Share this page!

Palli Thordarson Profile picture
Twitter logo
6 Jun, 5 tweets, 2 min read
1/5 The "Cult" problem in some corners of chemistry has been highlighted "that" @angew_chem paper. The most infuriating was the non-scientific drivel about #diversity being somehow problematic. WRONG! The science proofs the value of diversity as per
2/5 But I want to also highlight the scary "submission to master" view of supervision in that paper. This approach yields poor training, bad science and destroys people! N.b this attitude to supervision is still out there. Sometimes it is somewhat hidden in the form of a "cult".
3/5 By cult I mean. when the group leader creates a cult around him/her. Students are discouraged to talk to other groups and made-believe that the boss is never wrong. I have seen behavior which is nothing short of grooming when people are being recruited into the "cult".
4/5 There is clear line between creating a collegial atmosphere in a research group and the "cult" of infallibility. The former empowers students and their creativity. The latter is basically to quote "that" paper: "
"unconditional submission of the apprentice to his/her master"
5/5 There is nothing wrong with students looking up to their supervisors and admiring their scientific achievements. But it shouldn't be in the form unconditional cult-like worshiping. That stifles independent thought. And it has no place in 21st Century Chemistry & Science.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Palli Thordarson

Palli Thordarson Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @PalliThordarson

Palli Thordarson Profile picture
23 Dec
Radio silence for 1 hour, binge-watching cartoons for over an hour and other #Christmas memories from my childhood – a thread to the past in Iceland and Christmas there in the countriside #isolation in the 1970’s where Radio and TV played a key role. Image
I grew up on a farm just outside the village of Vopnafjörður northeast-Iceland. The village with ca 600 people is surrounded by a few farms like ours but the next living soul is more than 40 km away! It is one of the most isolated places in Iceland (8 hours from Reykjavik). Image
Back in the 1970´s the roads out of Vopnafjörður were frequently closed for weeks, even months. So apart from flying in or out (not cheap!) via the airport, our only connection to the outside world was the radio and the TV. But until the mid 1980´s Iceland had one radio station! Image
Read 24 tweets
Palli Thordarson Profile picture
11 Nov
How are mRNA vaccines made? A chemist’s perspective. TL;DR A DNA plasmid is used as template for the in vitro transcription of DNA to mRNA which is then packaged in a lipid nanoparticle. But it is a bit complicated than that. (image @AFox_Perth theconversation.com/australia-may-… ) 1/35
I am chemist with a life-long interest in viruses and self-assembly, working in the nanomedicine @ARCCoEBionano field for over 10 years. More recently, our group has been synthesising short RNA (unpublished work) with my colleague #ozchem @Fahrenbachus @UNSWScience 2/35
So when I heard first about mRNA vaccines back in April I was fascinated. Since then I have also become part of group mentioned in theconversation.com/australia-may-… article by @AFox_Perth that is arguing the case for local mRNA (and other RNA + DNA products) capabilities in Australia 3/35
Read 37 tweets
Palli Thordarson Profile picture
30 Apr
1/21 Why would UV light be a really bad method for destroying the SARS-CoV-2 virus causing #COVID19 in your body or on your skin while it is a good method for disinfecting surfaces? TL;DR It destroys the viruses RNA. But also your DNA, which may lead to cancer. Image
2/21 I am a Chemistry Professor and I work in nanomedicine @UNSWScience @NanoMed_UNSW @ARCCoEBionano making amongst other things, self-assembled virus-like particles for cancer treatment. In my field, some "smart" particles can be triggered with light. cbns.org.au/photoswitchabl…
3/21 But in designing such nanoparticles one rule prevails - never ever create them to be triggered with UV light. Ideally only use lower energy visible or near-infrared light. The reason we all avoid UV light is that we know it damages DNA. And can lead to cancer. Image
Read 22 tweets
Palli Thordarson Profile picture
11 Mar
1/9 It looks like my "soap" tweet has been quoted all over the place. Wonderful! I do though take a slight issue with the tone in some of these when it comes to soap vs hand sanitiser. Just because I said, soap is better, doesn't mean sanitiser are not good-they are very good! Image
2/9 Let's recap: Soap dissolves the virus by breaking up the interactions that hold it together. The alcohol in sanitisers and wipes does pretty much the same: "Hence alcohol does also dissolve the lipid membrane and disrupts other supramolecular interactions in the virus"
3/9 There is a subtle point here that I didn't explain. Alcohol is a solvent. It is different from water or say petrol. Now, non-covalent interactions are very solvent dependent. The "hydrophobic" interactions that hold the virus together are strongest in water (water = hydro).
Read 9 tweets
Palli Thordarson Profile picture
9 Mar
1/18 A soap is a soap is a soap! I am still flabbergasted by your response to my Twitter thread about the #COVID19 Coronavirus, soap and supramolecular chemistry! I have been quite busy today but I in this thread I will try to provide answers to some of your questions:
2/18 A lot of the questions are basically about which soap is best? Some people ask if detergents are better/worse than soap? Let me start with the latter one. Basically, what people call a detergent and what is a soap seems to differ! To me as a chemists they are very similar.
3/18 The Wikipedia entry on detergents seems to delineate detergents from soap mainly by calling alkylbenzenesulfonates & similar chemicals detergents, whereas fatty acid salts are soaps. You find detergents mainly in things like laundry detergents. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detergent
Read 18 tweets
Palli Thordarson Profile picture
8 Mar
1/25 Part 1 - Why does soap work so well on the SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus and indeed most viruses? Because it is a self-assembled nanoparticle in which the weakest link is the lipid (fatty) bilayer. A two part thread about soap, viruses and supramolecular chemistry #COVID19
2/25 The soap dissolves the fat membrane and the virus falls apart like a house of cards and "dies", or rather, we should say it becomes inactive as viruses aren’t really alive. Viruses can be active outside the body for hours, even days.
3/25 Disinfectants, or liquids, wipes, gels and creams containing alcohol (and soap) have a similar effects but are not really quite as good as normal soap. Apart from the alcohol and soap, the “antibacterial agents” in these products don't affect the virus structure much at all.
Read 41 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @PalliThordarson has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @PalliThordarson!

Read all threads by @PalliThordarson