BC SCIENCE
Saved by @CodyyyGardner

Yearly cursed/nightmarish science articles thread. Will include articles from past years for completeness since old threads have been lost.

 (04/25/2017) An artificial womb successfully grew baby sheep — and humans could be next
https://t.co/Vk1Ot8hK0l
(05/17/2017) Exposure to BPA potentially induces permanent reprogramming of painted turtles' brains
https://t.co/8N3wWkRtSl
(07/23/2017) A Spanish scientist is making robots that he thinks could end sex between humans
https://t.co/80CwxRsINP
(03/08/2018) It’s Time to Make Human-Chimp Hybrids.
The humanzee is both scientifically possible and morally defensible.
https://t.co/R925n7ieWz
(03/16/2018) Artificial wombs intended to save premature babies — for now. Next step could be 'immaculate gestation'
https://t.co/TqLAZ4rYqr
(09/04/2018) Sperm Count Zero
https://t.co/SUFhq27RmJ
(10/12/2018) Chinese scientists have created healthy baby mice with two mothers and no father, pushing back the barriers to same-sex reproduction in humans
https://t.co/5JQuThCDob
(11/01/2018) Male Breastfeeding Kit Could Let Dads Nurse Their Babies
(11/25/2018) On the eve of a major summit to discuss ethics of gene edited babies....looks like it already happened in China
https://t.co/Gj8fT33JSU
(11/30/2018) The First Clinical Trial of a Male Birth Control Gel Is Under Way
https://t.co/GyhuoIrlWG
(12/06/2018) This womb transplant breakthrough could open up pregnancy to all sexes
https://t.co/3xRJBJZg9t
(01/30/2019) The Death of a Dreamer
https://t.co/5VUT5lZF92
(02/08/2019) Transgender women 'should be entitled to womb transplants' so they can have a baby
https://t.co/dNX4mbTifk
(03/26/2019) Male pill - why are we still waiting?
https://t.co/YLW5Vv5wl0
(04/04/2019) The engineering of living organisms could soon start changing everything
https://t.co/Tbta3PBNag
(04/10/2019) UC Berkeley researchers develop hormone-free birth control pills for both men and women
https://t.co/umWSLnfekV
(04/11/2019) Chinese scientists put human brain genes into monkeys
https://t.co/99poklXBdP
(04/16/2019) First U.S. Patients Treated With CRISPR As Human Gene-Editing Trials Get Underway
https://t.co/UDzTzCVHDb
(04/19/2019) The Helmet That ‘Resets’ Your Brain - Magnetic stimulation is helping some people with depression
https://t.co/rAWZivAXdP
(05/14/2019) Human babies born using an artificial womb ‘possible in a decade’
https://t.co/UWyG3BLkL6
(06/10/2019) Upgrade Your Memory With a Surgically Implanted Chip
https://t.co/Piy8c5nK53

More from Science

Sri Krishna
Sri Krishna
@tellkrish
With @franklowery our new study on attributes of T cells that contribute to successful cell therapy in cancer patients in @ScienceMagazine today w/ colleagues @slgoff_SB, @NCI_CCR_SB @theNCI a TL;DR thread on key findings with caveats :) 1/10

has a long history of using tumor infiltrating T cells (TILs) to treat cancers since well.. before I was even born. We analyzed our most successful melanoma ACT trial for cell surface phenotypes in TIL infusion products of patients (aPD1/immunotherapy naive) /2

Surprisingly we found a CD39- TIL subset (CD39-CD69-, DN) associated with ACT-response. TBH we were expecting the opposite (CD39+). We only included CD39 bcz multiple groups (e.g. Simoni et al, 2018) had reported CD39+ as enriching for anti-tumor/neoantigen reactive T cells. /3


CD39- DN TILs RNA/epigenetics resemble stem-like memory progenitors, and in vitro were able to self-renew, and give rise to other CD39+ subsets. OTOH the most dominant subset of patient infusion products were CD39+ CD69+ (DP) and these guys were terminally differentiated.. /4


So, to clarify we specifically analyzed tumor-specific mutation-reactive Tcells. Turns out, ACT-responders had pool of neoantigen-reactive TILs in the CD39- phenotype, while non-responders did not (despite other irrelevant CD39- Tcells) -> not all CD39- T cells are bystanders /5
SCIENCE
KenOliveLab
KenOliveLab
@KenOliveLab
Extremely excited today to reveal the first of two great works (magnus opera?), just posted on bioarxiv, applying regulatory network analysis techniques to PDAC expression data to dissect the underlying biology of the disease. Tweetorial time! 1/

Eight years ago I launched an enduring collaboration with Andrea Califano @ColumbiaCancer to apply his regulatory network analysis techniques to #pancreaticcancer. So many amazing scientists have contributed to this work: @paslaise @hc_maurer @AlvaroCurielGa1 @ElyadaEla 2/

What is “regulatory network analysis”? At it's heart, it's a way of extracting more useful information from expression profiles. A fundamental flaw of differential gene expression (DGE) analysis is the assumption that each gene is independent. Biologist KNOW this is not true! 3/


DGE treats all ~25K detectable genes as SEPARATE variables, performs 25K T-tests, and then slaps on a multiple hypothesis correction to make the statisticians less dyspeptic. There is no consideration of the relationships between genes! 4/

Yet we KNOW genes are co-regulated in SETS by transcription factors and other REGULATORY FACTORS. Biologist: “p21 is a target of p53”. DGE: “Shhhh”. These relationships are completely ignored by expression analysis. THIS IS A TRAVESTY! 5/
SCIENCE
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Asbj\xf8rn St\xf8ylen
Asbjørn Støylen
@strain_rate
1/ #LBBB generates often a classical pattern on #EchoFirst. The pattern is very distinctive in Tissue Doppler of the septum.


The classical pattern arises from the time lapse of the activation and relaxation of the two walls, creating a pattern of interaction due to a sequence temporal imbalances of the tension between the two walls.


2/ As the septum is activated first, it contracts (shortening - septal flash) without activation of the lateral wall, which stretches. This generates slower pressure build up than a normal IVC, which then is prolonged.


3/ During ejection, the LV volume decreases, so both walls shorten. Tension, however, declines first in the septum, as this was activated first. This leads to a tension imbalance, so the lateral wall continues to shorten, the more relaxed septum stretches.


4/ The stretching of the septum builds up an elastic tension in the septum, which is released as recoil, when tension declines in the lateral wall, showing a post systolic shortening in the septum which is due to elasticity.
SCIENCE
Navin Kabra
Navin Kabra
@NGKabra
Did you know that all the nuclear bombs we exploded in the '40s-50s-60s have permanently contaminated all the steel the world has produced since then? All steel in the world is divided into two categories: pre-1945 non-contaminated steel, and post-1945 contaminated steel.

How?

Nuclear bombs (including the tests) create a lot of radioisotopes that are not found in nature. For example Cobalt-60 (a radioactive version of Cobalt-59). And since the 1945 Trinity test, these have all dispersed in the atmosphere.

What does this have to do with steel?

The process of manufacturing steel uses atmospheric air (or atmospheric oxygen). Some of the radioisotopes like Cobalt-60 get pulled in too, and as a result, any steel produced after 1945 has embedded in it some of these radioisotopes, sitting there emitting gamma rays.

Why do we care about traces of radioisotopes in steel? When making Geiger counters, or medical devices to check for radioactive contamination, or astronomical instruments, the emissions from the contaminated steel would interfere with the measurements.

So we need pre-1945 steel

Pre-1945 non-contaminated steel is called "low background steel". And when we need it, where do we get it from?

We go, find pre-World-War-II sunken shipwrecks, and then salvage the steel (and lead) from those to build our instruments which need heavy radiation shielding.
SCIENCE
Bert Hubert
Bert Hubert
@PowerDNS_Bert
Recently I learned something about DNA that blew my mind, and in this thread, I'll attempt to blow your mind as well. Behold: Chargaff's 2nd Parity Rule for DNA N-Grams.
If you are into cryptography or reverse engineering, you should love this.
Thread:


DNA consists of four different 'bases', A, C, G and T. These bases have specific meaning within our biology. Specifically, within the 'coding part' of a gene, a triplet of bases encodes for an amino acid


Most DNA is stored redundantly, in two connected strands. Wherever there is an A on one strand, you'll find a T on the other one. And similarly for C and G:

T G T C A G T
A C A G T C A

(note how the other strand is upside down - this matters!)


If you take all the DNA of an organism (both strands), you will find equal numbers of A's and T's, as well as equal numbers of C's and G's. This is true by definition.
This is called Chargaff's 1st parity rule.
https://t.co/jD4cMt0PJ0


Strangely enough, this rule also holds per strand! So even if you take away the redundancy, there are 99% equal numbers of A/T and C/G * on each strand *. And we don't really know why.
This is called Chargaff's 2nd parity rule.
SCIENCE

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Patrick Byrne
Patrick Byrne
@PatrickByrne
READ AND RETWEET AS THOUGH THE LIFE OF YOUR NATION DEPENDS ON IT. WHICH IT DOES. Citizens, I am going to add to the picture with more information. I am not going to let this pass while keeping information to myself. I am going to walk you through 2 narratives.

A printing shop in Michigan prints ballots for Delaware County, Pennsylvania and as Lancashire County, Pennsylvania (this is normal). But along with the ballots it prints on contract and delivers to those counties, it prints some ballots that get diverted to Bethpage, New York.

There, a boiler room of folks fill in "Biden" (often without even voting downballot). The ballots (which are forensically legitimate, given that they come from the same print shop as the good ballots, ) then get trucked into Pennsylvania and mailed. Hundreds of thousands.

We have all of that documented. Texts, statements, affidavits, everything.

We also know that this same ballot printing company (and other firms in the same family) also print for Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Georgia.
POLITICS , LEGAL
Gareth Harney
Gareth Harney
@OptimoPrincipi
1) The Temple of the Divine Claudius was a vast temple complex on Rome's Caelian Hill, overlooking the valley that would later be occupied by the Colosseum. Though almost nothing now remains of the structure, its scale and grandeur once rivalled anything in the city.. #LostRome


2) The 'Claudium' was intended as a sacred complex to revere Claudius and the imperial cult. Construction began soon after the death and deification of the emperor in 54 AD, initiated by his widow Agrippina who was likely responsible for his supposed death by poisoning. #LostRome


3) The sprawling temple complex sat on a gigantic podium that spread across the Caelian Hill, measuring 180 x 200 metres; with towering retaining walls of travertine that raised the structure 20 metres above the valley below. #LostRome


4) The elevated sacred area was likely entered by steps facing the temple on the west side. The temple itself had a projecting hexastyle porch and was surrounded by gardens and a grand portico, probably the 'porticus Claudia' mentioned in Martial's 'On the Spectacles'. #LostRome


5) Statues of both Agrippina and Claudius’ ill-fated young son Britannicus, sculpted in sumptuous dark Egyptian greywacke, were discovered among the ruins on the Caelian Hill in 1651 – and had almost certainly been displayed in the temple precinct. #LostRome
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foone
foone
@Foone
So I was talking to @gewt about Job: A Comedy of Justice and I came up with a theory that I think explains why Heinlein's late-period work is so kinda-terrible and why I still enjoy it so much


So Heinlein had always been very interesting in the short parts of his novels, like the little snippets inside chapters. He had a very fun writing style, and wrote some fun dialogue with fun characters, right?>
It probably comes from how much of his early stuff was short fiction

And I think what happened with a lot of his longer works is that he'd just start writing fun bits and hope it would end up going somewhere or having a bigger plot by the end. like eventually he'd figure out where this was going, then go back and rewrite it into a cohesive whole

and I'm sure he had editors that'd help this process. No editor would let you publish something as rambly and changing-gears-every-other-chapter as The Number Of The Beast, for example... unless you were God-King Of Science Fiction 1980s Robert Heinlein.

so basically I think what happened is that by the 80s (when he was in his seventies!!) he lost the drive to go back and rewrite and he was too Untouchable for editors to make him.
CULTURE
KENYAN\U0001f1f0\U0001f1ea HISTORY\U0001f1f0\U0001f1ea
KENYAN🇰🇪 HISTORY🇰🇪...
@historykenya101
Have you ever wondered why the sons and daughters of the colonial chiefs and guards who were collaborators live a good life while those of the MAU MAU fighters live in abject poverty?

***THREAD***


It should be known that the colonialists reached a point that they knew they had 2 leave Kenya since they couldn't handle the Mau Mau war & the world was moving toward accepting independent Africa.However,the colonialists devised an evil scheme that still eats Kenya upto this day

Under this scheme, the colonial state came up with a plan that saw the first crop of chiefly “big men” being empowered financially to take their children to schools and eventually have those children go to England for further studies...

...and eventually providing a ready-made socio-economic & political class whom state power could be entrusted in the post-colonial era.This explains why their children & grandchildren still hold majority of important positions in govt or in the private sector supported by state.

This also explains why children and grandchildren of these homeguards are always given preferential treatment when it comes to government appointments. Wewe na masomo yako you are always asking why you can never get a job in government...yet you're qualified..now you know.
HISTORY
dan spaceman
dan spaceman
@ohlaika
I'm gonna do my other star wars thread tomorrow, which will primarily be me yelling at a @RowanKaiser-shaped strawman for calling the First Order and The Resistance "cosplayers who the rest of the galaxy has to deal with"

the deal w/the New Republic, the First Order, and the Resistance is very weird and complex and I actually take issue with how Story Group frames the actual conflict.

pre-TFA stuff is presented as a "cold war" between the New Republic and the remnants of the Empire that form the First Order, which 100% makes sense.

But they frame the First Order's attack on the Hosnian system and the subsequent battle that takes place across TFA and TLJ as a full on war when it's very clearly a coup. A war implies at least equal standing, but the First Order completely wrecks shop and takes over the galaxy.

ok never mind I'm fucking doing this now.

The First Order fleet we see in TLJ is *not* the entire fleet of the First Order (I don't even think Starkiller Base was their main base of operations honestly, it couldn't have been considering they were operating out of Wild Space)
CULTURE