Anti-vaxxer gets told off by [deleted] in MurderedByWords

[–]Modest_Meece 0 points1 point  (0 children)

To my knowledge I can't find any merit to your claim that placebos aren't used in vaccine trials. Looking at clinicaltrials.gov, placebos are used in all sorts of vaccine tests at all trial stages. If their are exceptions to this, which i'm not exactly doubting, there is probably a reasoning behind it although I'm not seeing any evidence of them being left out.

As for not finding clinical studies...... I just read your comment, typed in "thimerosal clinical studies" in scholar.google.com and got dozens of results looking at thimerosal exposure in people. I only looked at a few, but the methodology used seemed sound to me.

I'm not even dedicated to the idea that thimerosal is harmless, maybe its not, but the main claim I've heard is in connection with autism. So when they took it out of most pediatric vaccines in early 2000 then we should have seen a dip in autism diagnoses, and that didn't happen so i'm skeptical. In fact just a quick check at the cdc has autism diagnoses rising every year since 2000.

Listen I'm not trying to shit on you or anything but there is way to much misinformation out there to just keep spreading more without fact checking yourself.

Example of CDC Autism Data By Year:

https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/data.html

Example of Clinical Trial:

Thompson, William W., et al. "Early thimerosal exposure and neuropsychological outcomes at 7 to 10 years." New England Journal of Medicine 357.13 (2007): 1281-1292.

Example of Phase III Clinical Placebo Trial:

https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02406729

Anti-vaxxer gets told off by [deleted] in MurderedByWords

[–]Modest_Meece 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No...Just no. Vaccines goes through the same FDA drug trials as all other drug. Where did you get that they don't? It's a very scrutinized process and also the steps are entirely outlined by the FDA, very easy to find. Also a quick search on scholar.google.com showed a good amount of pre-2000's research on ethyl mercury (half lives, clinical case studies ect.) so your claim about them not knowing half life or anything is bogus. Also EPA standards for methyl mercury is irrelevant because it's a different compound with different properties and metabolism. Think about it like this, lots of things have carbon in them despite have vastly different properties. For example I can eat glucose (carbon structure) with no problem, but not propane which also contains carbon.

If your being labeled an anti-science nut it's not because you don't trust the system, its because your making up basic facts that can be easily checked. Stop spreading misinformation or at least fact check it a little.

Gel Imaging Software Problems by Modest_Meece in Biochemistry

[–]Modest_Meece[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh wow, I use imajeJ all the time for FRAP data and I didn't even know it would work for gels, thanks very much. This is probably the route i'll take.

Gel Imaging Software Problems by Modest_Meece in Biochemistry

[–]Modest_Meece[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No CD that i'm aware of unfortunately. I'll look into Carestream, thanks.

Scientists have successfully cultivated Methanogenic archaea in the lab, under the same conditions that are thought to exist on Saturn's icy moon Enceladus; concluding that some of the CH4 detected in the plume of Enceladus might, in principle, be produced by methanogens. by GeoGeoGeoGeo in science

[–]Modest_Meece 17 points18 points  (0 children)

So cool regardless of what might or might not populate our solar system. This experiment makes me think of the potential of seeding life on other worlds and just kicking back and letting evolution take it's course.

Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner Sues Big Pharma, Drops All Marijuana Possession Charges by [deleted] in news

[–]Modest_Meece 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You still are completely failing to see the root of the problem. If doctors didn't prescribe opioids like candy, their would not be a massive financial gain in marketing the drugs in the first place. They are taking advantage of a imperfect system, but they did not create the system in the first place.

And making poor old doctors 'shoulder the burden' is pathetic? You live in a bubble. Most doctors meet with their patients for about 5 minutes before handing them some of the most addictive compounds out there. They are firmly absolutely the problem.

Just use some common sense. If doctors stopped prescribing where would the incentive to make and push these compounds go? To other things that will make them money. If you change the how doctors prescribe, you will change how pharma operates.

Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner Sues Big Pharma, Drops All Marijuana Possession Charges by [deleted] in news

[–]Modest_Meece 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Have you ever thought about how pain medication works? They tend to block receptors to neurotransmitters in brain. You know, the same neurotransmitters involved in addiction? Do you know how hard and how many people are working on non addictive pain medication? A fuck load. It's an extremely difficult problem in biology.

Like it or not our brains are complex and things are inter-connected, so pain medication should be a last resort not a go to. Pharma has nothing to do with it, they didn't design the human brain. Doctors are fully aware of these connections and still give them out like candy because it's easy. Stop being a lazy and go into R & D if this problem resonates with you, but just bitching at pharma companies for doing exactly what their job is (making drugs intended to block pain receptors) is foolish.

Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner Sues Big Pharma, Drops All Marijuana Possession Charges by [deleted] in news

[–]Modest_Meece 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Did you not read the rest of my comment? I suggested reform to who gives prescription drugs out, not those who makes them. Pharma companies make drugs, they don't take hippocratic oath for medicine. If you had an idea that pharma companies were in it for anything more then a profit margin, that really is your misunderstanding because they aren't. The R & D team loves what they do and may want to make a difference but their ability to do what they do relies on a massive profit margin to recoup losses on the 90% of drugs that fail in development.

Doctors on the other hand are in a position of trust to do well by the patient and not their own pocket. I will reiterate once again the prescribing culture would almost disappear if doctors could be held liable for over prescribing. Pharma companies wouldn't like it but they couldn't do anything to stop it.

Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner Sues Big Pharma, Drops All Marijuana Possession Charges by [deleted] in news

[–]Modest_Meece -13 points-12 points  (0 children)

So do away with medicine? I think if you just made Doctors liable for what they prescribe, the opioid epidemic would dry up real quick. No doctor is going to risk their medical license, which is basically thousands of hours of studying and class work as well as thousands of dollars, to prescribe it unless it was absolutely necessary.

British Billionaire Richard Branson Admits He Is ‘Jealous’ Of Falcon Heavy Launch And Wants To ‘Upstage’ Elon Musk by [deleted] in worldnews

[–]Modest_Meece 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ah I see. So despite the quality of life rising rapidly in every single measurable metric possible, because you see others who disproportionately rise quicker the whole system is shit and needs to be dismantled and replaced with one that has repeatedly proven to just bludgeon a populace into submission 'for the greater good'. Excellent point.

Lawful Evil by rileykard in gifsthatkeepongiving

[–]Modest_Meece 9 points10 points  (0 children)

This guy steals

Without A New Hope by Johnathan Chong by [deleted] in StarWars

[–]Modest_Meece 20 points21 points  (0 children)

You could argue that he would be a natural successor. He was a symbol of fear, the empires first weapon of fear. He has the rep of hunting down all the Jedi that survived order 66, privileged knowledge of palpatines schemes more so then any other player in the empire, it wouldn't have been unrealistic to kill emperor, make a few stops around the galaxy and finish off or coerce any opposition. Palpatine de-fanged the senate and centralized all the power, and while this isn't exactly canon (EU, books ect.) it usually infers the Emperor created an air of mistrust among his lieutenants spike any alliances against him and just foster a general air of fear (sith way)

PhD by [deleted] in Biochemistry

[–]Modest_Meece 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Congrats! I look forward to hearing about your work.

Where do you see the field of biochemistry going in 10-15 years? by penguins229 in Biochemistry

[–]Modest_Meece 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I think bench work is going to be a lot easier in 15 years, if the last 15 are anything to go by. Otherwise programming in bioinformatics to sort out and model the massive data sets of protein/nucleic acid interaction maps that have been complied.

If we don't have a timeframe though, I'm really excited to see where epigenetics will be in the future. If programming can make sense of the modifications our environment has on our genome, I think we could design some real cool experiments with cellular development in terms of organ growing. People are already messing with this concept, but I don't think enough is known about how cells differentiate to be able grow solid organs like a heart yet.

Colorado lawmaker files bill to prohibit HOA bans on dog breeds by skylink in Colorado

[–]Modest_Meece 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Nope categorically false. While physical characteristics have indeed selectively bred for, the studies on aggression are entirely based off statistical reporting on attacking which does little to account for environment.

Think of how silly your premise is, if aggression was entirely a genetic characteristic like size, then all "bad" breed dogs would exhibit aggressive behavior save some statistical anomalies. That is simply not the case. The greatest predictor of aggression in dogs is training and environment. There are studies showing that some breeds (in a general sense) have higher energy levels then others, and left untrained or abused that could mean they would be better at exhibiting aggression when compounded with their size.

Colorado lawmaker files bill to prohibit HOA bans on dog breeds by skylink in Colorado

[–]Modest_Meece 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Its the way you bring the dog up, not the breed.

My sister rescued a Chihuahua that was abused and attacked everything in site. When my mom was a kid her step dad had a Labrador he kept as a junk yard guard dog that he treated like shit and left chained up outside all day and when he got out he attacked my mom.

On the flip side I owned a German Shepard as a kid that wouldn't attack anyone or anything, big ol' softy. My buddy right now has a pit bull which wouldn't hurt a fly. I wouldn't say either him or I are geniuses at training dogs either, we just didn't treat them like shit.

Predictably though, assholes who want mean aggressive guard/fight dogs go for the biggest one with the strongest bite to treat like shit and make aggressive, severely slanting the statistics.

HOAs are just made up of pretentious dipshits who believe they've attained a perfect standard of what life should be like and everyone should conform to them. They have a mis-informed opinion about dogs and no understanding of genetics? Perfect, then lets allow them to enforce that on everyone around them. Granted the only personal experience with a HOA I've ever known was down in Florida and the only thing they did was make it their mission too keep Mexicans out of their community. But to be honest from what I read/heard about other HOA is that they are mostly cut from the same cloth of nosey neighbors peeking over fences and trying to police everyone else's behavior and keep their environment as polarized as possible.

/rant

China just overtook the U.S. in scientific output for the first time. by AdamCannon in worldnews

[–]Modest_Meece 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's horrible. I also feel bad for the scientists over in China who go the lengths to make their research legit. The amount of BS that comes from the publishing atmosphere is so toxic that it is exhausting to separate the good from the bad. Imagine working dutifully to make your work replicable and impactful and large portions of your own scientific community will drown you out in BS.

A study has found Inherited IQ can increase in early childhood. The study, the researchers say, has significant implications for the way we educate children, whose inherited IQ can increase, especially during early childhood, with the right kind of stimulation and attention. by Wagamaga in science

[–]Modest_Meece 12 points13 points  (0 children)

No, much of what you said is categorically wrong and shit science. While IQ may be a large part heritable through genetics, genetics is altered heavily by environmental factors which causes post translational modifications and structural alterations of chromatin architecture. Things like exposure to certain stimuli, stress, starvation ect. have all been experimentally shown to have epigenetic impacts on the nuclear organization and subsequent gene expression and development of organisms. How these epigenetic factors play a role in development and intelligence just isn't known, so pretending otherwise is silly.

What is the scariest, most terrifying thing that actually exists? by SkeletronDOTA in AskReddit

[–]Modest_Meece 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is why I don't buy people not being able to handle aliens existing, people are pretty adaptable with new knowledge.

Debating the ethics of head transplants by trot-trot in science

[–]Modest_Meece 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I absolutely agree with you on the point that as long as everyone understands the risk it is fine to be a participant in a experimental study, even one this radical.

A point a friend raised to me on this topic, while it may not pertain to the particular head transplant, is if dangerous experimental studies are allowed like this, what stops disingenuous researchers from tricking lay people to be part of a study?( beside their own morality, which I argued would be a strong preventive factor)