Oh heavens. Briefly, the D in PhD, DPhil, EdD (et al) stands for Doctor, this qualification is a doctorate. It comes from the Latin docere - to teach. 1/n
It predates the use of doctor by medical practitioners, but society has agreed by consensus to refer to physicians as doctor, regardless of whether they have doctorates. This is fine and invoking an etymological origin doesn’t help. Dr Jill Biden is a doctor. 2/n
Oh yes it’s hilarious to say that someone who has a PhD in history can’t deliver a baby, but only if you’re a drooling gurgleturd. I myself have delivered 3 babies and also have a PhD, not in delivering babies but in developmental genetics. 3/n
It is a qualification. Professor is a job title. The only reason to challenge someone’s legitimate use of their own hard won qualifications is if you are a dull wanker. Epstein is a racist, homophobic misogynist, dull wanker. 4/n
We do this dance very few years when some fartknocker wishes to display their sexism by belittling a woman who is better qualified than them. Doing a doctorate is invariably impressive, and I hope you feel that you can wear that badge with pride, if you so chose. 5/n
Exceptions include Dr Fox, Dr No, Dr Alban, Professor Green, Dr Dre, The Doctor. 6/exasperatioN
Addendum, this article in reference to exactly the same shitwittery levelled at Dr Fern Riddell @FernRiddell who is a doctor theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2…
People who call themselves doctor when they don’t practice medicine OR have a doctorate, they’re the ones you should look out for, cos they’re invariably dropping some grifting diet, religious batshittery, or in the case of Dre, some of the most influential beats in history.
It is, for the record, a category error to forget about Dre, the repercussions to which should not be underestimated

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More from @AdamRutherford

30 Nov
The @DeepMind protein folding result is really incredible, and incredibly important. But I know it’s pretty tricky to understand, so here’s a megathread, with a bit of Biology 101, for @holland_tom @thehistoryguy
et al.

bit.ly/2JnKQoF
@DeepMind @holland_tom @thehistoryguy Here we go: Genes are long strings of molecules made up of an alphabet of four ‘letters’

e.g.

gacgaagagcccatgatcaacgac
@DeepMind @holland_tom @thehistoryguy Each triplet of letters encodes an amino acid (which we code as capital letters)

gac gaa gag ccc atg atc aac gac

translates to

D. E. E. P. M. I. N. D.
Read 16 tweets
15 Nov
I'm seeing a lot of chat about PCR and COVID, some of it quite bonkers. So here’s a PCR 101.

DNA is very small and therefore not easy to detect. PCR is a tool for multiplying specific bits of DNA from a few to billions, thus making it easy to detect. 1/n
PCR is a standard tool in molecular biology, and has been for decades. It was, by the way, invented by Kary Mullis, who claims to have come up with the idea whilst tripping balls on LSD. Mullis was a bit of a jerk btw, an AIDS and Climate Change denialist. 2/n Kary Mullis, who was a bit of a jerk
Right, so DNA is a DOUBLE helix, meaning it has two strands made up of chains of just 4 ‘letters’ that pair up in a specific way (that is, ‘complementary’): A pairs with T, C pairs with G. a bit like this.

GAACTTAATTAA
CTTGAATTAATT

3/n
Read 17 tweets
21 Oct
James Randi RIP, the Great Randi.

My quick James Randi story. I only met him once, and he told me this tale, which you could stop at almost any point and it would still be an amazing story. He said… 1/n James Randi
‘When I was on Happy Days, the Fonz and I were going to have lunch with Richie Cunningham…’

I mean, it’s a good opener.
We went to a Mexican restaurant, that was set back from the street by a long dark corridor, the only light for which came from the street door. As we were in this tunnel, suddenly, the light is blocked and we are in pitch black. 3/n
Read 5 tweets
21 Oct
I wonder where they stand on social constructionism. In fact, I demand to know this governments views on meta-ethical relativism. I DEMAND IT.
In fact, I think the Government should take a stand on all manner of academic disputes and topics. Group selection? WHO IS THE MINISTER FOR ANTS.
Abiogenesis: WILL THE RIGHT HONOURABLE MEMBER CLARIFY IF SHE SUPPORTS THE RNA WORLD HYPOTHESIS DESPITE THE FACT THAT THERMODYNAMIC EQUILIBRIUM VIA PROTON GRADIENTS IS A BETTER EXPLANATION FOR THE TRANSITION FROM GEOCHEMISTRY TO BIOCHEMISTRY IN THE HADEAN?
Read 5 tweets
20 Oct
Ok, a quick thread on white supremacy symbols - I spend a lot of time on white supremacy forums online, and they have dozens of really idiotic numerical codes, most of which are substitution ciphers that a 7 year old would come up with.
Darren appears to have these two on his face
88 = HH = Heil Hitler
23/16 = WP = White Supremacy

There's also:
18 = AH = Adolf Hitler
1488: a reference to the so-called 14 words, coined by white supremacist terrorist David Lane
There's also:
1/11 = AK = Aryan Knights
3/11 = 3 K = KKK
109 = the claim that Jews have been expelled from 109 nations throughout history, sometimes coupled with
110 = in the hope that the US will be the next one
Read 8 tweets
29 Sep
#LongCovid: a thread. Back in March, I was on @BBCr4today talking to @Marthakearney about getting Covid19. I was pretty upbeat, and predicted I would be better in a few days. This alas is not what happened. I wasn’t hospitalised but, like 100s of 1000s, was seriously ill 1/n
@BBCr4today @Marthakearney Six months on, #LongCovid is beginning to be recognised. I have very mild but not inconsequential symptoms: the most common being shortness of breath and fatigue 2/n
But many others have much more serious after-effects of the initial infection. Fatigue isn’t just tiredness, but includes anxiety, PTSD and depression. We made a programme about this, on @BBCRadio4 at 11am today.
bbc.in/2S5Tdq7
Read 9 tweets

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