Incoming (if somewhat slo-mo) appreciation thread for all of my health care providers and other staff (as well as a few stand-out inanimate objects) who helped me through my brain surgery at @MassGeneralNews/@MassGenBrigham! 🎉 I’m going to go chronologically here just to help me keep things organized and because I don’t want to suggest any person or part of this chain of care was more or less important. (Except my surgeon who is going to get extra special props.) 2/

That this really bothers me tells you all you need to know about what a geek I am. For those who didn’t spot the problem, mushrooms are not plants. They are a whole different *kingdom*.

I was space Karen first, dammit. Oh wow, I guess I’m going out with a bang? Here’s my soundcloud:
mastodon.online/@kejames

I keep coming back to this thought: that acceptance of the unknown is one of the most important take-always from a science education. Not acceptance as in apathy or acquiescence, but acceptance as in resisting the urge to fill gaps in our knowledge with any ol’ thing.

Based on what we know from the @nytimes article, here is my off-the-cuff list of all the things that could have caused there to be "no amplifiable tuna DNA" in the Subway tuna samples they sent away for testing.

You might wanna get comfortable. Note: This does not mean it's impossible to amplify tuna DNA from canned tuna or tuna salad! It's been done many times.

Rather, it hints at the loooong list of controls you'd have to run side-by-side to rule all possible explanations that are not, "Subway 'tuna' is not tuna."

Broiling some steelhead trout for dinner, I was reminded by the shimmering pink stripe down its lateral line that it is one in the same as rainbow trout, it just happens to visit the ocean. (photo @NOAAFisheries) *one and the same, sigh

Drop everything and play with this map that lets you put the #EverGiven anywhere on earth, to scale.

https://twitter.com/en_dash/status/1376212098217312257

Here is #EVERGIVEN in Jordan Pond in @AcadiaNPS

Awake at 2am thinking about COVID-19 again…

I swear if I hear “herd immunity” one more time as a strategy, I’m gonna lose it.

Herd immunity means ~10 million deaths in the US alone.

If you are totes okay w/ >3,000 preventable 9/11s, well then I don’t know what to say to you. Where’d I get 10 million? Back-of-the-envelope calculation with references:

1. Herd immunity = 70% of pop infected and recovered. 70% of the US pop is more than 200 million people. mayoclinic.org/diseases-condi…

A little thread about chloroquine, which you may have heard is being explored as a potential therapy for #COVID19. 1/ Chloroquine is derived from the bark Cinchona trees. There are 23 described species, all native to the tropical Andes which span Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina. (Photo: James Steakley)

I would really like to support #ElizabethWarren. Her platform and campaign match up with my values and interests, and I believe she can defeat Tr*mp, especially after her debate performance in Nevada. 1/ Which is why I am so frustrated that @ewarren has not engaged w/ Cherokee & other Indigenous writers, scholars, & activists who have clearly & repeatedly explained why her Cherokee ancestry claim and DNA stunt do continuing harm, & why her apology is insufficient. 2/

I’m often asked when is a good time to visit Bar Harbor and @AcadiaNPS, so I’m finally going to put my recommendations down here for posterity. 1/ I’ve lived here almost 10yrs. I’ve seen how the seasons vary, both the norms and the extremes. I’ve hiked/walked over 3,000 miles in the park (yes, I’ve kept track), in all seasons and all kinds of weather, and I’ve biked and skied hundreds of miles. 2/

As a geneticist & evolutionary biologist, I won’t let @TuckerCarlson get away with making up trash science to justify white nationalism. 1/

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Human beings are evolved (not designed) to be exceptionally adaptable. Look at the astonishingly wide variety of ecological niches we fill! Look how our large brains and societies help us not just adapt to, but create, rapid change, to our own advantage! 2/

Nutella is trending, and I have a Nutella story that has an unresolved ending, so I figure I’d better strike while the iron’s hot. Everyone comfy? Okay…

When I was a very little girl, in the mid-1970s, we lived in Germany. My dad was stationed at @RamsteinAirBase. 1/ The world’s best babysitter Liesl 🙌🏻 introduced me to both Haribo gummy bears and Nutella. To me, she was a supernatural being, like the White Witch with her Turkish Delight was to Edmund. But not, you know, evil. 2/

So, I’m doing this thing that is pretty far out of my comfort zone, and I want to explain how it came about and how I am approaching it. 1/

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It started when I went to the @Indivisible_MDI vigil for #Charlottesville. I didn’t plan to speak, but after hearing two different speakers say something along the lines of “we are a nation of immigrants”, I piped up. 2/