BC SCIENCE
Saved by @SteveeRogerr

Hard agree. And if this is useful, let me share something that often gets omitted (not by @kakape).

Variants always emerge, & are not good or bad, but expected. The challenge is figuring out which variants are bad, and that can't be done with sequence alone.

 You can't just look at a sequence and say, "Aha! A mutation in spike. This must be more transmissible or can evade antibody neutralization." Sure, we can use computational models to try and predict the functional consequence of a given mutation, but models are often wrong.
The virus acquires mutations randomly every time it replicates. Many mutations don't change the virus at all. Others may change it in a way that have no consequences for human transmission or disease. But you can't tell just looking at sequence alone.
In order to determine the functional impact of a mutation, you need to actually do experiments. You can look at some effects in cell culture, but to address questions relating to transmission or disease, you have to use animal models.
The reason people were concerned initially about B.1.1.7 is because of epidemiological evidence showing that it rapidly became dominant in one area. More rapidly that could be explained unless it had some kind of advantage that allowed it to outcompete other circulating variants.
Genomic surveillance/sequencing allowed UK scientists to detect the increased prevalence over a very short time scale, and you need sequencing to identify the variant, but that doesn't tell us much about HOW it outcompeted other circulating variants.
B.1.1.7 contains several mutations that have arisen independently in other lineages and were already on the radar. For ex: spike N501Y is in the receptor binding domain and was already being studied because of that. We know it helps increase binding affinity to the receptor ACE2.
But there are other mutations in the variant and we don't know if they are functionally important, or have an additive or synergistic effect with N501Y. And we still don't know the mechanism by which B.1.1.7 is more transmissible.
Could be:
-More viral shedding (infected people produce more virus)
-Increased interval of viral shedding (people are contagious for longer)
-Increased viral fitness (virus can replicate better in infected people)
-Better receptor binding (virus can infect cells more easily)
Could also be:
-Increased environmental stability (virus can remain infectious in the environment for longer)
-Increased ability to evade host defenses (virus can escape innate cellular defenses against infection and thus replicate better)

Could be one, some, or all of the above
What these mutations can't do:
-Render masks or other physical barriers useless
-Make the virus transmissible by a totally different route of infection
-Turn the virus into the infectious equivalent of a smart cruise missile
-Defy the laws of conservation of mass and energy
We won't know why the variants are more transmissible until we do the experiments, & this takes time. This is why in addition to increasing genomic surveillance capacity, we also need to invest in research that allows us to determine the functional consequences of mutation.
What we should NOT do is start reporting breathlessly that things like masks might not work as well, that staying home is futile, or that vaccines will be rendered useless, etc. Most careful science journalists don't report that way, but many others do, including some scientists.
What we SHOULD do is use caution and take every new variant of concern as a reason to be more vigilant about precautions meant to reduce transmission overall. Other variants will emerge. Most of them will not be more worrisome than any other variant.
But variants like B.1.1.7, that are associated with epidemiologic evidence supporting a cause for concern, need rigorous study in the lab before we start speculating about the mechanism for why they are concerning.
We also need more functional virology in general to understand important regions of the genome, which could make it easier to infer function from sequence alone in the future. This is why fundamental, basic research is critically important for preparedness and response.
And while we don't know the WHY of concern, we do know the WHAT we should do in the meantime. Practice additive risk reduction:
-Avoid gatherings/crowds
-Avoid enclosed spaces/shared air
-Masks
-Distancing
-Ventilation if possible
-Wash hands
-Disinfect high-touch surfaces

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We look at the night sky and see photons arriving to us, emitted by distant stars. Let's contrast two different theories about how stars emit photons.

One theory says, we know how stars shine, and our equations predict that they emit photons roughly uniformly in all directions. Call this the "Many-Photons Interpretation" (MPI).

But! Others object. That is *so many photons*. Most of which we don't observe, and can't observe, since they're moving away at the speed of light. It's too ontologically extravagant to posit a huge number of unobservable things!

So they suggest a "Photon Collapse Interpretation." According to this theory, the photons emitted toward us actually exist. But photons that would be emitted in directions we will never observe simply collapse into utter non-existence.
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Phil Plait
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1/ Today is #BlackHoleFriday, an annual science outreach event that, by complete coincidence I’m sure, is done on #BlackFriday. You’ll read lots of cool stuff about black holes on the hashtag. Here’s mine.


2/ Black holes are weird. Duh. People like to think of them as something like incredibly dense nuggets of stuff that sucks other stuff in. But they’re not like that.

3/ If you squeeze enough mass into a small enough volume, the gravity gets so intense that it’s impossible to escape them *if you get too close*. From far away, though, gravitationally they more or less act like anything with that much mass.

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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.
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Steve Magness
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THREAD
The world is littered with hacks and quick fixes.

Magic routines, butter in our coffee, special supplements, exotic foods. All promising to transform our lives.

Nearly all of it is BS. Here are 12 science-backed "hacks" that actually work.

Read a Book.

An expert in their field has taken their vast knowledge and distilled it to what's most important. Writing forces you to make difficult decisions on what's important and what's not. Writing demands clarity. You're getting an expert's lifetime of work for $15.

Talk to people who know more.

The best way to "hack" knowledge? Have a conversation with those who are informed. They've done the hard part of figuring out of sorting through the mess of information AND making sense of it. Having a conversation brings clarity for application.

Show up, no matter what.

Day after day. Sit down to write. Get out to exercise. Whatever the task you're trying to master, just keep showing up.

If you show up enough, you'll get better.

Sleep.

Just getting your 8+ hours has enormous benefits from the psychological to physical. Sleep is when your body restores & grows with its highest output of growth hormones, & when your mind processes and coalesces information. Translating knowledge from superficial to deep
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Jimmy Bernot PhD \U0001f990\U0001fab1\U0001f3f3\ufe0f\u200d\U0001f308
Jimmy Bernot PhD 🦐🪱🏳️‍...
@JimmyBernot
Heres the story of how I volunteered to be infected with 50 parasitic worms (hookworm) for a year as part of a research study. Check out this thread & follow me for more #parasite & marine biology content [t]
#ScienceTwitter
imgs: https://t.co/hH5YsfS0ay https://t.co/kVurE6BbTS


1st some background on the parasites I got. Hookworms are blood-feeding nematodes that live in the intestine of mammals including cats, dogs & humans. ~500 million people are infected with hookworm, mostly in tropical and subtropical areas including the southern USA

Infection with many worms (100+) can cause anemia, which is most problematic in kids, pregnant women, and the elderly. This clinical study was launched to try to develop a vaccine against hookworms to prevent infection

People become infected when baby worms living in the soil penetrate their skin. Baby worms hatch from eggs that infected people poop out. Where plumbing is scarce, poor waste disposal is a common source of heavy infections (100s to 1,000s of worms)

I volunteered to be vaccinated with an experimental hookworm vaccine (I was also paid). After vaccination, the vaccine (or placebo idk) was tested by infecting me with 50 hookworms (Necator americanus) that penetrated my skin from a patch of gauze I wore on my wrist for 1 hour
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एक बार देवराज इन्द्र अपनी सभा में बैठे थे, तो उन्हे खुद पर अभिमान हो आया।


वे सोचने लगे कि हम तीनों लोकों के स्वामी हैं। ब्राह्मण हमें यज्ञ में आहुति देते हैं और हमारी उपासना करते हैं। फिर हम सामान्य ब्राह्मण बृहस्पति से क्यों डरते हैं ?उनके आने पर क्यों खड़े हो जाते हैं?वे तो हमारी जीविका से पलते हैं। देवर्षि बृहस्पति देवताओं के गुरु थे।

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Ashta Siddhi

Ashta Siddhi is mentioned in Patanjali Yog sutra and can be obtained by very few through countless years of practice and devotion to all eight limbs of Ashtanga Yoga.

Siddhi can loosely be translated as accomplishment or a special power or unusual skill.


The eight Siddhis are:

1. Anima: Reducing one’s physical self to the size of an atom.

2. Mahima: Expanding one’s physical self to infinite level

3. Garima: Making one’s physical self so heavy as immovable by others

4. Laghima: Becoming almost weightless


5. Prapti: Being able travel anywhere in the Universe

6. Prakamya: Can know & understand what is going on in one’s mind. Can understand other person’s min.

7. Ishitva: Possessing title of Bhagwan

8. Vashitva: A seeker can subdue any person/thing

(Hanuman Jayanti is coming)


Hanumanji not only possessed all eight siddhis, but was also blessed by Sita mata as “Ashta Siddhi Nau Nidhi Ke Daata”.

When Hanumanji first reaches to Lanka on his mission to find Sita, he makes use of anima so as to be discrete in enemy territory.


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Paul M Domenick\U0001f43a
Paul M Domenick🐺...
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1-Smile
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Don’t walk Into any social setting looking like the hunchback

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Stand up straight with your chin up & chest out like a god

Walk like you’re proud of yourself


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It’s weak & you probably won’t trust them

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Eye contact while talking means you’re listening and paying *Attention*

Strong eye contact displays confidence


4-Fluid hand gestures

Use your hands to talk & express your points

Don’t stand there like a robot

Using the hands can make what you’re talking about exciting

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RISHI PINGALA:THE ANCIENT INDIAN SAGE DISCREDITED FOR HIS MAJOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO MATHEMATICS & PHI

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