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Rotating curators talking about science and humanities, academia, and society. Tuesdays to Sundays. Contact @SciForProgress to sign up!
Aug 2, 2019 26 tweets 6 min read
Okay! Let's talk about #Podcasting! What does it entail and how can you get started?
Here is a quick overview over the technical part of podcast production! When I chose to make the podcast, I was looking for a cheap, low-effort way for long-form communication, that wasn't blogging. And I wasn't disappointed: Podcasting has a very low entry threshold.
Jul 30, 2019 17 tweets 5 min read
How do you even start communicating science non-fiction stuff?!

I think there are 4 CORE ELEMENTS of a successful communication piece needs. And knowing those, starting to write / script / create your piece becomes much easier. I am still @DennisEckmeier. If you missed my introdution earlier today, you can check it out here:
Jul 15, 2019 16 tweets 7 min read
Last day with me @helenajambor on #sciviz #visualisations. Today to wrap up let's briefly discuss color and layout. In 3 scenarios we use color. 1) to give a naturalistic representation in drawings and photos. But "natural" colors in charts quickly get awkward: it is frowned upon to use blue/boys, pink/girls color code. Also avoiding a certain color-code can be tricky, see Pew research example
Jul 14, 2019 10 tweets 3 min read
Yesterday we discussed different plot types. But DataViz is so much more, and the fun now begins!
A plot by itself is nothing more than a piece of abstract art. Maybe most of the followers here are old enough to know of the two images what is science and what is art? In order to become insightful, we must help our audience. We need: 1. some explanatory TEXT, 2. an explanation of all COLORS used, and 3. a suitable layout that makes reading the visualization effective.
Jul 13, 2019 11 tweets 5 min read
Today I (@helenajambor) talk about choosing a chart. There is a staggering amount of plots: subject specific ones, trendy ones, insightful, and useless ones. Which chart type to choose depends on your data. [a visualization of the diversity by Anna Vital] We encode counts of categories (or %) by area. Easiest to read are horizontal or vertical bar charts. Less intuitive are circle plots (quantity must be AREA not RADIUS!!!). Other charts are pie's for % (hard with many categories), tree maps (always hard to read), and radar charts
Jul 12, 2019 10 tweets 4 min read
Visualizations effectively communicate scientific insights. The image shows one of the oldest science vis: 200AD. It precisely and unambiguously communicates poisonous scorpions. And it saved the author a ton of text. [citation from A.Stückelberger] While drawings have a long history, scientific schematics and charts are more recent. Maybe this one from Aristotle (300BC) could be considered a kind of early diagram. It is scribbled on the right of the text.
Jul 11, 2019 12 tweets 4 min read
@helenajambor here. A little bit about visual communication. Visual information is all around us, every day, in all of our life’s aspects. And, we are pretty good at decoding it. Most of us understand that in busses seats are reserved for elderly We also get that for charging our laptop we find a socket under the seat. Even when we are in Czech trains and have no command of Czech
Apr 5, 2019 11 tweets 4 min read
After a morning of treating cells and prepping experiments, let's talk about why it's important to for basic research scientists to work with patient advocates! First, a definition for "patient advocate" - I use "people who have been diagnosed with any cancer type and those who support them" (which includes caregiver advocates).
Apr 4, 2019 17 tweets 4 min read
I was getting acclimated in my lab, following along on #BCSM, and attending tumor boards. And then cancer hit home - my best friend was diagnosed with HER2+ breast cancer at the age of 28. We later found out that she was BRCA "positive".

BRCA is a gene (a specific part of the DNA) that produces a protein involved in DNA repair during damage. When BRCA is mutated, it is unable to repair the DNA leading to cancer development.
Apr 4, 2019 9 tweets 5 min read
Erin did amazingly!

I left off at getting my postdoc at @LombardiCancer. I decided I wanted a cancer center at a medical school for my postdoc so I would have opportunities to see the clinical side of cancer. @LombardiCancer is an @theNCI designated Comprehensive Cancer Center. This designation recognizes cancer centers “for their scientific leadership, resources, and the depth and breadth of their research in basic, clinical, and/or population science”.

cancer.gov/research/nci-r…
Apr 4, 2019 7 tweets 2 min read
And # 3 - improving survivorship care. Like I mentioned, we have effective treatment for many breast cancers. Effective treatments mean more people living every day after a cancer diagnosis - which is SO exciting, but also poses challenges for survivors. Some important semantics: The word survivor can be triggering for people living with disease or whose friends have died.

When I use the word survivor I mean anyone who has been diagnosed with cancer from the time of diagnosis.
Apr 3, 2019 14 tweets 6 min read
In (breast) cancer research we use a few different model systems to study cancer growth and development:
1) Cell culture
2) Animal models
3) Tissue analysis
4) Ex vivo models Cell culture is a method to study cells in a petri dish. The cells are taken from a person's tumor, media is added, and the cells are allowed to grow. We grow them in an incubator so the conditions are similar to the body.

This picture is cells called BT474. 📷: @officialatcc
Apr 3, 2019 6 tweets 3 min read
Let’s start with # 1: treating metastatic disease.

Metastasis is when tumor cells grow in a place different from where the primary tumor was found.

Common sites of metastasis for breast cancer (ductal) are liver, bones, lungs, and brain. People don’t usually die from breast cancer bc they have primary disease, they die because the metastasis has taken over other organs in their body.

For some, chemotherapy or targeted therapies for ER+ and Her2+ can keep the metastatic disease at bay for months or even years.
Apr 2, 2019 13 tweets 3 min read
The next big thing that’s described in breast cancer is “receptor status”. Using IHC, tumors are stained for the estrogen receptor (ER), the progesterone receptor (PR), and Her2.

These receptors are used because they inform treatment decisions. The estrogen receptor is a protein found in mammary epithelial cells. During puberty, estrogen levels increase which causes increased estrogen- estrogen receptor interaction in these cells.
Apr 2, 2019 9 tweets 6 min read
When someone is diagnosed with cancer, part of the tissue is removed and put into a solution that fixes it in time and place (called a fixative).

The tissue is then cut into very thin sections, put on a slide, and stained with dyes that help pathologists to visualize the tissue. I took an amazing histology and pathology course when I was doing my PhD at @RutgersU in New Jersey USA. (Hi Dr. Reuhl!)

The first and most common stain is hematoxylin & eosin (H&E). Here are two pictures of normal skin and cancerous skin. Can you tell the difference?
Apr 2, 2019 11 tweets 4 min read
Yoga? 🧘🏼‍♀️ ✅
Breakfast? 🍳 ✅
First cup of coffee? ☕️ ✅

Let’s get started!

Today I’ll be tweeting Breast Cancer 101: what it is and how it’s treated. Tomorrow I’ll focus on my research on endocrine resistant breast cancer.

If you have questions, please ask! Let’s start with the basics.

Cells are the building blocks of an organism and work together to make tissues and organs. Together, organs help your body function. Each level along this continuum is different for each organ - a muscle cell is different from a neuron (brain cell).
Mar 7, 2019 47 tweets 13 min read
Today I want to talk about a couple of things I dislike about my (sub)field.

🅰️ I hate closed sourced langs & the epitome: Matlab.
neuroplausible.com/matlab

🅱️ I hate how coding is (not) taught to people.
neuroplausible.com/programming High-level point:

Everybody in psych/neuro should be taught to code & taught an #opensource #openscience programming language.
Mar 5, 2019 58 tweets 14 min read
Today I'd like to talk about issues with respect to #openscience and specifically sharing code.

But first an intro to what open science is... I am sure you all know a bit about #openscience already but essentially it's a very broad community/movement that aims to make science more accessible, transparent, inclusive, etc.

@daniellecrobins and @rchampieux have this great umbrella infographic!

Oct 12, 2018 12 tweets 3 min read
Good morning!

Today I want to talk about #TheDarkSideOfScience.

More specifically about the fact that *science is hard* 1. Because it really helps to know that you're not alone, you're not a failure, you are in fact - a genius. All of you!
Sep 16, 2018 31 tweets 5 min read
Back to science reading ....

The problem with advice columns on reading science is that they make many assumptions about what the reader understands vis-a-vis the science paper. They assume that readers already have some understanding of the connection between what they're reading & the science that was done. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most learners first encountering a research article have only the vaguest understanding of what it is.
Sep 15, 2018 10 tweets 3 min read
Given our ongoing discussion on QRPs with @RemiGau, here's an interesting thread on publishability:

This is such an important discussion to have openly. Not having clear standards for publishability in any field has created myriad problems, from contributing to a knowledge base of grossly inconsistent quality to researcher anxiety resulting from uncertainty.