Genomics Blog

A day on the Internet sees enough information to fill 168 millions DVDs being sent around the world. We send 294 billion e-mails and you're reading one of the 2 million blog posts written every day. @GenomeAlberta and @mikesgene are just two of the 40 million people who view Twitter every day so this collection of Twitter posts is a very, very, very small bit of theinformation available to us each and every day.
However we choose these posts to share with based on the people and organization we have come to know on Twitter and who we feel can inform you and occassionally even entertain you.
The links are safe for you to view so be sure to check out a few of them - or take your chances on randomly choosing from the 200 million tweets posted in a day.

@BloombergTV  Facebook will offer 421.2 million shares, meaning the social network could raise as much as $16 billion http://bloom.bg/JG8rZB  #FacebookIPO

@bmahersciwriter    Jeffrey Taubenberger found a new ORF in the 1918 influenza genome!? Amazing that genes could be hiding in a genome that small for so long.

@boraz  All A'Twitter: How Social Media Aids in Science Outreach http://bit.ly/M8hZPp  by @CaitlynZim #SITT #scio13

@Cambridge_Uni   A new era for personalised medicine. http://bit.ly/K6yp6E

@DKFZ  Turning on genes by a circuitous route http://bit.ly/KEWt5s

@dgmacarthur  A personal look at the past, present and future of the Personal Genome Project by @genomicslawyer: http://bit.ly/JjOndm

@Disalmanac  Today is National Chocolate Chip Day, the day we remember all the chocolate chips that died in the Great Cookie Wars

@GENbio  We're all mutants now: http://bit.ly/ITSjQY

@genome_gov    New Genome Advance of the Month: Harnessing the full 'omics potential of personalized medicine http://qoo.ly/3tkx

@genomicslawyer   Jim Watson on his fav gene: "It’s the only gene I know whose very structure is an implicit biological message": http://onforb.es/IuMJd9

@gwardis  Genome of melanoma an aggressive and frequently fatal form of skin cancer, sequenced. http://yhoo.it/JQE2Z9  #scichat

@HollyDunsworth  How to rid the world of genetic determinists? DTC for all, imho. http://genotopia.scienceblog.com/151/genetic-determinism-round-up/

@IAmBiotech  Ten-Year Study Demonstrates Safety of Retroviral Gene Therapy Using T-Cells http://bit.ly/K6Ttd9

@jranganathan  Survey in PLoS ONE: "science outreach is a bleak prospect with limited room for improvement" - #scio13 is solution! http://bit.ly/KNfGiw

@Lynwhit  Countdown to #AskPeter TweetChat  Join at noon for  CEO @PeterASinger on his report @gchallenges progress http://bit.ly/IMCKtv

@mkonnikova  Great interview by @BoraZ on promoting the work of young science writers--but equally applicable to non-science http://bit.ly/K26rcb 

@sciencemagazine   What's a genome worth in the clinic? #SciTM  http://scim.ag/Kiqk0r

@wellcometrust   Maximising health benefits of genetics & genomics. Includes @WellcomeLibrary's Simon Chaplin on digitisation project. http://wellc.me/KO5fvc

Tweets came to you courtesy of these people and organizations:

On May 3^rd, Stephen Larter presented to the Bacon and Eggheads breakfast in Ottawa. The series brings together Parliamentarians with experts from across science and engineering to show off Canadian research. The prestigious forum is a unique opportunity for scientists to communicate important findings to an influential audience.
The series is organized by the Partnership Group for Science and Engineering  which is an umbrella group of 25 + science and engineering organizations.
Stephen Larter is one of the Co-investigators in our Hydrocarbon Metagenomics Project.
Stephen spoke about " Alternate futures for the oil sands industry: from the age of steam to the age of biology" and here is an abstract from his presentation.

"Underground steam injection has made in situ recovery of oil sands bitumen possible, but it comes at a high cost. The boiling of water consumes energy and can create significant carbon emissions of its own. In the quest for a better extraction technology, researchers are now drawing inspiration from the abundant microorganisms that produced the bitumen in the first place. Our speaker will introduce Canada’s role in the biotechnological revolution driving this quest, and the likelihood of implications far beyond the oil sector. Stephen Larter will also discuss more generally current Canadian research in technologies to manage better the carbon footprint of the industry.

Dr. Larter is the Canada Research Chair of Petroleum Geology at the University of Calgary and the Scientific Director of Carbon Management Canada Inc.—a federal Network of Centres of Excellence. He has worked extensively on technologies for reduced emission recovery from oil and gas fields and novel schemes for capturing and sequestering carbon. Dr. Larter has co-founded several energy technology companies and has won several academic, commercial and civil awards including the Friendship Medal of the People’s Republic of China. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Foreign Member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters (Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi)."

I was speaking at a Government Communications Conference in Arlington, Virginia today and as is often the case, I find the U.S. government take on communications to be more sophisticated than we generally see up here.
A bit of a surprise for Canadians who often see the elephant to the South trying for world domination at any cost.  Okay, maybe that is the goal, but they sure won't achieve it with such an enlightened communications community. Whatever they may think of his policies or politics, Obama's call for a more transparent and open government seems to have been embraced at the individual, departmental and agency level. In fact at times my perception is that there was a sigh of relief from many government employees who believe strongly in what they do in their jobs and were just waiting for someone to tell them it was okay to talk about it.

Take the U.S. Department of Transportation IdeaHub for instance. Deb Green (@Deb_Green) led the development of the DOT IdeaHub program taps://www.dotideahub.gov  or http://www.nextgov.com/technology-news/wired-workplace/2010/08/dot-launches-online-ideahub/53643/  The goals were to give employees a voice, engage them, acknowledge  their efforts, and give them a place to collaborate. What started as a more limited FAA initiative grew into a DOT wide program.

Captain Joseph Smart (@capster9) from the U.S.Navy Medical Department pointed out that U.S. Navy Medicine is a $6 billion dollar healthcare network covering 63,000 people around the world. They use many aspects of social media for internal and external communication and re-purpose material across print, e-mail, social media and other channels to get the most bang out of every communication buck. He showed that 50 tweets via @NavyMedicine reached 63,000 people, and as many people in the room picked up on, also noted that content is king in making that happen. I've been on the speaking roster with Captain Smart  before (sorry, may never be able to call someone Cappy!) and the openness that the U.S. Navy approaches their communications with never ceases to amaze me. As he also pointed out, they can't control the sea of public opinion but they can at least navigate it.

Donna Berry from the National Institutes of Health walked everyone through how the NIH is using Yammer http://yammer.com  as an internal communications tool. It started as a skunkworks effort led by Donna and Sandra Scarbrough. Though Donna never came right out and said it, there seemed to be an element of do it and ask for forgiveness later if it didn't work. But it has worked and though it is still is considered a pilot project, the Facebook-like interface of Yammer has more than 700 NIH users, 4,000+ messages and 695 search queries.

The 2 day Advanced Learning Institute event also had speakers from the Centers for Disease Control, the FBI (sorry I wasn't able to catch that presentation!), the Smithsonian, the National Cancer Institute and a few more U.S. agencies and departments.
Canadian government organizations have come a long way in the last few years in their use of online tools and some of the efforts at a municipal level can hold their own on the North American stage. In general though we're still in a world where controlling the message is the primary goal. The wheels are turning over slowly but we are moving in the right direction. We'll see if we can catch up to the social media behemoth to the South.

Half a billion registered users who post in the range of 175 million tweets in a single day. It is now safe to say that Twitter has become more than an oddity when it comes to communicating online. It is well established and is probably here for some time to come. It is used in business, public relations, entertainment, education and just about any other sector or interest you can think of including science.
For an introduction to how you can use it in science you should check out this blog post from the ‘Happy Science’ blog. It will give you some good tips and ideas, and if you want to know what makes for a good tweet, the Harvard Business Review has some ideas for you.
Every 2 weeks we share some of the Tweets that have come to the attention of @mikesgene or @GenomeAlberta .
Check the tweetsm check the links, check the people and organizations behind the posts. Get to know Twitter and how our life science community can start to put it to use.

@agapow   Comparing benchtop sequencers - Ion Torrent so-so, MiSeq best (unsurprising): http://bit.ly/IekQzI

@AudacityInc   An App Store for Genomic Tools? It's Happening. http://onforb.es/JlFnSJ  #genomics #genetics

@bigs  I love that @geochurch talks about solving infectious diseases at a time most geneticists only look at 'genetic' disease. #GET2012

@bmahersciwriter   Neat MT @Duncande: There are 120 people with complete sequenced genomes in this room at Harvard. A record? #get2012

@C_G_S   @MaraHvistendahl's book "unnatural selection" is a finalist for the pulitzer!  http://www.biopoliticaltimes.org/article.php?id=6184 #biopolitics

@DNA11  Catch @ChiefSciAdvisor Sir Peter Gluckman's DNA Portrait at the #NewZealand Portrait Gallery's Art of #Science exhibit ! http://ow.ly/avnAu 

@DukeIGSP   California Genetic Privacy Bill Moves Forward  http://bit.ly/Idf1Xq

@IAmBiotech  Research & study could be a bit of fun ;) Ice Cream Headaches Might Offer Clues to #Migraines http://bit.ly/I5YiXt 

@idtdna   Metabolomics: the final frontier? http://ow.ly/aBmEQ  #omics

@iihlab  How far are we before pharmacists do on site chip enabled tox testing? #get2012

@LIFECorporation  Members of the public get a sequencing lesson using Ion technology on the #ionbus in #timessquare. http://ow.ly/i/AryN

@martinwaxman   What makes a tweet worth reading? Study findings. http://hbr.org/2012/05/what-makes-a-great-tweet/ar/1

@medethicsandme  “Are we extending life or just prolonging the dying process?” http://fb.me/1ScgzrULt

@MountSinai  Lunenfeld director Dr. Jim Woodgett awarded Diamond Jubilee medal for his leadership in biomedical research. http://bit.ly/InswTH

@phylogenomics   Report: "How hungry microbes could revive old oilfields" Me: A bit skeptical http://shar.es/rFEIu 

@ShipLives   Interesting findings for those interested in social networks and higher ed: http://bit.ly/JWh1mJ  #scio13

These 140 character posts come to you courtesy of:

The latest and we hope at least some of the more interesting posts we found on Twitter over the last 2 weeks. The original post got lost in the posting line-up, so here it is a week later than planned:

@clopezcorrea   Genome analysis homes in on malaria-drug resistance http://bit.ly/Ilj28u

@Comprendia   Science Journalism in an Evolving Media Ecosystem http://bit.ly/J6pL5P  via @mcmcvey @bigthink #sicomm

@DukeIGSP   Enviropig, the Genetically Engineered Eco-Friendly Pork, Is Off the Table http://bit.ly/HVWc9P

@edyong209   Inglesby from Center of Biosecurity says we need better flu surveillance. As it is, not strong enough to benefit from mutant #H5N1 studies

@genetics_blog  Zip code about as informative as genetic code for childhood obesity prediction http://bit.ly/HC05k2

@KamFultz  I watched NOVA|Hunting the Elements science students will love it! http://t.co/jJzNFSyg  via @AddThis #midleved #scichat

@knightfdn  What works & what doesn't in bridging the #digitaldivide: new report provides lessons from #Detroit http://kng.ht/HRjv6u  #broadband

@laboratorynews  How is a broken beaded necklace related to #DNA? We take a look at exploding #chromosomes http://ow.ly/ag5Q0  #LabNews #Science

@NIHforHealth   News: NIH awards $20M over five years to train next generation of global health researchers http://1.usa.gov/HUeJW4

@phylogenomics  Francis Collins has invited Sam - a kid w/ progeria on stage w/ him to discuss what it's like #tedmed  http://pic.twitter.com/JXFMid9e

@Sheril_   New Poll: Religious Voters Want Candidates 2 Address Science http://bit.ly/HBiwW2  Restoring #science to its rightful place in 2012 #election

@ShipLives   Religious voters DO prioritize science: http://bit.ly/HHlzLS  Interesting poll, write-up. Worth reading. #scio13

@StemCellNetwork  35 reasons to like stem cells! http://bit.ly/IxNX2h

@TheOnion  American Voices: Conservatives Believe In Science Less | "The saddest part is they'll never even believe this study." http://onion.com/HgPZaS

Communicating science in 140 characters bits and bytes are the following: