Brittany P. Boyer

Using data-driven approaches to improve health, well-being, and care access @Healthyhorns @UTAustin 🤘🏼 PhD @UT_Dallas ‘18 • BS @UNC ‘08 • all views my own

[Neil Renic @NC_Renic]

Reviewer 1: “excellent”

Reviewer 3: “really strong stuff”

Reviewer 2:

[Jason Locasale @LocasaleLab]

The physician–scientist track (MD/PhD) in academic medical centers has become one of the great illusions of modern science - a path that promises to unite medicine and science but rarely fulfills either goal. Training stretches on for years as one person is expected to learn two professions at once, and in practice, they seldom master either. Many hold a token clinic for a few hours a week while running labs that produce derivative “translational” research — supposedly aimed at improving patient care. In reality, these efforts seldom advance either basic knowledge or clinical practice in a meaningful way.

The personal rewards, however, are significant: MD/PhDs are paid far more than PhDs alone, face far less competition for faculty positions, are treated better by upper administration, and are freed from the full clinical responsibilities of practicing physicians. They also enjoy privileged access to administrative roles in medical centers, journals, and professional societies - positions that often pay handsomely. Yet almost no one has seriously examined whether this track delivers genuine scientific or medical value, or if it merely sustains another bureaucratic layer within an already bloated healthcare system.
https://t.co/EZmjgjhue0

[Brittany P. Boyer @bp_boyer]

Currently writing drunk. Will I edit sober? Only time will tell

[Vivian @suchnerve]

y’all ever think about how if you don’t get an annual raise equal to or greater than the rate of currency inflation, you have effectively gotten a pay cut

[Mushtaq Bilal, PhD @MushtaqBilalPhD]

This Nature article shows that most Nobel Prize winners are part of one big, incestuous academic network.

Out of 736 Nobel laureates in science and economics, 702 are "part of the same academic family."

Only 32 researchers out of this network have won the Nobel Prize.

[Mushtaq Bilal, PhD @MushtaqBilalPhD]

Major academic publishers' revenue and what they pay authors and reviewers:

Revenue:
Elsevier: $3.9 billion
Springer Nature: $2 billion
Wolters Kluwer: $1.6 billion
Wiley: $1.8 billion
Taylor & Francis: $800 million
Sage: $500 million

They pay:
Authors: $0
Reviewers: $0

[Brittany P. Boyer @bp_boyer]

@Noahsasson to the haters: 🤫🤫🤫

[Brittany P. Boyer @bp_boyer]

@Noahsasson how you feeling rn??? #GDTBATH #MarchMadness

[Austin Young Shull is also at 🟦 ☁️ @YoungShull]

One of the post docs in my PhD lab used to call this “let’s go get refresh,” and I’ve never had a better description of this act.

[kramerica industries @hepimp]

I finished an email with ‘any issues, please just get in touch to discuss’ and they got in touch to discuss.

[the finite physicist @FinitePhysicist]

ideal grad student office layout:

[😡fermion, PhD @angryfermion]

it's not machine learning unless it's from the machine region of france

otherwise it's just sparkling linear algebra

[Tim Urban @waitbutwhy]

In 2017, I did something dumb. There was a total solar eclipse passing through the US, but I was in NY, far from the path. Was I really gonna get on a plane to see a cool thing for two minutes? Nah. I had shit to do.

The day came. I put my stupid glasses on and saw the sun become a little less big and then back to being full size again. It was mildly interesting.

Then the reports started coming in from the people who had seen it from the totality zone. People were like "it was an indescribably profound, perspective-shifting, life-altering experience." They were like "I'm a different person now, someone who can only be understood by other people who saw the total solar eclipse." It was massively fomo-y and upsetting.

Solar eclipses happen when the moon passes directly through the invisible line connecting the sun and Earth, something that doesn't happen very often because space is big and the invisible line is skinny. Earthlings are very lucky, eclipse-wise. Most planets don't have a big enough moon to create a total solar eclipse. Not only is our moon big enough, it's about exactly the size of the sun in our night sky because, by sheer coincidence, the sun is about 400 times farther from us than the moon and also about 400 times bigger than the moon in diameter—making our eclipses especially breathtaking.

There are about 70 total solar eclipses every century, each resulting in a thin path of total sun blockage. For most of history, there was no way to know when or where they would happen. Only the very lucky few who happened to be in the right place, at the right time, with the right weather, got to experience a total solar eclipse. Today you can ensure that you see one—and I had passed up the opportunity. I would not make the mistake again.

I went online and learned that there would be another total solar eclipse passing through the US in 2024, and then that would be it until 2045. It went on my calendar that day.

As fortune would have it, the 2024 eclipse's path of magical totality would be passing right over my new hometown of Austin, Texas. It was perfect.

Then came the weather reports. Austin was going to be cloudy on eclipse day.

Nope. Not okay. It wasn't an option to not see this eclipse. My friend @Liv_Boeree was equally psychotic about this, so we decided on Sunday night that Monday morning we'd get on a flight to somewhere in the eclipse's path that was forecast to have clear skies. We settled on Arkansas.

Early the next morning we flew to Little Rock, got in a car, and drove northwest to get to the dead center of the totality path, where the total eclipse would last for more than three minutes. We ended up in a big open rural field that may or may not have been part of someone's farm. It was us and some cows. The sky was perfectly clear.

30 minutes until totality. I looked through my glasses at a crescent sun. It seemed a little dimmer out than usual, but only a little.

20 minutes. Thinner crescent, a tad dim, maybe a tad cooler than it was before?

10 minutes. Razor thin crescent now, definitely weird lighting. Because all of the light is coming from one small area, shadows are very sharp. You can see the shadow of individual hairs on your head.

1 minute. It's very dim, like early evening, but still feels like daytime generally. Waves of light and dark ripple across the ground, like the way light moves at the bottom of a swimming pool.

5 seconds. Diamond ring! I take off my glasses and the diamond ring looks strikingly beautiful and strange (google "eclipse diamond ring" to see what I'm talking about).

4 seconds to 1 second. The Earth's dimmer switch suddenly goes downnnnn as dim daylight drops into night. Totality.

Imagine a world where there was always cloud cover, and one day every few years, in certain places, the sky cleared at night, and you could see stars for the first time in your life. It would be a totally surreal experience, something that reminded you that you don't live in a big world but on the edge of a tiny rock in vast outer space. It would show you the truth about reality.

We see stars all the time, so we're well-acquainted with our reality living in outer space (even if it's easy to forget during the day). But when I looked up at the sky during the total eclipse, it was the first time I had experienced another, totally different way to see with my eyes that I lived in outer space. I saw one sphere positioned in front of another sphere, with two other spheres—Venus and Jupiter—floating nearby. More than ever before, it felt obvious that I was standing on the edge of a fifth sphere. For the first time in my life, I was looking at the Solar System.

I looked around. There was a dim 360° sunset along the entire horizon—another first. It was dark. At 2pm. By a minute in, there was a chorus of chirping crickets that hadn't been there before. Birds were flying around overhead that hadn't been there before. The cows continued being cows but I assume they were super confused.

I looked back up at the Solar System and noticed a little imperfection on the edge of the black moon circle, which I realized must be a solar flare. A solar flare I could see with my naked eye.

Only half of my brain was focused on the eclipse because the other half was frantically trying to figure out how to best use the precious three minutes. I told myself I wouldn't spend more than 30 seconds of the three minutes doing stuff with my camera, but I was not gonna not take pics. I got things all focused and snapped this gem:
Just kidding that's @AJamesMcCarthy's photo. But mine was pretty good too.
Okay fine that one was taken by @NASA. Here's mine.
Whatever. Anyway, eventually it ended. The glorious diamond ring reappeared, followed by me being blinded before remembering to not look at the sun anymore. Earth's dimmer switch swooped back up, as night turned to day in a few surreal seconds. It was over.

Thoughts were processed. Emotions were felt.
It was very very VERY worth the last second trip. For any of you who pulled a 2017 Tim and decided not to see this one, I hope I've sufficiently fomo'd you into making sure you see this for yourself, sometime soon, in some part of the world. 🌻

[Mathieu Ferron @Mathieu_Ferron]

Nature editors desk rejecting the manuscripts submitted during the night.

[Brittany P. Boyer @bp_boyer]

this is INFURIATING.

[zach @offtargeteffect]

the bio dept at UCSD is *cutting* pay for incoming phd students. this fall there will be a $16K difference in pay between first years and third years. when i say don’t come here for grad school i mean it.

[Nicholas Fabiano, MD @NTFabiano]

This is a map of repetition among all symptoms in the DSM-5.

🧵1/10

[Brittany P. Boyer @bp_boyer]

oof

[Colette Delawalla M.A., M.S. @CDelawalla]

So, like…what’s the job that allows you to actually do research for a living? Not going to meetings, overseeing other people’s research, emails, reviewing other people’s ideas, etc…but actually DOING your OWN research?

Asking for a friend*

*me

[UT Center for Health Communication @uthealthcomm]

Kicking of the ETU Texas Summit with a look at state data from @TexasDSHS' Delaney LaBrutta. Among TX youth, e-cigarette use has decreased in the last decade but is still the most commonly used tobacco product with 7.9% reporting any use.
Source: 2023 Texas Youth Tobacco Survey

[Associate Deans @ass_deans]

I am not “trying” to make your job harder. I am making your job harder. See the difference?

[Pedro Leão @Leao_pel]

I'm now reviewer #6 in a paper, and the nonsense of having 6 people looking at this paper under the microscope is absurd.

I wonder... if the reviewing "service" was not free, would they be doing this?