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Chris Wallace @chr1sw.bsky.social · 1d

Name any successful country that hopes to see fewer of its young people educated year on year?

Reposted by Chris Wallace

Janne Pott @pottj.bsky.social · 2d

📣Preprint alert - a tricky one, as there are no significant results (and we all know null-results are hard to publish)
Do PCSK9 levels affect survival in breast cancer patients?
We tried to replicate findings in cell lines and mouse model using 3 Mendelian Randomization approaches, but failed.

medRxivpreprint @medrxivpreprint.bsky.social · 3d

PCSK9 and breast cancer survival: a Mendelian Randomization study https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.03.25337270v1

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Chris Wallace @chr1sw.bsky.social · 2d

After a degree in maths, I got interested in statistics, took a PhD in mathematical genetics/infectious disease epi depending on your viewpoint (principles of both are highly mathematical), and now use genetics to understand cause and potential treatment for immune mediated diseases. /End

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Chris Wallace @chr1sw.bsky.social · 2d

This type of thread is so important to those preparing to leave school and trying to decide what university courses to consider.

We could do something similar for #maths! /1

Paul Guinnessy @paulguinnessy.bsky.social · 2d

Physics students are told their degree is a ticket to anything but during their time at university, it's rarely elaborated on. So Toni Feder has gone out and interviewed physicists with varied careers away from the field (Posts the physicist whose job title is digital experience director...)

What can physicists do?

Interviews offer a glimpse of how physicists get into—and thrive in—myriad nonacademic careers.

pubs.aip.org

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Reposted by Chris Wallace

Stephen Collins @stephencollins.bsky.social · 5d

[Scene is ANCIENT GREECE - where SOCRATES and PLATO and others are sitting round, thinking]

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SOCRATES:
Plato..

PLATO:
Yes Socrates?

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SOCRATES:
Can you tell me, are you human?

PLATO:
Why… yes, Socrates

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SOCRATES:
And would you agree, Plato, that a human knows what a chariot is?

PLATO:
Um, yep

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SOCRATES:
So you can tell me, then

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[Socrates produces a papyrus, showing a drawing of the corner of a chariot wheel]

SOCRATES:
*Is that a chariot*?

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PLATO:
Well
that’s more just a bit of wheel

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SOCRATES:
So not a *chariot*.

PLATO:
No.

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SOCRATES:
[Producing another papyrus with the full drawing of the chariot, chopped into boxes]

So if a man were challenged to “tap the boxes containing chariots to prove you’re human” when he was just trying to check his ClubCard points... *where could he tap*?

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PLATO:
Well you can’t tap any of them really

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SOCRATES:
So are we not human?

PLATO:
‘Spose not.

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[Bleak pause]

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PLATO:
I’ll get the hemlock

SOCRATES:
Yeah

[ends]

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Chris Wallace @chr1sw.bsky.social · 6d

Dunno. Loss of my data has happened so often now it's barely my data anymore. But when all of acme fridge corporation's fridges turn off, the company might be more likely to pay the ransom. Certainly less likely to sell me another fridge once they let my food rot through poor security.

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Chris Wallace @chr1sw.bsky.social · 6d

Same. I think I am smart not having a smart fridge, but it probably means nothing as I can't control my energy supplier.

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Chris Wallace @chr1sw.bsky.social · 6d

Many recent cyber attacks on business suggest digitised systems lack security and resilience. In a parallel world, AI is going to increase efficiency. Surely further increases in digitisation and joined up systems are required for AI to attempt this. How does that square with security & resilience?

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Reposted by Chris Wallace

The Bear @bearlypolitics.co.uk · 9d

You’re right, Ms Mahmood - I don’t.

Because the slippery slope we’ve been going down has been spine chilling.

It started with “illegal migrants.”

That was the “reasonable concern” Just the law, nothing more. Politicians said, “people aren’t anti-immigration, they just want the rules respected.”

Mahmood warns Labour members: You might not like my migrant crackdown
In full: Labour Party conference in Liverpc
The Telegraph
»e @elegraph.
Watch on YouTube

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Chris Wallace @chr1sw.bsky.social · 10d

Running just hurts. I don't understand why anyone does it. Swimming on the other hand can be highly addictive.

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Chris Wallace @chr1sw.bsky.social · 11d

Not a lot of learning to do. There are bibtex files in most journal styles now, and you can use something like jabref to collect references. Not as simple as adding via zotero, but pretty simple. (I've just made the journey towards zotero however, because I cannot do collaborative writing in latex)

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Reposted by Chris Wallace

Trish Greenhalgh @trishgreenhalgh.bsky.social · 11d

Dear parents - Yes you can give your sick child paracetamol if they’re >3 months old. It’s an excellent painkiller. It brings down a high temperature. It’s one of the safest drugs available. You are right to want to soothe your child’s distress. Evidence supports your good parenting. Be confident.

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Chris Wallace @chr1sw.bsky.social · 12d

Actually this is really nice!

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Chris Wallace @chr1sw.bsky.social · 12d

When you have to draw up schematic diagrams, what do you use? I vary between tikz, R, and PowerPoint, but they all have different advantages. None ever seems fully satisfactory.

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Chris Wallace @chr1sw.bsky.social · 14d

I share your pain!

Chris Wallace @chr1sw.bsky.social · 15d

There are just too many interesting papers and too little time...

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Chris Wallace @chr1sw.bsky.social · 15d

It is a reworking of an older test of proportional colocalisation (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19039033/, pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24227294/), which has been developed in a different direction by Ashish Patel and @stevesphd.bsky.social (arxiv.org/abs/2402.12171)

A frequentist test of proportional colocalization after selecting relevant genetic variants

Colocalization analyses assess whether two traits are affected by the same or distinct causal genetic variants in a single gene region. A class of Bayesian colocalization tests are now routinely used ...

arxiv.org

Chris Wallace @chr1sw.bsky.social · 15d

colocPropTest frames the colocalisation hypothesis differently, and can be used to sanity check H3 results which seem improbable.

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Chris Wallace @chr1sw.bsky.social · 15d

In modern datasets, very large sample sizes combined with slight differences in information across SNPs (eg die to imputation) can mislead fine mapping algorithms, and in turn colocalisation.

Stephen Burgess @stevesphd.bsky.social · 15d

A pre-print for Chris Wallace's colocPropTest method for proportional colocalization is available online: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... @chr1sw.bsky.social

Variable information across SNPs in GWAS data can cause false rejections of colocalisation which can be resolved by proportional colocalisation tests

Fine-mapping is now a standard post-GWAS analysis, but it has been shown to be potentially inaccurate for large meta-analysis GWAS. We show how this can be caused by variable amounts of statistical in...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Chris Wallace

Stefan Marciniak @profmarciniak.bsky.social · 16d

NHS guidelines stand

In the UK, paracetamol (acetaminophen in USA) is the first choice of painkiller if you're pregnant. It's commonly taken during pregnancy and does not harm your baby
www.nhs.uk/medicines/pa...

Pregnancy, breastfeeding and fertility while taking paracetamol for adults

NHS medicines information on paracetamol and whether you can take it while pregnant or breastfeeding.

www.nhs.uk

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Chris Wallace @chr1sw.bsky.social · 21d

Finally

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Chris Wallace @chr1sw.bsky.social · 21d

How is this confounded by age? Grammars mostly disappeared now, so skews to older individuals, and proportion going to private school has surely changed, being more skewed to the young I think?

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Chris Wallace @chr1sw.bsky.social · 23d

Perhaps this wind will change their minds!

Chris Wallace @chr1sw.bsky.social · 23d

They are also called ground cherries, because they fall from the bush when ripe. I've spent the last week staring out the fruits clinging on trying to convince me they are not yet ripe despite papery casings. I think they're pulling a fast one, but I don't want to get poisoned so I'm playing along.

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Chris Wallace @chr1sw.bsky.social · 23d

Interestingly, the cape gooseberry (and all parts of the plant) is also poisonous until the fruit turns bright orange

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