Vincent J Lynch 🐘🦣🦥 🦇🐋🐢🐍
@devoevomed.bsky.social
4K followers 980 following 1.9K posts
Professor, Dept. of Biological Sciences, University at Buffalo, SUNY | 1st Gen | Extinction is forever | DevoEvo & EvoDevo | Science & Society | Friend of Corvids and swans | Science Nerd | I❤️Biology! Lives with Epilepsy
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devoevomed.bsky.social
Updated a broken link in my substack post about the
#ColossalBio #DeExtinction #DisInformation campaign – dire wolves are still extinct.

open.substack.com/pub/devoevom...
The Extinction of Truth
Or, a Colossal Pile of Bullshit
open.substack.com
devoevomed.bsky.social
Most people I know know I care a lot about the ethics surrounding informed consent; this isn’t a crack, it’s a black hole…
noamross.net
Amelia Knopf, @karmacap.bsky.social and @knelphd.bsky.social write in Pediatrics about how the terminations of clinical trials of children and adolescents represent cracks in the foundation of ethical research, and the moral responsibility to repair them: doi.org/10.1542/peds...
ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS OF STUDY TERMINATIONS
As of July 2025, the National Institutes of Health has terminated approx-
imately 4700 of the grants it awarded for scientific research, training, and
infrastructure.1 Very little of the public discourse regarding the grant ter-
minations has focused on their implications for research participants who
were or would have been enrolled in the trials the grants supported. The
terminated awards are linked to 200 active registered clinical trials, which
had a total planned enrollment of more than 689 000 human subjects,
approximately 20% of whom are infants, children, and adolescents.1
Nearly all the affected trials that included children and adolescents
focused on stigmatized health issues (eg, HIV, substance use, depression),
and/or persons with marginalized identities (eg, sexual and gender minor-
ity; Black or African American and Latiné). Individuals with marginalized
identities are underrepresented in clinical research,2 even when they are
at greater risk for the illness under study. The issue of underrepresenta-
tion in research is especially relevant for minor adolescents (those youn-
ger than 18 years old) because of ethical and legal barriers to their
participation. Barriers include concerns about minors’ capacity to consent,
confidentiality of sensitive information (sexual behavior, substance use)
when parental consent is required, and researcher and institutional con-
cerns about liability when waivers of parental consent are granted for
minors’ enrollment.3
As adolescent health researchers, we have each invested over a decade
of work to address the complex ethical and legal issues that prevent ado-
lescents from participating in research, especially on sensitive or stigma-
tized health issues. Through meticulous efforts to engage and build trust
with adolescents, parents or guardians, and regulatory personnel, we have
enrolled thousands of adolescents in our studies...
devoevomed.bsky.social
I don't know if students see it, but we discuss eugenics throughout my Foundations of #DevEvo course; how can one talk about genetics, development, evolution and not do so‽
disabilitystor1.bsky.social
New drinking game for historians of disability and medicine: take a shot whenever you see someone online rolling their eyes and saying ‘you think everything is eugenics!’

Might as well be drunk through the Age of Eugenics: It’s Going to Get Worse and I don’t Know How to Make People See It
devoevomed.bsky.social
They're just horrific #DragQueens; the guns, the camo, the hemets, the facemacks, the symbolism, everything is just a #DragRace to authoritarianism...
darrigomelanie.bsky.social
I feel like this photo of masked, armed men pepper spraying a pastor protecting his community is going to be a defining picture of this moment in America for a long, long time.
devoevomed.bsky.social
I know nothing of Gurdon’s socioeconomic background, but the Eton education reminds me of this: “Meritocracy creates an inequality, in which rich parents have the opportunity to spend money on their children[‘s] education” — Markovits 2022

m.youtube.com/watch?v=cn1_...
devoevomed.bsky.social
I got similar comments on my report cards, but they were from places like Long Beach CA and Tappan Zee high in NY. Not Eton.
lindorfflarsen.bsky.social
A good day to remember John Gurdon’s school report from his biology master at Eton
devoevomed.bsky.social
An old one. Tested for amino acid sites that toggled back and forth between the same pair of AA (if memory serves?). Is Sergei on Bluesky?
devoevomed.bsky.social
As you know I always am! And Blat has served me well; come to think of it HyPhy had a method called Toggle which might be perfect for you…
devoevomed.bsky.social
If you are about the AA the structure of the codon table should provide some info no?
devoevomed.bsky.social
People make My Cousin Vinny jokes all the time and I have no idea what they are talking about lol
devoevomed.bsky.social
We're also not clones of each other; everyone can have their own reason(s) to oppose #DeExtinction; Insinuating we're Luddites is just petty...
devoevomed.bsky.social
Legend has it that he may be summoned by saying maize three times near a cornfield
devoevomed.bsky.social
If I understand heaven correctly, and there is no way that I do, it is whatever you make it?
devoevomed.bsky.social
Frankenstein is always invoked when science has new, spooky undertones no‽ 🧟‍♂️ 🐋🍃 🧪
flodebarre.bsky.social
Beyond recombinants, "Frankenstein" and derivatives were also used to mean scary.
Omicron was "Frankensteinish" in late 2021, while "Frankenvirus" was used in a 2020 article speculating about recombination with other viruses -- again, to convey fear ▫️6/7
web.musc.edu/about/news-c...
screenshot of linked website ‘Almost Frankensteinish’ Omicron variant worrying, but don’t panic, scientist says
Helen Adams  November 29, 2021 « Frankenvirus » : et si le coronavirus se combinait avec un autre virus ?

Article de Céline Deluzarche publié le 18/10/2020
Le SARS-CoV-2 est probablement issu de la combinaison de deux coronavirus qui ont infecté le même animal. Et si ce processus se répétait chez l'humain et aboutissait à une nouvelle pandémie ? Une hypothèse peu probable, mais pas invraisemblable.
De nombreuses craintes ont émergé ces derniers mois sur une possible mutation du SARS-CoV-2, qui l'aurait rendu plus virulent ou plus infectieux. Mais c'est une autre menace qui inquiète aujourd'hui certains chercheurs : celui d'une recombinaison du virus avec un autre coronavirus commun, ce qui donnerait un nouvel hybride et une nouvelle pandémie.

Source: https://www.futura-sciences.com/sante/actualites/coronavirus-sars-cov-2-deux-variants-dangereux-sont-combines-nouveau-virus-83001/ (sorry for putting it here, there was no space left in the post for a second URL)
Reposted by Vincent J Lynch 🐘🦣🦥 🦇🐋🐢🐍
arminreindl.bsky.social
#Croctober Day 6
Heres a fun one from a research history POV.
In 1997 researchers described a snout tip under the name Baru huberi and in 2016 skull elements were given the name Ultrastenos willisi
Only last year did we recognize that both fossils belonged to a single individual
An image created by Adam Yates comparing a photo of the "complete" cranial material of Ultrastenos huberi with prior interpretations of the material. At the bottom left sits a reconstruction of Ultrastenos willisi based on the 2016 interpretation of it as a narrow-snouted animal with a circle around the skull table and an arrow pointing to the skull table of the "completed" Ultrastenos skull in the middle. The top right corner shows a reconstruction of "Baru" huberi based on pre-2024 ideas of the animal. The snout tip is encircled and an arrow points towars the snout elements of the Ultrastenos huberi fossil. This shows how both individual fossils were once interpreted vs how it actually looked like put together. The finished fossil suggests a small animal with a fairly traditional looking crocodilian snout.
devoevomed.bsky.social
Maybe it’s already there and you’ve just haven’t found the cultivar yet!
devoevomed.bsky.social
Tech overlords are going to tech overlord ¯\_(ツ)_/¯