Whenever I have people over for dinner, I always ask if they have dietary restrictions or allergies. If they say that they have an allergy, I follow up with, “if you eat x, what happens.” I ask this so that I can plan food prep accordingly. 

I think judging someone by an an opinion they held 30+ years ago is unfair. (People do change after all.) Rather, we should determine if those previously held beliefs continue to inform his decision making. In that sense, VP Biden is still woefully out of touch.

Human trials next year? Unless Musk is going to volunteer (and perform the surgery on himself). That isn’t going to happen. Their data needs to be peer reviewed and they will have to replicate the findings in non-human primates at a minimum. Rat cortex is comparatively simple. 

The Coast Guard gets so much undeserved shit from the other services. Much love for our “near shore” navy. 

I always appreciate your comments.

Thank you and the Kotaku team for this article. Poor treatment of contract workers is unfortunetly an endemic issue in corporate America these days.

The oil consumption thing is a real issue. It happened with my father in law’s 2014. Subaru tried to pull the same schtick about maintenance. The car had some electrical problems too, plus faulty seat rails (I forget the details). Such issues might forgivable in something ancient but not for something 2 years old with…

Pretty common in startups, HR are generally considered the “fun police” (imical to typical startup culture) and tend to be seen as a superfluous expense especially with a low headcount. My friends and I have worked for multiple startups that didn’t have an HR person, and they were absolute messes to a company. The…

She's pretty meh, as a Senator. So far, her most notable accomplishment has been forcing Al Fraken to resign. Her proximity and support by the Clinton's isn't helpful either. I doubt she'll ever be able to do much on a more national level. 

It is very expensive. There are a number of competing products designed for at home growing that are about 1/4 the price. You’re mostly paying for a slick form factor and the dubious value of “AI” optimized growth plus Bluetooth connectivity.

C’mon, it’s hard to mansplain in under 5,000 words.

Awesome! As a scientist, I wish more of us worked to influence policy. If you’re interested, there are a number of different groups that train people for political work. Even if you never run for office, the training can be very valuable as you’ll learn how to effectively lobby and raise money.

As an FYI almost all preclinical testing is performed on female mice and rats since they tend to be slightly less aggressive to each other. That’s important because solitary caging tends to cause psychological issues. The only mice I’ve ever seen caged seperatly were super-SCID mice (think bubble-boy). Those fuckers…

I’m a biochemist that has worked in drug discovery and basic research for over a decade. We take great pains to calculate drug dosing based on body weight for both humans and test animals. A good portion of all drug discovery is determining the correct dose/kg body mass.

“The majority of cis men don’t care about the rights of people who can get pregnant:”

Helpful tip, don’t invest in a biotech startup if it did not obtain funding from a dedicated Biotech/Pharma VC firm. Having participated on both sides of “due diligence” I can attest to how thorough and rigrous the process is. Bad science and bullshit are easy to identify. Tech VC’s lack the expertise or institutional…

Bill De Blasio is a true standout in the crowded Democratic primary. He’s less likable than Gillibrand, treats his staff more poorly than Klobucher, annoys more people than Beto's texting bots and is demonstrably terrible at governance. Naturally he’s a shoo-ing for 2020.

So much this. Thank you. I wish all medical professionals behaved like you. 

When I ask people I ask about their pain, I use the pain scale but I also try to relate it to something to calibrate their pain level. Usually it will be something like, “have you ever broken any bones, how does this pain compare.” Getting an accurate history is a tricky especially with cultural and language…

It’s Sarah Lawrence; so, a sex cult where the traditionally male roles are played by women?