Thiago Carvalho @cyrilpedia@social.cleverlibre.org

"But what makes something hard to discover? I don't mean impossible to discover—you can't see the rings of Saturn without a telescope, for example. I mean cases where it seems like we have everything we need to make a discovery, and yet we take centuries to make it. Why does that happen?"

https://www.experimental-history.com/p/on-the-importance-of-staring-directly?ref=thebrowser.com

'Some Black Southerners, especially those who survived attacks or witnessed the violence firsthand, decided that they couldn’t bear the extreme risk of simply exercising their franchise. Bordewich includes some heart-rending testimony from freedmen who were too terrified to go to the ballot box. As one Black man put it, “I had to deny voting to save myself.”'

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/11/books/review/klan-war-fergus-bordewich.html

'The long-term persistence of a virus depends on the continual availability of newly susceptible individuals through either birth or the loss of immunity that was originally conferred through prior infection or vaccination. Loss of immunity can result from limited host immune memory or from alterations to the viral genome, often referred to as immune or vaccine ‘escape’ mutations. Thadani and colleagues’ focus is on viral mutations that destabilize the binding of ‘neutralizing’ antibodies to the virus (Fig. 1); however, other modes of immune evasion are possible'

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02931-9

"However, it remains unknown how JH3 degradation results in neurodevelopmental outcomes that translate into distinct worker behaviors, how this is accomplished at the molecular and cellular level, and whether differential regulation of JH3 levels early in life is sufficient to accomplish lifelong Major-Minor division of labor in C. floridanus."

https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(23)00856-5

@schoppik @meikeesther
and some lovely details, like this one "I found some comfort in bringing my own white board markers. I brought them initially because I wanted to be sure the markers would work, but they also provided some familiarity in the different situations and environments. It’s the little things that can give you a bit of a confidence boost." Also shared the piece widely.

@schoppik @meikeesther I love the "fit" section, it's something that you often learn with experience. The worst case scenario is not necessarily not getting the offer, it can be hell to end up at an institution where you dont fit.

"This blog is highly biased on my n=1 experience. I am a Caucasian woman, married without children. I was asked about my marital status and the “moveability” of my husband at nearly all on-site interviews, and about children during half of them."

https://ecrlife.org/things-to-know-academic-job-market/

@NicoleCRust If you're looking for a distraction, Peter Medawar on Teilhard de Chardin

http://bactra.org/Medawar/phenomenon-of-man.html

"A new report from Tufts Medical Center’s New Drug Development Paradigms (NEWDIGS) program shows that cell and gene therapies for orphan diseases and hematological cancers are two to 3.5 times more likely to be successful than other types of treatments for similar conditions, or as compared to the entire drug pipeline."

https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/some-cell-and-gene-therapies-more-likely-reach-approval-larger-drug-pipeline-study