Yes, science can be pedantic at times, but I do believe that it's necessary to describe terms before you discuss why they're important. For me, this article reads exactly as I was taught to write technical papers. It builds upon the definition of "species" to make an argument against the reoccurring claims that this virus is mutating to become more transmissible. Of course, I did study microbiology at university, so I can see how others might find it too focused on the jargon.
What this pandemic has taught me over anything else is that wielding scientific terms without proper understanding is damaging to progress of science itself. It becomes difficult to tease apart legend from fact, especially for those not trained to do so. I go crazy every day listening to half-baked hypotheses and conspiracies that don't understand the foundations for the things they're claiming.
All this said, Dr. Racaniello is very gracious and humble. He has dedicated his life to teaching, both in the classroom and through his podcasts. I highly suggest sending him your concerns about his discourse and subscribing to his podacast TWIV [0]. He and his colleagues respond to every email at the end of each podcast.
> Yes, science can be pedantic at times, but I do believe that it's necessary to describe terms before you discuss why they're important.
Yes, it's necessary to describe terms, but there's a big difference between giving a definition of "strain" at the beginning of your talk, and explicitly correcting everyone who has misused the term. One is necessary for clarity, the other is unnecessary and combative.
> What this pandemic has taught me over anything else is that wielding scientific terms without proper understanding is damaging to progress of science itself. It becomes difficult to tease apart legend from fact, especially for those not trained to do so. I go crazy every day listening to half-baked hypotheses and conspiracies that don't understand the foundations for the things they're claiming.
I don't think that's true. It's not the terms being misused. You can still say the wrong thing with the right terms.
Let's take a summary of the story that was going around for a bit, "There are two strains of coronavirus, the S strain and the L strain. The L strain is more deadly but it isn't spreading as quickly because sufferers are more likely to be identified and treated/quarantined."
That statement is wrong, because there isn't enough scientific evidence to declare any of that. But is the problem the misuse of the word "strain"? I don't think so. Consider the following: "There are two variants of coronavirus, the S variant and the L variant. The L variant is more deadly but it isn't spreading as quickly because sufferers are more likely to be identified and treated/quarantined."
I'm not an expert in the field, but as far as I know, the word "variant" doesn't have any specific meaning that would say it's being misused here. But nothing has changed: the summary is still 100%, completely wrong, because there still isn't adequate scientific evidence to say there are different variants with different mortality rates.
And, critically, even knowing the definition of the word strain, I can still say the first version of this incorrect statement and be wrong, not because I'm misusing the word, but because there isn't adequate scientific evidence for what I'm saying.
> All this said, Dr. Racaniello is very gracious and humble. He has dedicated his life to teaching, both in the classroom and through his podcasts. I highly suggest sending him your concerns about his discourse and subscribing to his podacast TWIV [0]. He and his colleagues respond to every email at the end of each podcast.
In addition, he is possibly the most prolific podcaster of our time. He's started no less than 6 different podcasts over the last decade or so, collectively known as the TWIx podcasts (This Week in Virology/Microbiology/Parasitology/etc. I'm a huge fan of TWIV, but they're all top-notch.
I worked on Aquameta for a few years and I'll say that having a build running locally is a joy I've never encountered elsewhere in my career.
Every time I need a little app or something, instead of reaching for some SAAS product, I would just build a quick prototype for myself. I could make a prototype in a couple hours and over the course of a week or two I would polish it up when I had a few extra minutes. Rather than using something built for the masses, I could tweak the interface to my own taste and I owned all the data.
What this pandemic has taught me over anything else is that wielding scientific terms without proper understanding is damaging to progress of science itself. It becomes difficult to tease apart legend from fact, especially for those not trained to do so. I go crazy every day listening to half-baked hypotheses and conspiracies that don't understand the foundations for the things they're claiming.
All this said, Dr. Racaniello is very gracious and humble. He has dedicated his life to teaching, both in the classroom and through his podcasts. I highly suggest sending him your concerns about his discourse and subscribing to his podacast TWIV [0]. He and his colleagues respond to every email at the end of each podcast.
[0] http://www.microbe.tv/twiv/