BC TWITTER
Saved by @Alex1Powell

So - that was quite a twitter/media day for me, and welcome to my new followers; 3 threads coming up - introducing myself, explaining my background and COIs (this one); technical aspects of the new strain from my vantage; commentary on what is means for the future

 (for the people who know me, skip the rest of this thread!)
A brief tweet portrait of me; I am deputy director general of @embl and co-direct (with Rolf Apweiler, not on twitter) one it's six sites, @emblebi which is based just south of Cambridge, UK.
@embl is the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, a European treaty organisation that does science, similar to CERN. EMBL does molecular biology from high end atomic structural biology to development - and in the future, bridging to Ecosystems.
EMBL is Headquartered in beautiful Heidelberg, Germany and has 5 other sites; Hamburg (Germany also), Grenoble (France), EMBL-EBI at Hinxton (UK), Rome (Italy) and Barcelona (Spain).
Like CERN, the EMBL treaty is separate from EU treaties (though we have a very productive relationship and agreement with the EU); Israel and Switzerland were both founding members of EMBL in 1973. As such Brexit does not legally effect EMBL-EBI in the UK >>
<< though it has many impacts on the operational details and general tenor of the staff at EMBL-EBI, both EU nationals @emblebi, British nationals and non-EU nationals (we are very international in our recruitment)
Overall @embl has 5 missions - Excellent Research, world class scientific services, Training (all career levels), dissemination to industry and European science coordination. @emblebi is focused on bioinformatics - data science in biology - and contributes to all of these
In particular @emblebi provides the world with public molecular biology information; most iconic is the human genome sequence and its associated annotation, but this thread goes far deeper; from the 1970s for protein structures, 1980s for DNA sequence.
In the pandemic @emblebi has provided the technical centre piece to https://t.co/N47Vc4mBnz which enabling worldwide sharing of molecular data on COVID19 - DNA, protein, structures, and impact on the human host (expression changes, human genetics, done in a responsible way)
My own personal expertise is both algorithms around DNA and more recently outbred genetics, in both humans and Japanese Medaka fish.
When life is a little slower I will hopefully regale you all on Medaka fish genetics and phenotypes (its... slow science, and all the better for it) but the main thing about this field is two fold
(a) Data science in biology - aka Bioinformatics - gets hooked into all sorts of parts of biology, and one often reuses a fundamental toolkit (processing, models, statistics) in disparate fields - it really is a wonderful "freedom to roam" and means I collaborate broadly
(b) It is very international, both in data sharing worldwide (such a good thing for humanity I can't tell you - this pandemic being one example!) and also human genetics is very much a global village - we are a small group of upright apes that have exploded quickly worldwide
The final thing to add is that I often work with companies - I have a very porous view of how academia and companies should work in terms of expertise, and then sharp discontinuities about which problems are better solved in the public sphere, and which via private money
(so - I don't find it *at all* a problem that I am for open science and also cheerlead/support companies in general and a specific set of companies; rather it is "for this problem, what is the best structure to solve it")
As such I have a list of companies I have consulted for; am consulting for now; and may well consult for. For the "past" it includes, a long time back, Compugen in Israel, more recent past being GSK (the pharma company)
For the present I am a long standing consultant to @nanopore , which makes a new COVID test (LamPORE); as such I have a clear COI on testing which I try to be squeaky clean about announcing (much to people's amusement).
The other current consultancy of note is @DTGenomics which has a variety of clever library techniques, in particular proximity ligation for assemblies, structural variation and chromatin structure. They don't have a COVID line but they might.
For the future... I can't say (obviously) but what I do aim for is transparency with everyone. As @Spikew3 from nanopore says "Better a conflict of interest than a lack of interest" and being transparent is the start to this.

More from Twitter

Dickie Bush \U0001f6a2
Dickie Bush 🚢
@dickiebush
If you use it right, Twitter is the most powerful platform in the world.

But Twitter does a horrible job of showing you its advanced features.

Here are 10 of them you probably know nothing about:

The most underutilized Twitter feature: advanced search.

It blows my mind how few people know this.

Want to find someone's best tweets?

In the search bar, type:

from:dickiebush min_faves:500

Replace the handle and the number of likes as you see fit.

Another good advanced search tip:

Want to see everyone's tweets on a particular topic?

In the search bar, type:

from:dickiebush "consistency"

Again, replace the handle and keyword as you see fit.

You can filter by popularity too:

from:dickiebush "consistency" min_faves:100

We all have those people we don't want following us, but don't want to block.

Here's a good hack:

Block them, then unblock them.

This will unfollow you, but they'll never know.

Get mentioned in a tweet that is receiving way too many replies, turning your notifications into a disaster?

I've been there.

Click to expand the details of the tweet, then click the three dots on the top right-hand corner.

Then, click "mute this conversation."
ALL , TWITTERTRICKS , TWITTERFEATURES
.
.
@marcie_hatter
I’m not a scientist, so obviously do correct me if I’m wrong. (Heck, this is twitter, I don’t need to ask that do I?)

BUT a virus doesn’t mutate in *nothing*, does it, it doesn’t mutate when it’s on the handle of the supermarket door or even in the air you’ve just breathed out.

It mutates *in a host*. And the most sure fire way for a virus to find a wide variety of hosts in which to mutate is to do precious little to control the spread of the virus. To have policies which amount to “take it on the chin”. To have an ‘acceptable’ death level.

To allow the virus to run absolutely rampant through one section of the population (children) because stopping it doing so would mean making a politically unpopular decision (closing the schools).

Seen some people (scientists, I mean, not your uncle Jim) saying this virus is now more transmissible in children and like... what did they THINK would happen if you allow the virus unfettered access to kids?

It adapts! It adapts to its fucking hosts! It becomes better at infecting them! Like, the whole fucking point for a virus is to be able to make copies of itself. It’s actually not that arsed about killing or harming you.
TWITTER
Advertisement
Ryan Reeves
Ryan Reeves
@investing_city
My 10 most popular tweets from 2020

Happy New Year everybody!

[THREAD] ⬇️

1/ Thread on how American Express


2/ Thread on how Coca-Cola makes


3/ Thread explaining popular software


4/ On consistency
TWITTER
Barney Panofsky's Best Intentions
Barney Panofsky's Best...
@mynamesnotgordy
What I learnt on the Twitter this week:

1. Doug Ford declares State of Emergency. Says he doesn't understand what people don't understand about the rules. Either stay home or go to Walmart to buy essential cream cheese.
2. Ford announces his French lessons are going tray bueno.

3. Kenney announces Alberta will begin procuring their own vaccine because they only have most of the Fed's supply left now.
4. O'Toole announces he just doesn't know how to quit Ezra.
5. Freak storm in Morden, MB; MAGA hat kicked up in the wind; lands on Candace Bergen's head.

6. Canadian Conservative politicians and staffers mourn the loss of Parler which they have never heard of.
7. Kenney signs giant cardboard guarantee saying coal will be mined from Rockies without loss of a single acre of protected land unless it's accidentally delisted and sold.

8. Ford defenestrates MPP Baber from caucus after Baber complains about lockdown. Ford says he's already busy enough locking down Phillips and Oosterhoff.
9. Ontario's Minister of LTCs adheres to lockdown rules and takes three-week vacation under her bed.
10. Où est la Fullerton?

11. Just when you thought Andrew Scheer couldn't defenestrate his reputation any further, Andrew Scheer fully defenestrates himself. Like, maaaddd defenestration going on here.
12. Moments before Parler shuts down, thousands of Canadians post "What does defenderthestation mean?"
TWITTER
Guerin Green
Guerin Green
@GuerinGreen
Bringing Fusion to the Grid 'tweetstorm'


Nat'l Academy of Science on bringing #fusion to the grid


#fusion would be key to future electrical generation mix


Report suggests the beginning of #fusion operating plant as soon as end of the decade


https://t.co/UMapDuWjTa
TWITTER

You May Also Like

Professor
Professor
@DillikiBiili
Some ofthe biggest breakouts occur after Volatility Contraction, the analogy is that more a spring is pressed, higher it jumps whenever it gets released.

There is a VCP Scanner on chartink (Not mine). This may also be used to find potential Breakouts.
SCREENERS , TA SCREENERS
Robin Berjon
Robin Berjon
@robinberjon
Recently, the @CNIL issued a decision regarding the GDPR compliance of an unknown French adtech company named "Vectaury". It may seem like small fry, but the decision has potential wide-ranging impacts for Google, the IAB framework, and today's adtech. It's thread time! 👇

It's all in French, but if you're up for it you can read:
• Their blog post (lacks the most interesting details): https://t.co/PHkDcOT1hy
• Their high-level legal decision: https://t.co/hwpiEvjodt
• The full notification: https://t.co/QQB7rfynha

I've read it so you needn't!

Vectaury was collecting geolocation data in order to create profiles (eg. people who often go to this or that type of shop) so as to power ad targeting. They operate through embedded SDKs and ad bidding, making them invisible to users.

The @CNIL notes that profiling based off of geolocation presents particular risks since it reveals people's movements and habits. As risky, the processing requires consent — this will be the heart of their assessment.

Interesting point: they justify the decision in part because of how many people COULD be targeted in this way (rather than how many have — though they note that too). Because it's on a phone, and many have phones, it is considered large-scale processing no matter what.
TECH
Advertisement
Vibhu Vashisth
Vibhu Vashisth
@VIBHU_Tweet
RANI NAIKI DEVI AND THE BATTLE OF KASAHRADA

Mohammad Ghori, the young Ghurid Prince conquered Ghaznavids in Afghanistan in the year 1173 CE. He conducted some successful raids into the Indian territory, which even Mahmud Ghazni & the Persians couldn't do.


First&foremost,Ghori invaded states of Multan &Uch in India.After this he turned to southern states of Gujarat &Rajputana.Everybody knows this about Ghori,but what most pple r unaware of is the defeat he suffered at hands of Chalukyan Queen Naiki Devi in 1178 Battle of Kasahrada.


When he marched southwards, his first target was the prosperous fortified town of Anhilwara Patan.
It was the capital of Chalukyas(also known as Solankis of Gujarat) which was established by Vanraj of Chapotkata Dynasty in 8th century.


American historian Tertius Chandler states that it was the 10th largest city in the world at that time. The history of Chalukyas has been written by many historians, but the valour of the Great Queen Naiki Devi remains unsung.


Born to the Kadamba King Paramardin of Goa,Naiki Devi was well trained in sword fighting, horse riding, strategy & every other subject of Statesmanship. She was married to King Ajaypala of Gujarat who sat on throne in 1171CE. Unfortunately,the King died within 4 yrs of his rule.
ALL
sriram
sriram
@SriramKannan77
'Treasure Gods' - Sangha Nidhi' and 'Padma Nidhi', Tirumala, Tirupati.

------------------------------------

These are the two guards guarding the Wealth and Treasure of Lord Sri Venkateswara.

They are representatives of two treasures of Kubera, the God of Wealth.


One guard who is holding shangam (conch) on both the hands is known as Shanka Nidhi ('nidhi' means wealth).

On the other side, the guard who is holding Lotus flowers on both the hands is known as Padma nidhi.

Shangu is from the ocean which includes all types of wealth like pearls and corals.

Why shagam in his hand? Because shangam only gives the sound of 'omkaram'.

'Padmam' is the symbol of water sources in land like river, lakes, tanks etc. which is very important for all living beings.

As per the tradition, these guards are installed at the third entrance of the temple.

One enters the holy shrine after saluting the first protection threshold - Sankha Nidhi and Padma Nidhi.
ALL
What The Trans!?
What The Trans!?
@WhatTheTrans
A thread on how absurd the UK is on transgender issues and how the UK got so transphobic

In 2015 Parliament held an inquiry looking into the state of Transgender equality. Trans people of all stripes outlined many different problems across many, many different areas.

As a result Parliament created a list of recommendations including legal recognition for non binary people, gender recognition act reform, allowing 16 year olds to change their legal gender and reform of NHS gender identity services.

The government under Theresa May ignored everything that was recommended except for Gender recognition act reform. This act came into law in 2003 and gave trans men and women (but not non-binary people) the ability to legally change their gender on their birth certificates.

The process at that time to change your birth certificate under the GRA was to make an application to a panel of cisgender people who would decide if you were sufficiently trans based on your payslips, photo ID and bank statements. You would not get the option to speak to them.

(Also this process cost £140 which is just a tax on being trans)
SOCIETY