Replying to
@markarayner@mas.to
That one hiding inside the other one.
Remote
MCDuncanLab
@MCDuncanLab@mstdn.social
mastodon 4.7.2Associate Professor at the University of Michigan. I frequently post photos of my cat and garden, and helpful tips for running a lab.
910 Followers
214 Following
50 Posts
Joined November 01, 2022
Science:
Cell Biology, Membrane Traffic, Clathrin, Golgi
Interests:
Gardening, Education, Biking, Environment, Art
what do people with large moveable planters do with them over the winter to prevent weathering? (midwest winters)
My concern is what to do to protect the planter and what to do with the soil. Overwintering plants is not practical.
It’s for eight 25gal wood planters that summer on a deck.
hmm.
I wonder if in any other group someone who generated and validated key unpublished reagents in a study or someone who analyzed the data or designed experiments would be an author.
Replying to
What is so exciting about PROTACs is they can be designed to destroy almost protein, so their usefulness isn’t limited to cancer therapies, there are PROTACs in the works for neurodegenerative diseases and autoimmunity.
It’s really an amazing time to be in bioscience (there’s bad stuff happening to the scientific enterprise esp in the US but I’ll leave this thread mainly positive)
🧵/end
One of my colleagues just won a big award and our communications team put out a news alert with a clearly staged photo of him in a pristine lab coat at a beautifully clean bench holding a 10ul pipette (used for up to 0.01ml of liquid), sitting next to an empty 1000ml bottle, beaming* at an empty 50ml container held in his hand.
Oh and there's a spiral notepad with writing and an open pen next to him.
*beaming=looking like he's about to bust out laughing.
(Likely, he hasn't pipetted in years)
Hi Friends,
If you are a US citizen, please take a moment to learn about the new Office of Management and Budget proposal for massive changes to the use of federal funds.
https://elizabethginexi.substack.com/p/this-new-omb-rule-is-bigger-than
(sorry its substack)
A lot of scientists are concerned about what its going to do to science, but it turns out it's much bigger impacting medicaid, transportation, education and more.
There's a comment period and it would be great to have a big push back from all sectors.
Replying to
To do this, they wanted to make a chemical with two faces one that bound the quality control system and one that bound the protein they wanted to destroy. Both are difficult chemistries to build.
But the work on thalidomide revealed a ready made chemical that bound the quality control system, this spurred a whole ton of academic and biotech research that is just now bearing its first fruits.
5/🧵
Replying to
I came up with this amazing idea of using the cell quality control system to rapidly destroy my protein. I was super excited and I talked to somebody who worked on the quality control system, and shared my idea.
She asked so like the system that Ray Deshaise is working on? And I realized that I had seen a talk a year or two earlier where Ray had described the system and I had forgotten it and taken it as my own idea.
Replying to
also what a super cute doll. I just love everything about it. The button eyes, the pink nose, the pink toes.
Replying to
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social
Who is doing the request and what is the code for?
In principle, you can get paid for anything someone is willing to pay for, hence, the cottage industry in scientific writing editors, illustrators... However, in the US, it can be tricky for academics do paid work for someone else's projects.
If the requestor is another academic, (and you want to do it) I'd suggest a collaboration with a paid sub-contract and plan for authorship.
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@pacific06@mastodon.social
Sleep paralysis is linked to sleep apnea, which is bad for you for all sorts of reasons.
Testing for apnea can be pretty easy, for me it was a take home device that attached to my finger and some sensors on my chest.
Treatment has been straightforward a prescription mouth guard that moves my jaw to a position where I’m not suffocating myself when I sleep.
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@pacific06@mastodon.social
I’ve experienced this since I was a kid. It’s usually after a nightmare so I’m still scared by the nightmare and now I can’t move. If I can make a noise it usually loosens the flood gates, I’m trying to shout or something and just squeak but that’s enough to wake me up all the way.
That being said if you are suddenly experiencing this a lot, it wouldn’t hurt to chat with your doctor.
Replying to
No harm done I hadn’t put his idea as my own at least in writing. And I came up with my own approach and I identified a small molecule inhibitor of my process. This let me getting my faculty job, but I don’t work on small molecules anymore. It was a fun time.
Replying to
Funny related story. When I was a postdoc, I wanted a quicker way to inhibit the protein I was studying. We had been using something called temperature sensitive mutations, which were slow or we could have used a regulated promoter, which was also slow.
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@Dianotron@mastodonapp.uk @edavies@functional.cafe @ColinTheMathmo@mathstodon.xyz
Look up the origin of the word shoddy. It basically comes from shoddy cloth-fabric made from fibers to short to be of any use.
These are ppl just a little unstuck in time.
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@stevegis_ssg@mas.to
Its likely a generational thing.
I'm just on the cusp of solo authored papers no-longer being common. As a 2nd year, a former postdoc from my grad lab published their first independent research paper as a solo author paper and we were all totally scandalized.
Today, I cringe about even authoring a review solo, which I've done because I couldn't find a suitable co-author (no grad students in lab, and no junior field colleagues that made sense to invite).
How did my glutes get so weak?!
I realized several of my leg problems are because my glutes are way too weak.
Remembered snickering at my stepmom swearing by doing leg curls lying on the bed, and damnit if she wasn’t right!! Been doing a handful before bed and it’s making a difference.
Replying to
My one worry is that because she knows me she might not be as willing to give me tough feedback.
This I kind of doubt, because she as I sharpened our scientific teeth in the 90's bay area which I realize was pretty ruthless.
It took me many years to learn how to give constructive feedback gently.
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@redcrew@mstdn.social @johntimaeus@infosec.exchange
Do you give your beans inoculant? Maybe they didn't have the bacteria that they use to fix nitrogen.
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@AnastasiaE@mstdn.ca
What about the PI and trainee looking up at a piece of data? I think we keep some films around for posing with.
It's even better when it's a petri plate that should have liquid in it.
Replying to
To sprout them, I rolled them in a damp paper towels oriented with the root end down and set the roll upright in the incubator.
Normally I lay them flat. I'm wondering if the correct gravitropism helped.
Replying to
The grant writer in question should be interesting to work with, assuming it works out with her schedule.
She attended the same small, 350 person, high school as I did, and we ran track together, her little sister was one of my clique friends (it was the 80's cliques were a thing).
She and I worked in the same undergrad lab, and then she went on to be an HHMI prof and AAAS fellow, but walked away from it for many reasons.
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@colinpurrington@flipping.rocks
Hmm do native wasps use them too? We try to coax wasps to nest in our garden to eat the cabbage moth larvae. One year we had a big yellow jacket nest in the main garden and got such wonderful kale.
Does anyone use stevia or other sugar substitutes in custard desserts (tapioca, flan the custard not the caramel)?
What works?
Trying to keep A1C in healthy levels without drugs.
Replying to
@shonin@c.im
My first job in the 1990's was scrubbing pots and weeding for the team that maintained USDA's legume and allium seed bank.
The PhD-level researchers occasionally went on 'safari' around the world to collect local cultivars, which the team back home cataloged and maintained as a resource for people who wanted to study or breed them.
Sadly, it looks like the unit was DOGED.
https://www.ars.usda.gov/people-locations/people-list/?modeCode=20-90-15-00
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@ml@ecoevo.social
We once used cork as mulch for a container, they seemed to poison the soil. Nothing grew in that container, but maybe it was something else.
Replying to
@likelyjanlukas@mstdn.ca
The bits and dunks are a specific brand. Not sure if anyone else sells them.
They sell them at the hardware store and online.
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Her PhD was with yeast and then postdoc and faculty was with plants, so I'm hoping she is a bit more attuned to fundamental research grants than the grant writing help here at UM, or the person I worked with 10 years ago, all of whom were somewhat helpful.
The main issue was that they wanted to focus more about the diseases my work pertains to, but they didn't really know how to do it since I'm not working on the disease itself.
Replying to
@dch@bsd.network
I’m hoping i didn’t get some small details wrong, I’m partly working from memory partly from references some of which I’m only accessing the free content since I’m not at work.
Will update if I find mistakes.
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@bob_zim@infosec.exchange @Doctor_J_@mastodon.social @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org
Well that would have worked--assuming it fits the hole in the counter.
Replying to
@stevegis_ssg@mas.to
Hmmm-I have some seeds that I did not sprout, I could do the science...
@yvan@toot.ale.gd Look at what was in my feed.
I wonder if the tip is to not push rocks up the hill.
Replying to
@steveroyle@biologists.social
I used a grant writer before. I found it helpful, whether it was worth the cost I'm unsure.
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@futurebird@sauropods.win @mirabilos@toot.mirbsd.org
Ok but where do you stand on the reheat button?
At work a grad student introduced me to it because our work microwave looks like it’s having an issue when using the reheat button (no numbers or words just a blank screen with a cursor tracing the outline of the screen), I use it routinely at home and work but wonder if 1 min pulses might be better .
Replying to
@likelyjanlukas@mstdn.ca
Michigander here, we have mosquitoes galore!
Do you know about mosquito bits/dunks? It’s a bacterial toxin that specifically targets mosquitos and some other insects like fungus gnats as larva.
Gather your neighbors and toss some mosquito bits in every standing water you can find around your neighborhood.
Takes the population down pretty fast.
We also use thermacel lamps when we want to be outside.
Replying to
@neuralreckoning@neuromatch.social
Thank you for this detailed description. I it sounds like arxiv has gone a bit too far. One hopes community pushback will be successful in changing their minds.
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@failedLyndonLaRouchite@mas.to
Well I am reaching the stage in my career where I expect that 10 years ago me will be scooping today me.
Replying to
@failedLyndonLaRouchite@mas.to
Yeah, lifestyle stuff.
The bicycle commute was an easy change but it's kind of short so only held back the #'s for a couple of years, things are inching up again.
Swapping in non-alcoholic beer is making a big difference. There's a lot of very nice non-alcoholic beers. I'm kind of hoping that finding easy ways to reduce sugar while still getting the fun of cooking and eating dessert will be an easy change.
A heads up AA folks, Lowes on Carpenter had all of their $6 seedlings on sale for $2.50 yesterday--likely trying to clear out their stock before the cold snap tonight.
I picked up some very healthy looking eggplants and tomatoes--did not see any peppers that I wanted.
We didn't get frost here last night so their stock is probably still good it might be a chance to pick up some quality seedlings cheap.
Replying to
@donatemask@zeroes.ca
When I was a kid in the ash fall of Mt St Helens, I’m pretty sure we got gvnmt masks.
Why can’t we have good government like then…oh wait who was pres in 1980?
(Yeah I know you’re talking Canada but the personalities are the same)
Replying to
@quixoticgeek@social.v.st
I'd look for seedlings.
Now is about the time that home gardeners are trying to offload extra seedlings.
That being said I planted some cherry and romoa tomato seedlings in early July my first year in my house and got plenty of tomatoes by Sept.
So I think you have time.