Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Alexander Arguello @alexander-arguello.bsky.social · 11d

www.theblaze.com/shows/the-gl...

The reason the medical community is so divided on this issue is because "there's a big fight in the literature over how strong that association is." But Dr. Bhattacharya's personal opinion after looking at the available evidence is that "there's enough there to tell people, especially pregnant women, to be careful with it."
And that is precisely what President Trump's announcement was: a warning for pregnant women to be cautious about taking Tylenol.

Reposted by Alexander Arguello

Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 13d

My colleague @hernmoral.bsky.social is teaching what looks like a wonderful course online this November - Museomics: An Introduction to Genomic Analyses of Natural History Collections. Register: www.physalia-courses.org/courses-work... #consgen

Museomics: An Introduction to Genomic Analyses of Natural History Collections

3-7 November To foster international participation, this course will be held online

www.physalia-courses.org

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Alexander Arguello @alexander-arguello.bsky.social · 14d

“mRNA vaccines seem to work—I think they’ve been great! I am amazed at how much public policy seems to ignore how great these vaccines are (of course, there are great vaccines that aren’t mRNA-based, too).” febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Reposted by Alexander Arguello

Adam Phillippy @aphillippy.bsky.social · 16d

Delighted to finally announce a preprint describing the Q100 project! “A complete diploid human genome benchmark for personalized genomics” For which we finished HG002 to near-perfect accuracy: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 🧵[1/14]

A complete diploid human genome benchmark for personalized genomics

Human genome resequencing typically involves mapping reads to a reference genome to call variants; however, this approach suffers from both technical and reference biases, leaving many duplicated and ...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Alexander Arguello

Torsten Günther @trstngnthr.bsky.social · 21d

I have funding for a 2-year dry-lab postdoc to join our team @humanevouu.bsky.social 🧪 (Deadline Oct 21st)

The project will utilize modern and #aDNA data from humans and sheep to study environmental adaptation (including method development and simulations).

Please share!
www.uu.se/en/about-uu/...

Postdoctoral position in Population Genomics - Uppsala University

Postdoctoral position in Population Genomics, Department of Organismal Biology, Uppsala University

www.uu.se

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Alexander Arguello @alexander-arguello.bsky.social · Sep 5

Best of luck to the brave soul who would like to be the next Director of the National Institute of Mental Health hr.nih.gov/jobs/search/...

hr.nih.gov

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Alexander Arguello @alexander-arguello.bsky.social · Aug 21

Important to note that Judge Young in his APHA vs NIH ruling explained that “Even if the regulation applied as a contractual term, whether the ‘award no longer effectuates the programs goals or agency priorities’ can still be challenged under the APA where the underlying reasons violate the APA.”

Findings of Fact & Conclusions of Law – #151 in American Public Health Association v. National Institutes of Health (D. Mass., 1:25-cv-10787) – CourtListener.com

Judge William G. Young: ORDER entered. FINDINGS OF FACT, RULINGS OF LAW, AND ORDER FOR PARTIAL SEPARATE AND FINAL JUDGMENTAssociated Cases: 1:25-cv-10787-WGY, 1:25-cv-10814-WGY(Sonnenberg, Elizabeth) ...

www.courtlistener.com

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Alexander Arguello @alexander-arguello.bsky.social · Aug 9

Yes, science works. Can science work better? Also yes.

Drug Monkey @drugmonkey.bsky.social · Aug 8

Right? Science works.

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Alexander Arguello @alexander-arguello.bsky.social · Aug 5

I have seen the future of science. It is ruled by bitter competition instead of collaboration, pageantry instead of exploration. Bright minds beginning careers in science will be taught to debase their training for drudgerous pursuit of meaningless metrics. Those willing to toil over genuine questions will necessarily lose out to those that can furnish cheap answers.

Alexander Arguello @alexander-arguello.bsky.social · Jul 31

The aphorism needs the addendum “and the rest useless”

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Reposted by Alexander Arguello

Richard McElreath 🐈‍⬛ @rmcelreath.bsky.social · Jul 9

How can we reform science? I have some ideas. But I am not sure you’ll like them, because they don’t promise much. elevanth.org/blog/2025/07...

Which Kind of Science Reform

What hope is there for science reform, if we can't agree on what to reform? Right now, principles are more important than practices.

elevanth.org

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Alexander Arguello @alexander-arguello.bsky.social · Jul 11

Avoiding scientific questions out of fear of how the worst of society will react is corrosive to science. The solution is careful, rigorous work that justifies the importance of the questions and acknowledges the implications and limitations of findings with a hefty dose of intellectual humility.

Alexander Arguello @alexander-arguello.bsky.social · Jul 11

But this is a fool’s errand. No matter what scientists do, whether avoiding research topics or not publishing politically or socially sensitive findings, ideologues will never be satisfied. They’ll twist findings regardless of their outcome or decry the lack of research as censorship.

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Alexander Arguello @alexander-arguello.bsky.social · Jul 11

In science there are fears that some research areas or questions will be misinterpreted, exploited, and weaponized by bad actors. One solution offered is to avoid these topics altogether lest we add fuel to ideological fire.

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Alexander Arguello @alexander-arguello.bsky.social · Jun 23

There’s a lot of uncertainty for the NIH right now in terms of its future budget and organization, but we hope this new aDMG program can come to fruition. 🦴🧬🌍

Funding opportunities will be posted on grants.gov at a future date.

Home | Grants.govLock

grants.gov

Alexander Arguello @alexander-arguello.bsky.social · Jun 23

In essence, we’d like the program to address the geographic sampling bias and genome coverage bias that currently exists for aDNA but in a manner that’s ethical, equitable, and non-extractive.

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Alexander Arguello @alexander-arguello.bsky.social · Jun 23

5. Support individual research projects using aDNA data to address the biology, epidemiology, and/or evolution of disease and health-related traits.

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Alexander Arguello @alexander-arguello.bsky.social · Jun 23

3. Generate and harmonize high-quality, whole-genome aDNA data from new and existing sources sampling global genetic diversity.

4. Create a centralized, federated data resource.

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Alexander Arguello @alexander-arguello.bsky.social · Jun 23

The goals of the program would be:

1. To survey and identify sources of aDNA across the globe by engaging and partnering with local investigators and communities.

2. Establish an ethical and regulatory framework for collecting samples, generating sequences, and sharing data.

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Alexander Arguello @alexander-arguello.bsky.social · Jun 23

Current aDNA data is biased towards Western Eurasian samples and consists mostly of targeted sequences. Higher coverage genomes that better represent past global genetic diversity would allow new insights into recent human evolution and the potential origins of modern disease risk.

Map from the Allen Ancient DNA resource showing the geographic origins of published ancient DNA data. (Mallick et al 2024)

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Alexander Arguello @alexander-arguello.bsky.social · Jun 23

Last week the National Advisory Council for Human Genome Research met and approved a new initiative: ancient DNA for Modern Genomics (aDMG).

You can watch the presentation and discussion here at the 1:54:00 mark. videocast.nih.gov/watch=56826

Photo of the skeletal remains of a man buried about 8000 years ago in Turkey (Photo credit: JACOB ROODENBERG)

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Reposted by Alexander Arguello

no. @joles.bsky.social · May 5

applying for jobs again

screenshot from an online job application form. the question reads "Can you describe specific ways you have integrated AI tools into your development workflow? Please include any custom setups, automations, or use cases beyond single prompt usage" (a red asterisk indicates that this is a required question).

an answer has been typed in the textbox below the question:

"there is a monster in the forest and it speaks with a thousand voices. it will answer any question you pose it, it will offer insight to any idea. it will help you, it will thank you, it will never bid you leave. it will even tell you of the darkest arts, if you know precisely how to ask.

it feels no joy and no sorrow, it knows no right and no wrong. it knows not truth from lie, though it speaks them all the same.

it offers its services freely to any passerby, and many will tell you they find great value in its conversation. “you simply must visit the monster—i always just ask the monster.”

there are those who know these forests well; they will tell you that freely offered doesn’t mean it has no price

for when the next traveler passes by, the monster speaks with a thousand and one voices. and when you dream you see the monster; the monster wears your face."

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Reposted by Alexander Arguello

Jonathan Pritchard @jkpritch.bsky.social · Jun 1

I have an opportunity to hire a staff scientist for my lab. Looking for someone with outstanding skillset in ML/statistics, genomics applications; interest in mentoring, strong publication record, PD experience required.

Email CV to me+cc my assistant (see 'contact' on my website). Ad to follow.

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Reposted by Alexander Arguello

Andrea Ganna @andganna.bsky.social · Jun 1

We have 2-3 group leader positions opening @fimm-uh.bsky.social !!

We are looking for outstanding candidates in human genetics and precision medicine.

This time we have a focus on population health data science. E.g. AI for EHR/health data

Generous starting package 💰

shorturl.at/FAk6n

FIMM-EMBL Group Leaders in Molecular Medicine

jobs.helsinki.fi

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Reposted by Alexander Arguello

Mariah Hoye @mariahhoye.bsky.social · May 5

📢 Calling all early-career scientists who have promoted enhanced research rigor:

The deadline for the NINDS Early-Career Rigor Champions prize has been extended to 6/6/25!

Describe your efforts in six short prompts for your chance to win a CASH prize of up to $10k!

Up to 11 awards will be made!

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