Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Rob Noble @robjohnnoble.bsky.social · 23h

'I once met a former bodyguard of one billionaire with his own "bunker", who told me his security team's first priority, if this really did happen, would be to eliminate said boss and get in the bunker themselves. And he didn't seem to be joking.'

Tech billionaires seem to be doom prepping. Should we be worried?

The debate is ramping up about what happens if - or when - computer intelligence overtakes humans

www.bbc.com

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Rob Noble @robjohnnoble.bsky.social · 1d

I've not seen the posts you refer to but perhaps it's relevant that, as far as I can tell, two of this year's three Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine (i.e. "top scientists" in most people's books) don't have Google Scholar profiles. Too busy living their best lives to care about metrics?

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Rob Noble @robjohnnoble.bsky.social · 4d

Just updated mine. The prompt was being asked for a headshot for a conference talk and realising my previous one was seven years old this month.

The PhD Place - Academic Community @thephdplace.bsky.social · 5d

Academics take one headshot at the start of their career and then use it for the next 40 years.

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Rob Noble @robjohnnoble.bsky.social · 8d

Delighted to see my second PhD student Blair Colyer successfully defend his thesis today. Thanks to @benjaminwerner.bsky.social for your insightful suggestions for building on Blair's research.

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Rob Noble @robjohnnoble.bsky.social · 9d

Congratulations @kitcgallagher.bsky.social! It was a pleasure to be your DPhil examiner today.

I've also been enjoying catching up with friends and colleagues here in Oxford, including in the beautiful new Life and Mind Building.

Linacre College (left) and the new Life and Mind Building (right), which hosts Oxford's Department of Biology.

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Rob Noble @robjohnnoble.bsky.social · 13d

The NYT last week had a nice piece about spending three hours contemplating an artwork (they cheated a bit by choosing Las Meninas). It would be easy to spend hours studying any one of the many narrow streets of Montpellier's old city centre. Every wall is a tapestry.

Rob Noble @robjohnnoble.bsky.social · 13d

No matter how much time I spend in Montpellier I will never get over how lovely it is

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Rob Noble @robjohnnoble.bsky.social · 15d

Likewise earthworms?

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Reposted by Rob Noble

Sandy Anderson @sandyanderson.bsky.social · 17d

If you are interested in learning more about what an IMO Workshop is like check out our dedicated website: imoworkshop.org. Note the workshop this year runs directly after our #MathOnco25 meeting: mathematical-oncology.org/mathonco25.

#MoffittIMO Workshop

imoworkshop.org

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Reposted by Rob Noble

Sandy Anderson @sandyanderson.bsky.social · 17d

Excited to announce that registration for the 13th
@mathonco.bsky.social workshop on Treatment Revolution is now open. Held onsite @moffittnews.bsky.social Nov 2-Nov 7 #MoffittIMO more details: imo13.eventbrite.com. Deluxe travel awards are available on a competitive basis, apply by 10/03!

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Reposted by Rob Noble

Emanuel Fronhofer @efronhofer.bsky.social · 17d

Do you want to study #Quantitative #Ecology & #Evolution? Are you interested in a research-oriented #MSc program? Apply & join us at @umontpellier.bsky.social in the #IDIL program. #Fellowships available for #international #students

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Rob Noble @robjohnnoble.bsky.social · 17d

Join @cmaley.bsky.social, @lucielaplane.bsky.social, Joel Brown and Benjamin Spada for a live EvoChat discussion about "How we define cancer matters", hosted by the International Society for Evolution, Ecology and Cancer (ISEEC).

Oct 1st at 8am PST, 11am EST, 5pm CEST

ucsb.zoom.us/j/8313111375...

Abstract: Current definitions of cancer describe what cancer does but not what it is. Furthermore, they derive largely from human cases and may not apply to other multicellular organisms, especially those lacking a basal membrane. Comparative oncology, however, has shown that cancer occurs across a broad diversity of organisms. What definition should be adopted when framing cancer in a comparative and evolutionary perspective? And can an evolution-based definition be applied in clinical oncology? We will show that a universal definition of cancer not only helps provide a basis for progress in comparative oncology, but can also help to explain the diversity of cancer phenomena within humans.

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Rob Noble @robjohnnoble.bsky.social · 19d

We also each got a cup of beer

Rob Noble @robjohnnoble.bsky.social · 19d

Thanks, @cancerevo.org! Facebook tells me the previous race was 11 years ago today.

Facebook post from this day 11 years ago, with a photo of me collecting an oversized trophy (currently serving as a plant stand).

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Rob Noble @robjohnnoble.bsky.social · 19d

The first race I even won was the Semi des Vendanges, a half marathon on rocky trails north of Montpellier. I never thought I'd get a chance to run it again so was delighted to finish fourth today, having gone up two age categories. This being France, every finisher got a bottle of local wine.

No podium today but at least I got this pretty bottle of Cabernet Franc, Grenache and Syrah from a family-owned domaine in the small town of Teyran, which hosted today's trail race.

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Rob Noble @robjohnnoble.bsky.social · 24d

Tenacious D

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Rob Noble @robjohnnoble.bsky.social · 24d

"Variant allele frequency" seems to have taken over in recent years. Maybe because it's the standard term in cancer research?

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Rob Noble @robjohnnoble.bsky.social · 24d

In cancer, there's a distinction between the variant allele frequency (VAF) spectrum, which records the proportion
of chromosomes carrying the mutations, and the site frequency spectrum (SFS), which is proportion of cells carrying the mutations [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tpb.2021.09.004]

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Reposted by Rob Noble

E. Yağmur Erten @yagmurerten.bsky.social · 24d

New paper out! 🤩 "Shrinking to bird size with dinosaur-level cancer defences: Evolution of cancer suppression over macroevolutionary time" with @kokkonut.bsky.social and @marcanthonytollis.bsky.social. doi.org/10.1371/jour... A short thread:

Shrinking to bird size with dinosaur-level cancer defences: Evolution of cancer suppression over macroevolutionary time

Author summary Humans are not the only species suffering from cancer, yet cancer does not impact all life equally. Body size is relevant because maintaining a large number of cells in a tumour-free st...

doi.org

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Reposted by Rob Noble

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 25d

Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, says UN inquiry

Commission’s 72-page legal analysis cites examples including scale of killings, aid blockages and forced displacement * Middle East crisis – live updates A UN commission of inquiry concluded on Tuesday that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza and that top Israeli officials including the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had incited these acts. It cited examples of the scale of the killings, aid blockages, forced displacement and the destruction of a fertility clinic to back up its genocide finding, adding its voice to rights groups and others that have reached the same conclusion. Continue reading...

www.theguardian.com

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Rob Noble @robjohnnoble.bsky.social · 26d

The @royalsociety.org neglects to add that Irène Joliot-Curie was a dedicated anti-fascist campaigner and a member of the Comité de vigilance des intellectuels antifascistes

The Royal Society @royalsociety.org · 28d

Born #OnThisDay in 1897 was Irène Joliot-Curie, French chemist and physicist who received the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, with her husband Frédéric, for their discovery of induced radioactivity.

#WomenInSTEM

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Rob Noble @robjohnnoble.bsky.social · 29d

Besides the fact that "unfunded" research often yields the greatest breakthroughs and generates necessary preliminary results for "funded" research, this idea is analogous to the FA proposing to cease supporting football outside the Premier League. Chip away at a pyramid and the pinnacle also sinks.

Research Professional News @resprofnews.bsky.social · 29d

Ministers ‘want to shift funds away from low-quality research’ .

Universities UK president says institutions cannot afford “unfunded hobbyist research”.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

Ministers ‘want to shift funds away from low-quality research’ - Research Professional News

Universities UK president says institutions cannot afford “unfunded hobbyist research”

www.researchprofessionalnews.com

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Reposted by Rob Noble

MPI for Evolutionary Biology @mpi-evolbio.bsky.social · Sep 11

Could humans and AI one day form a single “evolutionary individual”? Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology raise this question in a new publication exploring human–AI interdependence.
www.evolbio.mpg.de/3836073/news...

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Reposted by Rob Noble

Calum Gabbutt @calumgabbutt.bsky.social · Sep 10

Cancer is an evolutionary disease, but does knowing a cancer’s evolutionary past help predict its future? Out today in @nature, we learnt the evolution of 2000 lymphoid cancers and found it was highly correlated with clinical outcomes! (1/7)
rdcu.be/eFrrc

Fluctuating DNA methylation tracks cancer evolution at clinical scale

Nature - Cancer evolutionary dynamics are quantitatively inferred using a method, EVOFLUx, applied to fluctuating DNA methylation.

rdcu.be

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Reposted by Rob Noble

Alison Feder @alisonfeder.bsky.social · Sep 10

The constant barrage of terrible news on bluesky has made me feel weird about promoting papers, but people in the lab have been doing so much amazing work over the past few months that I want to share a few brief teasers/links:

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