Mick Watson
Professor of bioinformatics @ Edinburgh. (Meta)genomics, bioinformatics, some politics. Tweets are my own.
If you're blocked, it's because you've been rude.
Last synced from Twitter 4m ago
Nicola Sturgeon says Tory state aid plan would be "assault" on devolution
The First Minister was responding to reports that a vital post-Brexit power will not be devolved to Edinburgh.
Normalizing single-cell RNA sequencing data with internal spike-in-like genes
Normalization with respect to sequencing depth is a crucial step in single-cell RNA sequencing preprocessing. Most methods normalize data using the whole transcriptome based on the assumption that the majority of transcriptome remains constant and...
Choose Your Poison: The SNP’s Currency Headache
In an important new paper, Sam Taylor explains how the SNP’s currency proposals overlook Scotland’s balance of payments position, which makes its plan to continue using the pound outside of a formal monetary union untenable. Furthermore, the same...
Mick Watson
This is really worth reading if you're interested in Scottish Independence
these-islands.co.uk/publications/i…
TL;DR indy Scotland would have austerity on steroids (yes worse than brexit, but also compounded on top of brexit)
2h
Immunity to Covid-19 could be lost in months, UK study suggests
Exclusive: King’s College London team found steep drops in antibody levels three months after infection
Mick Watson
"we cannot be confident natural infection will be protective for a significant proportion of individuals, nor certain of the duration of any protection"
2h
Super-rich call for higher taxes on wealthy to pay for Covid-19 recovery
Exclusive: Group of 84 wealthy individuals demands ‘immediate, substantial and permanent’ higher taxes ‘on people like us’
Farm locked down as 73 staff are Covid-19 positive
Up to 200 vegetable pickers and packers will remain on the farm in Herefordshire while isolating.
If there is a second wave of Covid, the Swedish approach will have been right all along
Not going into lockdown was described as “a mad experiment” at the time, but Sweden can look to the winter with less trepidation than most
Mick Watson
No it won't because *fewer people will have died*
The Telegraph unable to grasp the basics
19h
Efficient Retroelement-Mediated DNA Writing in Bacteria
The ability to efficiently and dynamically change information stored in genomes would enable powerful strategies for studying cell biology and controlling cellular phenotypes. Current recombineering-mediated DNA writing platforms in bacteria are...
High throughput functional variant screens via in-vivo production of single-stranded DNA
Tremendous genetic variation exists in nature, but our ability to create and characterize individual genetic variants remains far more limited in scale. Likewise, engineering proteins and phenotypes requires the introduction of synthetic variants,...
David Gauke: tax rises and cuts only way to pay for Covid-19
Former Treasury minister expresses his party’s anxiety over UK’s rising pandemic bill Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverage
Mick Watson
Hi @DavidGauke: how about taxing Amazon, Google, Starbucks?
How about millionaires pay their taxes? Footballers, F1 drivers, Branson, Dyson?
How about stopping tax avoidance and evasion?
27h
Covid hits USS: assumptions revised as deficit exceeds £34bn - Research Professional News
Deficit soars as USS tempers expectations for 2020 valuation
IDEAL, the Infectious Diseases of East African Livestock Project Open Access Database and Biobank - PubMed
The Infectious Diseases of East African Livestock (IDEAL) project was a longitudinal cohort study of calf health which was conducted in Western Kenya between 2007-2010. A total of 548 East African shorthorn zebu calves were recruited at birth and...
Scotland needs ideas, not grievances, to save jobs – Brian Wilson
Sometimes it takes something very local – like the permanent closure of a much-loved restaurant – to bring home a wider truth.
Richard Leonard launches Scottish Labour’s ‘jobs for good’ campaign
Scottish Labour leader calls for a series of targeted interventions in sectors such as energy, manufacturing, tourism an...
Wild bison to return to UK for first time in 6,000 years
Release of a small herd of endangered animals in Kent is planned for spring 2022
Downing Street seeks data expert to set up 'skunkworks' in No 10
Advert for head of analytical unit is latest sign of Dominic Cummings’ Whitehall shake-up
Mick Watson
Cummings should be what every scientist has dreamed of. Someone at the heart of government using data to inform policy.
3d
Resistance to change: AMR gene dynamics on a commercial pig farm with high antimicrobial usage
Resistance to change: AMR gene dynamics on a commercial pig farm with high antimicrobial usage
IDEAL database supports future research in tropical cattle health - Centre for Tropical Livestock Genetics and Health
New database gives scientists easy access to extensive epidemiological and genomic data.
Clap for Nicola Sturgeon planned for Scotland next week
The clap has been organised to coincide with the First Minister's 50th birthday