Hi Redditors, I’m Pat McCarthy, and I’m looking forward to talking about life as a working astronomer with you! A little about me: I’m best known for my work observing the formation of the earliest galaxies and my study of distant low frequency cosmic radio sources. In the late 1990s, my colleagues and I were among the first to explore the distant universe – galaxies and quasars more than halfway back towards the big bang! I joined the Carnegie Observatories as a Carnegie Fellow in 1988, after completing my PhD at the University of California at Berkeley. In 1991, I received the Hubble Fellowship, during the second year of its program and I joined the faculty at Carnegie in 1993. For more than a decade I worked at Carnegie in an office next to the one used by Einstein during his summer visits to Pasadena and just above Edwin Hubble’s office. I was part of the team that developed the last, and most powerful instrument, to be deployed on the Hubble Space Telescope. This instrument has allowed us to see galaxies when the Universe was only 500 million years old! I am now working to support development of the next generation of giant telescopes on the ground, telescopes that Hubble could only dream of. Today, I lead the team of scientists and engineers building the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), an enormous instrument comprised of seven primary mirror segments—the seven largest mirrors ever made—that will stretch to more than 80 feet across once complete. The GMT will explore the cosmos to observe the first stars in the universe, offering images 10 times sharper than those coming from the Hubble Space Telescope. Since 2008, I’ve served as the head of the non-profit corporation, GMTO, that is charged with carrying out the development, construction and operation of the telescope and related facilities. My day-to-day responsibilities include ensuring that the telescope and its instruments will be able to address the key questions at the forefront of astrophysics in 2020 and beyond. Proof! Edit: 3:55pm EDT That’s all, folks! I’m logging off now. I have had a great time chatting about the Giant Magellan Telescope as well as the state of astronomy. Thanks for all of the interesting and thought-provoking questions. Be sure to follow @GMTelescope and like Giant Magellan Telescope on Facebook to keep up-to-date on future developments. Until next time - Pat

The validity of science depends on the integrity of the individual scientist. It is often supposed that science is a distinctive process or system externally regulating the individual scientist; an assumption that science is a mechanism into-which data and ideas are fed and from-which valid knowledge emerges. By this view, the individual scientist is not crucial because individual errors, inabilities and (even) dishonesty are all eliminated by various feedback processes. This conceptualisation of science provides individual ‘scientists’ with a free pass to relax the strictness and purity of their personal honesty and motivations. But all and any possible external systems ultimately require the integrity of individuals, and inner integrity cannot be imposed but most come from within. When individuals concerned with science lack personal integrity then other lower, commoner and more powerful motivations will take-over science. The implication is that when a young scientist is learning to be a scientist he cannot simply learn the subject but must also be working on his own personal development: he must develop integrity until it becomes an iron law. In particular he must develop the understanding that: 1. Truth must become an inflexible habit; 2. Science is spiritual; 3. Truth is a transcendent value; 4. Science is not a methodology, but an attitude, a motivation, a way of being; 5. The proper attitude of a scientist to his subject is a kind of love, a devotion to the phenomenon of which understanding is being sought. Therefore, science must be dominated by honest individuals of indestructible integrity. When individual scientists lack or lose self-motivated integrity, then science simply ceases to be.

Hi reddit! In series one of Dexter, we learn that signs of Dexter Morgan’s psychopathic behaviour began to appear in childhood. In one flashback, he confesses to killing a neighbour’s dog and to thoughts of escalating to murder. But how do psychopathic traits develop and manifest in reality? My work focuses on emotion processing and empathy in children and adolescents with antisocial behavioural problems. I am interested in emotional development in children with severe and chronic behavioural difficulties, including those with signs of early psychopathic behaviour. I work with young offenders and study children and adolescents in schools. My current work includes ‘The Social Life of a Psychopath’, a project that looks into how people with psychopathic personalities navigate social situations. I am also evaluating an experiment where a school for children with social, emotional and mental health difficulties has removed all forms of punishment. I am the Director of the Unit of School and Family Studies in the Department of Psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London. I’m really sorry that I have to finish now. My PhD student has just finished a viva, and I must go and find out how it went! Huge thanks to all of you for your interesting questions

Unfortunately, that’s all the time we have to answer your questions today. Thanks to everyone for your fantastic questions! Follow @MIT_alumni, @MITMeche, #MITBetterWorld to continue to get news around our work. +++++++++++++++++ In India, roughly 45 percent of the population is drinking untreated water. In the rural village of Mhasawad, many residents regularly drink water with salinity levels of 1,200 ppm (parts per million), double the levels recommended by the World Health Organization. Water with high salinity levels can cause countless health problems including kidney stones and digestive problems, and taxes the energy grid. But for many, purchasing treated water can cost upwards of 30 percent of one’s monthly salary. At the beginning of this year, we traveled to several rural villages to meet with farmers and villagers to better understand the problem. Back at MIT, we are now developing a cost-effective solar-powered desalination system to provide a safe and affordable source of drinking water. This is not just an engineering problem—we are operating as product designers, ethnographers, social scientists, and machine designers to test our assumptions and build a lasting solution. Ask us anything! Watch the recent video “Water is Life” on our work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLPiIChFMIA Read the recent article “A Quest for Clean Water” published on MIT News: http://news.mit.edu/2016/solar-powered-desalination-clean-water-india-0718 ABOUT US: Amos Winter: I’m an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT as well as an alumnus of MIT. I also am the director of the Global Engineering and Research (GEAR) Lab, which focuses on the marriage of mechanical design theory and user-centered product design to create simple, elegant technological solutions for use in highly constrained environments. Natasha Wright: I’m a doctoral candidate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, a Fellow in the Tata Center for Technology and Design, and an alumna of MIT. My current work focuses on using electrodialysis technology, powered by photovoltaics, to provide clean drinking water in off-grid settings.

Hi Reddit, We are Jessie Abbate, Carmen Lia Murall, and Christian Althaus, infectious disease researchers collaborating between France (Research Institute for Development), Switzerland (University of Bern), and Germany (Max Planck Institute). Collectively, our work focuses on the epidemiology, ecology, and evolution of pathogens, including human viral infections. We recently published a study entitled “Potential Impact of Sexual Transmission on Ebola Virus Epidemiology: Sierra Leone as a Case Study” in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases. Recent observations show that Ebola virus can remain active and transmissible in sperm for up to 9 months, meaning patients can remain infectious after they recover from the initial symptomatic phase of the disease. We developed a mathematical model to study the potential impact of sexual transmission on the size and duration of Ebola outbreaks such as the 2013-2016 epidemic in West Africa. Using the epidemiological data from Sierra Leone as an example, we found that despite very few additional cases, sexual transmission from survivors could extend the duration of the epidemic substantially, allowing cases to continue popping up throughout 2016 and highlighting the need for care providers to stay alert for this possibility. We will be responding to questions from 1pm EDT (10 am PDT) – Ask Us Anything! Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @jessieabbate @cl_murall @c_althaus.

Hi Reddit! I am Darlene Cavalier and I’m a Professor of Practice at Arizona State University’s Center for Engagement and Training, part of the School for the Future of Innovation in Society. Helping anyone participate in science drives the work I do and I’ve founded several organizations to further this goal: SciStarter, the citizen science network (https://scistarter.com/); Science Cheerleader (http://www.sciencecheerleader.com/) which playfully challenges stereotypes, inspires young women to consider STEM careers, and encourages participation in citizen science; ECAST, the Expert and Citizen Assessment of Science and Technology network (https://ecastnetwork.org/) that combines citizens with experts to improve decision-making in science and technology issues. I’m also a founding Board Member of the Citizen Science Association (https://citizenscienceassociation.org/), a senior advisor at Discover Magazine, a member of the EPA’s National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology, and co-editor/author of the book, The Rightful Place of Science: Citizen Science, published by ASU’s Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes (June 2016). I live in Philadelphia, PA with my husband and our four children. In June 2016, I was part of a ACS Science & the Congress congressional briefing panel (www.acs.org/scicon) along with Andrew Torelli, who ran an AMA on his citizen science topic here shortly after https://redd.it/4o104w Wow! That was fun (and a little stressful trying to keep up! Special thanks to Dr. Rebecca Jordan for weighing in!). I’m happy to stick around until 2:30 to answer more questions and address those I haven’t gotten to yet…. Thanks for joining me! Ask me anything about citizen science including how you could get involved!

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Greetings–My name is Carl Zimmer. I’m a contributing national correspondent for Stat, a new online publication about medicine and life sciences. (You can find out more at http://carlzimmer.com ) I’m also a columnist at the New York Times. Also, I write books about biology (and one about science tattoos). I’m in the midst of publishing a three-part series at Stat about my genome, called “Game of Genomes.” When I got the opportunity to get my genome sequenced, I found a way to get my hands on the raw data (a 70 GB hard disk, to be specific). I then enlisted two dozen scientists to guide me through its depths. Along the way, I got to see how my unique DNA alters the shape of the molecules that make up my body. I found out that 613 of my genes come from Neanderthals, and discovered how they are influencing my health. I learned my genome is littered with broken genes and overrun by ancient viruses. I even discovered my health is protected by mutations that are the basis for new blockbuster drugs. In the process, I learned how much our genomes can reveal to us, but also how many mysteries they hold back. Here is part one of the series:https://www.statnews.com/feature/game-of-genomes/season-one/ And here is part two:https://www.statnews.com/feature/game-of-genomes/season-two/ Part three will come out next Monday And here is a site where you can find all the data and analysis (including my genome): https://zimmerome.gersteinlab.org/ I’ll be back at 3 pm ET (12 noon PT) to answer your questions, ask me anything! EDIT, 4 pm: Thanks for all the great questions so far! I’ll zip back in an hour to answer any new ones that arrive.

On Monday 11 July 2016 Thomson Reuters Corp. announced it had agreed to sell its intellectual property and science business (including Web of Science) to private-equity funds affiliated with Onex Corp. and Baring Private Equity Asia for $3.55 billion in cash. This announcement appeared after the authors submitted together a proposal to the Toronto School conference trying to expand the concept of ‘monopolies of knowledge’ as coined by the Canadian economist Harold Innis. The text presented here includes an abridged version of the proposal, which is currently under review. In this text the authors have also included some further discussion of recent developments as a means to provide further context.

Hi reddit! I’m Sam Arbesman, Scientist in Residence at Lux Capital, a venture capital firm investing in emerging science and technology startups, where I help explore what the future of science and tech holds, make sure our firm is at the forefront of these trends, and help the startups we invest in stay ahead of the curve. I’m the author of Overcomplicated: Technology at the Limits of Comprehension, which is about how our technologies have become so complex that we don’t really understand them anymore (even if you are one of the experts who made them), and what that means for us as a society. I’m currently thinking a lot about this topic and how we can meet our technologies halfway, even if we can never fully understand them. I’m also the author of the Half-Life of Facts, which examines how knowledge changes over time. My training is in complexity science, computational biology, and applied mathematics (I have a PhD in computational biology), and I use the ideas of complex systems to examine how science and technology change over time and what this means for society. This involves both academic research as well as popular writing, the latter of which has appeared in such places as The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Wired, where I was previously a contributing writer. I’ll be back at 11 am EST (8 am PST, 4 pm UTC) to answer your questions, ask me anything! Update: Hi everyone! I had a blast interacting with everyone here, answering questions, and just being part of this fantastic conversation. Thanks so much! Time for me to sign out, but I’ll try to check back and might be able to answer a few more.

Hi Reddit! We are leaders of a global research effort to identify and characterize the mechanisms responsible for the development of type 2 diabetes (and related conditions including obesity) using human genetics. The prevalence of these conditions continues to increase, and current strategies for prevention and treatment are clearly inadequate. We perform large-scale discovery studies (using genotyping and next-generation sequencing in tens of thousands of individuals) to highlight the variants that influence individual predisposition to these conditions. We then use these discoveries as the starting point to home in on the specific mechanisms through which those genes act, providing novel clues to disease biology. We hope to turn this information into new ways of treating and preventing these conditions. Our latest study (including GWAS, exome array, exome and genome sequencing in 120,000 subjects) was just published in Nature (you can read here). This study provides the most detailed description to date of the contribution of inherited genetic variation to T2D risk: it has established that shared common variation underlies most of that predisposition, as well as identifying a number of genes which are disrupted as a result of those changes, and which are therefore prime targets for future therapeutic development. You can find out a bit more about these studies in the blogs here. An important facet of our efforts is being proactive about sharing those data with other researchers (for example). We are: Mark McCarthy, University of Oxford, UK Mike Boehnke, University of Michigan, US Andrew Morris, University of Liverpool, UK Jason Flannick, Broad Institute, US Christian Fuchsberger, University of Michigan, US & EURAC, Italy Tanya Teslovich, University of Michigan. We will be back at 3pm EDT (noon PT, 8pm BST) to answer your question, ask me/us anything! Thanks everyone - we’re signing off now. Been fun. Sorry we didnt get to every question but hope you have found it useful. Best Mark (on behalf of the team)

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Hi Reddit! I am Shib Mookherjea, Principal of Val Qual International, a Consulting/Training company offering various advisory and Management Training services to the Pharma, Biotech, and Medical Device industries both in the US and abroad. I have diversified expertise and experience in Analytical Development, R&D, QA/QC, and Laboratory Management, having held supervisory and leadership positions in several companies spanning over 25 years. I have proven track record of initiating and implementing GLP/GMP in several laboratories in addition to leading Analytical, R&D and QC teams and have offered targeted training courses in more than 20 countries. I have had also extensive experience in the areas of Pharmaceutical Development, Methods Transfer, Analytical Problem Solving, PAT applications, and Team Development and Regulatory submissions. I have held management and supervisory positions for Colgate-Palmolive, Johnson & Johnson, Troy Corporation, Allergan and CRO/CMO organizations. I have been on the faculty of Continuing Education Division of American Chemical Society, CFPA, Sindusfarma (Brazil) and several other international organizations. The aim of these training initiatives is to foster professional development while bridging the gap between academic training and industry-required knowledge base for Chemists and Scientists holding positions in various industries. Ask me questions on and about the topics of Analytical Methods Development, Validation of Methods, Qualification (IQ, OQ, PQ) of lab equipment and systems, FDA GLP Regulations, and QA/QC in Pharma labs. I’ll be back at noon EDT/9:00am PDT to answer your questions! EDIT: I am ready to answer your questions. As a thank you for participating in this AMA, we’d like to extend a discount to you for any of my courses offered through the American Chemical Society. Register between now and August 1, 2016 using the code ACSREDDIT20OFF to receive 20% off of your registration fee.

Hi Reddit, I am currently CSO of Collaborative Drug Discovery, CEO of Phoenix Nest, CEO of Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc and CSO of the Hereditary Neuropathy Foundation and I am on the Editorial Board of Pharmaceutical Research. I am a graduate (MSc, PhD, DSc) of the University of Aberdeen. I have spent 20 years working in the USA, first as a postdoc at Eli Lilly, then as a senior scientist at Pfizer and Lilly before joining smaller start-up companies. I then went on to co-found and found two rare and neglected disease companies. My background is in clinical pharmacology, with an interest in understanding drug-drug reactions and toxicology. I quickly moved from doing bench work to learning how to use computational approaches to make predictions that could help drug discovery. Over the years I have collaborated with different academics and companies to build models that help predict how compounds bind to enzymes, transporters, ion channels and receptors. As the datasets have grown I have applied different machine learning approaches. My work in the last 8 years has brought me into working on neglected diseases like tuberculosis and rare diseases such as Sanfilippo syndrome and Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. Again collaborations are central to what I do. Virtually everything I work on is funded by a grant whether from the NIH, EU or others so even though I am not working in a university I am constantly working on small business or other grants. Most recently my work has led to projects and collaborations on the Ebola and Zika viruses. All of this has been published openly and I am an advocate of open access publishing as well as using social media to publicize science. I believe it’s important for scientists to use tools like Twitter to tell the world about their work, conferences they are attending and publications. I will be back at 11 am ET (8 am PT) to answer your questions on rare diseases, science collaborations, and my experience doing science outside of academia.

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Hi Reddit we are scientists from Toronto/Boston working on improving the use of nanomedicine in the clinic. If you’re curious about our list of credentials: Shawn Stapleton PhD, Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital, who’s currently looking to transition into faculty. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Shawn_Stapleton https://www.linkedin.com/in/staplet David Jaffray PhD, Senior Scientist and Director of the TECHNA Institute, University Health Network and University of Toronto. https://www.uhnresearch.ca/researcher/david-jaffray http://technainstitute.com/people/david-jaffray/ Michael Milosevic MD, Clinician and Scientist, University of Toronto and Princess Margaret Cancer Center. https://www.uhnresearch.ca/researcher/michael-f-milosevic http://www.radonc.utoronto.ca/content/michael-milosevic Our collaborative research focuses on using imaging, mathematical modeling and physiological/molecular measurements of the tumor microenvironment to understand where nanomedicines end up in a tumour. We are using this knownledge to (1) develope strategies to improve nanomedicine drug delivery to tumours; and (2) develop new clinically relevant imaging methods to help guide drug delivery in patients. Ultimately we’d like to be able to use imaging methods like CT, MRI, or PET to bring drug delivery to the same level of precision achieved with radiation therapy and surgery. We’ve recently published a review describing how radiation can be used to improve nanomedicine drug delivery to tumors, leading to improved tumor response. The manuscript, titled “Radiation effects on the tumor microenvironment: Implications for nanomedicine delivery. ”, can be found in Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews . Check it out! http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169409X16301818 This is exciting area of research that will allow us to use clinical methods, such as radiotherapy, to guide where nanoparticles go in the tumor AND increase local drug concentrations without increasing toxicity. We are here to answer your questions about drug delivery, nanomedicine, imaging, radiotherapy, oncology, the pains/pleasures of research, transitioning to/making it in academia, why Toronto is an exciting for biomedical research, and more! Ask US Anything!

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Advice to a young biologist who wants to be a real scientist (rather than pursuing a successful career as a paid researcher and administrator) is summarised under ten points: 1. Be an amateur; 2. Read old books and papers; 3. Use your intuition; 4. Follow your nose; 5. Study what really interests you; 6. The timescale of real science is hours/ days or 7-year/ decade units; 7. Apprentice to a master; 8. Publish (only) when you wish to communicate, and (only) what you wish to communicate; 9. Publish (only) for those who are interested, honest and competent; 10. The validity of your work is primarily self-evaluated.

Hello Reddit, I am a professor of Chemistry (as well as Biomedical Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, and Medicine) and Director of the International Institute for Nanotechnology at Northwestern University. My research focuses on the development of methods for controlling molecular architecture on the 1-100nm scale and using such structures for inventing technologies that impact chemistry, biology and medicine. My research group is best known for the discovery and development of spherical nucleic acids (SNAs) as well as enabling techniques such as dip-pen nanolithography (DPN), polymer pen lithography (PPL) and beam pen lithography (BPL) – methods that allow scientists to “draw” and create patterns of extraordinary sophistication and complexity on a variety of surfaces using nanoscale pens and chemicals and biological materials as inks. In addition to my work at Northwestern, I am also a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science & Technology (PCAST), and a member of all three National Academies. I also serve as an Associate Editor of the Journal of the American Chemical Society, the ACS’ flagship journal founded in 1879. I’ll be online at 11am EDT to answer your questions. Fire away! - CAM Editing links - ACS Signing off - fingers are worn out! Sorry I could not answer all of the questions, but thanks for a great discussion. Chad

What do patterns in legal language tell us about power, policy and justice? This question was at the heart of a conference on “The Fabric of Language and Law: Discovering Patterns through Legal Corpus Linguistics”, convened in March 2016 by the international research group “Computer Assisted Legal Linguistics” (CAL²) under the auspices of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences. About forty scholars from Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Poland, Spain and the US brought together their different intellectual and disciplinary perspectives on computational linguistics and legal thinking. Concluding the conference, four legal linguistics experts – two native linguists, two native lawyers – discussed the perspectives and limitations of computer-assisted legal linguistics. Their debate, which this article faithfully reproduces, touches on some of the essential epistemological issues of interdisciplinary research and evidence-based policy, and marks the way forward for legal corpus linguistics.

Hello, Reddit! We are: Gonçalo Abecasis, professor of Biostatistics at the University of Michigan’s Center for Statistical Genetics (UM / CSG) Scott Vrieze, professor of Psychology & Neuroscience at the University of Colorado’s Institute for Behavioral Genetics Chris Clark and Kevin Wei Li, web application programmers at UM / CSG Gregory Zajac and Katharine Brieger, graduate student research assistants at UM / CSG Ellen Schmidt and Anita Pandit, research area specialists at UM / CSG We use genetics to understand human health and disease and spend our lives analyzing genomic data and developing tools to make these analyses more informative. Tackling some of the big challenges in human genetics and genomics requires engaging 100,000s of volunteers and collecting rich information about their health, behavior and environment. Last year, we launched Genes for Good, a study of genes, health and behavior through a Facebook app. Volunteers complete health history surveys, daily health tracking surveys, and behavioral tasks. After providing a base level of information, we ship a free spit kit to participants to collect a DNA sample. Results, including summaries of survey results, raw genotypes and ancestry information, are freely shared with participants. To date, over 12,000 people have used our Facebook app, completing over 500,000 health history surveys and trackers. Data stripped of information such as names and addresses are shared with other scientists to ensure the information is used to the greatest extent possible to understand links between genes and health. Believe it or not, this is actually a relatively new way of approaching medical research! You can read more about the study on the Genes for Good informational website or join the study here. It’s free and all you need is a Facebook account! We’re here from at least 1pm-3pm EDT (10 am PST, 6 pm UTC) to answer questions about the study and about the future of genomic research in general! Ask us anything!

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This article is about whether the factors which drive online sharing of non-scholarly content also apply to academic journal titles. It uses Altmetric scores as a measure of online attention to articles from Frontiers in Psychology published in 2013 and 2014. Article titles with result-oriented positive framing and more interesting phrasing receive higher Altmetric scores, i.e., get more online attention. Article titles with wordplay and longer article titles receive lower Altmetric scores. This suggests that the same factors that affect how widely non-scholarly content is shared extend to academia, which has implications for how academics can make their work more likely to have more impact.

The article by Kane, Conway, Miura, and Colflesh (2007), on the n-back as a test of working memory, began its life as a full length manuscript. It was ultimately published, however, as a short report. The following discussion of the n-back task’s invention needed to be cut from the original manuscript, but we thought that others might find it useful.