Bret Weinstein on "The Portal" (w/ host Eric Weinstein), Ep. #019 - The Prediction and the DISC.
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN recommends it as the full account of the lab mice issue and evolutionary tradeoffs between cancer and longevity, despite its length.
What it is
A long Portal podcast episode in which Bret Weinstein tells Eric Weinstein the story of his lab mice telomere work, the prediction behind it, and what it means for science and aging.
Recommended by 5 HN commenters across 6 different months, 2020 to 2023.
What Hacker News said
Recommends meowface · 2020-04 · on “The Wolfram Physics Project”
>The core claim he makes "all mice are broken" is a hyperbole that a lot of people will tell you is unsubstantiated. He makes it sound like all tests done on mice are flawed because of it. It isn't hyperbole, if Bret's claims are substantiated. The claims being that most lab mice are from the Jackson lab, that all of their mice have extremely long telomeres compared to wild mice, and that this could have serious implications on the potential harm to humans by some drugs - even while also accounting for the fact that mice are already not a good model of humans and that the same drugs are later tested on humans. (I could elaborate on this, but it's covered thoroughly in the paper and podcast.)
Recommends ZephyrBlu · 2020-07 · on “Cracking down on research fraud”
They go over multiple topics. Check the top comment for timestamps. If you want to hear the full story I suggest listening to this podcast episode: [this video] . It's long, but I found it very interesting.
Recommends bz33t · 2020-08 · on “Lab mice have a chill, and that may be messing up study results (2016)”
According to Bret Weinstein who figured out the connection between telomere length and breeding, they seem to have quietly changed the breeding protocols to bring the telomere length back down to be in line with wild type mice. He talks about it in a long interview that gets really interesting about a hour in: [this video]
Recommends rvanlaar · 2020-09 · on “Bodybuilding supplement promotes healthy aging and extends life span in mice”
Uh oh, mice in labs are not like humans in this regard at all. Lab Mice have extraordinary cell repair capabilities. My guess is that the AKG slows down cell division. This podcast delves into the problem with lab mice and explains the trade offs that happen on an evolutionary and cellular level in mice with regards to longevity. [this video]
Recommends rvanlaar · 2021-07 · on “Is aging inevitable?”
The answer is yes. It seems the author is reasoning more in the philosophic realm than in evolutionary biology. In this podcast [1] an evolutionary biologist goes into depth about telomeres, evolution and how cancer and longevity are two sides of the same coin. Long story short, having cells die after a number of replications is a postive trade off. It means that when a cell replicates too fast it also dies fast. The opposite are cancer cells, which replicate too fast and don't die. [1] [this video]
Recommends lettergram · 2021-10 · on “Slowed canonical progress in large fields of science”
I recommend the book: Rigor Mortis: How Sloppy Science Creates Worthless Cures, Crushes Hope, and Wastes Billions Generally, all scientific fields have immense issues related to the walled gardens and limitations created by their peers. I also recommend this discussion between Eric and Brett Weinstein which highlights just one example of the major issues: [this video]
Cites sradman · 2020-06 · on “The Problem with America’s Lab Mice [video]”
The publications section on Bret Weinstein’s Wikipedia page [1] lists the paper [2][3]: > Weinstein, Bret S; Ciszek, Deborah (2002). "The reserve-capacity hypothesis: Evolutionary origins and modern implications of the trade-off between tumor-suppression and tissue-repair". Experimental Gerontology. 37 (5): 615–27. There doesn’t seem to be a succinct write up on how this hypothesis led to Carol Greider’s 2009 Nobel Prize [4]. Greider did not recognize Weinstein’s contribution [5]. [1] [LINK] [2] [LINK] [3] [LINK] [4] [LINK] [5] [this video]
Cites jxramos · 2023-05 · on “AI intensifies fight against ‘paper mills’ that churn out fake research”
There was an interesting claim I heard from Eric Weinstein regarding peer review that he characterized as a cancerous infiltration into all of science from some medical area? Aha, found it in my notes... """ 1:32:28 Eric: but let me jump in--peer review is a cancer from outer space. It came from the biomedical community, it invaded science. The old system, because I have to say this because many people who are now professional scientists have an idea that peer review has always been in our literature and it absolutely [mff __ ] has not. Bret: right Eric: Okay. It used to be that the editor of a journal took responsibility for the quality of the journal which is why we had things like nature