Neuroscientist, vision neuroscientist, photographer, advocate for specialized knowledge. PI/Director for @BWJoneslab
Connectomics / Volume EM
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Feb 7, 2022 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Looks like the unlimited storage that Google promised my university a couple years ago is being discontinued, and the entire institution is being limited to 100TB… I can fill that 5 times over with our data.
This is precisely why I continued to maintain our own servers as a proper investment of taxpayer dollars.
This feels like Google Reader all over again.
Feb 6, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
One late night, @robertmarc60 and I were walking after dinner and were accosted by someone on the street.
We kept walking and he got in our faces and said “Hey, you too good for me? You too good for a New Yorker?” to which I yelled $&CK off! Is that New York enough for you?!?!?"
My favorite New York story is the one where my then 90 year old grandma who spent her childhood in New York, gets on a bus where she is trying to find her old neighborhood (circa 1903).
Dec 16, 2020 • 15 tweets • 3 min read
This is important. Make sure you click through and read to understand what I’ve been on about for the last 6yrs wrt modular NIH funding.
With no adjustment for inflation in two decades, we now have 55.5% of the purchasing power that we had in 2001 for biomedical research grants.
1) Scientists are having to hold *multiple* R01 grants just to keep on the treadmill.
2) This increases the risk of losing a grant non-linearly, resulting in destabilization of the discovery process.
Dec 14, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Dealing with someone trying to get a COVID test here in Utah this morning...
The hoops they are having to jump through, just to try and get the test scheduled reveals precisely why our COVID case numbers are waaaaaay lower than my models suggest they are.
This is nuts.
We should be testing to saturation here, particularly given that we *know* people can be asymptomatic and still shed virus.
Oct 5, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
How does one normally handle a sociopath?
Should it be different, that the sociopath is the President of the United States?
P.S. Who put on his makeup for this outing? He clearly has makeup on.
Is it self applied? If not, who is the makeup person risking their life for this?
Oct 5, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
I will say that personal experience with dexamethasone was interesting.
After blowing out my back and getting surgery to decompress nerve roots, my doc said: “you’re gonna feel really good. I’ve loaded you full of dexamethasone... so be cool. Take it easy and don’t be stupid”.
Looks like the dexamethasone is kicking is kicking in…
Instead, we get fake images or propaganda scenes where the appearance of getting work done is more important than the actual work getting done, or of honesty in leadership.
One way or another, lies are being told here. The President has COVID, or he does not. It’s bad, or not...
Oct 3, 2020 • 13 tweets • 3 min read
I find it curious that the President is taking *TWO* experimental drugs in response to his COVID-19 diagnosis.
That feels… odd to me.
The Regeneron monoclonal antibody cocktail is truly experimental, and has only been used in a few hundreds of patients.
Using that, in combination with an anti-viral drug, Remdesivir that has *some* indications for efficacy.
<eyebrows raised>
I can think of all sorts of reasons why one might lie about being COVID-19 positive. Upcoming debates, losing election fears, wanting to generate sympathy.
Maybe it’s real. I hate to be this cynical, but I guess we’ll see.
Sep 28, 2020 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
This is precisely why, when applying for a security clearance, your finances are investigated.
Do you have any debt?
Do you pay your debts?
Do you pay your debts on time?
What is your credit rating? (Seriously)
Do you have any financial exposure to foreign entities?
What happened is the Trump administration got played.
As a consequence, the Trump administration just did lasting damage to American interests. This is the worst possible outcome for privacy, and completely complicates the world for American companies like Google, Apple, etc...
Did this go through an Institutional Review Board?
Facebook seems to do lots of “studies” like this with no consideration of ethics or the rights or welfare of the human research subjects recruited (willingly or otherwise) into these “studies”.
People are *dying* because this administration not only does not value science, but is actively working to undermine science, and make claims that further endanger the science infrastructure and those who work within it.
This is authoritarianism, writ large.
Sep 8, 2020 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
Power is out at our place in SLC.
Massive downslope winds raging through the valley.
Tree branch broken, and beating against our 100 yr old house... not safe to climb up and try to cut it away.
I am *very* pro vaccines, that have made it through stage 3 safety trials.
Generating an immune response from an injected antigen is trivially easy. Come up with anything that your body has not seen before and inject it into the blood stream, and you’ll get an immune response and antibody production.
Sep 3, 2020 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
I am imagining a world without Trump… And it makes me smile.
61 days y’all. Get out the vote.
Sep 2, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
The most fun I ever had in science was when I was a trainee… Notably a post-doc.
The best time it seems for *anything* I’ve done, is when I was an amateur, if you will.
Therefore, I’ll try and make it my goal to make sure that I am as constantly in that “trainee” space in my head as possible. Even though I’ve gotta balance the responsibilities of doing other things…
I never want to lose that sense of… “what am I doing”? and “Oh! That is cool”.
Sep 1, 2020 • 6 tweets • 6 min read
A photo of you, @strobist in January 2020, without imagining what could come. @strobist A photo of you, @mwichary in January 2020, without imagining what could come.
Aug 28, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
This is dangerous and predatory harassment by Russian troops on US forces, recorded by the Russians and broadcast with impunity.
I’m curious. Genuinely curious about the perspective on this incident (and the bounties on US troops) of all those Trump supporters who give much lip service about supporting our military.
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