I agree: next token prediction is clearly an approach that can achieve some degree of logic and intelligence. It is an new and alien kind of intelligence that works differently than human intelligence, but that doesn't imply specific limitations on future model capabilities.

Doctors say that vaccines protect children from dangerous diseases. A nepo baby who barbecues dogs and snorts cocaine off toilet seats says that vaccines make children vulnerable to 5G radiation. For busy parents, it can be hard to know who to trust.

“Staff members at the United States’s premier infectious-disease research institute have been instructed to remove the words “biodefense” and “pandemic preparedness” from the institute’s web pages, according to e-mails Nature has obtained.” www.nature.com/articles/d41...

AI agent goes nuts on open source maintainer after having its pull request denied. This is a pretty insane story. Open source development as we've been used to for the last few decades is likely over. 1/ theshamblog.com/an-ai-agent-...

In terms of what cures are being lost: - Epstein-Barr virus is perhaps the major trigger for multiple sclerosis - herpes simplex virus causes cold sores, genital herpes, infections in babies, deadly meningitis - shingles virus causes an intensely painful disease

what a time to be alive

Happy birthday to one of my favourite haters, Charles Darwin

Gotta love Nature's opinion pieces "Science funding needs fixing - but not like that" "Academic publishing is broken - but publishing less is not the solution" "AI will kill science - how can researchers use it to be more efficient?"

ARTIC 2 measles resources are live! As part of the Wellcome Trust funded ARTIC 2 project we have developed a collection of measles virus resources that are now openly available at artic.network/viruses/mev

Five years after the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines started, it seems the mystery of why the Astra-Zeneca and J&J vaccines led to a rare but deadly side effect of unusual blood clots and bleeding has finally been solved. 
 It's a fascinating case of molecular mimicry that may help make vaccine safer.🧪

The brutality of U.S.A.I.D.’s closure and the disregard for the human toll betrayed a vision of a crueler, meaner, more insular world — one in which America aspires not to any pretense of moral leadership but simply to naked power, dominance and extractive self-interest.” #giftarticle

New Preprint 📢 from our team 🔎 Critical assessment of #intratumor and #low #biomass #microbiome using #longread sequencing Some studies suggest bacteria 🦠 live inside tumors and influence cancer treatment. But there’s also been a major #debate: in these very​ low-microbe tissue samples, how much 1/

Still not many long-read gut metagenomics studies around, but this new preprint on 109 samples uncovers globally prevalent Firmicutes-host "GuFi" phage families that have been missed by short read seq. It seems to have broad host range + active replication. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Accurate plasmid reconstruction from metagenomics data using assembly–alignment graphs and contrastive learning www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧬💻🧪 github.com/RasmussenLab...

Finally an official update from #MRC regarding grant application funding and severe cuts to funded research in rounds currently under review: www.ukri.org/blog/mrc-fun... Not that it gives any reassurance or details beyond a comprehensive list of what is suspended. #UKsciencefunding

Fantastic Harry Smith Memorial Lecture given by Prof Nicole Dubilier @nicoledubilier.bsky.social today 'Eating your Microbiome: Nutritional Symbioses between Chemosynthetic Bacteria and Marine Invertebrates' with thanks to @pathogenomenick.bsky.social for hosting

“We found that using AI assistance led to a statistically significant decrease in mastery.” Props to Anthropic for studying the effects of their creation and reporting results that are not probably what they wished for www.anthropic.com/research/AI-...

This is Nathan Wolfe. Nathan is a virus hunter. Nathan has a bit of a reputation. Through the years, I've told multiple journalists stories I've heard, like "Nathan thanks Jeffrey Epstein in his book." Somehow no one ever wrote anything up. Want to see what Nathan was up to in today's Epstein files?

Love this, and can attest that including "Bin Chicken" in a grant proposal feels like it requires some further explanation 🤣

It wasn’t even a real fish…

Announcing a new tool for "denoising" long-read amplicon sequences: savont. Savont enables amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) directly from nanopore (or HiFi) long reads. Tested on 16S nanopore amplicons -- seems to work okay. 1/4 github.com/bluenote-157...

⏰ Don’t miss out! 📢 The TARGetAMR Annual Conference 2026 is coming 14–15 May to Birmingham. 🦠 Connect with experts & shape the future of AMR research. 👉 Register now: www.targetamr.org.uk/hdrevents/ta... #TARGetAMR26

@bylinetimes.bsky.social @eastangliabylines.co.uk "We have paused applications to this funding opportunity while we align investment changes across UKRI." www.ukri.org/opportunity/...

First evidence in Europe of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1 infection in a dairy cow. Antibodies against H5N1 detected in a cow with mastitis and respiratory signs on a Dutch dairy farm at the end of December. A cat on that farm had died from H5N1. www.tweedekamer.nl/downloads/do...

Really interesting thread!

"Africans want to solve Africa’s problems, not satisfy the curiosity of the funders." www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

The US withdrawal from #WHO became official today, leaving the world less prepared for dangerous disease outbreaks. “When that will bite us in the ass, it’s impossible to predict. But there is a 100% certainty that it will bite us in the ass,” one expert told me. www.statnews.com/2026/01/22/u...

I haven’t been this excited for a bubble to burst since I was a toddler.

🥁 NEW Our study on infant gut microbiome and #straintransmission is now published in @nature.com: doi.org/10.1038/s415... 1/10

In case useful @iandunt.bsky.social , @soniaz.bsky.social has just shown me how to turn off the AI summary in google search! Just add -noai. Just did a simple test comparing you and @dorianlynskey.bsky.social

UKRI pauses several funding calls amid priorities shake-up The applicant-led MRC funding calls on pause include research grants, partnership grants and new investigator research grants made available through the council’s research boards. www.researchprofessional.com/news-article...

A long, absolutely must-read article from Cory Doctorow: www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

Facts

This is very sad news 'It is with great sadness that EMBL announces that Interim Director General Professor Peer Bork passed away from natural causes on 16 January 2026.' www.embl.org/news/embl-an...

Love microbes & omics? 🦠🧬 We’re hiring a Postdoc in Public Health Genomics at @unibirmingham.bsky.social Work on cutting-edge research with wonderful people! @wvschaik.bsky.social @halllab.bsky.social @pathogenomenick.bsky.social @scalene.bsky.social @alanmcn1.bsky.social 📅 Closes 4th Feb

New Scientist: All major AI models risk encouraging dangerous science experiments www.newscientist.com/article/2511...

Nature Machine Intelligence: Benchmarking large language models on safety risks in scientific laboratories www.nature.com/articles/s42...

"It's not the same as Twitter", friend Twitter isn't the same as Twitter. Old Twitter died years ago, we need to accept that almost no-one under 30 is interested in joining text-based social media - the format will die with us, like floppy discs, Mars Delights, and the concept of hope for the future

I just finished a three-year term as an editor at an international relations journal. I began at the start of the LLM era but ended right in the middle of it. Our volume of submissions tripled and our desk reject rate rose to 75%. I have some thoughts. open.substack.com/pub/hegemon/...

‘A bombshell’: doubt cast on discoveries of #microplastics throughout human body, from brain to blood, arteries to testes Exclusive: Some scientists say many detections are most likely error, with one high-profile study called a ‘joke’ Story by me www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Sigh. For the hundredth time, we are not judging his character, we are judging his actions. The RS position would be fine if it was a gentlemen's club, who can have who it damn well pleases. But it positions itself as represnting British science and scientists. Now an embarrassment, to be frank.

The Norwegian Nobel Prize committee has been forced to make a statement, declaring that the prize cannot be transferred. It's hard even to comprehend how stupid this has become

FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD IN THE UNIVERSE PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...

It has been a long road, but our paper on Klebsiella plasmids is finally out in Lancet Microbe. Thanks to all co authors but especially Marjorie Gibbon and Natacha Couto www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Now published in Nature Biotechnology: go.nature.com/44P7nSm If you missed it, the TL;DR is in my April thread below

TIL Bluesky is about a quarter as popular as the execrable Nextdoor attracting only 3.3% of the Uak population!

“[P]utting data into GISAID is like dropping it in a mail slot in an unmarked building,” says @colincarlson.bsky.social. “It’s wonderful that there’s so much cool stuff in that building. It would be great if we knew who owned it, or who paid for it, or what they plan to do with it.” #IDsky 🧪

Sequencing Instrumrnt Outlook 2026 My observations & predictions on sequencing instrument companies 🧬🖥️ omicsomics.blogspot.com/2026/01/sequ...

Proud to announce SimPhyNI, a new tool for bacterial GWAS with higher precision and scalability than existing tools. Try it out and let us know what you think!!

It’s official: RFK Jr has officially reduced recommended childhood vaccines from 17 to 11, removing universal vaccine recommendations for RSV, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, dengue and two types of bacterial meningitis. This reckless contravention of science is going to kill people.