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Ary Shalizi

@unsequenced.bsky.social

130 followers 160 following 520 posts

Biologist, book nerd, parent, hype skeptic in no particular order. Phenotypic screening for cell and chemical biology. Also, random book reviews at link. unsequenced.life

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Ary Shalizi @unsequenced.bsky.social · May 23

My notes on this book ran a little long, so I turned it into a little essay. Taking a cue from "The Future, Now and Then" series by @davekarpf.bsky.social, what did biotechnologists of the 1980s think the future had in store?

(sadly, an Italian biotech with a racy name never materialized)

💙📚
🧪

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Ary Shalizi @unsequenced.bsky.social · 6h

It is just ludicrous to me that every 2 months OpenAI burns the equivalent of the entire annual budget of the NIH.

Reposted by Ary Shalizi

Krista Koeller @kristalerista.bsky.social · 18h

Dear funding agencies,

I know we all want to discover the wonder drug that will cure the horrible diseases, but to do that, we need to invest in basic, unsexy, foundational research on how the systems work. Funding can’t all be drug development.

Sincerely,
Looking for basic research grants.

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Ary Shalizi @unsequenced.bsky.social · 22h

Or read Stefanos Geroulanos’ “The Invention of Prehistory” for a look into what ideological work the concept of “prehistory” is doing for different interpreters of the past.

www.stefanos-geroulanos.com

Ary Shalizi @unsequenced.bsky.social · 22h

Harari’s framing of the Indian response to British colonialism in Sapiens is equally wrongheaded, completely ignoring the state-backed violence of the EIC and Raj to deindustrialize the subcontinent…

Ary Shalizi @unsequenced.bsky.social · 22h

I hope this is a soft reveal that IBCK is finally going to do a Yuval Harari episode.

Homo Deus is one of the worst books I’ve ever read. I can’t believe someone could pack so many misunderstandings about biology into a single chapter (antibiotic resistance, drug discovery, etc)

Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 1d

"Sapiens" is so normal for the first 70,000 years of human history but then goes absolutely buckwild as soon as it gets to colonialism

Had the Aztecs and Incas shown a bit more interest in the world surrounding them - and had they known what the Spaniards had done to their neighbours - they might have resisted the Spanish conquest more keenly and successfully.

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Ary Shalizi @unsequenced.bsky.social · 9d

it’s worth thinking about how political revolutions can change the priorities of science.

9/9

Ary Shalizi @unsequenced.bsky.social · 9d

This is all contingent, of course. There’s no straight line between Fidel Castro and Wegovy. But as much as scientists like to emphasize the unforeseen benefits of basic research — like how an interest in Gila monster venom led to a medical revolution —

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Ary Shalizi @unsequenced.bsky.social · 9d

Novo Nordisk spun out the enzymes business in 2000, as Novozymes. But by that time the company was well along the road to Ozempic, having found an early GLP-1 agonist, Liraglutide, in 1998.

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Ary Shalizi @unsequenced.bsky.social · 9d

In 1989, Novo Industri merged with Nordisk Terapeutisk Laboratorium. The two companies had been major insulin producers for decades, and their merger created the world’s largest insulin manufacturer, Novo Nordisk. Making both insulin and the enzymes for industrial production of HFCS.

6/n

Our History

Behind the Novo Nordisk we know today lies an exciting story that goes back more than 90 years.

web.archive.org

Ary Shalizi @unsequenced.bsky.social · 9d

In the decades since, high fructose corn syrup became a ubiquitous food additive, and potential driver of rising levels of obesity and diabetes globally. Manufacture of the enzymes to produce HFCS from cornstarch was also quite profitable for Novo Industri.

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Ary Shalizi @unsequenced.bsky.social · 9d

A commercial method cheap enough to replace cane and beet sugar was realized in Europe during the 1974 sugar shortage. The companies with the successful IP were Dutch Gist Brocade and Danish Novo Industri.

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Soaring Sugar Cost Arouses Consumers And U.S. Inquiries (Published 1974)

www.nytimes.com

Ary Shalizi @unsequenced.bsky.social · 9d

It had been known for decades that less-sweet glucose could be converted to more sweet sucrose, by chemical as well as enzymatic means. The enzymatic method was pioneered by the Japanese, who had a sophisticated biochemical industry thanks to all the fermented foods in the Japanese diet.

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Ary Shalizi @unsequenced.bsky.social · 9d

Why look for cheap sugar alternatives in the early 1960s? The 1959 Cuban revolution led to a spike in global sugar prices. That spurred a search for cheap replacements for sucrose, and fructose fit the bill.

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Cuba - The Politics of Sugar by Stanley Meisler

TO AT LEAST one Congressman, a sugar bill posed no problem. The issue was simple, Representative William E. Miller of New York, chairman of the Republican Congressional Committee, told his colleagues:...

www.stanleymeisler.com

Ary Shalizi @unsequenced.bsky.social · 9d

What’s the connection between the Cuban revolution, the obesity epidemic, and GLP-1 agonists like Ozempic?

The history of #biotechnology is wild! Currently reading Robert Bud’s fascinating “The Uses of Life,” and came across the following passage:

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Passage from “The Uses of Life”, by Robert Bud. Key section states
“With high sugar prices in the United States during the early 1960s, [Japanese] work [on glucose metabolic enzymes] came to the notice of the Clinton Corn Processing Company, which in 1967 launched a complex enzyme system. It was commercially viable, but it was only in 1974 that Novo, and Gist Brocades in the Netherlands, developed cheap and effective methods. In the United States, this led to the widespread replacement of sunrise in the soft drinks industry. The 1975 glucose isomerase sales of $15m had increased to $40m by 1977 and $50m in 1980.”

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Ary Shalizi @unsequenced.bsky.social · 11d

the kind of cognitive re-training required for scientific thinking. Even scientists often fail at evaluating truth claims, or understanding subject complexity outside their disciplines (see xkcd.com/1831/). They cherry pick, succumb to all the biases they've supposedly been trained out of, etc. 3/3

Here to Help

xkcd.com

Ary Shalizi @unsequenced.bsky.social · 11d

an excellent book about this, "Scienceblind," which I cannot recommend highly enough. (Apologies if you've read it already.) The basic gist is that the production of scientific "truth" entails a long process of training ourselves out of childhood intuitions. But most people don't actually get 2/

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Ary Shalizi @unsequenced.bsky.social · 11d

Couple thoughts...

Glibly, when I think back to '90s Usenet forums, the quality of discourse might be baked into the format of speed + anonymity?

Second, "having access to information" is very different from "knowing how to evaluate and use information." @andrewshtulman.bsky.social has 1/

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Ary Shalizi @unsequenced.bsky.social · 12d

Today I realized that I’ve been asking myself “Is ‘Tyler Cowen’ real, or just an elaborate piece of performance art intended for shock value?” for 17 years.

Unfortunately, trusted sources suggest it’s not the latter.

Laura Jedeed @laurajedeed.bsky.social · 12d

I'm sorry: "if I wish to see a virgin on-screen"?

My Favorite Actress Is Not Human
Tilly Norwood doesn’t need a hairstylist, has no regrettable posts, and if you wish to see a virgin on-screen, this is one of your better chances. That’s because she’s AI.

A picture of some AI girl standing on an AI landscape with an AI monster behind her. I'm gonna be so real: she looks about 14

By Tyler Cowen

Ary Shalizi @unsequenced.bsky.social · 12d

Love this series! Also learned from it that casually mentioning the lab domovoy is a great way to get a laugh out of your Russian colleagues.

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Ary Shalizi @unsequenced.bsky.social · 13d

“When you feel like you’re getting mad at me, think of all the fun we’re going to have.”

-7y.o. to her 10 y.o. sister

Ary Shalizi @unsequenced.bsky.social · 14d

Hi, cell biologist here. Minor point, but cancer does not grow forever. It grows until it kills the patient.

Which might be a spot-on metaphor for the relationship between AI and the economy...

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Ary Shalizi @unsequenced.bsky.social · 14d

It’s definitely easier to spell!

Ary Shalizi @unsequenced.bsky.social · 18d

He must really hate any food that’s not ketamine.

Ary Shalizi @unsequenced.bsky.social · 18d

Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

“Don’t panic!” (h/t Douglas Adams)

Ary Shalizi @unsequenced.bsky.social · 18d

Isaac Asimov, I, Robot and Foundation

“Logic is a wreath of pretty flowers that smells bad.” (h/t Spock)