This Is the Biggest Obstacle to New Cancer Cures. It is much too hard for medical researchers to launch clinical trials, by @ruxandrabio.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/09/04/o... via @nytopinion.nytimes.com
Opinion | The Search for New Cures Is Broken
It is too hard for medical researchers to launch clinical trials.
nytimes.com
Is the concept of “Luxury Beliefs” sound at core, but diluted by widespread and overly simplified use, or inherently shaky and foundationally flawed? Two years ago, @ruxandrabio.bsky.social made a cogent argument for the latter case: buff.ly/K1pVexQ
I was at another AI roundtable today arguing intelligence is not the key bottleneck in many policy issues and so AI may not have as big an effect as some expect. So it was nice to read this from @ruxandrabio.bsky.social making the same point about medicine www.writingruxandrabio.com/p/intelligen...
Intelligence is not the main bottleneck
Confessions of a naive hamster: why the smartest people in the room keep missing that intelligence is often not the main bottleneck in the real world
writingruxandrabio.com
In certain tech circles, it has become low-status to suggest that AGI won't automatically solve everything. I think models will continue to get smarter, but intelligence is often not the main bottleneck to physical world change. More 👇 www.writingruxandrabio.com/p/intelligen...
Intelligence is not the main bottleneck
Confessions of a naive hamster: why the smartest people in the room keep missing that intelligence is often not the main bottleneck in the real world
writingruxandrabio.com
We should obvsly do all we can to avoid nuclear accidents, but I was shocked to read this piece and find out that evidence is accumulating showing low dose nuclear radiation is actually not that harmful. worksinprogress.co/issue/how-to...
How to lie about radiation -
Drinking a beer a night for a year is a lot less harmful than drinking 365 at once. Radiation is similar.
worksinprogress.co
It's a myth that egg freezing doesn't work. It works extremely well for women who freeze young. It has low success rates for women in their 40s and late 30s, when fertility has already declined significantly. Read all about egg freezing below: worksinprogress.co/issue/were-f...
We're freezing our eggs; maybe you should too
You have been told that egg freezing doesn't work. Not true. Its effectiveness is limited only by a woman's fertility when they freeze.
worksinprogress.co
China is winning the drug discovery race. There's no better example of this than multiple myeloma. For decades, patients endured cycles of brutal treatment. Then came Carvytki: a CAR-T infusion that appears to cure some patients who have failed treatments. worksinprogress.co/issue/the-bl...
The blood cancer that became solvable
Multiple myeloma is brutal. We may finally have a cure, but American regulatory inertia means that it was discovered abroad.
worksinprogress.co
I had no idea that some of America's most iconic landmarks (e.g. Lincoln Memorial, SFO airport) are built on land that was once underwater. And that they stopped reclaiming land from the sea in the 60s. 👇: Projected size of cities if reclamation continued. worksinprogress.co/issue/why-th...
Wild animal vaccines are a thing. In 1978, Switzerland airdropped 4,000 vaccine-laden chicken heads from helicopters over the Alps. And it worked: fox rabies was eliminated. Read more about why we should vaccinate wild animals at @worksinprogress.bsky.social worksinprogress.co/issue/why-we...
Why we should vaccinate wild animals - Works in Progress Magazine
Vaccinating wild animals can protect human health, and spare animals from extinction and suffering.
worksinprogress.co
New post! It may seem ambitious to ask for individual patient data from clinical trials to be shared, anonymized, for use by other researchers. But the history of medicine shows us that clinical trials have already undergone a series of transformations that once seemed equally bold:
Clinical trial reforms that once seemed radical
How randomized controlled trials, preregistration, and results reporting became standard practice.
clinicaltrialsabundance.blog
My new essay on why the modern world is so preoccupied with equality and oppression. In a secular age, they often function as a form of consolation. When transcendence recedes, the "non-winners" lose the dignity once grounded in a divine, cosmic order. www.writingruxandrabio.com/p/equality-a...
Equality as a Consolation Prize
In a secular world, equality is a last attempt to offer some dignity to the weak
writingruxandrabio.com
Abundance, but for research? New drugs are taking a long time to reach the market, in part because of how long clinical trials take. @ruxandrabio.bsky.social explains Australia's model, which makes early clinical trials easier and how it's leading everyone to move their trials there.
Abundance, But Make It ~Science~
YouTube video by Everybody Gets Pie
youtube.com
The FDA recently published guidance on Bayesian statistics in clinical trials. If there's one thing you read about it, let it be this great post by Adam Kroetsch: www.clinicaltrialsabundance.blog/p/will-bayes...
NEW BLOG! Ruxandra Teslo @ruxandrabio.bsky.social, Adam Kroetsch, Manjari Narayan @neurostats.org, Witold Więcek and I have started a joint blog on clinical trial reform. We'll aim to publish weekly on how to make clinical trials more efficient. Subscribe: clinicaltrialsabundance.blog
This is a really good post. It’s worth reading even if you’re not a health research geek. I find it incredibly useful when someone gives me a sense of how stuff works in a field I am not familiar with, at least not on a suitably granular level, and this post does that.
Saloni@scientificdiscovery.dev · 7mo agoGreat post @ruxandrabio.bsky.social on FDA’s refusal to review Moderna’s flu vaccine, changing its position on what trial design was acceptable. Regulatory uncertainty doesn’t just mean missing out on this vaccine, but also reduces future R&D investment: clinicaltrialsabundance.blog/p/the-modern...
Great post @ruxandrabio.bsky.social on FDA’s refusal to review Moderna’s flu vaccine, changing its position on what trial design was acceptable. Regulatory uncertainty doesn’t just mean missing out on this vaccine, but also reduces future R&D investment: clinicaltrialsabundance.blog/p/the-modern...
In 2023, papers denying motherhood’s role in the gender wage gap went viral. I called out their flawed assumptions then, and newer results have proven me right. www.writingruxandrabio.com/p/of-course-...
Of course motherhood drives the gender wage gap
Discussions around the motherhood wage gap reveal the limits of autism and the benefits of female intuition
writingruxandrabio.com
Plus remote or hybrid work. It’s a game changer for us mums who also work outside the home.
Ruxandra Teslo@ruxandrabio.bsky.social · 2y agoMany women face a choice between career advancement and motherhood. But emerging technologies could allow women to have it all. All in this piece on how the gender pay gap arises & fertility tech 🧵 worksinprogress.co/issue/fertil...
Many women face a choice between career advancement and motherhood. But emerging technologies could allow women to have it all. All in this piece on how the gender pay gap arises & fertility tech 🧵 worksinprogress.co/issue/fertil...
Fertility on demand - Works in Progress
Many women face a choice between career advancement or motherhood. But emerging fertility technologies could allow women to have it all.
worksinprogress.co
A+ piece by @ruxandrabio.bsky.social. IMHO she is one of the sharpest writers about bio today! worksinprogress.co/issue/fertil...
Fertility on demand - Works in Progress
Many women face a choice between career advancement or motherhood. But emerging fertility technologies could allow women to have it all.
worksinprogress.co
Worth a read. I was excited to support this workshop by @ruxandrabio.bsky.social and Willy alongside @ifp.bsky.social, and eager to help more of these reform ideas get traction in 2025.
Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias.bsky.social · 2y agoHow to spur medical innovation with faster, better, and cheaper clinical trials. www.slowboring.com/p/the-case-f...
Balanced piece by David Wallace-Wells in NYT on the discovery of Ozempic, etc., based on Jeff Flier’s oral history from over the summer. (And as a bonus, it cites @ruxandrabio.bsky.social & Willy Chertman’s great new piece on “clinical trial abundance” too!). www.nytimes.com/2024/12/25/o...
Opinion | We Could Have Had Ozempic Nearly 40 Years Ago (Gift Article)
Researchers identified one key breakthrough for GLP-1 drugs in the 1980s, but Pfizer walked away.
nytimes.com
Can preset rules inoculate us against misinformation? Contrary to some, I believe not. I discuss this & the risks of using 'scientific evidence' for top-down information control in my post "Misinformation studies &The Road to Mental Serfdom" www.writingruxandrabio.com/p/the-road-t...
Is egg freezing the future when it comes to extending the female reproductive window? In this piece, I look at the scientific evidence for the potential of this procedure in the preservation of female fertility: www.writingruxandrabio.com/p/is-egg-fre...
Is egg freezing the future? A cold look at the data
I perceive the extension of female reproductive lifespan as one of the most significant and potentially rewarding pursuits in biomedical research. Is oocyte cryopreservation a viable strategy?
writingruxandrabio.com
It's not quite Follow Friday yet, but what the hell, here's a short list of people who joined bsky recently and who tend to discover interesting things. Follow them — connect the nodes! @marcwatkins.bsky.social @ruxandrabio.bsky.social @dasmiq.bsky.social
Did aristocratic women play an outsized role in the spread of Christianity in the Late Roman Empire? The consensus view is Yes. But Michele Salzman says No. I had fun writing this piece analysing her arguments: www.writingruxandrabio.com/p/did-aristo...
Did aristocratic women drive the rise of Christianity? Michele Salzman says No
Summary of arguments against the consensus view that aristocratic women were key to the rise of Christianity in the Late Roman Empire. Based on "The Making of a Christian Aristocracy" by M. Salzman
writingruxandrabio.com
Some things are cultural: female babies were left to die of exposure in Ancient Roman times. This would be unconceivable today! In this piece I reply to comments on my previous post abt the role of aristocratic women in the spread of Christianity open.substack.com/pub/ruxandra...
Some things are cultural: A response to comments on my last piece
This is a short post where I respond to some of the people who were not convinced by my previous piece. The gist of that piece is that the role of aristocratic women in the rise of Christianity in the...
open.substack.com
Did aristocratic women play an outsized role in the spread of Christianity in the Late Roman Empire? The consensus view is Yes. But Michele Salzman says No. I had fun writing this piece analysing her arguments: open.substack.com/pub/ruxandra...
