Recommended reads #110
This, I think, is ingenious and next-level stuff: Designing malware to hack bioinformatics software by coding it into the DNA of organisms that get sequenced! Which, in the future, maybe could be a real problem?
This is old news, but not to me. In Holland there is (was?) a place that used a misting spray of synthetic DNA that could be used to identify folks who committed robberies.
Now that it’s start-of-semester-get-your-syllabus-ready season, let me remind you of this useful course workload estimator, to make sure that your expectations are well calibrated relative to the number of units associated with a course.
Ohio University found that a professor groped his students and after a lengthy investigation and report, the Dean, the Provost, and the President all want to fire him. But it’s taking a while.
A story about how conservation science is for rich people. A lot of these points extend to field-based sciences in general, and also to lab-based sciences where you get ahead by volunteering or working for little pay.
The first formal statement of science priorities from the White House is as weak, confused, and misdirected as you probably would imagine.
Internal reactions within Google to that manifesto by their sexist ex-employee. (What manifesto, is it possible you’re asking? Here’s the background.)
Eight students of color speak out about having their qualifications questioned at elite colleges. This can provide a lot of insights about the roadblocks to equity. And what the difference is between diversity and inclusion.
No, smartphones are not destroying a generation
From the Southern Poverty Law Center: The alt-right on campus: What students need to know
Republicans, this is your president
Some faculty from Evergreen State chime in with how they see what’s going on at their campus. And it’s a listicle! You’ll never believe number 7! (Okay, I don’t even remember what 7 was, but that’s the kind of thing people say, right?)
You went to college, grad school, established yourself as an expert in your field, and got hired to leverage your expertise to be a professor, and your university wants you to… volunteer to be a porter for your students? What the hell?
Making affirmative action white again
One person’s story about an abusive PhD advisor and committee has been circulated a lot by humanities folk. There are several long blog posts here, and I haven’t read much of it at all, so I can’t vouch for what’s in it, but it’s provoked some visceral responses, and here it is in reverse chronological order.
I hope you have a nice weekend! (I’m heading out to catch the total eclipse! woo!)