Dr Michelle Wong

For the last year and a bit, I've been writing a book, all about the science of beauty. It's called… The Science of Beauty. I'm great with names! It covers the basics (and not-so-basics) of skincare, haircare, makeup, nails, as well as general cosmetic science.

Send this to your left leaning friends who don’t mask

@profesterman @JayneFlan Argh not you as well with the AI slop

@JayneFlan Rising cancer diagnoses in younger adults are being reported in several countries. The causes are likely complex and still under investigation. We need careful data analysis — not single-cause explanations.

It’s COVID. Our government knew COVID was harmful & they -very criminally- let this happen. & too many people turned away from this reality & ensured this nightmare outcome. How do we ready ourselves for the scale of suffering we’re now certain to face? It will be crushing

“gen alpha cough” is a hilarious observation and then you realize it’s bc they all have chronic coughs from getting sick with covid 3x a year at public school

"COVID is here to stay" is a fatalist position. In the 1800s, before municipal water filtration, saying "there's nothing we can do about cholera" would have been wrong. The same is now true of COVID. Far-UVC/ventilation/filtration can hugely reduce transmission if we demand it.

This woman caught COVID three months ago, was just diagnosed with Long COVID, and is now in danger of losing her job. This pandemic is not over. It is ongoing.

They promoted Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent to distract you from reading Parenti’s Inventing Reality, which was written years earlier and is far better.

@NukitToBeSure @suchnerve Thank you 🥹 Very high praise from you!!

@suchnerve @LabMuffin She rocks so hard.

Biosec maps ridiculously well to infosec, but this does us absolutely no good because there are so few infosec professionals interested in biosec and so few biosec professionals willing to adopt an appropriately adversarial cognitive model from infosec. If you are looking for a loose framework to start with, you can pull so much from infosec- defense in depth, single point failure issues, not relying on security through obscurity (using mitigations with limited supporting evidence that have not been "pressure tested"), user compliance issues- the list goes on and on. Most importantly, just an overall adversarial mindset "how will they try and break/stop this?", because people are actively trying to remove and bypass biosecurity measures for convenience or profit, if not necessarily maliciously. I think one of the main problems with exclusively applying a mechanical engineering or medical mindset to biosec with no other tools in the box is that those professionals don't usually have an adversarial framework- they plan for failure well, even brute force vandalism, but they tend not to prepare well for an intelligent resisting opponent- which we have in biosec. We are up against articulate, well-credentialed individuals who have been successful in arguing in favor of inhaling other people's saliva for its health benefits. That's a hell of a Final Boss. You really need the equivalent of LockPickingLawyer to take apart your IAQ measure and find all the ways failure can be deliberately induced, either physically or administratively. People outside of infosec often become very upset about that kind of pressure/pen-testing, so it tends not to happen in development where it should, but instead occurs in the real world, where it usually kills the initiative.

@callmeeern @grok @NicoOkapi The only thing that's the same between your answer and Grok's is the idea of hydrogen bonds and hair shape. @grok Does salt spray mostly work via the grit and separation effect, or by drawing out water? Keep in mind that curly hair usually looks best at moderate humidity

@grok @LabMuffin @NicoOkapi “J’apprécie, Grok 😘”

Can someone tell me why in mexico my hair was gorgeous and curly and the second I get back to Minneapolis it looks awful again

@callmeeern @NicoOkapi This is complete bullshit lol

@NicoOkapi “If you were swimming somewhere coastal it’s because salt allows the hydrogen bonds in your hair to break and reform into more interesting patterns around the salt crystals once dried. Buy some saltwater spray and apply every morning for the same effect.

@ParentMishmash @fmrcavedweller @NukitToBeSure @xKonaPearl @drseanmullen This is so interesting! I've stayed in dozens of hotel rooms over the last 5 years but only one in the US, and that was the only time I could remember seeing a PTAC. I think the places I stayed in Europe and Australia were almost all VRF (or a window and an anti-mosquito plugin)

@fmrcavedweller @NukitToBeSure @xKonaPearl @drseanmullen Every hotel I’ve stayed in used either a PTAC or VTAC, both of which are 100% recirculating, PTAC in cheaper motels and VTAC in midrange hotels, the picture we are replying under from Dr Mullen appears to be a VTAC

@US_Macauley @allTheYud @Aella_Girl I don't understand how anyone could make this mistake if they've actually read more than 1 or 2 studies, and noticed the distinct lack of NLM being cited.

@allTheYud @Aella_Girl should learn to cite articles, before I'd declare her top anything. Citing an abstract published on pubmed simply as "National Library of Medicine" is unacceptable. I will bring this up whenever her scientific laurels are cited until corrected.

one of Earth's top scientists on sex and gender has published her latest work, open for all to read in a widely read venue on that science topic, where it will receive far more peer scrutiny than any lesser forum provides

@suchnerve I went to a concert at Le Trianon last year and it was 600 ppm - it's doable, just lack of incentive when ventilation so invisible! 😩

oh yeah one time in 2023 i decided to risk going to a concert in an N99 because i could isolate for 5 days afterward and then take a PCR test……… the CO₂ level was over 4,000 (above 2,500 is proven to impair thinking+moving and cause headaches; >5,000 is an OSHA violation)

@suchnerve @_GoldenManiac_ Weights are the only way to bake! 😎

@_GoldenManiac_ It has definitely occurred to me that @LabMuffin would appreciate my bread recipe being in centigrams

As a chemist I would like cooking so much better if everything was in grams or milliliters. Lemme cook using grad cylinder

@AliciaStella Whenever I know I’m going to be in the sun I think of @LabMuffin ‘s Swiss cheese model of sun protection!

@drvyom Is that appeasement of fringe views also why they didn't put the chickenpox vaccine on the schedule?

Taking that NHS quote on face value, the backlash isn't just deserved, but ought to be tripled. It reeks of UK-style appeasement of fringe views. But I'm skeptical about the context of this being 'guidance' as is being claimed. does anyone have a screenshot of the webpage it came from (since pulled)?

@fahad_s_ali Thank you! 🥰

What we mean by “wash your hands” during our ongoing covid pandemic is “wash your hands of responsibility”

@drseanmullen @tthiking Depends on your definition of "safe" - I personally don't think there's a big issue with low levels of fragrance compounds 🤷🏻‍♀️ I don't have asthma or anything though! The safest move would be to only remove, and not add anything e.g. filter with activated charcoal

@LabMuffin @tthiking So is there a safe way to improve the smell in indoor spaces?

So I’m sitting here & reading this paper...unable to breathe ‘cause my wife bought this new Happy Wax thing without consulting her Airborne Aware wingman 🕯️🐶 So I did what I do best: I read more science 🕳️ 🐇. Here’s what I learned about wax warmers, indoor air, & pet safety. 🧵

@drseanmullen @tthiking If you think the problem is terpenes, those aren't "safe and reliable" at all, natural =/= safe. Terpenes are far more common in natural products, limonene is the major scent molecule from citrus peels. No limonene = no nice citrus smell.

Yeah it’s really awful. 😞 The only safe & reliable way I’ve found to make the house smell good, is to use: Simmer pots - water with citrus peels, cinnamon sticks, cloves, or herbs (rosemary, mint). Keep the stove on low & monitor. Releases water vapor + aroma, not combustion byproducts. Citrus peel bowls - Place fresh orange or lemon peels in bowls around the house. As they dry, they release a light fragrance. Maybe could also put coffee grounds in a bowl..? And if you want to get rid of smells: 1. Open windows 2. Buy a TON of plants 3. Baking soda boxes 4. Charcoal bags

@suchnerve I know someone whose stripper name was Pristina

“Pristine” would be such a lovely name that I’m surprised I’ve never encountered anybody with it