Turing discusses possibility of cloning a human from a single skin cell in 1950 in a little aside

Today! FREE.

The mechanics of a continuous self-assembling surface-layer aids cell division in an archaeon out in @pnas.org Tight collaboration with Sherman Foo, Alice Cezanne and @buzzbaum.bsky.social, Sulfolobus cryo-ET from @idocaspy.bsky.social www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

We are excited to share our preprint describing how Sulfolobus cells coordinate DNA segregation with cell division! In eukaryotes this type of regulation involves checkpoints and CDK-cyclins. But how does this work in archaea? This is the question we ask in our paper: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

What a year for the cell biology of archaeal chromosome segregation! 🧬 @joeparham19.bsky.social and @buzzbaum.bsky.social now add pieces to the SegAB puzzle by connecting it with cell division

Join us at Cheltenham Science Festival in June. I am doing events on the science of coffee, meteorites, cocktails and nappies. Yes something for everyone including babies. www.cheltenhamfestivals.org/festivals/sc...

In 1997, Arafat invited my father to Gaza. He asked if the PA knew he was Jewish and a Zionist. Yes, they said, but they needed better training for paediatricians. So my father went, believing that to save a child is to save a world. How horrified he would be to hear the IDF has killed 15000. Stop!

Sign ups for the fall Barcelona multicellularity meeting are now up- come join us! meetings.embo.org/event/25-mul...

Excited to announce the Molecular Biology of Archaea (MBoA) 2026! Join us in Cambridge, UK, from 6–10 July 2026 for the only international meeting dedicated to Archaea.

With a heavy heart I have decided not to attend a meeting in the US this June. I can’t act as if things are normal when science, universities, dissent & truth are all under threat. And I feel I can’t attend when there are scientists who are not able to travel to the US without fear of arrest.

A question! My team recently stopped working in flies. But there are lots of fly genes we know have cool cytoskeletal phenotypes (from RNAi screens and follow up work) which I think would be great to follow up. What is the best way to encourage others to take a fresh look at them?

Thanks to Gordon and Betty Moore for funding fundamental research to better understand our planet: www.moore.org/article-deta... www.moore.org/article-deta...

Gaugin discovers the joys of ‘archaea’

This scientific meeting looks amazing!

One-week international workshop on evolution June 22-29 in the Swiss Alps for Master's & early PhD students. Application due 28 January 2024. I've co-taught the course several times (but not this time), and it's a terrific format and beautiful location. www.evolution.unibas.ch/teaching/gua...

Very excited to introduce you to Datascape Realities, my new venture, a true collaboration between artists and scientists, to transform data into immersive mixed realities including #VR and #AR. Get in touch if you would like to work with us! #sciart www.datascaperealities.com

Yay, the all-new MRC-LMB 2023 #cryoEM course lectures are now online! Happy learning. 🥳 www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

Ideas that have survived the test of time

Just gave a talk on the ‘archaeal origins of the fruit fly’ and then read this:

EA Minchin (1866-1915): cell origins can only be “inferred dimly and vaguely from such fragments of wreckage as are found stranded on the sands of time in which we live”

Last chance to apply to join us at the LMB for a PhD to explore archaeal cell division and the archaeal origins of eukaryotes: www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/students/int...

Reading Jan Sapp on a packed train wondering how it is that people will offer someone else their seat, standing.

Ever wondered how eukaryotic cells got their nucleus? If so, check out Anja and my new hypothesis article - which builds on the ‘inside-out model of eukaryogenesis’: journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Breaking news (good news, for once): 'UK to re-join EU's Horizon Science Programme' news.sky.com/story/uk-to-...

Morning reading

Only in Cambridge. But the board is on the wrong wall…

Is the earth alive? Come and discuss: t.co/g9po4QT8Lk