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$\uff2a\uff35\uff33\uff34 World Hypothesis$

(10/01/2018) Human 2.0 Is Coming Faster Than You Think. Will You Evolve With The Times?

(01/24/2019) Chinese scientists cloned gene-edited monkeys, with horrifying

(08/05/2019) Spanish scientists are making 'very promising' human-monkey chimeras in

(09/15/2019) Three-Year-Olds Might Become Eligible for Sex Changes at UK Clinic. NHS Plans Referrals for 3-year-olds Struggling with Gender

(10/29/2019) Scientists Demonstrate Direct Brain-to-Brain Communication in

RealScientists | Ebony...
@realscientists

The use of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to study the impact of specific interventions, has over the last decade become a dominant methodology in development microeconomics

However, some argue that socioeconomic RCTs do not test hypothesis rooted in theory and ignore mechanisms of causality

For example,

"In 2006, approximately 1,300 men and women were tested for HIV. They were then offered financial incentives of random amounts ranging from zero to values worth approximately four month’s wages if they maintained their HIV status for approximately one year..."

"Throughout the year, respondents were asked about their sexual behavior three times, through interviewer-administered sexual diaries. Respondents were then tested for HIV, and financial incentives were awarded based on whether they had maintained their HIV status..."

"After the second round of testing, the incentives program stopped."

Taken from the article 'Conditional Cash Transfers and HIV/AIDSPrevention: Unconditionally Promising?'

$Billy Bostickson \U0001f3f4\U0001f441&\U0001f441 \U0001f193$

Billy Bostickson 🏴👁&👁 ...
@BillyBostickson

1. New Chinese Bat Research Thread
Graduate students of the Department of Ecology participate in wildlife scientific investigations, field behavior experiments, and genetic sample collection
https://t.co/Gdp74Onoel
Archived:
https://t.co/ursD2GvzcX

2. The latest research of the Department of Ecology
https://t.co/a7M0zwH9YE
Archived:
https://t.co/s1dZlpHu6A

3. Survey of bat field surgery in 2020:
from Guangdong to Yunnan
https://t.co/om0IG3HOBY
Archived:
https://t.co/7HKK59NYq2

4. Wuhan University Bat Research
Jiao Hengwu, a postdoctoral fellow in Dept of Ecology
https://t.co/pC0Oo2u2ta
Archived: Not Yet as a Chinese VPN is needed to access these pages and if a Chinese IP is used, https://t.co/mA4co7ioje is not accessible.
I shit on the great fearwall!

5. Ecologists of Wuhan University publish article in Science, calling for a comprehensive understanding of bats - Huabin Zhao (to be investigated)
https://t.co/hLrOVzMiga
Archived:
https://t.co/CQhmXRn5ia
Publication:
https://t.co/dEN8tc2NET
Search "Huabin Zhao live bat Wuhan"

Amy Proal, PhD
@microbeminded2

Happy 2021! @MBVanElzakker and I are excited to share our new article published in #Immunometabolism: “Pathogens Hijack Host Cell Metabolism: Intracellular Infection as a Driver of the Warburg Effect in Cancer and Other Chronic Inflammatory Conditions”:

2/ In the paper, we detail molecular mechanisms by which #viral, #bacterial, and #parasite intracellular pathogens can induce, or contribute to, a Warburg-like #metabolism in infected host cells in order to meet their own replication and nutritional needs.

3/ We also discuss how host defense towards #infection may impact cellular metabolic changes (including how #mitochondria can participate in the innate immune response towards infection)

4/ We then provide examples of how many of these same intracellular pathogens have been identified in #tumors, atherosclerotic lesions, #granuloma, and other tissues containing cells with a Warburg or altered metabolism.

5/ Last, we examine further trends associated with infection and host cell metabolism, including how #pathogen-driven hijacking of host cell lipid metabolism can support viral, bacterial, and parasite survival and replication.

$\U0001f577scienTEAfic\U0001f577$

🕷scienTEAfic🕷...
@tea_francis

Finally! Back with another #ScienteaficABC 😁The next in my alphabetical journey through all 128 (currently, anyway) spider families is ANAPIDAE! This family of diminutive spiders contains 58 genera/231 species as of now. (images: Conoculus lyugadinus by Akio Tanikawa, CC)

They occur worldwide, but mostly S. America, Africa, Asia & Australia/NZ. A few species are found in Europe and North America as well. (Image: Micropholcomma sp. by tjeales on iNat, CC)

Interestingly, Anapidae have either 6 or 8 eyes, with the posterior median pair being either reduced in size or totally absent. They do not exceed around 2mm in body length so, as a family, are very small. (Image: Micropholcomma sp. tjeales on iNat, CC)

They have a modification to the carapace giving them a characteristic raised ocular area. They are tiny (<3mm long), w/ rounded or hunched abdomens & quite short legs. They have a light covering of hairs & some species have spines on their legs & even abdomen. (img: tjeales iNat)

An interesting feature that some species exhibit is the presence of hardened, shell-like dorsal &/or ventral scutes on their abdomen, which are useful in identification. You can see more images including some that show these scutes here:

Sparky
@Sparky6461

China’s Super Soldiers with Bio-enhancement Capabilities

On December 3rd, 2020, John Ratcliffe, the Director of National Intelligence, posted an article1 in the Wall Street Journal warning the American people that ,

“the People’s Republic of China poses the greatest threat to America today and the greatest threat to democracy and freedom worldwide since World War II.”

The message is loud and clear, and most Americans agree with Director Ratcliffe’s description of the danger that the CCP regime poses to the American people but would not know how to react to this statement:

“U.S. intelligence shows that China has even conducted human testing on members of the People’s Liberation Army in hope of developing soldiers with biologically enhanced capabilities.” Things like that are only found in sci-fi movies.

Jack Iwashyna
@iwashyna

In the midst of all the grief + chaos of 2020, it's hard to remember there were good things

For me, an incredible group of young scholars doing highly relevant science was the #Bestof2020. Here are my favorite 2020 paper by each of several young scholars with whom I get to work

To see where some of these folks were last year see this thread

let's start this #BestOfResp2020 with @UM_IHPI

It's time for #BestOf2019 lists

I thought I would try something new. Here are my single favorite paper by each of several young scholars with whom I get to work. They are all rock-stars. In lots of cases these were hard choices 'cause they were very productive this year...
— Jack Iwashyna (@iwashyna) December 26, 2019

.@msjoding changed the way I look at pulse oximetry in @nejm, rethinking my bedside care

This paper has rightly gotten a lot of

1/ Our research letter on racial bias in pulse oximetry measurement, out today in NEJM https://t.co/6dLuNGosxp pic.twitter.com/XXsfWfc5dv
— Michael Sjoding (@msjoding) December 17, 2020

But I think it is useful to look at it as an example of what makes Mike's work so interesting. A grant to build a dataset just to look at this project would, I think, have been un-fundable. Instead Mike had built an infrastructure to look at ARDS detection

When @msjoding came across Prof Amy Moran-Thomas's provocative @BostonReview essay (https://t.co/VB63h74o9U) he was able to pivot that data infrastructure to ask an important question...

Rich Moore
@richardhmoore

One exciting thing from over the holidays is that the Int'l Civil Aviation Organization (@ICAO) and aircraft engine manufacturers for the first time publicly released quantitative emissions indices for particle # and mass emitted per unit fuel burn! 🧵 1/

https://t.co/zXuFN66SWe

Up until now, certification data for aircraft engine particle emissions have been reported in terms of a "smoke number", which is derived from the change in reflectance of a Whatman 4 filter after collecting 16.2 kg/m² exhaust. 2/

https://t.co/6fa9Kkdupr

One challenge with the smoke number measurement is that the filter doesn't capture all of the particles -- especially small ones. Is the decrease in smoke number over time because we are trading a few large soot particles for many more smaller soot particles? 3/

While smoke numbers are not particularly helpful for quantitatively assessing particle emissions impacts on air quality & upper tropospheric composition, they have been a huge success in motivating the reduction of unsightly exhaust plumes! 4/

Photo credit: flickr/dsleeter_2000

The new EI data are much more useful for #AirQuality and #Climate modeling efforts seeking to understand the environmental impacts of aviation. Since they're collected at ground conditions, the data are most relevant to AQ, but maybe can be extrapolated to cruise conditions? 5/

Stephen Hinton
@stephen_hinton

THREAD: Understanding pivot. Growing pressure from world population life-style will reach a point where it is damaging the capacity of Earth systems to an extent where life support will be challenged. It is simply a question of at what stage governments act. 1/X

Pivot is the same at each point 1-4. I use the STOP acronym. a) Stop, or halt, all increase of extraction/drawdown. b) Think, plan measures that will restore Earth system capacity and keep delivering basic services. c) Organise, re-work old regulations and agencies and then 2/x

Proceed to act. Notice that pivots are different depending on where measures are set in. It is MUCH harder to change when carrying capacity is challenged to an extent where people are dying. However, the pivot idea is a useful decision framework as you will see in 3/x

Pivot planning will be informed by three different criteria:
-which societal services and Earth systems are involved?
-how well is the societal system performing now?
-what drawdown stage has been reached? For example: 4/x

Water: FAO identify five levels of water extraction stress. Measures introduced in the light green countries will be far different than those in high stress areas. That is one dimension for pivot but not sufficient. The other level is societal performance. 5/x

Dr Musa Mohd Nordin
@drmusanordin

The halal polemics has begun … yet again!
Race and religious bigots will spin to trigger tension
Important to stick to the back of basics of Shari’ah (Islamic jurisprudence) & Research ethics
The relationship between Shari’ah and Fiqh is represented by a tree and its parts.

The roots rep the Shari’ah & its primary sources of legislation-Qur’an &Traditions of the Prophet (Sunnah)
The trunk and branches rep the tools & methodologies (Usul al- Fiqh/foundations of Fiqh & Maqasid/Objectives) used by scholars to derive the fruits (fatwas/rulings)

For e.g. The primary sources constitute the raw ingredients of a medicine
The methodology & tools are how pharmacists process the raw ingredients into a medicine
The resulting medicine is dispensed by doctors.

The meds may be out of date or cause adverse effects.
It warrants an alternative prescription.
The relevance of a fatwa would dep on its quality, the societal context & its ability to effectively achieve Maqasid Shari’ah-bringing benefit (maslahah) or removing harm (mafsada).

The 2nd Maqasid Shari’ah aka Priorities of Islamic Law is the preservation of life
Global-70 Million cases & 1.6 million deaths
M’sia-78K cases & 396 deaths
A #COVID19 vaccine is one of the solutions to end the pandemic apart from masking, distancing and hygiene

anlomedad
@anlomedad

What @ClimateBen says is best available science, not fringe opinion. Sources below. And it doesn't happen suddenly AT the end of the 40s. It has already begun and worsens over time. It's a train wreck in slow motion with suffering and deaths and global destabilisation and fascism

Did you know that extreme abrupt climate change heat waves are projected to impact more than 3.5 billion people by the end of the 2040s including some which will be unsurvivable without air conditioning or do you get your news from the front pages of profit-maximising newspapers?
— Ben See (@ClimateBen) December 5, 2020

I'll add 4 sources here. The most important one is the video abstract of a paper by @EdwardByers , part 2/2. Because only this source shows how important global solidarity today is in alleviating poverty so as to lower the vulnerability in climate

"Global exposure and vulnerability to multi-sector development and climate change hotspots" https://t.co/zEyCX8SFug
Clip 2/2 of the paper's abstract as video. (Great #scicomm!)

It explains risks and people's vulnerability at 1.5C, 2C and 3C in world regions by 2050. pic.twitter.com/X55YB0hfwu
— anlomedad (@anlomedad) August 21, 2020

Or check out IPCC SR15 table 3.4. The figures in millions of people exposed or exposed and vulnerable are for the year 2050 on the respective warming pathways toward 2100. So in all likelihood we're already in for the 2˚ columns.
We can lower the impact only in global solidarity

condensed the figures into 3 stills for their primer on climate impacts, "The hard truths of climate change — by the numbers" https://t.co/qTqBVheHIl
But it doesn't show how global solidarity and alleviating poverty from today onwards can significantly lower vulnerability

Here's an interactive map to explore climate risks and hotspots: https://t.co/mbNk6m21lW
IMO, this info should be on newspapers' frontpage everyday as a constant warning where we're headed if we continue to hope for incremental efficiency improvements to our current system setup

Climate change will affect HUNDREDS of millions with impacts like floods, heatwaves, and drought - these places at risk are aka #HOTSPOTS \U0001f525

\u2b07\ufe0f\U0001f9f5 on our new Global Hotspots Explorer \U0001f4e2https://t.co/tuPmqzLeIN
Partnership: @IIASAVienna @theGEF @UNIDO pic.twitter.com/LSCREyuok2
— Edwards Byers (@EdwardByers) October 27, 2020

Rishabh Arya
@limitlessarya

Thread: No Black Hole - Proved by Indian Scientist- No means No
Indian Scientist A.K. Mitra who contested Stephen hawking since 1998 and proved that true black hole do not exist. His research is being avoided from last 22 Years , and Indians are just Sleeping. #BlackHoleMyth

1.Mitra 1st showed his proof regarding true black holes in 1998 , in his research paper he proved that the mass of black hole will be zero that means it do not exist.
2.He put forward a new alternative for such ultra massive object - Eternally Collapsing Object
#Blackholesmyth

3. He was the 1st scientist to solve Hawking's Black Hole Information Paradox, 13 years after his research hawking shown the same thing what mitra told.
4. His research papers were published in top science journals and no one disproved his basic Proofs till now.
#BlackHoleMyths

5. His alternative explanation MECO has many observational evidence while many Obs. Evidence are against Black Hole.
6. Harward University officially accepted his research in their press release.
7. Neither Mathematical nor Obs. evidence support black hole

8. Even the famous black hole image is also misleading, it was the shadow of black hole mimicker , there is no any single evidence for singularity and event horizon , so no black hole.

The Global Science Sho...
@GlobalSciShow

Welcome to today's #GlobalScienceShow as part of #FUTURES2020

From now until 6pm GMT we have a new researcher every 20 minutes ready to share their work with you!

What's going on? Check out the schedule below for info on all presenters!

First up at 12.20pm is @JessieW_Palaeo

All presenters will post content to their Twitter account highlighted in the schedule above. We'll then retweet in the thread below!

You can also check out everything going on by following the hashtag #GlobalScienceshow

A strong opening to the day discussing fossils, climate and theres even A QUIZ.

If you know me, then you know I LOVE A

Hi, my name is Jessie Woodbridge and I'm taking part in the #GlobalScienceShow

I'll be discussing #PastEnvironmentalChanges. Follow along with the whole show and check out @JoshTylerEarth who's up next! #FUTURES2020 @GlobalSciShow pic.twitter.com/1PfM7cLQgR
— Jessie Woodbridge (@JessieW_Palaeo) November 28, 2020

Here's a screenshot of Jessie's quiz, if you would like to try and match the pollen to the plant!

@JessieW_Palaeo #FUTURES2020

I am genuinely smiling so much. Penguins (and specifically Gentoo's) are my favourite animal.

It's so exciting that three new species of Gentoo penguins were recently discovered

Hi, my name is Josh Tyler and I'm taking part in the #GlobalScienceShow & #FUTURES2020.

I'll be tweeting about cryptic species and how we discovered three new species of gentoo penguin\U0001f427. Follow along with the whole show and check out @Jimbo_Rand who is up next. 1/12 pic.twitter.com/4TnkM9dnDB
— Josh Tyler (@JoshTylerEarth) November 28, 2020

David Bernstein
@ProfDBernstein

@Profepps @VolokhC Garrett, I'd be happy to send you all sorts of scientific citations from my forthcoming chapter on the issue, but I'm not convinced you would understand them, or if you did, whether you'd be willing to understand them.

@VolokhC Ah, what the hell, just in case someone out there wants to do some actual research instead of being obnoxious and snarky.

@VolokhC Javier Perez-Rodriguez & Alejandro de la Fuente, Now is the Time for a Postracial Medicine: Biomedical Research, The National Institutes of Health, and the Perpetuation of Scientific Racism, 17 Am. J. Bioethics 36, 41 (2017).

@VolokhC Norman G. Osborne & Martin Feit, The Use of Race in Medical Research, 267 J. Am. Med. Assoc. 275 (1992).

@VolokhC Dorothy Roberts, Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-create Race in the Twenty-first Century 72 (2011).

Marcus Cunningham
@MarcusC31391111

Thread: on Deleuze and Scotus Vs Aristotle and Aquinas.

In an earlier thread here: https://t.co/wfr5uu6s23 I discussed how Deleuze got rid of the concept of species in Aristotle's system by using the category of the individual singularity to encompass all actual ontological entities.

When it comes to heritage within the western tradition the way I assess it is not correctness but based on how interesting, remarkable and important the thinker is. This is important because whilst I embrace the entire western philosophical tradition as all having important
— Marcus Cunningham (@MarcusC31391111) November 17, 2020

But here we'll look at difference and repetition to take a stab at the broader category of genera.

From Somers-Hall's Book on Difference and Repetition.

"Second, Deleuze argues that while Aristotle provides an account of the determination of objects, he cannot provide an account of the constitution of objects. As we saw, properties are understood as properties of something, and the same could be said of differences.

Christian Kammerer
@Synapsida

2020 is finally at an end, so it looks like it’s time once again to review the year in non-mammalian synapsid research!

You can tell 2020 was the worst because I didn’t describe a single new synapsid species this year. In part, that’s due to spending most of my energy on larger-scale synthetic projects, but I had a few new taxa that were supposed to come out and got delayed by #2020 stuff...

Thankfully my colleagues in the synapsid research community have not been so idle, naming 13 new species this year. The vast majority (9) were cynodonts, there were also 2 pelycosaurs, 1 dicynodont, and 1 therocephalian.

For new pelycosaurs the highlight was definitely the long-awaited description by Berman et al. of Martensius, the Bromacker caseid, a plesiomorphic early member of the group known from beautiful material: https://t.co/GUJRKvtNwc

No new biarmosuchians or dinocephalians (though watch out next year…), but there was one new dicynodont: a basal dicynodontoid, Taoheodon, part of an increasingly diverse upper Permian fauna from China: https://t.co/lpq2ElPADw

Enric Florit
@enricflorit

The day has come.

Enter a thread on isogenies, random walks and automorphism groups.

🧵👇

(0/n)

I will explain some of the background we used to write these papers with Ben Smith, so I encourage you to go read them. There are some results at the end of the thread

My first two papers are out in the arXiv! I'm very thrilled about them \U0001f604 pic.twitter.com/Az9gODokH9
— Enric Florit (@enricflorit) January 5, 2021

The main objects in isogeny-based cryptography are elliptic curves and isogenies, usually defined over finite fields. And, of course, isogeny graphs.

(2/n)

You might want to read about elliptic curves

\U0001f369 elliptic curves thread \U0001f369

Disclaimer: this thread is not meant to be technical but rather a bunch of facts I find beautiful about elliptic curves. I hope you can find them beautiful as well.
If you want to learn more about this, read Silverman's Arithmetic of Elliptic Curves!
— \u2133 \u2606\xb0\u30df (@computer_dream) December 31, 2020

First of all, an isogeny is a nonconstant morphism of elliptic curves fixing the point at infinity.

So it is a group morphism, a morphism of algebraic curves, it is surjective, and it has finite kernel.