Super excited to have this out. Thanks very much to the reviewers who helped improve this manuscript. Congrats to @jingyour.bsky.social! bsky.app/profile/bioi...

All my emails to Director Bhattacharya now available... jeremymberg.github.io/jeremyberg.g...

All I had was a hot plate, pot, and rolling pin. But that can be enough sometimes.

A Chinese *food delivery* company produced an apparently high performance open weight LLM. Can someone remind me what OpenAI’s moat is again? There is apparently no exotic special sauce required to do this.

Women, non-native English speakers & those form low-income countries are disadvantaged in science but by how much? We found that women with non-English first languages from low-income countries publish up to 70% fewer in English than their counterparts. 1/5 doi.org/10.1371/jour... #languagebarriers

This article says Google removed the feature but it's still showing up for me (Chrome v140.0.7339.186) www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

All pretense dropped. Google Chrome now has a built-in "homework helper" button that appears on Canvas assignments. 👀 @olivia.science

So glad we are scorching the Earth so that a computer can, maybe after many tries, tell a guy how to make a Sandwich.

🧬 US genomics expert Paul Thomas joins SIB as Swiss-Prot co-director, with @alanbridge.bsky.social 🔍 Leader in gene function research; among the world’s most-cited scientists 📊 His arrival strengthens SIB’s role in generating trustworthy, AI-ready biological knowledge #UniProt #GeneOntology More 👇

And it’s goodbye from me. Final GigaBlog from outgoing EiC @scedmunds.bsky.social on the major changes at GigaScience Press gigasciencejournal.com/blog/and-its...

Anyway I think the billionaires who are cooking their brains (and the planet) with AI just found a way to gamble for something more precious to them than money. It's not even information, though I'm sure they think it is. They're just gambling for the feeling of certainty, and the slots are hot

Ok how do I turn this into an op ed

It's rad when software engineers use their talents to solve hard science questions like sorting out protein structures, instead of using their talents to tweak an algorithm to fry your weird uncle's brain on social media. 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

openRxiv response to the NIH RFI: adopt Plan U connect.biorxiv.org/news/2025/09...

"America’s 80-year run as the world’s leader of biomedical research — and 50-year run as the global leader of cancer research — may very well be coming to a close, and for no apparent reason." www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/m...

This one is a bit of a departure from the usual and definitely a work in progress! We found that by using ab initio reconstruction at very high res, in very small steps, we could crack some small structures that had eluded us - e.g. 39kDa iPKAc (EMPIAR-10252), below. Read on for details... 1/x

A List of 1,065 Medieval Dog Names: Nosewise, Garlik, Havegoodday & More

New NIH Notice about International Collaborations grants.nih.gov/grants/guide... 1/3

Check it out! The team at Acepodia reports efficacy of cetuximab-conjugated allogenic gamma/delta-T cells against EGFR+ tumors in mice, off-the-shelf, safer alternative to CAR-T. Currently in phase 1 clinical study (NCT06415487). Cell-surface chemistry for the win 👏 jitc.bmj.com/content/13/7...

THIS - on preprinting. As I said from the outset, "Altruism is even better if there is something in it for you". Preprints have huge advantages for authors AND readers.

🚀 NY-CURES Launch — Championing State-Wide Investment in Science! 🚀 Our new coalition advocates for sustained public support of New York’s vibrant biomedical research ecosystem — creating cures, economic gains & strengthening communities. Sign up. Stay informed. Join the movement: www.nycures.org/

Would you like some good news? A new vaccine has just been approved for protecting koalas from chlamydia, which is one of their leading causes of death.

Unsurprising. New York Pizzeria Named Best In The World (Una Pizza Napoletana), Again hudsonvalleypost.com/new-york-piz...

this is awful. and just as awful, I am not surprised.

Discovery of a brain center (BNST) that controls consumption (including sweets, fats, salt and other foods) in mice www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

I first read that as cm ²

Cover of "When Trees Testify: Science, Wisdom, History, and America's Black Botanical Legacy"!!! published by @henryholtbooks.bsky.social. I can't tell you all adequately how proud of & eager I am to share this with the world!!! Coming January 20, 2026 Pre-order NOW: bookshop.org/p/books/when...

GOOD NEWS: Despite RFK Jr saying he would cancel $500 million in mRNA research, the House Committee on Appropriations has passed a spending package, that includes $1.1 billion for “advanced research and development” at BARDA, which includes research on mRNA vaccines.

Cool preprint! 🚨 Lanternfish lack MHC I and functional MHC II — yet still produce antibodies! 🧬🐟 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

NSF GRFP deadline published! www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo... End of October! Solicitation seemingly on the way

CSHL Meetings & Courses mourns the passing of Nobel Laureate and esteemed longtime friend, Dr. David Baltimore. Dr. Baltimore’s extraordinary contributions to science and to our community leave an enduring legacy. He will be deeply missed.

Hearing rumor of a 2/3rds reduction in admissions to a graduate program. “The rest are made up by direct admits.” This is an inevitable response to financial pressures caused by unionized salary gains, NIH chaos and overall funding uncertainty.

GRFP due dates dropped. It’ll be due from the 27th-30th of October, depending on your discipline. Is the info page an incomplete mess that was clearly not proofread? Yes. But at least we know it’s happening.

A substantial part (but not all) of this increased investment is multi-year funded grants. My current estimate is that multi-year funding has been used in lieu of ~2400 annually funded grants that could have been made. 2/2

Updating my analysis now that August data should be relatively complete. Not great news... The rate of investment of the appropriation is not increasing and it seems unlikely that the entire appropriation will be committed this year. 1/2

This baseline. Some kind of altered Ab Messiaen mode 7? Beautiful.

From yesterday: I talked with a bunch of NIH employees about what it's like inside the assault on government science, and how they feel about the potential for a shutdown. Spoiler, they're basically for it. Please subscribe, it's free!

I’ve always been enamored by this baseline. R.V. 124.

Sad to hear that David Baltimore died. I am one of hundreds of scientists that David generously mentored, supported, and inspired. His influence on each of us was deep and lasting, and his impact on the world immeasurable. Arguably David Baltimore is one of the greatest scientists of any generation.

David Baltimore passed away this weekend. A pioneer of molecular virology who won the Nobel prize in medicine & physiology for his discovery of viral reverse transcriptase. This essay he wrote in 2018 reflecting of his 60yr career in science is a great read. www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

"I think each virus is its own set of surprises." - David Baltimore. RIP.

Dinner: Beef and shrimp pad see ew with homemade rice noodles.

Dinner: Pizza. Sauce from the garden. Sausage, artichoke, basil. Olive oil and garlic.

Breakfast: fruit scone with cream and jam. Herb and cheddar omelette.