Highly recommend this, and it's a key element in most physics training. I'd add another trick that many biologists could benefit from, a small thing that makes a big difference: always use units. If you're unsure about the units of your number, chances are you don't properly understand it.
Jonathan Pritchard@jkpritch.bsky.social · 2w agoMust-know numbers in human genetics -- As many of you know, I'm writing a free online textbook in human genetics. In this blog post I cover a key skill for genome scientists from that book: how to use mental math to figure out key genome properties. jkpritchard.substack.com/p/on-fermi-p...
![A black-and-white historical photograph of Dr. Maud Leonora Menten (1879–1960), the Canadian physician and biochemist who co-developed the Michaelis–Menten equation for enzyme kinetics. Taken in her laboratory (likely at the University of Pittsburgh in the 1910s–1920s), she stands with a serious, focused expression—lips closed, eyes direct and thoughtful—against a backdrop of wooden shelves filled with glass bottles, jars, scientific equipment, and a wire-mesh enclosure. She wears a dark dress with a lace collar, a string of beads, and her hair styled in a neat bun. Superimposed on the image is the Michaelis–Menten equation in white text:v=Vmax[S]Km+[S]v = \frac{V_{\max} [S]}{K_m + [S]}v = \frac{V_{\max} [S]}{K_m + [S]}
This iconic portrait captures Menten during her groundbreaking research in biochemistry and histochemistry, where she helped establish the foundational mathematical model of enzyme-substrate reactions still used today, while overcoming significant gender barriers as one of the first women in Canada to earn both an M.D. and a Ph.D.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2xisupj43xdq7uvffzigis5p/bafkreihpw72tjmrypo7d5tc2fv5kzpsmsc7kglj4n3ekw22e2ys4gg6nti)
