https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methamphetamine
QT:{{”
This illustration depicts the normal operation of the dopaminergic terminal to the left, and the dopaminergic terminal in the presence of methamphetamine to the right. Methamphetamine reverses the action of the dopamine transporter (DAT) by activating TAAR1 (not shown). TAAR1 activation also causes some of the dopamine transporters to move into the presynaptic neuron and cease transport (not shown)
“}}
…. below are some topics to discuss. Going over these points may help minimize future miscommunication or conflict.
QT{{”
Norms of communication: How often will a student and adviser meet? What communication method(s) (email, in person, Slack, etc) does the adviser prefer?
Time: What are the normal hours of operation in the lab? What is the policy on vacation and time off for religious observances and holidays? What are the expectations for research on weekends or at night?
Thesis project: What is the role of the adviser and student in formulating a project? How much will a project overlap with projects of other members of the lab?
Feedback: Is feedback provided one-on-one, in lab meetings, both? Authorship: What are the lab’s rules on who is an author and who is a first author?
Publications: Does the adviser expect a first author paper prior to graduating? (Note that some graduate programs may already have expectations on first author papers.)
Conferences: What is the lab’s policy on attending
national/international conferences?
Career/professional development: How much time is available to participate in career and professional development activities? What role(s) would the adviser play in career/professional development? “}}
https://twitter.com/KendallSciWrite/status/1503508908085760000
CAREER FEATURE
11 March 2022
How hybrid working took hold in science
Two years since COVID-19 forced labs to shut down, group leaders describe how academic research has changed, perhaps forever. Kendall Powell
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00729-9
QT:{{”
Principal investigators (PIs), including those who started research groups during the pandemic, are now incorporating the best parts of pandemic flexibility into the future of research. “It’s hard to see any good when we are heading toward six million deaths,” says Mark Gerstein, a computational biologist at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. “But the pandemic has taught us new ways of thinking about things.”
For example, Gerstein has learnt that some group members work most efficiently at home, whereas others really need to come in to work. “I have been a little surprised that the tails of that spectrum have been so wide.”
Gerstein says that increased flexibility should also help to ease some of the thorniest problems that early-career researchers can face, such as childcare support and the two-body problem — the challenge of two partners needing to find a job in the same geographical location. “I want to be very flexible,” Gerstein says. “That’s what talented people want in their workplace.”
….
Hybrid lab working has also changed the dynamics of groups. Gerstein’s weekly Zoom meeting with his 40-strong team can last for several hours, but he’s fine with a healthy dose of zoning out, turning cameras off and multitasking for those who don’t need to engage in the main conversation. His group uses a Google Doc to draw up the agenda and the members share screens to annotate it in real time. He then saves the final document to the lab’s Dropbox account.
Science-ing from home
“It is efficient and works even better than in-person meetings,” says Gerstein, who plans to retain video meetings to accommodate childcare responsibilities, illness and scheduling conflicts. “Now, everyone is equal, even our collaborators in Europe or China. I don’t think we’ll ever go back to a large in-person lab meeting.”
…
Gerstein has also been rethinking his computational group’s workspace. “Do we want that same traditional look where people come in every day and sit at desks?” he asks. “I’m sceptical — no one wants to be in open-plan cubes.”
Instead, he sees his lab of the future as being one in which, ideally, researchers have their own office and can close the door when they need to think, code or write. There also needs to be a room big enough for three or four people, to host meetings or conference calls. Hybrid working could mean a lot of unoccupied space on certain days. He’s considering a ‘hotelling’ option, with lab members booking larger office spaces in advance as needed, alongside everyone having a smaller dedicated workstation in the group’s shared space.
“}}
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/05/world/putin-pandemic-mindset.html
QT:{{”
Now Mr. Putin has in-person visitors — including the Israeli prime minister, Naftali Bennett, who met with Mr. Putin for about three hours on Saturday. (Mr. Putin’s residence and the Kremlin are outfitted with disinfectant tunnels that all visitors must pass through.)
Some of the world leaders who have met with Mr. Putin in recent diplomatic overtures were seated 20 feet from him at a behemoth of a table, having refused to submit to Russian P.C.R. tests that would make their DNA available to the Russians. Otherwise, people who meet him face-to-face generally have spent as long as two weeks in quarantine first.
Mr. Putin’s extreme caution reflects not only his age — he is 69, putting him at relatively high risk of severe illness from the coronavirus — but also what critics describe as paranoia honed during his former career as a K.G.B. spy.
“}}
QT:{{"
The ventral root of the spinal cord is located anteriorly, while the dorsal root is located posteriorly. Afferent neurons enter the spinal cord through the dorsal root, carrying signals from the body to the brain. Efferent neurons exit the spinal cord from the ventral root before interfacing with their target muscles.
"}}
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/11/24/86-billion-neurons-herculano-houzel/#:~:text=Suzana%20Herculano%2DHouzel%20suggests%20that,matter%20in%20the%20human%20brain.
QT:{{”
While the cooking of food arises only toward the end of this “brain by numbers” book, the making of “brain soup” is its main concern. In 2004, Herculano-Houzel devised a way of reducing brains to liquid as a means to count the number of neurons in them.
“}}
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galactic_Empire_(Star_Wars)#:~:text=In%20addition%20to%20Nazi%20Germany,in%20Return%20of%20the%20Jedi.
QT:{{”
Star Wars creator George Lucas sought to make the First Galactic Empire aesthetically and thematically similar to Nazi Germany and to appear to be fascist.[2] Similar to Nazi Germany, the Galactic Empire is a dictatorship based on rigid control of society that dissolved a previous democracy and is led by an all-powerful supreme ruler.[3] The Empire, like the Nazis, desires the creation of totalitarian order[4] and utilizes excessive force and violence to achieve their ends.[4] The title of the Empire’s main soldiers, the stormtroopers, is somewhat similar to the name given to Adolf Hitler’s Sturmabteilung (SA, “storm department”) paramilitary bodyguards.[3] The visual appearance of Darth Vader in his all-black uniform combined with his devout obedience to the Emperor has allusion to the black-uniformed Nazi Schutzstaffel (SS).[3] According to a Lucasfilm-authorized source, Darth Vader’s relationship with Palpatine is akin to SS leader Heinrich Himmler’s relationship with Hitler.[5] The uniforms of Imperial military officers also bear resemblance to uniforms used in Nazi Germany as well as 19th century Polish ulans (mounted
lancers)—who wore a tunic, riding breeches, and boots like the Empire’s officers wear—as well as the Imperial officers’ cap resembling the field caps historically worn by German and Austrian troops.[2] In addition to Nazi Germany, there was also at least one portion of the Galactic Empire that was based on the Soviet Union, which is the various military personnel and TIE Fighters that are flying in formation as Palpatine arrives on the Death Star in Return of the Jedi. According to Lucas, the ceremony for the Emperor’s arrival was inspired by May Day military parades in the Soviet Union.[6] Lucas has also indicated that the Galactic Empire’s struggle against a smaller guerilla force was inspired by America’s involvement in the Vietnam War and his surprise at how few people spoke up against the war.[7][8] Palpatine’s rise to power has been related to those of Julius Caesar, Augustus, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Adolf Hitler.[5] Palpatine’s consolidation of power and declaring himself emperor is like the Roman political figure Octavian (later renamed Augustus), in that Octavian manipulated the Roman Senate as Palpatine did with the Galactic Senate; he legitimized authoritarian rule by saying that corruption in the Senate was hampering the powers of the head of state; he pressured the Roman Senate to give him extraordinary powers as Consul of the Republic to deal with a crisis and he falsely claimed that he would rescind those powers once the crisis was over; and, as with the transition of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire, Octavian, like Palpatine, relied on his strong control over military force.[5]
“}}
QT:{{”
It has also begun publishing a different type of map, one that shows the chances of snowfall reaching a certain threshold. In the case of this weekend’s storm, as of Friday morning it estimated that New York City had a 30 percent to 50 percent chance of receiving at least eight inches of snow in 24 hours.
“People might look at that and say, ‘It’s more likely that it won’t happen,’” Mr. Lamers said. “But, of course, 30 percent events happen all the time. The best players in baseball: That’s how often they get a hit.”
“}}
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/01/27/upshot/snow-forecast.html
extended QT: {{”
A typical 65-year-old American woman — to take one example — is five foot three inches tall and weighs 166 pounds. If she had been vaccinated and did not have a major Covid risk factor, like an organ transplant, her chance of dying after contracting Covid would be 1 in 872, according to the calculator. For a typical 65-year-old man, the risk would be 1 in 434.
Among 75-year-olds, the risk would be 1 in 264 for a typical woman and 1 in 133 for a typical man.
Those are meaningful risks. But they are not larger than many other risks older people face. In the 2019-20 flu season, about 1 out of every 138 Americans 65 and older who had flu symptoms died from them, according to the C.D.C.
“}}
Liked this qt: “A typical 65-year-old…woman…If…vaccinated and did not have a major Covid risk factor…her chance of dying after contracting Covid would be 1 in 872…In…2019-20…about 1 out of every 138 Americans 65 and older who had flu symptoms died from them.” …
But wonder if these stats are distorted by asymptomatic infections — i.e. if the 1 out of 872 reflects those showing Covid symptoms.
Omicron Is in Retreat: ‘What’s Next?’ – The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/19/briefing/omicron-variant-cases.html
Liked this quote from the article: “Individual abstinence is not the solution, for the same reason that wearing a gas mask…isn’t the answer to pollution… [It’s] just pushing it back on to the individual…when it’s…the environmental changes that will…make the difference.”
bigger quote
QT:{{”
In Moscow, the former Google engineer James Williams – who has become the most important philosopher of attention in the western world – told me I had made a crucial mistake. Individual abstinence is “not the solution, for the same reason that wearing a gas mask for two days a week outside isn’t the answer to pollution. It might, for a short period of time, keep certain effects at bay, but it’s not sustainable, and it doesn’t address the systemic issues.” He said that our attention is being deeply altered by huge invasive forces in wider society. Saying the solution was to just adjust your own habits – to pledge to break up with your phone, say – was just “pushing it back on to the individual” he said, when “it’s really the environmental changes that will really make the difference”.
Nigg said it might help me grasp what’s happening if we compare our rising attention problems to our rising obesity rates. Fifty years ago there was very little obesity, but today it is endemic in the western world. This is not because we suddenly became greedy or
self-indulgent. He said: “Obesity is not a medical epidemic – it’s a social epidemic. We have bad food, for example, and so people are getting fat.” The way we live changed dramatically – our food supply changed, and we built cities that are hard to walk or cycle around, and those changes in our environment led to changes in our bodies. We gained mass, en masse. Something similar, he said, might be happening with the changes in our attention.
“}}
linkstream2 microblog 