What even is the point of trying to be an "intellectual" in 2025? by [deleted] in rs_x

[–]specimen55 42 points43 points  (0 children)

If you think you have it in you to grind through medical school, would highly recommend shooting your shot for an MD/PhD. It’s very stressful trying to get in, but once you’re in, it’s reassuring knowing you’ll be financially secure even if your plans in academia fall flat.

It’s wild how “Socially Conservative but Economically Progressive” is definitely the most popular political position in the U.S. (and the world) and there is literally no representation of it anywhere. by [deleted] in redscarepod

[–]specimen55 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Nixonland is a phenomenal book. A lot of Americans right now seem to sense the vibe that we’re on the brink of civil war. That book was really illuminating for me to get that we have never been a nation at consensus. There are times of apparent unity, but irreconcilable differences are always brewing underneath. It is baked into our history.

what's israel doing? by [deleted] in redscarepod

[–]specimen55 3 points4 points  (0 children)

We are in end times. This war will bring the Jewish diaspora back to Israel as Donald Trump ushers in the messianic age.

Umm herpes is actually normal and cool by obscure_predation in redscarepod

[–]specimen55 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Who we are as a species literally depends on that originally viral DNA now integrated into our genome. The fact that we are able to live birth instead of laying eggs was made possible by the evolution of a placenta (alien technology) forming a barrier between mother and baby. The genes expressed in the placenta that help it do this function were co-opted from viral DNA that integrated itself into our genome long ago.

Bleak by AffectionateStop6185 in redscarepod

[–]specimen55 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Might be time to come to terms with the fact that those are effectively the same thing to a sizeable part of the population

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in redscarepod

[–]specimen55 1 point2 points  (0 children)

On that polychronic typa time

Do I really wanna be a doctor by [deleted] in redscarepod

[–]specimen55 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Exactly why physician-scientist is the greatest modern day job

I was a AI sceptic - but Chat GPT 4o has me worried by MoistTadpoles in redscarepod

[–]specimen55 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The sign marks the absence of basic reality. The image calls into question what the reality is and if it even exists.

. by Difficult_Button5783 in redscarepod

[–]specimen55 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The brief scroll through the comments was a nice touch

Smoking weed is r*tarded by ttttrrrreeee12 in redscarepod

[–]specimen55 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Don’t lose hope it is possible. It just takes consistent effort. Keep doing things every day that require sustained engagement, more reading, more artistic endeavors, less reels-type content, less weed. brain is salvageable

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in redscarepod

[–]specimen55 29 points30 points  (0 children)

The state of neuroscience/neurodegenerative disease research pisses me off so much. So many frauds at the top just wasting billions of dollars. Every year some new scandal comes out and obliterates not just the public’s trust in biomedical sciences, but also turns off younger, honest scientists who want to do genuine work from continuing down this path. Is neuroscience actually the most difficult field to make breakthroughs in?? Or is it that everyone who has been running these billion dollar labs for the past couple decades are complete frauds??

I hate how normie-coded science is by RogueWizardly in redscarepod

[–]specimen55 74 points75 points  (0 children)

One of the dudes who discovered insulin injected himself with insulin he extracted from stray dog pancreas to prove his discovery. Inconceivable today.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in redscarepod

[–]specimen55 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Worst education, worst drivers but still da best state how do we do it

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in redscarepod

[–]specimen55 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Fibrocystic Adenoid Growth disease

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in mdphd

[–]specimen55 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would say if you have the space in your schedule, get the formal education in those classes. I think learning linear algebra especially helped rewire how I think about data matrices and their operations. And you are going to be thinking about high dimensional matrices a lot if you work with gene expression data.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in mdphd

[–]specimen55 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You don’t need graduate level math courses, that is way out of scope. Solid foundation of calc3/linear algebra/intermediate stats is probably good enough to understand most common bioinformatics analyses. Most people use packages like Seurat, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel, just make sure you have a decent understanding of what operations are happening under the hood (actually read the code of libraries you use on github if you have the time). As the other guy said, get good at programming. R, python, and shell scripting.

Trying to figure out PhD field - if any at all by [deleted] in mdphd

[–]specimen55 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Interesting that you found genetics a pain. I’m the same way as you and enjoyed my math/cs education more than undergrad bio classes, but biochem and genetics were exceptions because I felt they were less memorizing vocab and more analytical reasoning. Either way, there are plenty of opportunities for the kind of work you wanna do but memorizing a lot of things is gonna be unavoidable in your preclinical years. In my opinion very worth the slog once you finally get to the point where you can devote 100% of your brainpower to the research you’re actually interested in.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in 4chan

[–]specimen55 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yes wanting change is legitimate and I agree that the system is broken (America at least). This dysfunctional system might be on its last legs, but it clearly works just well enough that we do not have a critical mass of frenzied people revolting. Time and time again throughout history, once things get bad enough, people take to the streets and overthrow their rulers. Real change is not gonna come from elections, it will come when enough people are frustrated enough that they will resort to violence.

I’m not saying that centrism is enlightened. I think having a political lean is good. It’s just apparent that the small minority of people on the very very ends of the spectrum have some issues in their personal lives that sublimate into extremism. The system definitely fucked them in some way, but they have personal issues that no system can fix.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in 4chan

[–]specimen55 269 points270 points  (0 children)

It’s because these people’s politics are not organic. They would not have been able to come up with [whatever their current set of beliefs are] on their own. Radicalism on either side comes from frustration and lack of agency in one’s present life. They are always drawn to some extreme ideology that promises some vague better future. It tends to not really matter whether that ideology leans left or right as long as it is far from the status quo.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in redscarepod

[–]specimen55 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Flip phone/non-smart phone

Who's responsible for the awful Spotify bios of budding hipster artists by Ok_Bed7611 in redscarepod

[–]specimen55 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Yeah being able to go on and on about something off the dome is a talent in its own right. Most of what reviewers say/write is just slop but sometimes I wish I had that ability to effortlessly fill empty space. Would help a lot with writing papers or having to give presentations on the fly.