When the screws come loose The Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore collapses in March, causing the deaths of six construction workers, closing a key shipping port, and disrupting the regional economy on multiple levels. In January, a door panel falls off a plane during takeoff, leading to temporary grounding of all Boeing 737 Max Read More…
Category: Current Events
The decline in editorial function, from newsrooms to genomes
Conspiracy theories have always been bad, but are they getting worse—more pervasive, more outlandish, more polarizing? I recently heard the authors of the new book “A Lot of People Are Saying: The New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy” interviewed on John Lovett’s podcast. One enabler of the “new conspiracism,” according to the authors, is Read More…
Coronavirus, scientific expertise, and knowledge infrastructures
Coronavirus news is dominating our mental and physical airwaves – I for one have eyes glued to virologists’ Twitter feeds and am constantly refreshing the Seattle Times daily updates. Scrolling through tweets the other night (I have self-diagnosed “Scrolliosis”), I saw a fascinating exchange in the comments. My favorite computational biologist, since that’s a thing Read More…
Year in review for third-party interpretation tools
As 2019 comes to a close and I reach the year anniversary of completing my dissertation research on the topic, it felt appropriate to do a mini year in review for third-party genetic interpretation tools. There’s been a whirlwind of activity in this area, perhaps no surprise due to the of entanglement of third-party tools Read More…
In support of anticipatory scholarship
Last week, a fellow PhD student and I were remarking how our dissertation topics have been tying into current public and academic discourse. Whether it’s media coverage or peer-reviewed literature, we’re seeing our areas of study get a little deserved time in the limelight. I said that’s why we do what we do: anticipatory scholarship. Read More…
Data transactions
We browse, therefore we’re data Chances are high you got here from a link on Facebook or Twitter. Or maybe you recently ordered a holiday gift from Amazon. If you’re like me, you use these social media platforms and web services with a hint of resign and possible distaste for the way your data is Read More…
Who cares if your genome is ready for prime-time, when it’s available on demand?
On Monday the consumer genomics company Helix launched a “DNA App Store:” a one-stop interpretation shop for your personal genomic information. Commercialization of personal genetic information has been gaining momentum for over a decade, mostly through direct-to-consumer testing companies such as 23andMe and AncestryDNA, but this announcement from Helix seems to represent a phase change. Read More…
Getting paid for your DNA
There’s a new genetic sequencing company that wants you to get paid for donating your DNA data to science. Launched in December, Genos’s service costs around $500 and gives customers the ~3% of their genome sequence that codes for proteins, the “exome.” Additionally, Genos’s platform allows users to share their exome data with (academic and Read More…
Is Genomics in a Bubble?
There has been a lot of election “post-mortem” talk about living in bubbles. Urban bubbles, academic elite bubbles, blue state bubbles — all out of touch with and perhaps at times dismissive of rural America, no college degree America, red state America. [For a concise articulation of the problem, see November 8th New York Times Read More…
Swipe right if you’re interested in research
Smartphones are pretty amazing, even my dinky little iPhone 5c with only 8 GB storage. In many ways they are extensions of our physical, mental, and emotional selves. Because our phones are typically either on our personage or within arm’s reach, they can track our movements and activity. This capability has made phones incredibly useful Read More…