Martin Skyrunner

As a theoretical cosmologist, I'm frequently asked "what is the benefit of the work you're doing for people's lives?" Nothing I work on makes money or cures disease.

There are a few different answers one can give, at various levels of "convincing" / "actually relevant to why the work is done."

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I'd argue stir bars are essential in some "Pd-free" cross couplings!

Safer to use these turns of phrase? Perhaps, yes, but is that not just how your SCB was talking? I suppose I need to think more about what I think "life" is before engaging in further debate - which reminds me that I have your book on my bookshelf on that topic that I need to start!

Sounds similar to how some chemists describe metals "wanting" to be in a particular oxidation state, coordination geometry, or "preferring" X ligand over Y ligand, etc... it's rife. Speaking in this manner got driven out of me pretty quickly after a philosophical discussion with my PhD. supervisor

Though that isn't all that stealthy..

Patent watching, maybe?

Brings back fond memories of when I would submit notoriously weakly diffraction samples to the crystallographer week after week, then one day he inspected a new lot I had grown differently and he just beamed at me: "You could build a house with those!!" 😁

Apparently MS have a shady track record when it comes to this 🧵: bsky.app/profile/spin...

Are there any good examples of commentators accurately predicting huge successes of new therapeutic modalities?

Biotech on Bluesky, I’m sharing with you first.

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It looks like Farage distancing himself from Laxley-Yennon was the wrong move for his Ltd company

Great article. The anecdotes really chime with my experiences in going from a fledgling undergrad to the "elder" of the lab too!

Doctors trial world’s first vaccine against vomiting bug norovirus Jab could bring huge health and economic benefits as virus often spreads very rapidly and can be serious

Another prospective mRNA vaccine entering trials, this time for Norovirus. Exciting and another reason to be cheerful; I did not know that Noro costs NHS about £100m/Yr! www.theguardian.com/society/2024...

It will provide the square root of f*** all, I'd wager. Though I'd imagine the rise of ChatGPT has led to a 2nd order "network effect" of sorts leading to other AI related startups coming out of the woodwork

It's somewhat off-topic, but I am also (only relatively recently) in the IP licensing / Tech transfer field and based in the UK; I wasn't expecting to come across someone in this area so soon after joining BlueSky!

Everyone saying “no we can’t let the NHS use a proper joined up digital patient database, it’s all part of a plot to privatise British healthcare and sell your data” should be forced to read the dozens (hundreds?) of case studies like these www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-...

Interesting. What are the differences in each replicate? I see there's a foiled one, presumably to control for sun/UV? exposure?

"...a secondary yet crucial
application of these findings is to educate future generations of beer enthusiasts and
to safeguard the quality of our beers" Hear, hear!

Could this 'deselection of genetic defects' approach be viewed as ethically similar to gene therapy technologies?

I'm not sure how I feel about this. I'm certainly not comfortable with selecting for "superior" traits, but I am more comfortable (or more accurately less uncomfortable) with deselection of traits that lead to various genetic disorders. I suppose there are still questions on where the boundaries are

As my comp chem tutor used to say when modelling: Garbage in, Garbage out.

A Google search for "french word popover" has the AI Overview as "The French translation for the English word "popover" is "Yorkshire pudding"

I cannot tell you how much I dislike the Google AI summary feature.

Give me a steam deck with a copy of Hades installed, and I'll be a very very happy guy

I've seen deathnote - enjoyed it but felt it went on for a lil bit too long? Idk though 😅 Still trying to broaden my horizons with various anime and manga.

Oh, I LOVED BCS. I won't say much in case of spoilers, but it manages to keep the same vibe of BrBa without feeling stale. The character development of the main cast is phenomenal. Also, check out El Camino, the movie "sequel" to BrBa if you haven't already!

Hyperion by Dan Simmons and the Ship of Magic Series by Robin Hobb are two recent reads of mine that may suit!

In that case I may pick up Origins I the next steam sale

Stardew and Baldurs Gate 3 mainly. Potentially some Monster Hunter Rise if I have time!

It's a lost art 🥲