Michael Baym
@baym.lol
Associate Prof @HarvardMed. Microbial evolution, antibiotic resistance, mobile genetic elements, algorithms, phages, molecular biotech, etc. Find me under “floating dumpster fire”
For a disease as spectacularly scary as smallpox, its history is remarkably mysterious. Here is my look at what ancient DNA from the viruses is revealing. Gift link: nyti.ms/4vTU11D
‘This Is Very Strange’: Ancient Smallpox May Have Been Less Deadly (Gift Article)
Scientists have found smallpox viruses in the remains of people in Chile from around 500 years ago, revealing how the virus may have evolved into a global killer.
nyti.ms
We already do this and companies who want them are happy to pay for PhD student interns. Why do precious and limited NSF funds need to be deployed for this? Most PhD student pursue industry jobs anyways - that has always been true. Use NSF funds to support basic science that industry wont support!
Jonathan Wosen@jonathanwosen.bsky.social · 7d agoWith academic jobs few and far between, the NSF is testing a new approach to graduate education: Giving Ph.D. students industry experience — and dollars — as part of their training. For more, see my latest for @statnews.com. www.statnews.com/2026/07/29/h...
RNA-seq tells us how much RNA is present in the cell. But to understand gene regulation, we need to easily measure the synthesis and decay rates driving this abundance. We introduce AIR-seq: analog intrinsic recoding sequencing. (1/6) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Analog intrinsic recoding measures RNA dynamics without chemical conversion
Steady-state RNA abundance measurements mask the synthesis and decay rates that shape gene expression. Analog intrinsic recoding sequencing (AIR-seq) repurposes the base-pairing properties of N4-hydro...
biorxiv.org
Hot take: everyone wants to talk about Scylla (scientists are bad at simple, clear communication) and no one wants to talk about Charybdis (scientists, especially in climate or public health, live in constant fear of bad faith attacks on approximate statements by a right wing career-ending machine)
How can I ever unsubscribe from marketing emails when they are every day creating sublime tableaus in my inbox?
I just saw a meme that said “get in losers, we’re reclaiming the emdash”. People. PEOPLE. Where are your STANDARDS? It CLEARLY should be “get in, losers — we’re reclaiming the em dash.”
He’s (unusually) not wrong about this. If you’re single, you could do worse than Colin
Colin Carlson@colincarlson.bsky.social · 2w agoinsane i'm not married by 30 honestly. i'm so great
Whatever could be said about that claim when he made it in 1962, it soon became undeniable that government vaccine research, distribution, and mandates are objectively among the greatest achievements of civilization. Claiming otherwise is embarrassing, it's like saying you don't wash your hands.
Cato Institute@cato.org · 3w ago"The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus." — Milton Friedman. They were driven by individual liberty and free markets. And they always will be.
Cannot be more excited about the lineup for the inaugural Function of Evolving Systems GRC conference I am co-organizing with the amazing Joy Bergelson. Less than a month away: August 9 - 14, 2026. Still a few spots left! And do check out the amazing list of speakers: www.grc.org/function-of-...
2026 Function of Evolving Systems Conference GRC
The 2026 Gordon Research Conference on Function of Evolving Systems will be held in Waterville Valley, New Hampshire. Apply today to reserve your spot.
grc.org
Nothing like the sun changing color to make everything feel apocalyptic
I respect France's commitment to not working on a holiday.
I guess it’s not the first time a dominant French regime has been taken down on July 14th
Just registered for @bsacandjac.bsky.social Antibiotic Resistance & Mechanisms workshop this November - super line-up of sessions on tolerance/persistence, metagenomics, machine learning, modelling, biofilm, outreach and publishing bsac.org.uk/arm2026/ #MicroSky
Antibiotic Resistance and Mechanisms (ARM) Workshop for Researchers 2026 - BSAC
[...]Read More... from Antibiotic Resistance and Mechanisms (ARM) Workshop for Researchers 2026
bsac.org.uk
Square packing is all well and good, but real ones study circle packing
Was a nice detective work by Ilya Osterman. First hint was phages escaping defense by mutating the gene responsible for host genome degradation. Then came the idea of methylated nucs as the possible signal, and then, when we saw that the system cannot work in delta-DAM strain, we knew we nailed it
New strategy: ask prospective applicants to write their best idea for how to make a bioweapon in the application
Michael Baym@baym.lol · 4w agoI wish I could teach people just how grating it is to get the fourth clearly AI job application of the week that reads like "While I'm interested in X, to be honest what truly drew me to your lab was Y. You not only do A; you also do B."
I wish I could teach people just how grating it is to get the fourth clearly AI job application of the week that reads like "While I'm interested in X, to be honest what truly drew me to your lab was Y. You not only do A; you also do B."
“Belgium is dunking the ball into the goal like the net’s full of mayonnaise!” —me, if I were a soccer announcer
A suspiciously favorable administrative decision means we're a real soccer country now.
Colonial Boston Drone Soldier is real and they can hurt you.
It's amazing how badly some people who claim to be on the left want the COVID-19 pandemic to go on for eternity, even when the data clearly show successive waves of declining size, and when only 1 in 1000 ER visits in WA state this summer have been for COVID-19. Vaccines and immunity are awesome.
At 10k followers I start spilling the tea on model organisms starting with frogs