comicjk

16 ms·

121.
by comicjk 6y ago
Scientists can verify that an AlphaFold-predicted structure is correct, or at least useful, without being able to get the structure experimentally. For instance, we could use the AlphaFold-predicted structure to do protein-ligand binding ca
122.
by comicjk 6y ago
The most accurate technique in computational drug discovery is protein-ligand binding prediction ( https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2015/02/23/is... ). Given the protein structure, you c
123.
by comicjk 6y ago
CASP (Critical Assessment of protein Structure Prediction) is calling it a solution. To quote from the article: "We have been stuck on this one problem – how do proteins fold up – for nearly 50 years. To see DeepMind produce a solution
124.
by comicjk 6y ago
The study is fine, but the way it's using the word "asymptomatic" is not consistent with the conclusion you drew from it, and the 6% shows why. A case which is "asymptomatic" in the study has no noticeable symptoms
125.
by comicjk 6y ago
This is the key fact. Only 2% of the subjects tested antibody-positive at the end of the study (low enough that it's near the false-positive rate of the home antibody tests). The mask group had fewer cases (by PCR, they had zero). But
126.
by comicjk 6y ago
If people with no current symptoms couldn't spread COVID-19, that would be an extremely convenient fact for controlling spread! But it doesn't look like we're that lucky.
127.
by comicjk 6y ago
Only 6% of the subjects in that study were asymptomatic by their definition. I think this is a confusion of asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic: most cases will have a few days of pre-symptomatic infection regardless of the symptoms they have
128.
by comicjk 6y ago
There is a good reason to develop at least one rhinovirus vaccine, though: so we have the expertise to deal with a bad rhinovirus strain if one should arise later. The coronavirus experience - SARS, MERS, and now COVID-19 - seems to suggest
129.
by comicjk 6y ago
Another way of making the point: we did COVID challenge trials on monkeys first, because their immune systems are a decent model for that 80-year-old human's. Well, a 30-year-old human is an even better model of an 80-year-old human. A
130.
by comicjk 6y ago
According to this epidemiologist, the comparable figure for influenza is 13%, so this is not so unusual for respiratory viruses. https://twitter.com/GidMK/status/1326041350404415489
131.
by comicjk 6y ago
What they mean is that instead of injecting viral proteins or deactivated virus (as in a flu vaccine), they are injecting mRNA which causes your own cells to make a section of viral protein, which then triggers a strong immune response. Thi
132.
by comicjk 6y ago
No, they showed an antibody response in the spring. That's the easy part. This is the real-deal clinical trial: they gave tens of thousands of people the vaccine candidate, tens of thousands a placebo, and then counted the resulting ca
133.
by comicjk 6y ago
Maybe it's the definition of money supply being used? M1 money has increased by about 40%, M2 by about 20%. https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h6/current/default.h...
134.
by comicjk 6y ago
Interest on the national debt is $400-$600 billion per year depending on what you count (a lot of it is paid to the federal government itself). It's a lot of money, but it's a small fraction of the federal budget. It's also l
135.
by comicjk 6y ago
I don't think you can define scientific computing in a way that excludes quantum mechanics, molecular dynamics, fluid dynamics, Monte Carlo simulations... There are lots of long-running applications. We don't want them to be long-
136.
by comicjk 6y ago
In chemical engineering school I learned that water is the biggest input to most chemical plants. Even oil refineries take in more water than oil (mainly for cooling).
137.
by comicjk 6y ago
That's likely true now, but we have a problem if the harm (pollution) accumulates each year and doesn't go away. Eventually it may exceed the good.
138.
by comicjk 6y ago
> scientists code in the Literate Programming Paradigm I wish. In my career as a computational scientist I have never seen this in practice, either in academia or industry. On unit testing, I half agree. Most unit tests get quickly throw
139.
by comicjk 6y ago
No, these models weight the polls by quality (variously judged), they don't reweight by voter. This weighted average of polls is then used, along with factors like time until the election and economic conditions, to give a probability
140.
by comicjk 6y ago
Note that these polls are of Likely Voters. A big source of systematic error in 2016 state polls was Likely Voter models, used to weight raw poll results by voting propensity. In the Midwest in 2016, lots of people without college degrees s
141.
by comicjk 6y ago
Designing small-molecules is "extremely inefficient" compared to what? We might as well say fishing is inefficient because of all the time spent not reeling in a fish. We should definitely research all plausible alternatives, but
142.
by comicjk 6y ago
That's a good thing. Taxing wealth more, and income less, helps equalize wealth disparities over time.
143.
by comicjk 6y ago
A correct positive PCR doesn't even guarantee infection - it just tells you that you have been infected within the last month or so. Old, inactivated viral RNA can still trigger a positive weeks later.
144.
by comicjk 6y ago
There's another risk besides the obvious antibody-dependent enhancement problem: this vaccine could change your response to an official COVID-19 vaccine that you might want to get later. You might be left with enough immune response to
145.
by comicjk 6y ago
It would help, by increasing the bioavailability of phosphorous in the soil. Review article about it: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-45693-z
146.
by comicjk 6y ago
In practice, both producers and consumers will pay, because demand for fossil fuels has some elasticity: higher prices mean lower sales. This yields an equilibrium at which consumers pay somewhat more, but also buy somewhat less, and produc
147.
by comicjk 6y ago
Not the individual gas stations; I mean the storage capacity of the whole system.
148.
by comicjk 6y ago
This makes sense when you think about the inelastic demand for gas and the physical problem of storing it. The availability of storage makes gas prices change slowly most of the time. But, if there's a chance of the tanks running dry,
149.
by comicjk 6y ago
These neural network models do not need to know whether a bond exists - in fact, they have no concept of bond topology. They are designed to be a drop-in replacement for DFT in terms of energies and forces. The only inputs are XYZ coordinat
150.
by comicjk 6y ago
Predicting quantum mechanics energies of molecules using neural networks actually works, and can be used to speed up geometry optimization during drug discovery. See: https://arxiv.org/abs/1912.05079 https:/&#x2F

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