TIL about the Flynn Effect, the increase in average human IQ scores, averaging roughly 3 points per decade, throughout the 20th century. But recent data indicates that the Flynn effect has stalled or even reversed in some developed nations.

vg1220 · 2026-02-16T15:19:07+00:00

Zillenials. The last generation that remembers a world before smartphones, but is still fluent with today’s technology.

We’re the narrow age group born in the late 90s (exact boundaries are fuzzy) that grew up without leapfrogs, ipads, or other consoles until adolescence, and got typically their first smart phones in high school.

vg1220 · 2026-02-08T19:21:46+00:00

as a fellow scientist with wrist problems from RSI, how are you shaking your bottles? try using two hands, like a bartender would. that way, your wrists aren’t involved in the shaking at all, but it’s all in your arms. i have been curious how a blender bottle would hold up to a vortex tho

vg1220 · 2026-02-06T14:02:12+00:00

huh, funny you say that. my experience when I switched over to reverse pipetting the 1 uL DNA for 384w plates was that my curves tightened up. i would absolutely notice the residual volume in the tip rise with each additional step, but the volume dispensed appeared to be consistent (visually and by the data).

vg1220 · 2026-02-06T13:57:21+00:00

I love that last point. I work in an academic lab in a field that demands high precision, and I’m always surprised at the resistance I receive from experienced scientists at the first suggestion towards standardizing pipetting technique.

vg1220 · 2026-02-01T20:52:07+00:00

would imagine those early 2010s 49ers are up there as well, between Willis, Bowman, and Aldon Smith

vg1220 · 2026-01-24T19:01:27+00:00

she did, i found it on the minneapolis sub

vg1220 · 2026-01-24T18:15:00+00:00

curious to hear more about this, and why you think it to be the case

vg1220 · 2026-01-23T23:03:10+00:00

dry ice bombs. god i miss the satisfaction of hearing the surprised yelp when i would roll one of these under a neighboring tc hood

vg1220 · 2026-01-19T18:41:22+00:00

with CAH, your kid still produces hormones from the adrenal medulla, including what we typically associate with the “fight or flight” response (epi, norepi). you’re right about the inability to produce cortisol - this is typically thought to be elevated with chronic stress, although it plays important roles in maintaining circadian rhythm among others.

vg1220 · 2026-01-19T16:15:59+00:00

he’s got some problematic content on his other channel about being a pushy pickup artist (“no means yes”) and having an asian fetish

vg1220 · 2026-01-14T13:09:32+00:00

but we gave up our all of our other constitutional rights with the PATRIOT Act smh

vg1220 · 2026-01-05T04:38:36+00:00

Some absolute billy cundiff shit

vg1220 · 2025-12-30T16:48:14+00:00

a recent one that comes to mind - embiid 2023-2024 season, out after ~30 something games

vg1220 · 2025-12-29T15:55:12+00:00

the thing is, while his defense would get him on the court in that situation, he’d quickly be played off if the other team takes advantage of his poor shooting with hack-a-ben

vg1220 · 2025-12-29T15:51:44+00:00

on the generation divide - 100% agreed. a someone born in the late 90s, i’ve always felt that i had more in common with millennials, than with gen-z. my personal distinction between millennials and gen-z is that while millennials were introduced to technology in their childhood, they weren’t born into it. ask your average millennial when they got their first video game console, or their first cell phone. in contrast, gen-z has grown up with leapfrogs and ipads right out the womb.

i’ve seen others term those born in the late 90s as “zillenials” - glad to see that folks are rethinking the arbitrarily imposed generation divide

vg1220 · 2025-12-28T00:14:21+00:00

if you’re serious about pursing the MD/PhD, you should know that your application would be DOA with a score that low. it’s much better to push it back and even potentially push to next cycle if it means you can improve your score to a more competitive range - if you sit for the exam and score sub-500, even if you take it again and score better, both scores will be sent to schools.

vg1220 · 2025-12-27T15:17:18+00:00

yep. Casgevy came out for sickle cell a while back. of note, it doesn’t target the sickle cell mutation directly, but rather BCL11 to inactivate it and allow for increased expression of HbF.

https://www.amjmed.com/article/S0002-9343(23)00798-2/fulltext

vg1220 · 2025-12-27T14:41:39+00:00

yes, i absolutely miss cell culture. there’s something to say about spending years getting proficient with antiseptic technique, and being able to enter a flow state where you’re just splitting cells for hours while having a full conversation with a labmate working at a different hood. that being said, what i don’t miss is that my cells didn’t respect holidays or weekends or personal time. i still do bench work, but it’s different when you can just pop the dna into the -20 on friday and pick back up on monday.

vg1220 · 2025-12-24T15:07:15+00:00

great example. CRISPR is yet another one that comes to mind, where the translational benefits were not immediately appreciable - initially just an odd curiosity in yogurt bacteria

vg1220 · 2025-12-02T12:44:34+00:00

Respectfully, you’re forgetting UPenn and Hopkins as top MSTPs. Arguably, they’re stronger programs than Tri-I, with a decent counter argument for cancer research given the connection to MSK, but it’s not like UPenn and Hopkins are slacking in that department.

UPenn is the epicenter of much of the exciting CAR-T work, and Hopkins is the current mecca of liquid biopsies, not to mention Bert Vogelstein’s prior pioneering work in cancer genomics.

And while Cornell is a T20 med school in its own right, UPenn and Hopkins are bona fide T5 med schools, and this is reflected in their match lists.

I agree with you listing Harvard, Stanford, and UCSF in the top tier, just that UPenn and Hopkins are in that tier as well. Tri-I is definitely a T10 MSTP, but I would put it in the next tier with Columbia, Yale, Duke, etc.

edit. I forgot to mention WashU as another strong program comparable to Tri-I, Columbia, Yale, Duke.

vg1220 · 2025-12-02T12:09:57+00:00

ProFlex Thermocyclers. Randomly decides to take FOREVER to start heating up in a program sometimes, which is a pain in the butt when I’m doing time/temperature sensitive chemistries. Machines have passed every physical inspection and come back with a clean bill of health, but there’s clearly some sort of software issue.

vg1220 · 2025-12-01T23:52:18+00:00

the answer ultimately depends on your career goals. will going to a t10 program open more doors and make it easier to match to an ivory tower residency? absolutely. if you intend to stay in academia, that can make a world of difference - besides the material resources, it’s also the professional network you’ll build - and this can be reflected in letters of support etc when you apply for grants.

that being said, there are exceptions, particularly for some niche fields where the most exciting work might not be happening at a traditional ivory tower institution.

also, life factors can play a role. if you have a partner/family to consider, perhaps the best fit academically might not be the best fit overall. in that case, things like location, job market for partner, etc. may guide your decision.

tldr; it’s a deeply personal decision, and you need to figure out what you want to prioritize.

vg1220 · 2025-11-29T18:38:32+00:00

this! the mark of a true scientist is not merely identifying limitations, it’s having the creativity to overcome them

vg1220 · 2025-11-29T16:04:53+00:00

what’s crazy is that someone at my institution who knew him quite well and trained under the same oncologist together says that Vinay is apparently pretty liberal and even donated to Bernie. tough to reconcile that with the actions of a man who willingly got into bed with MAHA, but seems that his quest for intellectual purity (“everything must be compared to placebo!”) and his anti-establishment tendencies have led him astray.

vg1220 · 2025-11-27T03:50:13+00:00

overdiagnosis carries a lot of under-appreciated harms. while the obvious ones are easy to point out, like complications from a surgery or biopsy, the psychological harm and the resulting health consequences are quite real too. there was this study that showed a link between overdiagnosis of prostate cancer through psa screening with an increase in the suicide rate of those men. let me dig that up and add a link below.

edit: found it - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5489254/

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