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JM
James McInerney
@jomcinerney.bsky.social
Bioinformatics, Evolutionary Biology. Leverhulme Research Fellow, Chair in Evolutionary Biology. 🇮🇪 github.com/mol-evol/panGPT
863 followers964 following44 posts
JMjomcinerney.bsky.social

I had one in Ireland. Never got one in the UK. Am out of pocket to the tune of almost £4,000 for six months this year.

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JMjomcinerney.bsky.social

I think you’re right, tho I’ve seen reference (on twitter) that it’s not biological selection being employed but pre-biological selection & that’s inherently different 🤷. Feels like invoking too much Wittgenstein for me. Lee is doing a Zoomposium on Friday apparently. It’s on his twitterX timeline

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JMjomcinerney.bsky.social

Well they wouldn’t give it to me or my family. Didn’t qualify 🤷

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JMjomcinerney.bsky.social

Brilliant. Thank you. I guess I better roll up my sleeves and get stuck into this new kind of data.

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JMjomcinerney.bsky.social

Thank you. And overall, do you feel alphafold gets most things right?

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JMjomcinerney.bsky.social

Alexis - it is very far outside my area of expertise but it is now being used in evolutionary biology (protein structures from alphafold are being used to make phylogenetic trees). Are the models good? Your tweet suggests skepticism. Genuine question -I just don’t have the skills to know the answer

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Reposted by James McInerney
GJnotjustdna.bsky.social

Here’s a selection! Adam, like usual, is very blunt!😀

I have rarely read a worse abstract than this. It’s abject wankwaffle, and is a honking disservice to science, science communication and the study of evolution.

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The introduction is worse. 
Oh wait. It’s Cronin. That figures.
A few simple Google searches later and this is all starting to make more sense. The senior author is funded by Templeton, which funds efforts to sow doubts about Evolution by making it seem like there is more disagreement in my field than actually exists.
I am currently debating whether I should bring this paper up in my undergraduate evolution class or not. The abstract and first paragraph alone contains multiple misconceptions about evolution that I work hard to address in my course.
The first line of the abstract is so removed from reality, that I don't know what to do with it: "Scientists have grappled with reconciling biological evolution with the immutable laws of the Universe defined by physics."

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JMjomcinerney.bsky.social

i honestly don't think this is creationism (hope I'm not wrong on that), but it is very dissociated from any notions I have ever had about life's origins (which I don't work on, admittedly) and evolution (which I do work on). I hope it all gets clearer soon.

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JMjomcinerney.bsky.social

Oh come off the fence, Matthew. Say what you really mean!!!

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JMjomcinerney.bsky.social

thank you. will listen to it.

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JM
James McInerney
@jomcinerney.bsky.social
Bioinformatics, Evolutionary Biology. Leverhulme Research Fellow, Chair in Evolutionary Biology. 🇮🇪 github.com/mol-evol/panGPT
863 followers964 following44 posts