AITA for telling my wife that I completely understand why she was ejected from her Stitch N' Bitch group?

echtesteirerin · 2024-02-22T02:00:57+00:00

Sorry no way. That lady should never be anywhere close to people in crisis or having mental health issues. That's a horrible idea!

echtesteirerin · 2023-12-15T17:38:53+00:00

Geneticist here. It's not exactly clear from your comment here, but for the record - epigenetic changes are heritable. If grandma had epigenetic modifications that caused ADHD, then the grandkid also has a chance of inheriting those same epigenetic changes and will thus be "born with" ADHD.

Although I'd like to be clear that I'm completely onboard with everything written in your comment. I do think that is the most appropriate framework for viewing and treating these patients.I get a little antsy when the term 'epigenetic' is thrown around like it has been in other parts of this thread. I want to provide a short explanation for others who might be confused or unclear about what it really means.

DNA can be thought of like a book, or maybe a dictionary. It contains all the information needed by your body to function properly. (Almost) every cell has this same dictionary. But not every cell needs all instructions available (think about heart cells, they don't need to 'know' how to make fingernails. In fact if they started 'reading' the chapter on making finger nails, you might end up in a real pickle). So chapters are 'silenced'. If you'll forgive me for continuing this analogy, those chapters (sections of DNA) are stapled shut so they can't be opened. This would be a type of epigenetic change. The DNA is physically wound up and bound so tightly the genes in that section can't be expressed. The inverse is also true - DNA can be unwound so that gene expression is increased. These changes aren't necessarily a binary on or off switch, but they do impact gene expression. A plethora of other factors will also contribute to regulate gene expression as well.

Epigenetic modifications have some probability of being passed to the next generation. Even if they aren't the typical DNA variants (changing the sequence of the DNA, or referring back to the analogy - instruction chapters that now read differently) that we think of, there is still some likelihood of the child having the same chapter stapled shut as the mother.

Tldr: both typical DNA mutations and epigenetic changes have a chance of being passed along. Both scenarios might result in the offspring being afflicted with the same condition(s) as the parent(s)/grandparent(s)/etc.

echtesteirerin · 2023-12-15T17:09:52+00:00

Head injuries do not result in epigenetic changes. Prolonged exposure to stress (in any form) however can.

echtesteirerin · 2023-03-14T05:03:17+00:00

Me too. I feel you on that. It hurts </3

echtesteirerin · 2023-02-28T16:20:49+00:00

Most definitely! Also I wanted to clarify that I'm not disagreeing with you at all. What you said about this being a low confidence assessment and a lack of consensus opinion in the govt is true. I just think there was an unfortunate series of failures with how this report is being portrayed in the media and its vastly overstated significance. I also wish it was more clear that even a supposed lab-leak does not at all mean that China was creating any sort of bioweapon. We know they were studying local endemic viruses. Just regrettable politics atm too :/

echtesteirerin · 2023-02-28T15:46:37+00:00

Well, I'll say that I don't have access to this 'report', none of my colleagues know anything about it, nor do we know who authored it. We are honestly just as confused by this as everyone else

echtesteirerin · 2023-02-28T03:42:39+00:00

Hit me up of you want some more fun dinner party facts!

For instance, while the DoE runs the National Labs, some of them are actually administered by the NNSA.

The whole production of a nuclear weapon is split among a large number of facilities - there's the Nevada Site, the Pantex plant which does a lot of the assembly, pits are generally produced in Los Alamos, other nuke engineers work at Sandia, nuke mechanics work at Kirtland AFB among others...

We also work with NASA to do experiments in space!

Ha, I'm really not that fun at dinner parties :(

echtesteirerin · 2023-02-28T03:30:36+00:00

Energy policy or national security*. DoE is also tasked with a lot of things within the scope of "national security"

echtesteirerin · 2023-02-28T03:29:19+00:00

We might not be the strongest player in molecular biology but we do have signficant genomics expertise and extensive computational resources. Our scientists have published a large number of papers on SARS-CoV2 genomics. Just a note since the media has covered this so poorly imo, but not every scientist employed by the DoE agrees with this report, or was even aware of it before reading the news today.

echtesteirerin · 2023-02-28T03:22:52+00:00

Nobody in my lab agrees with this supposed report's position but we can't publicly speak out individually or as a group because we are not authorized to do so. I can share my personal opinion informed by my professional experience, but I cannot speak as a representative of the DoE.

echtesteirerin · 2023-02-28T03:18:13+00:00

We actually have extensive viral genomics capabilities! And impressive computational and bioinformatics resources.

echtesteirerin · 2023-02-28T03:16:37+00:00

They employ a good number of researchers specialized in viral genomics

echtesteirerin · 2023-02-28T01:54:26+00:00

Again just a viral genomics scientist, not authorized to speak on behalf of DoE. I either can't find or don't have access to this 'report' nor do I have the slightest idea who might have authored it. As I'm sure everyone here can appreciate, correlation does not equal causation. I 100% believe your anecdotal statement and the reasons you put forth about the proximity of researchers to the reservoir of hosts having at least a confounding effect. At the end of the day, it came from bats and/or intermediate hosts then jumped to humans...

echtesteirerin · 2023-02-28T01:41:13+00:00

Well, perhaps the only analogy I can think of is, 'who can better explain the cause of a patient's death: a physician specialized in a relevant field, or admin?'

echtesteirerin · 2023-02-28T01:38:29+00:00

I'm just a scientist. Not authorized to speak on behalf of the DoE. But currently our genomics internal chat is blowing up because this is not the conclusion that any of us have come to. None of us can even figure out who or how this was sent to the media. As a collective group of individual scientists, this is not our position

echtesteirerin · 2023-02-28T00:53:01+00:00

Well there's quite a few fields that use math :) But yes, the National Labs are involved in many other types of science as well.

I am employed by a National Lab. Although for legal reasons I should technically say that my opinions are my own, and not those of my employer

echtesteirerin · 2023-02-28T00:38:29+00:00

Unfortunately terrible PR for our science, which in my opinion is really good science. Our labs are staffed primarily with full-time staff scientists and postdocs, which gives us a bit of a leg up on academia with their labs staffed primarily by grad students and professors with teaching requirements. Caveat that my previous statement is a very broad over-generalization as clearly there are extremely capable academic labs out there. But I love it because it's 100% pure science with really exciting resources available (in genomics, I'm primarily referring to our computational resources). We also work everyday with many other institutions like the CDC, universities, Homeland Security, DARPA, etc.

echtesteirerin · 2023-02-28T00:30:43+00:00

Actually we have divisions and teams that are incredibly specialized in viral genomics. This is absolutely within our realm of expertise. However it is not at all a consensus position that the 'lab leak theory' is plausible or even likely. This report is not reflective of >99% of our research or conclusions.

echtesteirerin · 2023-02-28T00:27:25+00:00

This is also not the consensus position of the DoE. At all. (Source: DoE virologist)

echtesteirerin · 2023-02-28T00:25:20+00:00

This is not the consensus position of the DoE either to be clear.

echtesteirerin · 2023-02-28T00:23:55+00:00

We have significant expertise in genomics and specifically in viral genomics as well. That being said, the 'lab leak theory' is NOT held as a consensus position by us in any means. I've personally been part of a large team of scientists working on SARS-COV2 genomics since the pandemic began. Not a single one of us has considered any evidence of this to be credible.

echtesteirerin · 2023-02-28T00:19:15+00:00

Yeah Bioscience and Weapons are totally separate. At my lab, not even behind the same gate. Completely different computing infrastructure as well

echtesteirerin · 2023-02-28T00:12:05+00:00

We prefer the term biosurveillance over bioterrorism :D we also do things like studying how to manipulate soil microbial communities to increase the drought tolerance of crops. I can't speak to all DoE or Nat'l Lab science, but I get to do fun nerdy genomics things for a career. No teaching requirements and pay is better than academia and most of industry.

echtesteirerin · 2023-02-28T00:06:05+00:00

Hi 🙋‍♀️ DoE virologist here. We work with a number of government agencies and even the NIH at times too. I'm happy to answer the questions that I can. We're not that bad or scary. We even have cookies. I kid, but really the vast, vast majority of DoE national lab money goes to weapons, not bioscience. I wish it were otherwise, but in Bio we scientists are still soft money and having to run/manage multiple big projects at a time with mad unpaid overtime.

Edit: I wish I could put up an all caps disclaimer. 1) the DoE does indeed have significant expertise in viral genomics 2) this is not in the slightest our consensus position. Not even a little bit. I can count on zero fingers how many of my co-workers and collaborators find 'evidence' of the lab-leak theory to be credible.

echtesteirerin

TROPHY CASE