'Phil was also the founding Editor-in-Chief of PLOS Computational Biology, where he created the beloved Ten Simple Rules series. He was so prolific in the series that the meta-article “Ten Simple Rules for Writing a PLOS Ten Simple Rules Article” literally includes, as Rule 4: “Be Philip E. Bourne.”

Music for today is Greg Haines - Slumber Tides open.spotify.com/album/7cpUOM...

Whenever I see variations of the "Dependency" comic by xkcd (xkcd.com/2347/), I always feel it's actually more like this:

What is that rule about questions in headlines and how they can nearly always be answered with "No"? Or is that the entire rule? generativehistory.substack.com/p/has-google...

Good news, for now www.politico.com/news/2025/09...

Music for today is Lauren Bousfield - Palimpsest open.spotify.com/album/34Vo08...

A use case for Vibrio phages? That is, if we aren't worried about seeding the oceans with exogenous viruses

"The suspended NSF grants, a list of which Science obtained from an agency source, span work from computer science and plasma physics to the measurement of volatile compounds created by this year’s Los Angeles fires." By @dangaristo.bsky.social in @science.org 🧪 www.science.org/content/arti...

I can’t begin to enumerate the ways the Corporation for Public Broadcasting made my life better, literally from my earliest memories until today. This is gut wrenching.

more than a year ago, the lancet put this out, now seemingly lost to the collective memory: www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

If you work in the sciences and are hesitant about using generative AI, let me suggest this minimal application: please please use it to make a unique, searchable name for your next project

The 2010 paper claiming arsenic-based life has been retracted by Science today. 🧪

NIH staff are being required to fully fund ~ 50% of their grants. This means that all 4 years of an award will be paid out of this appropriation. This will help them get the appropriated funds spent, but will mean they can only fund (1/2 + 1/4*1/2) = 5/8 has many grants as they would have otherwise.

@bosc.bsky.social begins at #ismb2025 !

Amos Bairoch keynote at #ismb2025 - biocuration is still very relevant, though it's unfortunate that it's still so necessary

On my way to #ismb2025

Japanese fireworks catalogue circa 1880

Hello bot! @bokbot.bsky.social

Indiana University, home of one of the best cognitive science programs in the world, appears to be cancelling its undergrad cog sci program. Fascist ghouls continuing their horrid torrent of destruction.

Today, I'm back to thinking about generative AI as a spooky technology

Free expression is a hallmark of the First Amendment. All our rights are in jeopardy when trans peoples’ freedom to exist is undermined.

*US ORDERS HALT TO STUDENT VISA INTERVIEWS: POLITICO

Time to bring back Asimov's laws of robotics I guess

U.S. attorney demands scientific journal explain how it ensures 'viewpoint diversity' Letter raised concerns it was designed to suppress academic and scientific freedom. @evanbush.bsky.social reports @nbcnews.com www.nbcnews.com/science/scie...

HHS's Office of Long COVID Research and Practice has been DOGEd. Closing this week.

NEW: The entire NIH payment system is currently frozen for all grantees. This is tied to DOGE’s new “Defend the Spend” caper, reported in today’s Post, which has already led to payment cutoffs to doctors and health workers at hospitals treating the poor.

I want to know why my country is operating a concentration camp

HC: Need to avoid the rocky shoals of hallucinations and confabulations. Test run looking at GO LLMS completely fail making up IDs and terms #Biocuration2025

Harry Caufield - Building the Lighthouse: Guiding LLM-Powered Biocuration with Domain Knowledge and Context Navigating the stormy seas of LLM hallucinations #Biocuration2025

NM: We need a Car Talk for AI to help users/tinkerers explain what is wrong with their models. We need a safe space to help us cross the digital divide. People need access. #Biocuration2025

Now at Biocuration 2025! #biocuration2025 @biocurator.bsky.social

Amid ICE detention, Georgetown professor worried most for his class, colleagues and students say www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-a...

moose time

So they say research ethics are DEI…remember the thing that’s supposed to keep the Tuskegee experiment from ever happening again? Multiple reports that CITI training modules now contain a disclaimer that says content is “subject to review” due to recent EOs. www.reddit.com/r/Professors...

HHS blocked posting indefinitely. Not enough press is being given to this back door approach to blocking NIH grants. If and when it is lifted will still be 35 days before study sections can be held

I was hoping that my first bsky post would be more cheerful. I recently joined NIH (NIEHS) as a PO. I fought hard for this position and was so excited to support health science from a new vantage point… I picked up my life and moved to NC. Unfortunately, my time at NIEHS was short lived.

The football is not nearly big enough to feed the entire winning team. How do they decide who gets to eat it.

why yes, I can simultaneously believe the NFL should be dissolved and say Go Birds

Thinking about the old Head On advertisements today

“this festering world”, a poam

Listening to a nicely done podcast on aging and Elie Metchnikoff www.npr.org/2025/01/02/1...

Garbage collection is data cruelty youtu.be/eDr6_cMtfdA?...

motion to change the .org TLD to .orb, effective immediately

Escherichia is be a beautiful first name — if I were E. coli I'd make using my genus in full mandatory

presenting, in collaboration with the inimitable @jayackley.bsky.social, a five minute folk musical documentary, about the time Idaho Fish and Game parachuted 76 beavers out of a plane. www.youtube.com/watch?v=adDE...

My son, who enjoys inventing languages, has proposed a single letter named "ing" to replace the end of gerunds.