reporter's comments

I have set up several Google Scholar alerts for articles. It works extremely well. I also follow everyone I can in my field on Twitter. My field is evolutionary biology.

I just uploaded three articles in the last two weeks to BioRxiv. The papers were previously just sitting in review. I have already received several emails thanking and informing me that my work is influencing the manuscripts they are writing - more citations. Overall the experience has been an extremely positive experience for me. I don't really see any downsides. So excited for the revolution.

Does anyone know if deactivation helps with any of these privacy concerns? I have had my account deactivated for 4 years. I keep it open just in case I need to get ahold of someone if I can't get through through phone and email (which has happened!).

This is a great site for audio recording of his writing and interviews: http://www.dfwaudioproject.org/

This is really interesting to me. I can't hear it and I am a native english speaker. I was just in a room of people and played it and everyone clicked into the meaning right away. I played it about seven more times and I guess I kind of hear it now, but still, not really.

I did horrible in elementary school and high school until I realized I was what I labelled myself a "visual learner". I excelled in college and am just about to finish my PhD in evolutionary biology, largely because I stopped attending lectures and decided to learn everything on my own. After listening to this illusion I decided to search for auditory dyslexia and sure enough there are disorders like this and I definitely fit the definition, especially central auditory processing disorder. Does anyone know if this test is correlated with audio disorders or where I can get more information on this?

If anyone wants to delve a little deeper into these topics I highly suggest Patterns in the plane and beyond: symmetry in two and three dimensions. By B.G. Thomas and M.A. Hann.

The PDF is available for free.

http://ulita.leeds.ac.uk/docs/Ars_Textrina/Monographs/Patter...

I think the author forgot to mention you must love economics. People get their PhD in the field they love, they don't do it for money or job prospects.

I am one of the dreaded lab PhDs and simply love my life because I love biology. I also have jobs lined up when I graduate because I did well. I did well because I loved my work which enabled me do a lot of work.

The thought of myself getting an economics PhD seems horrifying because I have no interest in it. But hey, if you love economics...

...but there are links to Pinterest and Instagram.

I have never had a LinkedIn and I just counted 213 LinkedIn messages in my gmail account (yes, I am horrible at deleting emails). Their email spamming has turned me off to ever trying LinkedIn.

Do people actually find LinkedIn useful anyway? Everyone I know has an account, but I have never actually met a person who has found a job through using the site.

I think everyone is digging way too deep into the significance of this event. Public speaking is hard for everyone and most people could benefit from workshops like these no matter the gender. One of the hardest aspects of public speaking is feeling comfortable being the center of attention. I imagine a tech specific speaking workshop, which is open to everyone, would involve the usual gender discrepancy, making standing out more amplified. This group is just one way in which to ease into the uncomfortableness of standing out.

I agree. Why doesn't every organic company just label their food as GMO-free. Then people can assume all others may have GMOs, because most do. The GMO-free business can stand out to the customers who are needing them and thrive.

Oh wait. That is how our food is labelled at the moment. Now we can save the millions of dollars on the cost of regulation of labeling, that could go to say, education. Phew.

By safety, I am speaking of human health safety. You are absolutely right, this whole issue is very complex. Since it is not an easy topic, labeling something "safe" for everything is something I cannot say in full confidence.

That being said, I do think GMOs are as safer overall then most other technologies at the moment.

Environment: We do have research on the environmental effects of disposable of computers/electronics, plastics, cars, pesticides ect. Being scared of GMOs as a environmental factor seems reasonable, but this should be applied to everything. I am surprised people attack GMO for this reason, when there are obvious other technologies that are doing some real scientifically proven harm.

Business: Yes. I do think GMOs can be dangerous as a business, especially with the patenting issues of a large corporation. The patent issue is the same issue that most developers and small businesses have to battle with all the time. So I do not really see this as a GMO specific issue either. The problem is that the more GMOs are attacked, the harder it is for a small business to have enough power and credibility, as a small business to even have a chance.

Social Risks: Not sure what you mean by this.

The last bit about GMOs being the best way: I totally agree. I personally think it is not the best option. Monoculture, seems is causing some real problems. Not to mention GMO production has a low and slow success rate, considering how so much money and research goes into it. Land use practices, I believe is our best bet to solving some of our problems.

I still think GMOs have potential of being a really innovative technology, I just want science to have a fair shot.

As a plant scientist, like all plant scientists, we think GMOs are safe. There is just no credible science against this.

The point I want to bring up, which the article didn't, is wheat is an incredibly hard organism to deal with bioinformatically, since wheat has an incredibly complex genome owing to its polyploid nature. Therefore, making GMO wheat will be extremely hard. So even if there is a consensus on attempting to make GMO wheat. I pity the scientists who have to work on such a task and it will take a LONG time.

First post!

This is a tutorial I made aimed at high schoolers and undergrads I created. Thought it might be of some interest to a few of you.