User:SteveChervitzTrutane

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Stephen Chervitz Trutane is my official, legal name though it was originally Stephen Allen Chervitz, as described here. So you might know me as having the surname Trutane or as Chervitz, depending on what era of my life or circle of friends you know me from. I respond to either, so use whichever one you want. For simplicity, you can just call me "Steve".

Bio
I'm currently on a sabbatical from a long-term role as a bioinformatics software engineer in the biotech industry, exploring the world of physical fitness through my work with the Athlete Body Shop. Previously, I worked at Personalis from 2012 to 2023 enabling precision medicine for immuno-oncology by providing tools to process human genome sequence data from high-throughput sequencing, with a focus on annotating and helping scientists interpret variations in germline & somatic genomic data (genome, exome, transcriptome) from individuals and their tumors. Before that, I worked on genome analysis software at Omicia (now Fabric Genomics) (2010-2012) and before that at Affymetrix (now Thermo Fisher) (2000-2010) where I helped annotate DNA microarray probe sets for end-user scientists via the NetAffx web portal. I joined Affymetrix in October 2000 after their acquisition of Neomorphic which I had joined in September 1998 after finishing a post-doc position at Stanford in David Botstein's group (1996-1998), working on the Saccharomyces Genome Database. So computers and biological "omics" data are my long-time friends.

I have a B.A. in biology from Macalester College and a Ph.D. from CU Boulder's MCDB department, working under Prof. Joseph Falke in the biochemistry department doing wet-lab molecular biology experiments on a chemoreceptor that mediates bacterial chemotaxis. I did ample amounts of site-directed mutagenesis and in vitro signal transduction assays, as well as 3D molecular graphics visualization and protein structure analysis and other fun stuff (like teaching myself C).

After Boulder, I shifted directions into the world of genomics (or post-genomics) joining David Botstein's lab (while he was at Stanford) working on the Saccharomyces Genome Database (S. cerevisiae a.k.a. baker's yeast, was the first eukaryote to have it's genome completely sequenced, which happened in April 1996, about 3 months after I started with SGD). While at SGD, I developed lots of Perl modules for working with bioinformatics data and contributed most of this code to the open source BioPerl project, which was just getting started around this time, as noted in the early BioPerl history.

I am no longer actively involved with BioPerl development, but continue to be a fan of the Open Bioinformatics Foundation (and open source software for science generally). Other projects I've been involved with include BioDAS, GenoViz, and HCLS projects. I'm on the board of the FGED Society starting in 2002, acting as their secretary and webmaster between 2010 and their dissolution in 2021.

In my spare time, I'm either hanging out with my family, training for or organizing triathlons, promoting health and fitness, tweeting, contributing to Wikipedia (my stats), or trying to help humanity with the organization I founded, TeamHuman.org. Wikipedia, I feel, is well-aligned with the "promoting a shared understanding" goal of TeamHuman.org.

Other online hangouts

 * LinkedIn
 * Twitter
 * Facebook
 * Stackoverflow
 * Github
 * Publications
 * Historical:
 * Blogspot
 * Tumblr


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Support Wikipedia!

My Wikipedia story: When I was a kid I used to browse a physical encyclopedia (I think it was a World Book Encyclopedia ca. 1974), reading random pages here and there. One day when I was 13 or 14 years old, I came across a page that changed my life, specifically a section describing molecular biology. It blew me away that we humans have figured out the genetic code, a code that nearly all cells on earth use for creating proteins from DNA. My teachers had never mentioned the topic at all! The rest of my life has essentially been following up on what I stumbled up on that day, pursuing a Ph.D. and then working on genomics for 25 years in the biotech industry.

I've been contributing to English wikipedia sporadically since ca. 2008 and enjoy the feeling that I'm creating a knowledge resource that will be read and augmented by others, and persist over time. Perhaps I will add content that will inspire someone else and alter the course of their life as mine was altered long ago by that static encyclopedia. It almost feels like I'm giving back to the encyclopedia gods that led me to where I am today. Sure, wikipedia has issues, but I have seen it evolve and self-correct over time via community input, keeping up with our evolving state of knowledge in real time -- and it's available worldwide via the internet for free. Awesome.


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Wikipedia Contributions
Here are a few highlights of my contributions. This listing isn't necessarily current, so check here for what I've been up to.

I still consider myself to be cutting my teeth as a Wikipedia editor (though Wikipedia considers me established enough to edit some semi-protected pages, such as Barack Obama, which I have edited on occasion). Many of my Wikipedia contributions focus on my domains of expertise: Molecular and cellular biology &mdash; Bioinformatics &mdash; Genomics &mdash; Functional genomics &mdash; Genes

However, I have wide-ranging interests so you may find my edits outside these areas, in odd corners of Wikipedia.

Some pages I've created

 * Lillian Boyer (which I blogged about. Ran into some trouble with all of the images of her aerial stunts that I originally added to the article.)
 * Vertebrate and Genome Annotation Project
 * Opolis, Kansas
 * Harlem Children's Zone
 * HCZ has been in the news frequently in '08-'09, such as this report about the problems facing charities in the wake of the economic crisis, featured on front page of WSJ on 26 Jan 2009.
 * Some trivia: My HCZ wiki article comes in at 36 (out of about 42,000) in a Google search (as of 11 Apr 09). It was 110/38K in Jan '09.
 * Multiplex (assay)
 * modENCODE (redirects to the main ENCODE page, where I added a section for modENCODE)
 * Matthew P. Scott
 * Science Translational Medicine
 * Cell-cell interaction
 * Voices for America's Children
 * Developmental topographical disorientation
 * Promise Neighborhoods
 * Immunoglobulin-like receptor category - (discussed here; later merged into Immunoglobulin_superfamily)
 * Petrov Zailenko (a.k.a the "Boonville (CA) Hermit". This was also the first entry in the Russian military personnel of World War II category - which was later nuked)
 * Hi Babit (draft) (deleted before ever seeing the light of day; still think it's significant, but don't have an independent reference)
 * DDR - (my first ever disambiguation page; an interesting intersection between biology & computing)
 * Pancession - Redirects to COVID-19 recession
 * It's an emerging coinage that's fairly common & quite high-specificity, with a growing usage.
 * A live twitter search for 'pancession' on 2 Aug 2020 found ~80 tweets since 12 Mar 2020, all of which were pandemic/recession-related. It appeared only twice in Twitter prior to 2020.
 * 'Pancession' was noted in an Economist article on neologisms on 27 June 2020, and has been used to refer to the COVID-19 recession in other media posts.
 * "But Anyway" (Blues Traveler song)
 * Cosmic Bell test - Redirects to relevant subsection of Bell test.
 * Concerns a set of elegant experiments that used universe-scale objects (stars, quasars) to test (and confirm) a quantum-scale phenomenon (quantum entanglement).
 * I added a section on the Bell test article about a cool PBS Nova episode documenting the quasar-based 2018 study.

Some pages I've contributed substantially to

 * Science
 * Genome annotation (I wrote a page related to this on the original Wikiomics (archived), later folded into OpenWetWare.)
 * Retrotransposon (Verified and added citation supporting claim that 42% of the human genome is made up of these buggers.)
 * Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act and Genetic discrimination
 * War on Cancer (I've greatly expanded this from stub state starting in Oct 2008. Continues to be a work in progress.)
 * I initially redirected it to Nat'l Cancer Act of '71, then decided it was better to redirect the other way around.
 * On 2 Oct 2009, I participated in the Lance Armstrong Foundation's "LIVESTRONG Day" by registering a virtual event where did my part to raise cancer awareness by inviting people to the WoC wikipedia page. Not sure if anyone noticed.
 * Some google stats on WoC searches as of 2 Oct 09: the WP page is now on the first page of results, though near the bottom. I take this as a sign of progress of my efforts, as the WoC page has usually been quite distant from the top when I've checked earlier this year. Total google WoC hits on 2 Oct 09: 45M (unquoted), 135k (quoted). Update 3 Nov 2009: WoC page is now #2 out of 47.5M total (unquoted) and #3 out of 327K (quoted). Hot topic! Update 13 Nov 2009: WoC page is now #1 out of 52.3M total (unquoted) and #2 out of 142K (quoted -- the previous 327k seems anomalous).
 * Gene expression techniques
 * Genetic disorder
 * Cancer and inflammation (discussion I had on a now-archived Cancer talk page with JFW and User:Franamax)
 * JFW is looking for more authoritative references describing a 'grand unified' theory for how inflammation relates to cancer before putting anything about it in the cancer article.
 * I think the cancer-inflammation field is rich enough that it deserves its own page & plan to create when I get a chance.
 * This would avoid provide a common, main article to link to from either cancer or inflammation.
 * Cancer article is quite big: 96kb as of 12 May 2012
 * FGED Society (Major re-write, page rename. Formerly known as 'MGED')
 * Affymetrix (My former employer)
 * Treatment of cancer (my proposal to rename this page from Management of cancer was approved... nearly 7 years after my proposal. I hope there were no cancer patients waiting on that change :o).


 * Non-science
 * Jack LaLanne
 * Joe Ranft (Added death section after watching Cars.)
 * Some of my original contribution on Joe's page has since been removed on the basis of being WP:OR or WP:POV. I'm not sure about this removal, since I'm pointing out a coincidental fact between the circumstances of his death and a major theme of the movie he was making when he died. Here's what I said: The road on which Joe died, Highway 1, is akin to Route 66 featured in Cars in the way it "works/moves with the land" (quote from movie). Meandering along the scenic California coastline, Highway 1 is a very much a road where appreciating the journey is as important as reaching one's destination, a theme of Cars. Maybe I'll bring this up on Joe's talk page.
 * Scat singing (In the "Origin" section, I added the Jelly Roll Morton quote from Alan Lomax interview.)
 * Hebrew cantillation and Hebrew language (Posted links to audio example of cantillation I uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. Had to convert the mp3 I got from Cantor Seth into Ogg format. A little tricky.)
 * Note that Hebrew language has since been updated to use a different audio file of the same prayer I originally added. Not sure why.
 * Also note that the original Cantillation page was moved to Hebrew cantillation but many page links were not updated accordingly. Shows a good example of the What Links Here utility, btw.

Assorted contributions

 * Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (Exploring the power of the convert template.)
 * Dan White ''(Categorized him as serving in the Vietnam War)
 * Not a major edit here, for sure, but I also added a section to his discussion page highlighting Dan's Vietnam War connection and the possible role of PTSD in leading him to his murderous actions -- something I've never heard mentioned, though I haven't read widely here. (This editing done after seeing Milk -- excellent movie, btw).
 * On Veteran's Day 2010, I launched WhiteMilk.org to spotlight this area. This is my own OR so I wouldn't put it in the article, but might be worth a mention in the discussion.
 * Douglas Adams (Speculated on his talk page that that his 'trilogy of five books' joke derives from a Monty Python skit.)
 * Crips (Added statement and citations about the roots of gang activity in So Central LA. Important issue and article. Definitely could use expansion.)
 * The Jedi Code (Found it in one of my son's books I Am A Jedi by Qui-Gon Jinn and saw that it was not in -- or had been deleted from -- the Jedi page.)
 * OK, the code has been removed once again from the article. Not clear what's the beef. Here's the version of the article with the Jedi code as I added it.
 * The definitive article about the Jedi Code can be found in Wookiepedia.
 * My attempt to add the Wookiepedia citation to the Jediism article was reverted as being an unreliable source. However, being a wiki, Wookiepedia's reliability should improve over time, eh?
 * I still feel that the actual Jedi Code itself should appear in Wikipedia, perhaps on a dedicated page. It could cover alternative versions of the code has it has appeared in different places. One day, when the Force feels strong, I'll attempt it.
 * 'Ghouls' vs. 'Zombies' (See my 'Ghouls' sub-section on this archived page -- this discussion page gets archived a lot.)
 * Drupe (Minor update to include Cashew among the list of plants the produce drupes)
 * Motivated by a factually correct comic by Non Sequitur.
 * Septuple meter (Added Led Zeppelin's "The Ocean," the main riff of which has one bar of and one bar of .)
 * This piece can also be counted as a single bar of, but that is not the most 'reduced' form towards which musical types seem to strive.
 * It was originally included in the "List of musical works in unusual time signatures" (MWUTS) page but got removed, probably because it lacked a decent citable source describing the time signature.
 * Researching this has revealed some insight into Wikipedia culture as it seems one Wikipedian decided to maintain the MWUTS page outside of Wikipedia after pushback from other editors regarding the reliability of sources. This person maintained his list at dkap.info/oddtime.php from May 2009 till April 2017. Here the last archived copy of it.
 * What's the lesson here? If editors feel the need to leave Wikipedia over disputes with other editors, that seems like a bad result indicating a problem with the system. Perhaps the dkap.info author's contribution could have been maintained on a talk page or in his sandbox, or added to the article with a "citation needed" flag. As it is, Wikipedia lost the energy of a knowledgeable person -- an unfortunate outcome.
 * Btw, there are some interesting works listed on that MWUTS page, such as the progressive metal "Schism" in time (which must be an average of the various time changes in that song).
 * A Magnificient Text Book Of Pharmacovigillance
 * I found a "text book" example of plagiarism from Wikipedia, noted on the talk page of Contract research organization.
 * In addition to having more than one typo in the title of the book, the authors also lifted one of the citation anchors "[4]" appearing in the Wikipedia article!
 * Unattributed use of text like this from Wikipedia is widespread, I suspect. I found other web pages that contained lifted verbiage from the CRO page, such as this.
 * While a form of flattery, such copying can be problematic when errors are copied from Wikipedia articles. After the errors are fixed in Wikipedia, the untold copies are not. There's no way to track these copies other than by Google searching.
 * It would be cool to have a way to signal 3rd party websites that the Wikipedia text they copied has been changed, signaling that the copied text may contain an error or other fix.
 * 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic - (Added citation about cytokine storms on 19 Mar 2020)
 * I also noted the pandemic in the history section of the Cytokine release syndrome article, along with citations for cytokine storms as a cause of death due to COVID-19. The history section of CRS was subsequently (May 2020) moved to the Cytokine storm page.
 * Cytokines comprise a fascinatingly complex system of immuno-modulators that's a hot topic of biomedical research. Here's a figure (I tweeted via @Awesomics, Nov 2018), that provides a glimpse of this complexity.
 * Junk food I unskewed the satirical poster of a vending machine to correct for distortion in the original.
 * My improved version was reverted because it violated Derivative works, even though the original was public domain.
 * See the image's talk page for the rationale here. An interesting lesson in copyright law!
 * Software I used to unskew it: GraphicConverter.
 * Earthing
 * I'm skeptical of the electro-chemical claims of how Earthing works, but am a strong believer in the benefits — physical & mental — of going barefoot as much as possible.
 * For example, the primary biological free radical superoxide (coming from our consumption of oxygen), is negatively charged, and so would repel and not be neutralized by any electrons absorbed into the body thru direct contact with the Earth, as I noted in this tweet (@barefootr = me).
 * When it comes detoxifying superoxide and other ROS like hydrogen peroxide, superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase have your back. Btw, SOD is also featured below in my Pages of note section, and was also noted by barefootr.
 * IMHO, health benefits of walking barefoot on various natural surfaces mostly stem from they neural stimulation of our feet which are chock full of pressure-sensitive nerve endings. Walking & running without supportive shoes also improves our overall balance and specific strengthening of our feet, ankles, legs, & hips.
 * In April 2023, I came across an interesting study that quantitated current flow between the human body and ground, and also looked for evidence in support of some Earthing claims.
 * The study found a very weak current (<10 nanoamperes) but with no correlation to important body functions such as respiration and heart rate, making it a negative result for the Earthers.
 * I summarized these findings and added them to the Earthing section of the Energy medicine page, but my contribution was quickly removed, being called "nonsense" without any further explanation. However, I feel this study is relevant to the article.
 * See my topic on the Energy medicine Talk page (archived) where I discussed this study with other Wikipedians.
 * My impression from this "Energy medicine page experience" is that there's a strong anti-pseudoscience editorial force behind the Energy medicine article. While it's a good thing to be skeptical and not let pseudoscience pass as real science, I think it would be fair to cite peer-reviewed studies of energy medicine-related claims, while pointing out scientific critiques of those studies. As it is, I feel that this sort of balance is lacking.

Sandbox
potential contributions (my sandbox area)

Wikipedia Picks
Some notable content I've come across in my Wikipedia travels. This is in a completely random order (added to the bottom as I find them), and non-exhaustive. May grow over time... or not.

For the officially curated list of "Wikipedia picks," see the archives of the daily feature article and picture that appear on the Main Page.

Pages of note
A mix of unrelated yet noteworthy topics.
 * Inherently funny word - One of Jimmy Wales' fav pages; needs section on funny animals
 * List of unusual deaths - Probably Edward Gorey's fav page ;)
 * On the subject of tragic deaths, I detected a hint of triskaidekaphobia creeping into the description of Nodar Kumaritashvili's luge death. The wikipedia article on 7/24/16 claimed he crashed on his 13th run from the men's start of the Whistler luge course, but the cited source indicates he had taken 15 runs from the men's start before his crash. Fixed on 10 Aug 2016.
 * Also notable death-wise: List of selfie-related injuries and deaths. Table is large and growing (n=179 on 26 Jan 2020; n=139 on 24 Nov 2017). C'mon folks, don't risk it!
 * SGR 1806-20 - "A starquake [on this magnetar] ... released more energy in one-tenth of a second (1.3×1039 J) than our sun has released in 100,000 years".
 * Lets hope this doesn't ever happen w/in 3 parsecs of Earth :-O
 * Psalter world map - "mysterious as parts of the world once marked with sea monsters and dragons by 13th-century mapmakers." ref
 * Canine cancer detection - Putting man's best friend's sniffer to medical use: "dogs can detect some substances in the region of parts per trillion..."
 * Talk page of Mansplaining - Amazing the amount of collective energy spent here. Probably no mansplaining taking place there, since most Wikipedians are men, you know ;).
 * Q: How does a mainsplainer get his water? A: Well, actually...
 * Nu metal - amazing amount of vitriol in the "Criticism and controversy" section, harkening the disco sucks backlash of the previous generation, and even ragtime backlash at the beginning of the 20th century, which got slammed both coming and going.
 * Brouhaha - used to have its own Wikipedia page, but got moved to wiktionary in December 2021. Original brouhaha article had some colorful examples and a see also link to tempest in a teacup.
 * Notable numbers: 4294967295 and 2147483647 (number) - How many numbers have their own wikipedia pages? Is that question even answerable?
 * See the Integers category which includes the 9 quintillion doozy 9223372036854775807.
 * This number no longer has a dedicated page (noticed on 20 Sep 2020).
 * It now lives as a note on the Power of two page (263). The next power of two (264) seems a lot more interesting, btw.
 * 4294967295 might be the largest integer represented in digits with its own, dedicated page.
 * Belphegor's_prime - a palindromic, 666-containing, 31-digit wonder - could be the largest named integer with its own page.
 * Not counting largest known prime number and infinity, which are unbounded.
 * 666 is a triangular number, like 36.
 * 291 is semiprime, just like the number of digits in the Arecibo message:
 * 73 rows x 23 columns = 1679. If rendered the wrong way (23 rows x 73 cols), it looks more like noise.
 * For a 'primer' on how to count in binary, see this lecture from the U. Utah physics & astronomy dept.
 * 65, another semiprime, is equal to 15 + 24 + 33 + 42 + 51.
 * 7744 is the square of 88, super lucky 囍.
 * Also see the Numbers category, where you can find things like:
 * Fourth Way enneagram based on 142,857 (the six repeating digits of 1/7), which is the most famous cyclic number in base 10.
 * Pi appears to have the largest Wikipedia page of any number -- with way more references than Infinity and about the same number as the Universe (but way less than Attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election - a massive page).
 * Euler's "$6 1/2$" is a close contender.
 * Ψ₀(Ωω) corresponds to 'Impredicativism' in reverse mathematics, which I will take their word for...
 * $\sqrt[12]{2}$ (twelfth root of two), the ratio of the distances of two consecutive frets to the bridge of a stringed instrument (approx 1.059463).
 * More technically: it's an algebraic irrational number representing the frequency ratio (musical interval) of a semitone in twelve-tone equal temperament.
 * Kármán vortex street as an explanation for the Dyatlov Pass incident
 * Personally, I'm leaning towards the infrasound explanation. I'd like to experience that natural phenomenon myself... in the daytime.
 * Man versus Horse Marathon - Seems like the horses shouldn't be handicapped by having to run with a human on their back,
 * or the humans should have to carry a heavy backpack.
 * Slate story mentioning this contest and describing the "runner" theory of human evolution: All Men Can't Jump
 * Phrases from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
 * Contains a classic Adams quote: "I may be a sorry case, but I don't write jokes in base 13."
 * Ray Dorset quote: "I should be retired, but my brain is like that of an 18 year old."
 * Anti-pattern - Quite a few of these, and not just for software engineering.
 * Great pedagogical value. I added some proposals to the Talk page.
 * Talk about Roseanne Barr's infamous tweet, and whether it warrants inclusion on Valerie Jarrett's page.
 * RMS Titanic - Sank on Tax Day 1912 (the year before US federal income taxes actually started), and many died as a result of insufficient lifeboat passenger capacity stemming from "outdated maritime safety regulations."
 * Good example of what can happen when an industry moves faster than our ability to regulate it.
 * Subsequent maritime disasters with major fatalities, SS Eastland in 1915 and RMS Empress of Ireland in 1914, stemmed from regulatory over-correction in the 'wake' of the Titanic disaster.
 * Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?
 * 25 or 6 to 4 am.
 * Immunotherapy includes helminthic therapy (i.e. infection with whipworms & hookworms)
 * Though the mechanism of how these helminths modulate the immune response, is unknown.
 * Matthew 5:5, the third of the Beatitudes ("blessed are the meek..."), contains an interesting linguistic note regarding the Greek word typically translated as 'meek':
 * it is not suggesting weakness but instead the way power is handled.
 * It is "strength under control". The English language does not have a word that translates conveying both gentleness and power together.
 * Makes one wonder how many other original terms used in the Bible are difficult to translate.
 * This linguistic note was originally included in the 'Analysis' section of the Matthew 5:5 article until 14 June 2021. I moved it into the interpretation section on 8 Oct 2023.
 * June 1962 Alcatraz escape attempt
 * Flagged as "appears to contradict itself on whether the escape attempt succeeded or failed." The U.S. Marshals Service investigation remains open to this day.
 * DevOps - Riddled with many editorial flags, mostly "unreliable source" or "citation needed".
 * 'DevOps' means different things to different people in the industry and there is apparently no definitive authority on the topic.
 * Irony here is that many Wikipedians would probably describe their day jobs as being in devops, I would bet.
 * Relevant article by an IT SME: DevOps vs DevSecOps (10 Mar 2021, archived)
 * Arrow of time - a consequence of the entropy-maximizing Second law of thermodynamics and the resulting irreversibility of natural processes.
 * Linguistic interest: The words "yesterday" and "tomorrow" both translate to the same word in Hindi: कल ("kal"), meaning "[one] day remote from today." The ambiguity is resolved by verb tense.
 * I think this page should mention the 2nd law's implications for time travel. In the self-consistency principle section of time travel, it is noted that the laws of thermodynamics are rooted in statistical mechanics, and as such, violations of these laws "are not impossible, just improbable" -- perhaps leaving us some hope for the invention of a bonafide time machine.
 * But perhaps this is venturing out of physics and into the realm of Philosophy of thermal and statistical physics (an unusually short article, IMHO).
 * Economic take on the value of time.
 * Quantum entanglement could possibly be the ultimate source of the arrow of time.
 * Regarding the possibility of time travel, a traversable wormhole could provide a way, with some limitations. See my 'Images of Note' section for an artistic conception of wormhole travel.
 * Meaning of life - find enlightenment through Wikipedia. 🙏
 * Also see Reality, Cosmos, Cosmology, and the Universe for more deep thinking.
 * Ineos 1:59 Challenge - Kipchoge's successful achievement of a sub-2-hour marathon is not recognized as an official world record, but did make it into the Guinness World Records.
 * How long before he or someone else makes it official? Could depend on the legalization of high-tech running shoes like he used.
 * Nike's 'AlphaFly' shoes like Eliud used are banned, but Nike's new 'VaporFly' shoes are officially legal.
 * Superoxide dismutase - My favorite enzyme as it plays a vital role in antioxidant defense in nearly all living cells exposed to oxygen.
 * It's the most catalytically efficient enzyme known with a reaction rate that is limited only by how fast the reactants can diffuse (kcat/KM = ~7 x 109 M−1s−1).
 * It's a metalloprotein that relies on interesting metal ions for catalysis: Cu-Zn, Mn, Fe, or Ni (underscoring the importance of a diverse, micronutrient-rich diet).
 * It's so important for life that the human genome has three different versions of it, customized for different cellular locales: cytoplasmic (SOD1), mitochondrial (SOD2), and extracellular (SOD3).
 * Mutations in SOD genes are implicated in notable diseases, such as Lou Gehrig's disease.
 * An interesting research question is whether supercentenarians have protective levels of SOD proteins, or SOD genetic variants, or SOD-regulatory gene variants.
 * A July 2020 study from Japan (open access) that looked at a number of relevant biomarkers (protein levels) did not find significant association of extracellular (EC) SOD3 with the super-old.
 * Note that they excluded individuals with the SOD3 R213G variant which is associated with high plasma levels of EC-SOD and an elevated risk for incidental ischemic heart disease, so there is a connection between SOD levels and cardiovascular health, but it's not a simple "more is better" relationship.
 * Also see this July 2000 Italian study that tested for genetic markers associated with longevity (it's also OA). It looked at SOD1 and SOD2 and did not find any significant associations. Also covers the importance of correcting for multiple hypothesis testing.
 * Protocadherins - a.k.a "Pcdhs" = neural adhesion proteins, thought to provide an address code system for the developing nervous system.
 * "different subsets of Pcdhs genes are differentially expressed in individual neurons, a vast cell surface diversity may arise from this combinatorial expression... Pcdhs may provide a synaptic-address code for neuronal connectivity or a single-cell barcode for self-recognition/self-avoidance.
 * The Pcdh genes have an interesting "locus region" organization akin to the T-cell & B-cell receptor genes, which also depend on combinatorial complexity for their function. For example PCDHA@.
 * Ubiquitously expressed in the brain (among other tissues), they play a big role in building the human brain -- the most advanced machine in the known universe. Keep an eye on these guys!
 * Normcore fashion
 * and the Society Portal
 * Red pill and blue pill
 * In cybersecurity lingo: blue pill virtualization malware and red pill countermeasures.
 * Also see the Brain in a vat scenario.
 * And naïve realism, not to be confused with the psychological theory or the metaphysical view or scientific realism.
 * Scot Halpin - "who sojourned into the realm of the gods and returned anointed."
 * The 19yo from Iowa who answered Pete Townshend's call at the Cow Palace in 1973 after Keith Moon had trouble maintaining consciousness: "Can anybody here play the drums? I mean somebody good!"''
 * The Who paid tribute to him after he passed away in 2008.
 * Political gaffe - The idea for an article dedicated to gaffes made by politicians was born on Dan Quayle's talk page.
 * Vermin Supreme - Could use some background on the origin of this moniker.
 * The talk page had a request from Mr. Supreme to have his real name removed, which was honored.
 * Pejorative terms for people (category)
 * Quite a litany of negative lingo. Likely outweighs the set of positive terms for people -- is there even such a category?
 * Here's a few positive terms to get the ball rolling: mensch (but not gutmensch), saint, gentleman and a scholar, samaritan, dear, star, savior, treasure, go-to guy, right-hand-man, angel, up-standing citizen.
 * Social justice warrior (SJW) has an interesting history: it started out positive in the 1990s, then became a pejorative in 2011 as a result of social media activity (Twitter).
 * The extensive & well-referenced list of nicknames used by Donald Trump falls in a sub-category of the pejorative terms for people category.
 * George W. Bush's collection of nicknames was also fairly extensive. Many of his were neutral, brief forms of the person's full name.
 * Place names considered unusual, such as Booger Hole, West Virginia.
 * Comprehensive listing at Unusual_place_names, a growing list to which you can contribute!
 * Frankie Lymon's posthumous troubles - If his tragic story needed any more trouble.
 * Bikeshed color - redirects to the Law of triviality
 * Based on a 1957 publication on the dynamics of management & bureaucracies that is still relevant today.
 * See http://bikeshed.org - click on the shed or reload page to relieve any color-changing urges you may have.
 * Recentism - "a symptom of Wikipedia's dynamic and immediate editorial process... is something that no other encyclopedia can offer."
 * Touches on many key policies of the editorial process, and What Wikipedia is not.
 * Wikinews as a remedy.
 * Psychonautics - navigating the mind, with the aid of various substances and practices.
 * Quite academic-sounding, and is even included in the Psychology & Society programme at Leeds Beckett University.
 * UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics, announced on 14 Sep 2020
 * Florida International University has a course on Hallucinogens and Culture starting in January 2021 (certificate program from their course catalog, news story).
 * Psychedelic Drugs Are Fueling a Mental Health Revolution, on Bloomberg Quicktake, 11/23/20.
 * Simulation hypothesis - chances are 50/50 we're virtual, says some recent thinking
 * Chicken hypnotism - Would not work with Mike the Headless Chicken.
 * Long-time nuclear waste warning messages - A real concern of nuclear semiotics.
 * Gotta see the "radiation cat" proposal described there -- quite creative, but could have unforeeable repercussions.
 * Rock Around the Clock and High Society
 * Both films came out in 1956 (March and July, respectively), making '56 as a pivotal transition point for American popular music genres: the rise of Rock and roll and the demise of the "swingin' pop jazz" crooners.
 * Bing Crosby may have been the first person to utter the phrase "rock and roll" in a film when he sang that Cole Porter lyric in the High Society number "Now You Has Jazz" (noted in the High Society article).
 * Another connection: Bing's last American concert happened on the day the King of Rock and Roll passed away (8/16/77). Bing himself passed away two months later after playing 18 holes of golf in Spain.
 * More Bing & Elvis history at http://stevenlewis.info/crosby/elvis.htm
 * Take Me Out to the Ball Game - composed by two guys who had never attended an actual baseball game: Jack Norworth (lyrics) and Albert Von Tilzer (music). They only made it to their first games decades later.
 * Amazing that with only second-hand inspiration, the two were able to write "'a song that reflects the charisma of baseball,' a song that makes the game even more magical and allows you, the young or the old observer, to raise up your voice and become part of it." -Harry Caray & the Library of Congress.
 * John Fogerty had a similar non-connection to the "bayou/swamp rock" music he composed with CCR, having been born & raised in the East Bay, some 2000 miles away from Louisiana.
 * Brian Wilson, the main surf-pop songwriter of The Beach Boys, never surfed. Dennis Wilson was their only surfer. Here's a good DW biography with commentary by David Marks.
 * Julia Child, famous French cuisine chef, author, and TV personality despite having been born & raised in California and becoming interested in cooking only in her mid-to-late 30s. Her "drive and inherent cheerfulness" (noted during her WWII service) undoubtedly contributed to her later success.
 * Shows that if the right spirit moves you, that can be good enough!
 * Cheese rolling tradition near Gloucester England.
 * Seems to have a kindred spirit with the running of the bulls in Pamplona spain.
 * Misinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic - Compare to these other historically significant cases of misinformation spread:
 * AIDS denialism Misinformation/conspiracy theory predated the Internet and refuses to die despite over 3 decades of scientific & medical evidence to the contrary.
 * The AIDS denialism - community section notes a 2012 article on "The social and symbolic power of AIDS denialism" that describes how these movements become entrenched, with HIV/AIDS denialists filling one of four distinct roles. A playbook for conspiracy theorists. Wikipedia to the rescue?
 * Moon landing conspiracy theories are even older, going on 5 decades despite:
 * ample 3rd party evidence for the Moon landings.
 * with a good enough telescope aimed at the published Apollo landing areas, one can still see tracks left by the astronauts and shadows from several still-standing American flags.
 * Flat Earth is probably the grandaddy of all conspiracy theories, surviving centuries despite direct, visible proof (looking at Earth from space — assuming you're not a Moon landing conspiracist).
 * Social media is flagged as driver.
 * Collagen, the structural protein "glue" that holds our bodies together, deserves many kudos:
 * It's the main component of connective tissue (cartilage, bone, ligaments, tendons, skin, fascia, spinal discs) and also abundant in many other body parts.
 * It's the most abundant protein in mammals, accounting for 25% to 35% of whole-body protein content.
 * Has an interesting protein structure: three left-handed procollagen polypeptides coil together forming a right-handed triple helical tropocollagen which themselves bind together to form a fibril and those come together to form a collagen fibre.
 * An image of procollagen is featured in my "Images of note".
 * Has an unusual amino acid composition and sequence containing two uncommon derivative amino acids: hydroxyproline and hydroxylysine that require vitamin C to be produced -- explaining why deficiency of that vitamin leads to scurvy.
 * Genetic defects in collagen structure or processing can lead to diseases such as Ehlers–Danlos_syndromes.
 * List of Internet phenomena
 * Vast array of culturally interesting topics propagated via the Internet.
 * And an impressive list of references (519 as of 15 Mar 2024)
 * it's approaching the reference count of Attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election, which at 661 is the largest I've seen so far in Wikipedia.
 * Note that "Internet culture" is both an article and a category.
 * Unusual articles - articles that have met the standard of unusualness.
 * Humorous assortment of things "a reasonable person would not expect to find in a standard encyclopedia."
 * Also: Lists of things considered unusual
 * Imprinted brain hypothesis
 * An intriguing genomic imprinting theory that lacks scientific support.
 * The Main Page on 5-6 Mar 2021 claimed "that the proposers of the imprinted brain hypothesis, which claims that autistic and schizotypal traits are opposites, had no background in behavioural genetics before proposing it," - but I don't see any such claim in the article.
 * Trump derangement syndrome a.k.a. "TDS"
 * A pseudo-cognitive bias with a complex origin & usage.
 * I think it's a reflection of how politics plays with our many inherent cognitive biases.
 * Real-world TDS usage: see this tweet where I was accused of having it.
 * Be Bold, a Wikipedia guideline
 * Provides good advice to new editors to not be overly shy -- but still be careful -- when editing Wikipedia.
 * "Great boldness is seldom without some absurdity," as Francis Bacon, father of the scientific method, once said (and is noted on the Be Bold page).
 * Culture jamming and the long list of example culture jammers.
 * Includes Church of the SubGenius, which I encountered in the late '70s/early '80s. Always thought of it as a satirical cartoon, not a parody religion.
 * CJ page says: "Culture jams are also being integrated into the university classroom." But I wonder if there are any university-level courses on the subject? Would be a popular class.
 * Notes that "street art may be deemed culture jamming, artistic appropriation, vandalism, or even all three."
 * Fremdscham - A.k.a. "vicarious embarrassment" that is often seen as an opposite to schadenfreude.
 * Embarrassment, like other emotions, can be contagious - you can get it from observing the embarrassing actions of another person.
 * The embarrassment article features a great "vintage family photo" ca. 1940s or 50s with a "father expressing embarrassment or dismay as his son takes a badly timed bathroom break."
 * Universal systems principles: concepts or phenomena with broad applicability across diverse disciplines:
 * Aesthetics
 * Chaos
 * Entropy
 * Equilibrium (e.g. Le Chatelier's principle in chem, Homeostasis in bio)
 * Hysteresis
 * Power law
 * Semiotics
 * Date format by country - wouldn't it be GREAT if we could all just stick with YYYY-MM-DD?
 * Limelight - cool use of it during the American Civil War by Union forces to illuminate artillery target at night while simultaneously blinding Confederate gunners and riflemen.
 * Aristotle - has a nice compilation of quotes on Wikiquote including many misattributed ones such as the "We are what we repeatedly do." quote, which was actually a summation by Will Durant in his 1926 The Story of Philosophy.
 * I was suspicious of it being a misattribution since the English seemed very clean & modern, as noted by Caelan Huntress: "Greek doesn’t often translate so poetically into English, and never uniformly."
 * I guess it's not a major misattribution. It's just a paraphrasing of something Aristotle actually wrote: "virtues are formed in man by his doing the actions."

Users of note
Alphabetical, but definitely not an exhaustive list here. There are tons of notable Wikipedians out there. What follows is a teensy list of a few folks that just happened to catch my attention for one reason or another.
 * Cherian Tinu Abraham - Wikipedia admin and major contributor
 * James "Doc James" Heilman - ER doc and prolific editor
 * Jimbo Wales - the guy who started this crazy thing
 * and his talk page which has been called, "the closest thing that we have to a free speech zone on Wikipedia."
 * Madeleine Price Ball - Great genetics contribs and images
 * Executive Director of the Open Humans Foundation as of 1 Jun 2017
 * Oshwah - Grandmaster Editor First Class
 * Has earned the "Mithril Editor Star with the Neutronium Superstar hologram" - impressive!
 * Sam Johnston - I stole and modified Sam's nifty user page layout & style. Thx :)
 * Wikid77 - Original author of the WP:Why Johnny can't wiki-read essay
 * Essay addresses improving of Wikipedia article readability, and it caught my eye from Alert.
 * User was banned by the Wikipedia community in December 2018 for racially charged comments on User_talk:Jimbo_Wales.
 * See lengthy discussion on the Wikipedia Administrator's noticeboard (may be archived)
 * Wikipedian compilations:
 * Wikipedia user page Hall of Fame
 * Awesome wikipedian compilation (by bibliomaniac15)
 * Number of edit-based classification