Daniel Hoffmann 🌼

Using quantitative computational modeling as scientific instrument. Prof at Uni Duisburg-Essen. Science & art addict. Posts my own.

#computationalmodeling #quantitativebiology #bayes #immunesystem #cancer #infections #education #HTseq #art #poetry

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2973-7869
Blog: https://manywordsandnumbers.org/
About: https://manywordsandnumbers.org/about

Last Notes

2026-10-11 08:16:27 GMT

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Thank you for your essay! It feels right to me, the different modes of engagement are important. However, I think that they are not necessarily distinctive features. A politician can be successful by using the scientific mode of engagement and consider all evidence, and a "scientist" may bulldoze competitors (Lysenko). The key difference seems to be what counts as success: power in politics and knowledge in science. These two different aims are of course not independent of the two modes of engagement. This is true especially at a time of increasing political polarization, when the tension that you discuss in your essay matters a lot and politicians are tempted to gain power by deviating from the scientific mode of engagement.
My feeling is that the whole system becomes unsustainable if politics deviates too much from what is known. Producing good science and infusing the public discourse with good science then seems to be useful.
I have tagged this post as my opinion. This is not really a solution to the problems addressed towards the end of your essay, but it may help to convey that this post lacks scientific rigor. I am confused as well.
#myopinion

2026-08-23 08:10:52 GMT

Disrupting the flow of knowledge: A newspaper article with a summary of excess deaths from a heatwave is an excellent example of how we gain important knowledge beyond our immediate experience. Information, perhaps with some errors, flows from a multitude of observations (hospitals) over institutions collecting and processing information to an easily accessible form (a newspaper article), read by many individuals. These informed individuals have then a better basis for decisions, including for whom to vote or not to vote.
For populists, the latter is the scary part. Before they are in power, they therefore try to undermine trust in key elements of the flow of information (e.g. science, institutions, and the media) and to inject their own narratives. When in power, the attacks on the flow of information become more consequential from defunding science, over manipulating education to controlling media. So, in a country ruled by populists who deny essential aspects of reality you will at some point no longer read such newspaper articles because information is not collected, not summarized, or not published. Such a reality-denying system is unstable and will lead to more suffering, as history has shown over and over.
https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2026/08/19/canicule-1-243-morts-en-exces-ont-ete-recenses-entre-le-3-et-le-22-juillet-par-sante-publique-france_6749871_3224.html
#education #populism #climatecrisis

2026-08-13 12:11:47 GMT

This image from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/live/2026/aug/13/europe-heatwave-france-spain-italy-uk-degrees-temperature-record-summer-drought-latest-news-updates is a good summary of the climate crisis: we see only small, human-scale problems that become pointless in the face of the big one.
#climatecrisis #heatwave
https://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/117/088/114/642/577/580/original/d36145f432c68fcc.jpeg

2026-08-09 16:37:50 GMT

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I was referring to the slightly ironic *way* John has written his *text*. In substance, John said that this (very hot) summer probably will be the coolest summer for some time because the next summers will be even hotter. I share this view, and I share your view.

2026-08-09 15:35:46 GMT

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Thank you for making me laugh with your text. Unfortunately, irony is the only way to give this horrible summer a "positive" spin.

2025-10-31 07:18:35 GMT

For those who think humans are unique in that they rationally revise their beliefs in the face of new evidence: you now have to rationally revise this belief because there is evidence that chimps do that as well. Please check also dolphins, crows & elephants. https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.adq5229?af=R

2025-10-18 08:07:21 GMT

On the surface, 1933 and 2025 are different (Internet, satellites, ...) but humans have changed little, so a 1933 novel about the rise of the Nazis from that human perspective is like a disturbing mirror of today. Excellent book review. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/18/crooked-cross-hitler-1933-novel-sally-carson

2025-10-06 11:19:38 GMT

Small doses of stress may extend life span. Experiments with nematode C. elegans exposed to low-oxygen stress show how nerve cells transmit stress signal, leading to organismic changes & longer life. #aging #longevity https://elifesciences.org/articles/109050

2025-04-29 13:16:08 GMT

If you think you know all about #COVID: Efficacy of booster depends on whether it is administered in same or opposite arm as first jab. Probably also true for vaccination against the next pandemic. A closer look points to complex dynamics of immune response. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01326-2

2025-03-29 08:27:42 GMT

More #measles cases in US. 97% of cases in unvaccinated persons. First complications from DIY quackery. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/28/measles-cases-us-cdc

2025-03-18 17:58:04 GMT

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Andrei Sakharov's "Memoirs" could fit. Is (still) on archive.org.

2025-01-31 08:11:32 GMT

We can cure a genetic disease, not only in mice but in people! New #crispr based #sicklecell therapy fixes stem cells of patients. Now let's make it cheaper. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jan/31/groundbreaking-potential-cure-for-sickle-cell-in-england-approved-for-nhs-use

2024-12-09 16:32:58 GMT

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It's the (unfortunately finite) radio edition of Borges Library of Babel.

2024-12-06 08:01:03 GMT

An example of a positive impact of #AI in #medicine: drastic decrease in baby fatalities by AI supported monitoring
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/dec/06/how-ai-monitoring-is-cutting-stillbirths-and-neonatal-deaths-in-a-clinic-in-malawi

2024-10-15 16:47:55 GMT

Stop! Before you nibble your next mealworm, consider reading "The New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness", and, if you have relevant expertise, signing it. In essence: there is mounting evidence for consciousness even in invertebrates.
https://sites.google.com/nyu.edu/nydeclaration/declaration
#consciousness #invertebrates #biology #philosophy

2024-10-13 06:46:55 GMT

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and for those listening to music not only as works of art but who need it as a profane mood-lifter I don't know a better piece than the first movement of the Suite Italienne. Works every time. https://youtu.be/rhRgvz7Kv2Q?feature=shared