A depressing picture of the academy in modernity. If ever there was a time for faculty to assert shared governance it is now. If not too late www.publicbooks.org/the-misuses-...

Additive genetic models are not always the best and differences seem to exist between populations sthttps://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00439-025-02810-5

There is a difference between sophistry and science. I wish leaders of our govt agencies overseeing research would take it seriously

Where do we go from here?

Text in paper: "Both HEU and HUU cohorts were recruited from the same hospital during the same enrollment period, with matching criteria detailed in Table S1" Reviewer: "It is unclear how the HUU was selected – is this the same hospital/region" Becoming the norm - maybe unreviewed papers are better?

In modern science education we too often we learn how to do things not how to question what we do. As scientists we too often are judged by how much we do, not what we do. This is a perverse system of metrics that slows development of knowledge

"It’s one of the real black marks on the history of higher education that an entire industry that’s supposedly populated by the best minds in the country—theoretical physicists, writers, critics—is bamboozled by a third-rate news magazine" Leon Botstein on college rankings, The New Yorker 2014

Has anyone else had a paper on medrxiv been sent out for review after a predatory journal reached out? We did not agree to submit it as it is under revision elsewhere, but we were sent an unsolicited review from the aforementioned journal. Very unethical!!

Is it time to re-read "On Bullsh*t" by Harry Frankfurt. The world he pictures has only gotten bleaker

ApoE4 effect on Alzheimer is not always additive and the deviation from additivity varies by race and ethnicity - ot in Human Genetics link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Has Corporatization Met Its Match? The Challenge of Making Money by Keeping People Healthy | New England Journal of Medicine www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

When I was young, was told by teachers that it is the quality not the quantity. A short excellent essay outweighs a long but uniformed one. Forward decades and metrics among scientists is how many papers you publish (coauthor) or how much data you can collect not the knowledge advanced. A bad change

Not new but why do we continue to follow the false flag of early soecialization. Who benefits? Recent discoveries on the acquisition of the highest levels of human performance | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

This is the frightening part. Perception as reality?

At 1st African Genomics Short Course at University of Cape Town

If there is any doubt about the importance of genetics in complex disease - PRS can predict prevalence quite well pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34903281/

Our latest on possible human-mycobacterium coevolution www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

If everything you do works you are limiting what you can learn

Every time I take a new online "course" how to be a decent human being and not a threat to national security I am reassured that the world is a better place. What did we do before these were available?

Our latest where we used stratified male/female analyses to infer genetic architecture. In favor of omnigenic model? rdcu.be/eIT4E

Completely insane and misleading - intentional and dangerous -

Seems innovative thinking moves much slower than generation of new data. The data is essential but requires proper conceptualization. How can we motivate that among young scientists?

Checkout this article from our groups: dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour... What does it mean to be heritable and how variable are estimates? These are very real issues that we often downplay and just present one number.

Thinking about how to define PTB risk and etiologies - thanks to PREBIC (Preterm Birth International Collaborative) www.frontiersin.org/journals/med...

I wrote about gene-gene interactions (epistasis) and the implications for heritability, trait definitions, natural selection, and therapeutic interventions. Biology is clearly full of causal interactions, so why don't we see them in the data? A 🧵:

"...higher education is a private good. On this reckoning, its value lies exclusively in the additional lifetime earnings that it affords to graduates." The kiss of death for education. And at at my alma mater. Crushing forme! www.compactmag.com/article/the-...

The health of individuals and populations may intersect but they are not identical

We received 2 new T32 predoc training grants in the last month. If interested in translational studies or gene X environment interactions think about Case Western Reserve for your PhD.

When you pose a question or write a paper make sure it counts. You will work just as hard on something of little import as on a truly important one. Spend the time to think it through before you embark on the journey.

Link between national levels of lipid consumption and dementia incidence - led by Tim Ciesielski - @timcies.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Studies that address a small section of the story can be statistically significant but utterly meaningless with respect to the real question. Perspective and context are so important but so often ignored.

www.dukechronicle.com/article/2025... Quote: "Notably, those with large administrative roles including department chairs and dean/provost level roles are also exempt." We are all in this together aren't we? Or where does the buck stop - at the lowest lever we can blame!

www.nature.com/articles/s44... This is a message that cannot be emphasized enough!!

Context matters. Heterogeneity exists. We ignore these at our peril. These principles are certainly relevant in biomedical research (as I discuss), but they may be generalizable. They may apply to other parts of life (which is super odd given what I just said). www.cell.com/cell-genomic...

And who is bext?

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/17/o... This should be read by all University administrators. And I fear the more elite the school the worse the problem

Checkout this article I found at PLOS: dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour... We are trying to set standards -

Context is perhaps the single most important thing in understanding disease risk. Virtually noting is deterministic and even likelihood is soft.

Welcome to the brave new world. Will only get worse in short term

Two questions: What is the right thing to do? and what will doing this cost me? The order in which you ask these questions matters

How close are we to when AI generated text will be the epitome of intellectual advancement? At that point we no longer serve any purpose as a species and extinction may be the logical outcome. Talking about the meaning of life - this defines an entire new set of questions.

A proposal for a new requirement to get co-authorship - agreeing to cite the paper at least once within the 24 months following publication. This will drive up everyone's h index, especially for consortia papers.

To get my mind off the crazy rest of the world - has anyone looked at the correlation between the number of authors of a paper and the number of citations?

Is this the new look of a scientist in the US?

Double.

Does performing numerous small, bureaucratic tasks dull your ability to think deeply about a few important things?