was becoming clear last March, epidemiologist and long-running head of @OSHA_DOL, @drdavidmichaels, took a cudgel to the @GOP and its history of science denialism.
https://t.co/JqjXpqjmLt
#2: The headline on @elaberwarren’s highly-trafficked piece from August poses a potent scientific question that continues to puzzle researchers — and one that will surely do so long after Covid-19 is a thing of the past.
https://t.co/NiaXrDO485
And #1: This probing profile of coronavirus specialists who, over the last decades, watched helplessly as research funding went toward other threats is, simply put, a must-read. Story by the very excellent and very Twitter-shy journalist, Charles Schmidt.
https://t.co/Osh0NX7Zkl
PS #1: I’d like to emphasize that this is by no means a list of Undark’s “best” work, but rather its most highly trafficked, which is a measure of … something — but as we all know, not everything.
PS #2: I’m both proud of and humbled by the sheer amount of very excellent journalism that our small team — and our vast network of contributors — manages to produce week in and week out.
PS #3: I cannot conjure enough thanks for our brilliant and unflappable deputy editor, @J_Roberts8, nor for our swashbuckling audience engagement editor @frankieschembri, who truly make the Undark world go ‘round each day.
PS #4: Endless gratitude to @ashleythesmart who cultivates some of the best opinion pieces you’ll read anywhere; @betty_the_nah for keeping our bills (and our writers) paid; and @LucasAndersH who does a little bit of everything at both Undark and its publisher, @KSJatMIT.
PS #5: To our core team of story wizards, including: articles editor @brookeborel, senior editors @Sara_Talpos & Scott Veale; formidable podcast producer @lydiachain; whip-smart production editor @AmandaGrennell; and tireless fact-checkers @mahohnoes & @erikakcarlson: THANK YOU!
PS #6: And finally, special and ultimate gratitude goes to veteran journalist @deborahblum, who came to @KSJatMIT in 2015 and shook things up like a hurricane, turning an already-excellent fellowship program into a world-class incubator of vital science journalism.
PS #7: Her innovations are too many to count (just visit the shiny new https://t.co/mhnYsKXJjH website for a sampling), but giving rise to @undarkmag is one of them.
PS #8: Our modest publication will mark its 5-year anniversary next month. It’s non-profit science journalism undertaken very truly in the public interest, with the intersection where science mingles — or collides — with politics, economics, and culture as its special focus.
PS #9: If you haven’t already checked us out, doing so in 2021 would make for a very solid resolution (I say humbly).

https://t.co/Hp0GgmXPSU
PS#10 (and fin!): Happy New Year, and thanks again to everyone who helps to make @undarkmag happen.

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David Boxenhorn
David Boxenhorn
@davidboxenhorn
1. The death of Silicon Valley, a thread

How did Silicon Valley die? It was killed by the internet. I will explain.

Yesterday, my friend IRL asked me "Where are good old days when techies were


2. In the "good old days" Silicon Valley was about understanding technology. Silicon, to be precise. These were people who had to understand quantum mechanics, who had to build the near-miraculous devices that we now take for granted, and they had to work

3. Now, I love libertarians, and I share much of their political philosophy. But you have to be socially naive to believe that it has a chance in a real society. In those days, Silicon Valley was not a real society. It was populated by people who understood quantum mechanics

4. Then came the microcomputer revolution. It was created by people who understood how to build computers. One borderline case was Steve Jobs. People claimed that Jobs was surrounded by a "reality distortion field" - that's how good he was at understanding people, not things

5. Still, the heroes of Silicon Valley were the engineers. The people who knew how to build things. Steve Jobs, for all his understanding of people, also had quite a good understanding of technology. He had a libertarian vibe, and so did Silicon Valley
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Roland Baker
Roland Baker
@RolandBakerIII
Moderna's mRNA-1273 & Pfizer's BNT162b2 consist of mRNA 3821 nucleotides long encoding *all* 1273 amino acids of the Spike including a 2 Proline-stabilized RBD. This is a plain English Description of the code:
https://t.co/w7koHyMJjL

The article mentions a “10 nucleotide linker” (GCAUAUGACU) in the poly-A tail. This is described in the patent link below (Modification of RNA, producing an increased transcript stability and translation

Here is a link to the full mRNA code if you wish to download it, blast it or make up a batch in your garage


An overview of the encoded spike


Initial mouse
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Eli Tyre
Eli Tyre
@EpistemicHope
There's a particular kind of romantic partnership, with a certain sort of person, that I've wanted since I became a self-aware, directed agent at around age 15.

Empirically, this kind of relationship has been hard to achieve. It hasn't worked out yet, at least.

And this sometimes leaves me wondering if my standards are unreasonable.

In years past that desire was often very alive.

These days, I'm rarely directly or viscerally in contact with it.

I sometimes contemplate aiming for some other kind of romantic and/or sexual relationship instead. In part because I might be more effective if I...I don't know, got laid more? But that's not really the thing. More like, if I had someone around whom I could regularly relax.

But mostly, I don't pursue those alternative relationship-setups out of a sense of something like loyalty to myself + a vague sense of wrongness and/or sadness about it. It often feels like giving up or giving in.

[I might elaborate on the wrongness sometime.]
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Bernie
Bernie
@bealangi
This is a what I’d call a funny tale about how you never know how things are going to circle back:
(Long thread warning, but I think it's worth it)
1/?

My childhood was messed up. My mother was an abusive alcoholic and mentally ill. In 1995 when I was 12 years old, my parent's split. Originally the courts stated I had to stay with my mother, which I believe was the court's default decision at that point. 2/?

Truth be told, is usually the best choice for a child, just not in my case.
For my own safety I eventually ran away from her to live with my dad. I left behind my dog (who was also 12), and my three cats (Rocky 8, Jewel 10, and Scamper 12 years old). 3/?

After about a year of fighting in family court, my father was given full custody of me. I never spoke to my mother again.

My dad, being an electrician, would come home from work after particularly hard days and jokingly say, "Just don't work in electrical Bernie." 4/?

As a kid I didn't fully understand he was joking, so I took it to heart. I had a natural talent for the sciences and math, so I studied Physics and Math at Dalhousie University before switching to Marketing and Statistical Analysis at Saint Mary's University.
5/?
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Chris Jones
Chris Jones
@EnswellJones
Back when I went to Bishop’s University, I managed the student radio station, CJMQ. When I started, it was kind of a pirate station. We had an illegal antenna on a roof, and a couple of residences could get us through the radiators somehow. Nowhere to go but up.

Happily, it was 1993. Pump Up the Volume made it cool to be a DJ. Grunge and indie were huge. We went from, like, 12 DJs to 100 and started acting like a real radio station. God, it was awesome. It was like we were on a quest. It felt like a real crusade.

Eventually we decided to try to get an FM licence. This was no easy feat. The bureaucracy was maddening. It cost a lot. We needed to find a proper tower. Long story short, after two years of solid effort, everything came together: CJMQ was awarded 88.9 on your FM dial.

We were going to launch one blissful night in 1995. I planned a massive party and woke up the morning of, not quite believing we’d finally made it. I went to say good morning to my roommate, David, and… Not a single sound came out of my mouth. Not even a whisper.

I had completely and utterly lost my voice. OH GOD NO. I raced to the pharmacy and scribbled a note to the pharmacist: “I’ve lost my voice, and I really need my voice.” She nodded and retrieved two suppositories. They were each the size of large-caliber artillery shells.
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IMPORTANCE, ADVANTAGES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF BHAGWAT PURAN

It was Ved Vyas who edited the eighteen thousand shlokas of Bhagwat. This book destroys all your sins. It has twelve parts which are like kalpvraksh.

In the first skandh, the importance of Vedvyas


and characters of Pandavas are described by the dialogues between Suutji and Shaunakji. Then there is the story of Parikshit.
Next there is a Brahm Narad dialogue describing the avtaar of Bhagwan. Then the characteristics of Puraan are mentioned.

It also discusses the evolution of universe.( https://t.co/2aK1AZSC79 )

Next is the portrayal of Vidur and his dialogue with Maitreyji. Then there is a mention of Creation of universe by Brahma and the preachings of Sankhya by Kapil Muni.


In the next section we find the portrayal of Sati, Dhruv, Pruthu, and the story of ancient King, Bahirshi.
In the next section we find the character of King Priyavrat and his sons, different types of loks in this universe, and description of Narak. ( https://t.co/gmDTkLktKS )


In the sixth part we find the portrayal of Ajaamil ( https://t.co/LdVSSNspa2 ), Daksh and the birth of Marudgans( https://t.co/tecNidVckj )

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Duration: 24/10/2018-23 /10/2019

Funding: $71,500
@dgaytandzhieva
https://t.co/680CdD8uug


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Access to the database is limited only to those scientists participating in our ‘Bats and Coronaviruses’ project
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https://t.co/mPn7b9HM48


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https://t.co/u6aUeWBGEN


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What are Exponential Moving Averages?

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8EMA = Exponential Moving Averages of the last 8 candle closing prices.

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I made a website because this shouldn’t

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