On 29 December, just as the summit between Zelenskyy and Trump was finishing at Mar-a-lago, the PLA Eastern Theatre Command announced that it had commenced exercise "Justice Mission 2025" in the Taiwan Strait. I have just published an assessment of the exercise. mickryan.substack.com/p/justice-mi...

Good & detailed analysis of the US campaign in Venezuela, including the prospect of a war. "The risks of violence in any post-Maduro scenario should not be downplayed. Many senior military officers could resist regime change." www.crisisgroup.org/latin-americ...

Kyle Muldoon thought he might never get to watch an Eagles game with his son KJ, who was born with a rare and fatal liver disease that was treated with an individual CRISPR therapy. #STATSummit

How does NATO monitor and defend its airspace? It operates a large, diverse & growing network of sensors & interceptors on air, sea and land—but also one with significant limitations when it comes to countering low-level drone incursions in peacetime. www.economist.com/europe/2025/...

'The ‘C’s’ between 1909 and 2024 fall into two distinct groups; former Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) Chair Sir Percy Cradock talked of ‘sword men’ and ‘gown men’, reflecting the increasing civilianisation of SIS from the 1950s onwards' www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency BTO (us!!!) is seeking disruptive solutions to defend U.S. agriculture (crops and livestock) against chemical/biological threats! darpa.mil/research/progr…

ISW is seeking a full-time Middle East Security Program Researcher to provide timely open-source research and analysis of the geo-strategic dynamics of the Middle East region and how those dynamics will affect U.S. national security interests. For more info & to apply: isw.pub/MiddleEastRe...

4/ PRC is possibly conducting bathymetric surveys in the strategically significant Luzon Strait between Taiwan and the Philippines.

We’ve now seen ground-based missile use, tho’ Pakistan’s Fateh is a non-nuclear tactical ballistic missile & not in same category as some longer range systems. As for nuc signalling, it depends whether you believe Pakistan’s earlier statement or the def minister’s later one bsky.app/profile/shas...

Things we have not (yet) seen in this crisis: - Fighter jets crossing the border/LoC - Use of ground-based dual-capable missiles - Nuclear signalling of a sort we previously saw in in 1990 & 1999 (at least not publicly) - Large-scale mobilisation of ground forces, as in 2001/02

Indonesia names Ray Dalio and Jeffrey Sachs as sovereign wealth fund advisers https://www.ft.com/content/d90a401b-d086-44a9-b00a-adf46f00f450

Check out our latest Hot Plasmids post, featuring cool new tools like self-labeling constructs from @dozenoaks.bsky.social, an improved voltage sensor from @michaelzlin.bsky.social, prime editing in dicot plants, and more! blog.addgene.org/hot...

pcDNA3-Y392C-WLS-HA-IRES-GFP Depositor: Joseph Gleeson Purpose: Expression of WLS-HA protein (Y392C mutant) www.addgene.org/178062/

‘Game changer’: German spending plans lift bond market’s growth forecasts https://www.ft.com/content/f54f6eb2-5858-443b-9c07-1ddeb22f126b

Europe needs Friedrich Merz to succeed | Opinion https://www.ft.com/content/61eef114-b42d-4532-ac74-d13eeaa01ea8

Big Tech’s AI ambitions deliver funding boost to nuclear reactor race https://www.ft.com/content/2d84198e-7eeb-4154-bbf2-9a469b0cc700

Fantastic work by @kexinhuang.bsky.social at Stanford (arXiv: 2502.09858) Validation of hypotheses for experimental planning and verification based on the falsification principle by Karl Popper. The Future just most a lot closer!!!

Michael Lauer, deputy director of the National Institutes of Health’s extramural research, will leave the agency at the end of the week.

It’s been a tough few years. But innovation doesn’t stop. Science still advances, improvements and breakthroughs will still happen. The pace is different but it’s not gone. I know it’s tough to see @adamfeuerstein.bsky.social and we at DARPA BTO still believe & will get after it. #stayInTheFight

Ready to jump into base editing? Check out our updated CRISPR 101 blog post "Cytosine and Adenine Base Editors"! blog.addgene.org/sin...

We're hiring here at DARPA! A "Program Manager" is effectively an intrapreneur and we're going after Synthetic Biology #SynBio super hard. Please fwd to interested people! www.linkedin.com/posts/mkoeri...

🎉🎉 Congrats! 🥳 If you're interested in unveiling the NATURA way, you can find the plasmids here: www.addgene.org/browse/artic...

The CRISPR companies are not OK Today, in @statnews.com - a must-read story from my colleague @jasonmast.bsky.social www.statnews.com/2025/02/06/c...

We're hiring here at DARPA! A "Program Manager" is effectively an intrapreneur and we're going after Synthetic Biology #SynBio super hard. Please fwd to interested people! www.linkedin.com/posts/mkoeri...

What happens to bacterial genomes when they're cloned into yeast? Do they transcribe, do they get silenced, do they get packaged away from the rest of the DNA? This cool study congrats to the Koszul lab team at Pasteur for this great work. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Very excited to have The New Yorker cover the #FSHARP program we've been running here at @DARPA! Synthetic blood analog that is shelf-stable and mass manufacturable to deal with all blood shortages whether for warfighters or in the civilian medical world! t.co/41zItaHSpb

Helicore Biopharma has emerged from stealth with $65 million in series A financing to clinically test its lead drug candidate, an injectable for weight loss and related conditions. cen.acs.org/business/sta... 🧪 #scinews #biosky

Ohhhhh 👀

NEW: Israel announced on Jan. 25 that it will prevent Palestinians from returning to northern Gaza because Hamas violated the ceasefire agreement. Reuters reported that Hamas has recruited between 10,000 to 15,000 fighters since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. isw.pub/IranUpdate01... More 🔽

CIA says that Covid-19 probably leaked from Chinese laboratory https://www.ft.com/content/9880273c-8517-4502-abf0-e667319ea6bd

Sam Altman-backed Retro Biosciences to raise $1bn for project to extend human life https://www.ft.com/content/25a473ea-9f87-474a-8729-bc5287df853a

Yes

Putting this cat amongst the #chemsky pigeons...

Hedge fund managers pocket nearly half of investment gains as fees https://www.ft.com/content/d66e183c-6d0d-455c-b605-82610a1a4562

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

"What happened?" "I’m stuck. It's so embarrassing." “I guess things went... a-rye?” “Please do shut up.” "You should get out of the sun." "Why?" "Otherwise, you'll be toast." "You're an asshole, Charlie." “You’re right, you deserve butter.”

Looks like a bunker buster …

Fresh out of the press! ✨Check out our new paper on the violent entry of the HIV capsid into the nuclear pore — and how it cracks the gate! 🤯 💥 Incredible work from @becklab.bsky.social and @hummerlab.bsky.social 🤩 More here: www.biophys.mpg.de/2842024/hivcapsid-cracks-the-npc?c=2011019 🔗 #teamTOMO

I’ll be on @cnbc.com Monday from the inauguration booth with host Becky Quick discussing the Trump Administration’s healthcare agenda, coming policy changes, and the outlook for innovation and continued advances in life sciences. #TrumpInauguration

"Frontier models in 2024 are trained with 10,000x more computing power than in 2019 ... If progress continues at the rate of the last 5 years, by 2029 we can expect AI to be a dominant factor in economic performance and national security." www.gov.uk/government/p...

Listen to what the doctor is prescribing everyone. Safety and security starts with (disease) surveillance. We have to move and vigorously monitor our national bio-intelligence perimeter.

Hell continues in #LosAngeles with the #LAfires. I live next to #Altadena, which is pretty much destroyed. My power finally came on after three cold nights. So many have lost their homes, and danger not over since big winds are coming back starting tomorrow. Views at my house Wednesday early am.

The December drone flights over US bases in UK & Germany: “Military analysts have concluded those drones may have been on a state-sponsored surveillance mission, according to one U.S. official familiar with the incidents” www.nytimes.com/2025/01/04/w...

New funding from HHS to combat H5N1, including: - $183 million for regional, state and local preparedness programs - $103 million for increased monitoring of individuals exposed to infected animals, testing, and outreach to high-risk populations www.hhs.gov/about/news/2...

Germany debates menace of ‘firework bombs’ after New Year’s violence https://www.ft.com/content/9eaebd08-b00d-49ff-a773-46c5d2080366

Recovery in US car sales eases fear of economic malaise settling in https://www.ft.com/content/00420e5d-ae16-4507-9454-069ef060d770

“Mr. Carter lived more modestly than any ex-president since Truman…He and Rosalynn lived in Plains until the end in the ranch house that they built for themselves in 1961, and where Mr. Carter will be buried with her next to a shady willow tree” www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2...