#science feels

[theplanetsglowandintensify]

SCIENCE IS COOL, YALL

[wmb-salticidae]

Due to the competition and even secrecy surrounding brain organoid research, several leaders in the field did not know what others had accomplished until STAT described it. Contrary to Song’s assumption, for instance, another leading scientist has reportedly connected brain organoids in a dish to retinal cells, which perceive light and therefore produce vision. “It’s hard to know the significance of that,” said one scholar with whom the scientist discussed the retina work. “What experience is the organoid having, and how would we ever figure that out?”

Tiny human brain organoids implanted into rodents, triggering ethical concerns

I have a lot of sympathy for Luddism right now! 

I am all about reaching into Heaven and stealing the fire of the gods and meddling with things that mortals were not meant to know, but holy fucking fuck I have no words for how disturbing it is for see these people potentially creating conscious minds and having nothing to say for it besides, “Well, we’re mostly sure that it isn’t a problem yet” and “Maybe we should check it out at some point.” 

It is also disturbing that they seem to be conflating “human-like consciousness” and “capacity to perceive and and have subjective experiences,” and acting as though rats don’t have the latter because they don’t have the former. Is this why none of the science journals seem to bat an eye when somebody decides to see if it’s possible to give rats a fetish for tiny jackets? 

We live in a fallen world and sacrifices must be made to build it into something better, but the result should be worthy of the price that is paid. Knowing the precise reason that fetishes exist is not worth one involuntary corpse, let alone a a box of them, and while I am open to arguments that creating (and destroying) human minds and new forms of consciousness is an acceptable cost in order to cure many of the mental illnesses that these studies are trying to treat, it is incredibly disturbing to me that everything in this article indicates, not that the researchers have made the calculations and found the cost acceptable, but that they have decided to let someone else ask the question. 

[karbonring]

Me when people use "universe" when they mean "galaxy" or "galaxy" when they mean "star system": *cries*

[chocolate-failure]

organizing a data set ≥ an orgasm

[chocolate-failure]

source: *is literally a scientist and has the galileo password*

[chocolate-failure]

I applied for a job today that I am very much suited for though isn’t particularly suited for me. It’s in health inspections for which I am moderately trained to do. I know the theory and the law alright but... I’m a scientist not an investigator and superly not an enforcer. 

I was looking up stuff about schizoid and employment and was vastly unsurprised by what I found in regard to jobs. I found that my work history had a tendency to reflect my mentality. 

The Counselor When I was younger I worked as a camp counselor. Though I don’t like children I like working with them. They’re very easy to work with and are terrible at discerning sarcasm and ingenuousness. They don’t demand a lot out of you, are easy to manipulate, and are easily impressed. Kids are fucking easy. I also like that working with them is usually a parttime thing and seasonal. 

The Actor I also worked at a haunted house while in high school. And yes, it was awesome, though the pay was utter shit.

The Caregiver I’ve worked at a nursing home as a CNA a few years later. This was one of the worst experiences of my life. The whole place smelled like piss, was hilariously understaffed, and the other CNAs and nurses didn’t care to train me. I didn’t mind cleaning up shit and being cursed out but talking to them... Talking to them was insufferable, it reminded me of my grandfather. It also didn’t help that I worked from 11PM-7AM. Perhaps surprising or unsurprising when you get old everything goes to shit, including your sleep so a LOT of the seniors were quite active during my work hours. The place was like a fucking prison and it was just too much for me, I don’t have it in me to care for others regardless of how good the money is. I left after 3 days and this experience is what ultimately ended my pursuit of a nursing career [on top of me being too fucking stupid to pass the entrance exam].

The Intern pt 1 I also worked at the CDC which is big shit in the medical and science communities. Like any stat that you site in regards to public health the CDC or an affiliate probably had a hand in either collecting samples, compiling the data, analysis or the resulting article. But don’t worry, I didn’t do shit at the CDC. I worked there for like a semester.

The Intern pt 2 and 3 Then I have my internships. They were both in ecological microbiology, one in reference to climate change the other in analyzing the bacterial composition of the local watershed. I quite enjoyed that work. Being able to go to the lab and just listen to music and get shit done was sublime. I liked my instructor, she was very blunt, straightforward, and efficient. Both those internships lasted a semester.

The Lab Tech The following summer I worked in another lab on campus. I extracted DNA of an archaea species and preformed qPCR to amplify the DNA and see what amount of the organism was present in the original sample. This again was in reference to climate change as this species of archaean is essential to nitrogen fixation which helps to curb hypoxia vis-a-vis eutrophication. When there’s more organic matter (ie nitrogen) present water will contain more CO2 which lowers pH causing less CO2 to be absorbed by the ocean which we all know is a major problem because CO2 is a GHG present at dangerous levels within our atmosphere; and then boom... hurricanes, heatwaves, vector borne disease, terrestrial ice melt, coral bleaching blah blah blah. But I digress, I worked there two months while taking ochem II [tough fucking summer]. I liked that job too though it was a bit more stressful cuz I didn’t pick it up as fast as my other jobs.

Analysis I say all this to emphasize some running themes here. I go for jobs that require little to no emotional investment. I like to work alone with little supervision doing things that I’m very familiar with. I don’t mind doing the same thing over and over again as long as there’s a process and a means of interpreting the product.I fuckin love science. I don’t like having clients to whom I am directly beholden or have to interact with on any meaningful level. I tend not to spend long stints working a job, I have a tendency to get bored though most of my experience is temporary out of necessity. I don’t like the idea of working for the rest of my life, we’ll see how tolerable the idea of having money makes it. Cuz I sure do fuckin love money.

[maastrictian]

The main paper about the gravitational wave observation released today is worth reading, and written so that you can actually read it.