The Duke Institute for Genomics Science and Policy appears to be strong user of Twitter and put this out to the Twitter community earlier this week:

 @DukeIGSP "How can you not tweet a headline this? Tweet: Scientists decode songbird's genome. http://bit.ly/dsrkdA"

Seriously - how could you not post such a headline because when you click on the link that is exactly what you'll find at the top of a story about a team of  scientists, led by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis that has decoded the genome of a songbird. The Australian Zebra Finch to be exact.
While it is a clever story headline and a subsequent twitter posting, it is about a legitimate scientific event, that with the help of social media got people reading about the achievement. In many cases people well outside the science community heard about it and many science writers and journalists got wind of a story they might not come across otherwise.

Also big news among the science tweets and twits this week was the Myriad Patent case where the judge ruled 7 of the patents are invalid. Twitter's science and legal community posted within minutes of the decision coming down and over several days there were links to news stories and blog postings. The postings came from corporate accounts, scientists, science writers, academics and lawyers. If you ever wondered about the power of online media tools in the world of biotech or research you might want to take note of this. Conspicuous by their absence was Myriad itself while pundits, professors, post graduates, and professionals voiced their thoughts, opinions and predictions. We've included some of the twitter bits in this edition of Twitter Snips but in particular you should visit the web site for @genomicslawyer at http://www.genomicslawreport.com/  We have compiled many of the story links (not the Twitter postings ) on our GenOmics application at http://facebook.genomealberta.ca  Apart from the featured stories on the ruling click on the News tab and you'll get a broad selection of news stories, blogs, videos, and images related to the ruling.

@genomicslawyer Conversation re: Myriad decision continuing in the comments over at Genetic Future: http://bit.ly/c1GAa7 @dgmacarthur  @lindaavey @eurogene

 

@dgmacarthur Genetic Future post: "Jaw-dropping" verdict against Myriad in BRCA patent case: One of the major potential stumbli... http://bit.ly/bf1JUK

 

@genomicslawyer    Hank Greely on the coming "Explosion of Prenatal Genetic Testing": http://bit.ly/afzAVF  (HT @GenCounsNews) Also: http://bit.ly/1nfDwM

 

@bmahersciwriter    Reuters special report on the first post-genome decade: http://is.gd/b8c4f  Stay tuned for Nature to chime in later today.

 

@NatureNews    Our human genome extravaganza now live http://bit.ly/ckMVI7  Pieces from Collins and Venter, and 3 great features.

 

@UofC_Science    Chemist David Cramb looks at the impact nanoparticles have on human health and the environment. http://preview.tinyurl.com/yjgbd4b

 

@idtdna    Synthetic biology and life: German Ethics Council encourages debate http://tiny.cc/bnk8o 

@theAGU New AGU blog on science communication: Welcome to The Plainspoken Scientist http://bit.ly/cdZ0rP

 

@AmandaStrong1 RT @mikesgene: We're collecting Myriad ruling stories at http://tinyurl.com/ykznjca #genomics

 

@phylogenomics    Is the Genome Sequencing Industry Doomed? - GLG News http://ff.im/-irlmV

 

@DrBondar Introducing the Beetle Queen herself…Jessica Oreck!: Amazing film, amazing gal! CB: I am so excited to see your film..  http://bit.ly/awWTS8

 

@20tauri For my bday, someone just sent me this song about how I got here...hooray for natural selection! http://is.gd/b5rgu

 

@INBT_JHU Technology Review: RNA-Loaded Nanoparticles Fight Cancer http://ow.ly/1pNdk

 

@katherineharmon  Where's my genome? Almost 10 yrs after the first draft of the human genome was announced, genomics has a long way to go http://bit.ly/cEpswP

 

@DukeIGSP How can you not tweet a headline this? Tweet: Scientists decode songbird's genome. http://bit.ly/dsrkdA

 

@NatureNews  Scientists: take our survey! what did the human genome mean to you? http://www.surveymk.com/s/C9J8NJM

 

 

You should check out the full website belonging to this week’s top Twitter types.

 

Daniel  Macarthur: http://scienceblogs.com/geneticfuture/

Eurogene aka Keith Grimaldi  http://twitter.com/eurogene

University of Calgary Faculty of Science http://www.science.ucalgary.ca/

Integrated DNA Technologies  http://www.science.ucalgary.ca/

Amanda Strong  http://www.medicalcommunications.ca/

Brendan Maher http://nature.com

Nature News  http://nature.com

Carin Anne Bondar  http://carinbondar.com/

20Tauri http://annalsofspacetime.blogspot.com/

Johns Hopkins Institute for NanoBiotechnology http://inbt.jhu.edu/

Katherine Harmon Look for her everywhere as she is a freelance online science writer and reporter. Here is her latest piece http://bit.ly/cEpswP

Duke Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy http://www.genome.duke.edu/