"As the Old Sing, So the Young Twitter"

That's the title of c1640 painting by Jacob Jordaens which he had borrowed from the title of a poem by his Dutch contemporary Jacob Cats. The painting depicts seven people, young and old, men and women, enjoying a bit of mindless enjoyment. Lots of food and drink on the table, a dog picking up scraps, and a couple of birds overseeing the action. The women seem to be singing, while a young man and a boy play the flute. In the 1600's twitter was generally associated with the sound of the flute or penny whistle. In 2010 Twitter has a whole new meaning but many people still tend to associate it with mindless enjoyment. There is definitely some mind numbingly bad posts on Twitter and the maxim of garbage in, garbage out, holds true.
It doesn't take long however for you to find the right people to follow, so you can eliminate people online for Jordaens' mindless enjoyment and find the ones who really do have something to say.
Genome Alberta is on Twitter as @mikesgene because as Communications Director for Genome Alberta I post the 'tweets' and respond to what people have to say. You'll find a little bit of me in many tweets ( I shared our end of May snowstorm with people who follow me ) , a little bit of Genome Centre business ( I've been promoting our upcoming information webinar on the Genome Canada competition ), a bit of biotech news ( we post stories from our GenOmics site ) , and some discussion about science communication in the 21st Century ( we are followed and follow many well known science journalists ).
The Silicon Alley Insider pegs the number of Twitter users under 24 at 30%. The flip side of that means that by far the majority of people tweeting their hearts out are over 24. Some people suggest the median age is 30. Accurate statistics can be hard to come by but it is probably not far off.
Genome Alberta is one of just over 10,000 Calgary users and we do our best to further the intelligent use of the tool and to promote interest in biotechnology in general while raising awareness of Genome Alberta specifically.
Every few weeks we bring you a few highlights from Twitter and here is this week's selection:

@andrewhessel  Only two weeks until the H+ Summit at Harvard -- Rise of the Citizen Scientist. http://bit.ly/96VcBl

 

@astrolisa Gorgeous #Radiolab segment on Henrietta Lacks, with audio of her daughter and @RebeccaSkloot. Fascinating, moving. http://bit.ly/d8wx0N

 

@chrisadieni  Just got my Akt from Calbiochem. Once my histone H2B arrives, it's partytime!

 

@DukeIGSP  Congress hears benefits of synthetic bio; agrees tech does not pose immediate concern. http://bit.ly/altGKt

 

@edyong209   In which I get irritated at a new Nat Neuro paper, which claims to find a biological basis for acupuncture. http://bit.ly/9Z7B82

 

@GeneSherpas   direct the FDA, FTC, CDC 2evaluate products that circumvent the normal regulatory environment and patient-healthcare provider relationship.

 

@genomicslawyer: Update on Berkeley's genetic testing of incoming Freshman: http://nyti.ms/bpnHXR & Dean's FAQ: http://bit.ly/aDcIqo

 

@idtdna  New insights into molecular evolution: prospects from the Barcode of Life Initiative (BOLI) http://ow.ly/1QRxj

 

@Jabaldaia What does open innovation implies for the management of R&D? The cases of two multinational firms (PDF) http://bit.ly/cWtl8F #openinnovation

 

@kzelnio Scientifically Linked: Jonas Salk and Girls Gone Wild http://ff.im/-l4uV5

 

@lindaavey   Great post about a family's foray into genetics via 23andMe, http://blog.garritys.org/2010/05/23andme.html

 

@nutrigenomics  Ageing deeply affects the structure of the human gut microbiota, as well as its homeostasis w/ the host's immune system http://bit.ly/b2xPu9

 

@phylogenomics   Hmm - soil microbes, ecology, springtime, Prague - sounds pretty good http://ff.im/-l1W8p

 

@RebeccaSkloot  Wow, that was fast RT @sciencemagazine: Congress Considers Synthetic Biology Risks, Benefits http://ow.ly/1QSmm (via ScienceInsider)

 

@sciencebase  The science of the oil spill http://j.mp/9H0toK #oilspill

 

@spillbabyspill  #BP wants Twitter to shut down fake account mocking them. Twitter wants BP to shut down the #oilspill ruining the ocean

 

@stevesilberman Who profits from online "e-patient" groups? http://nyti.ms/d24Mo8 #health

@andrewhessel  describes himself as Building DIYbiotech Founding Director, CEO at Pink Army Cooperative. Co-Chair, Bioinformatics and Biotechnology at Singularity University

@astrolisa is the handle for New York based science writer Lisa Grossman also online at http://likearadiotelescope.wordpress.com/

@chrisadieni  Originally from Montreal, Christopher Dieni is now a postdoc in State College, at Penn State, researching cancer biochemistry.

@DukeIGSP is an Interdisciplinary institute dedicated to advancing the Genome Revolution and address its implications for science, health and society. Tweeted by Kendall Morgan.

@edyong209  Ed Yong is science writer & blogger @ Not Exactly Rocket Science and  freelance journalist living in London, England

@GeneSherpas  Dr. Steven Murphy is the founder of a Personalized Medicine practice in Connecticut

@genomicslawyer is Dan Vorhaus who bring us news and notes from the frontier of genomics, personalized medicine and the law.

@Jabaldaia is Jose Baldaia, a scientist based in Portugal

@lindaavey is a co-founder of 23andMe and says her work now is all about instigating a healthquake

@nutrigenomics is a Professor of Molecular Nutrition, Nutrigenomics, and Gut Health at Wageningen University NL, and says he is a nutritional science 2.0 advocate

@kzelnio Kevin Zelnio says he is a  Marine Biologist, Writer, Musician, Purveyor of the Spineless, and an Evangelist of Open Access

@sciencebase  come from David Bradley a Science Writer in Cambridge, UK, who loves family, conversation, guitar, photography, singing, walking, cycling. Science.

@spillbabyspill is an anonymous account aimed at the USA effort to get BP oilspill news/info out to the masses.

@stevesilberman lives in San Francisco and is a longtime writer for Wired and other national magazines.  He says he us curious about nearly everything, particularly science and media