natechols

9 ms·

61.
by natechols 6y ago
One of my pet peeves is science journalism abusing the active voice, often in ways that almost anthropomorphize the process. The absolute worst are phrases like "Nature designed this protein to...", which I have seen otherwise re
62.
by natechols 6y ago
Oh thanks I was looking for followup on the Gates thing, that blog post is superb. And depressing.
63.
by natechols 6y ago
Last year Bill Gates talked about doing exactly that (I don't know if this actually happened): https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-factories-7-diffe... The fact that someone like Gates is throwing the idea aroun
64.
by natechols 6y ago
He's been writing on these subjects for years, and nothing in this article would be a surprise to anyone who has read him before or has even a passing familiarity with the pharma industry. (Also, he's always been totally up-front
65.
by natechols 6y ago
Microfluidics is a fantastic area of research that more people should get involved in. My impression is that it's very difficult to make it work and expensive to scale up, but that means there's plenty of room for improvement and
66.
by natechols 6y ago
The only "disruption" required is for funding agencies, especially governments, to mandate immediate open access as a condition of grants. Milder approaches such as the NIH's current policy have been spectacularly successful
67.
by natechols 6y ago
I think pre-emptive enforcement of something like this is extremely difficult without getting downright creepy and invasive. The best you can do is drop the hammer on anyone greedy and dumb enough to get caught - and I'm sure there wi
68.
by natechols 6y ago
If that is the case everyone involved is playing an exceptionally dangerous game and I can't imagine that this would be the norm, especially since I suspect the thieves will get greedy and screw up quickly.
69.
by natechols 6y ago
Or alternately, what the GP is really telling us is that the rich and powerful are easily duped into spending their money on placebos.
70.
by natechols 6y ago
I took a different route to working in software, but I certainly spent many years wishing I knew enough to write something like EV. (Now the problem is insufficient time and energy, of course.)
71.
by natechols 6y ago
I work in scientific computing so I definitely don't miss SGI workstations either. My complaint is just that even the simplest tasks, like word processing, end up taking orders of magnitude more computing power (or just don't wor
72.
by natechols 6y ago
I assume "Endless Sky" was the reference, at least that's the first thing that came up on Google.
73.
by natechols 6y ago
Thanks, I will take a look at this - it was much less developed last time I came across it but those screenshots look pretty compelling.
74.
by natechols 6y ago
Any chance some of the copyright holders would be interested in open-sourcing the code? Escape Velocity in particular. EDIT: especially since these games are no longer playable without registration, ouch. Hope I still have my EV Nova cod
75.
by natechols 6y ago
Yes, the telephone is also superior in every way to the computers I used until well into adulthood! But it's difficult to break the persistent feeling that while those antiques were very limited, the software was much better optimized
76.
by natechols 6y ago
It will never stop annoying me that my telephone takes longer to boot than the computers I grew up with.
77.
by natechols 6y ago
I've seen anecdotal claims that attendance at restaurants and theaters has been way down even in states or regions that had no restrictions. Would be interesting to see some actual data for this.
78.
by natechols 6y ago
I am (unusually!) an optimist here, based on current vaccine status: I think the second half of 2021 will be a period of exceptional economic growth. I don't know how anyone below the poverty line is supposed to wait that long to draw
79.
by natechols 6y ago
I have yet to see anyone suggest donating to food banks. Anyone can complain that the government should do something, but if you're not willing to volunteer your own disposable income, you shouldn't expect others to. The average
80.
by natechols 6y ago
I always thought the reason Brahms stands out among his contemporaries is that he's the first post-Beethoven symphonist who actually came close to Beethoven's level. But I've never been a big fan of the early Romantic era co
81.
by natechols 6y ago
I'll add that to my playlist, but I'd argue that the difference between 12 minutes and 5 hours counts for a lot! (Although I guess maybe opera audiences are primed for sitting in place for that long? I just don't have the a
82.
by natechols 6y ago
I thought the combination of Zimmer's score and Nolan's editing in Dunkirk basically turned it into an enormous minimalist composition - I mean that in the best possible way.
83.
by natechols 6y ago
In my experience - as both a player and listener - minimalism is really difficult to do well! It's a lot of work to avoid becoming repetitive white noise. But to be fair, even Mozart and Beethoven had their occasional duds.
84.
by natechols 6y ago
Einstein On The Beach is definitely on the extreme end. On the other hand, Itaipu (my personal favorite) and many of his symphonies are about as close to mainstream as modern "classical music" usually gets.
85.
by natechols 6y ago
My take is exactly the opposite: since 3D structures of proteins alone are almost never the bottleneck in drug discovery, this won't actually change anything. Knowing how the drug is going to bind, and knowing how it'll behave in
86.
by natechols 6y ago
The other point missing in most of these discussions is we already know how most drug targets fold, even if we don't know the exact structure at atomic detail. It's everything else about their structure, dynamics, and in vivo fun
87.
by natechols 6y ago
I hadn't heard that one, but the freedom-loving Pilgrims executed Quakers for proselytizing in Massachusetts. Not really an environment founded on respect for individual autonomy or other ethical considerations.
88.
by natechols 6y ago
In the very best case, it is indeed easy! I've seen the entire process take less than a month for a completely novel structure - those were extremely lucky cases of course, but my point is that it costs very little to set up some scre
89.
by natechols 6y ago
I won't lie, I was thrilled the first time I saw the holes in aromatic rings in electron density from my experiment. But until the very end of last century, X-ray crystallography was still difficult enough to be a full-time occupation
90.
by natechols 6y ago
17th century American settlers were fleeing an environment where the child mortality rate was at least 1/3rd even for the upper classes, nearly all land and wealth was controlled by inbred gangsters, and the penalties for petty theft o

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