Interesting voting patterns in Kansas on the court measure (from: www.kcur.org/politics-ele...) Yes: 237k, No: 375k. Total: 612k Gov Vote totals: Rep: 338k, Dem:220k. Total: 559k Sen Vote totals: Rep: 333k, Dem:218k. Total: 551k 1/n

Here are the key 2026 primary election results from Kansas

Kansas polling places are open from at least 7 a.m.-7 p.m. on Election Day, Aug. 4. See results as they come in for Kansas statewide offices, U.S. Senate and U.S. House primary contests and a constitu...

kcur.org

It seems like the perfect time for an Odyssey-themed math joke: Q: What's the integral of 1/Troy? ... ... ... A: ln(Troy)

Voters in Kansas saw through a blatant political power grab and sent a message — our courts are not for sale.

The same old Susan Collins charade. As soon as a controversial nominee or a bill has enough votes to pass, she announces she will vote no when it doesn’t matter. She never casts a deciding vote against Trump. Now she will claim this shows how she is so “independent.”

What is driving these dynamics? Mutations? Niche signals? Something else? We don't know, but we speculate in the paper. Let us know if you have any ideas! There is plenty more in there too. All credit to co-first authors Jenna and Connor, and the rest of #TeamTestis. Thanks to NIGMS for support.

Sup

A really nice summary of the work of Vladimir Gvozdev, with some interesting history about the intersection of politics and the development of Russian genetics.

fly paper broadcast@fly-broadcast.bsky.social · yesterday

Prof. Vladimir A. Gvozdev (1 May 1935-13 June 2025): the passion for Drosophila genetics #Drosophila

Before anyone knew what piRNAs were in Drosophila, the work of Vladimir Gvozdev and colleagues provided the first insight into this system of RNA silencing and genome defense.

fly paper broadcast@fly-broadcast.bsky.social · yesterday

Prof. Vladimir A. Gvozdev (1 May 1935-13 June 2025): the passion for Drosophila genetics #Drosophila

Prof. Vladimir A. Gvozdev (1 May 1935-13 June 2025): the passion for Drosophila genetics #Drosophila

Wikipedia remains one of the most useful things online. No subscription fees, no ads, no stupid pursuit of AI, all curated by relentless nerds. Maybe remember to throw them a few bucks every now and again.

Our study published today @science.org shows that X-chromosome inactivation (XCI) attracts L1 mutations to the human X chromosome: doi.org/10.1126/scie... With outstanding Perspective from @aurelien-doucet.bsky.social & @retrogenomics.bsky.social: doi.org/10.1126/scie...

Does anyone know of a good updated figure likes this showing the correlation between transposons and genome size? No taxa preference. @transposableman.bsky.social?

So, bluesky, where is the discussion of the absolute insane things AI is doing in the realm of mathematics? It seems like we're nearly at the inflection point where the models are as good as human domain experts, and soon may well be better. Is that discourse only happening on twitter?

Just posted: a group paper describing major updates to my software pixy, for population genetic summary statistics. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... New since 2021: arbitrary ploidy, multiallelic sites, missingness-aware Watterson's θ and Tajima's D, Hudson's FST, multicore execution!

This is a "deal" that Sens. Cornyn and Tillis are willing to sign off on? This is criminal and unconstitutional.

Kyle Griffin@kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 2d ago

FLAG: Trump gets to keep tax immunity for himself, his sons, and the Trump Organization under the new 'deal' struck by Todd Blanche. The new order also reaffirms that Trump won't have to pay any taxes he might have owed the IRS.

Kansas peeps - some great text here to help when reaching out to Senator Moran over the next few days. The IRON IS HOT - time to strike!

Genetics Society of America@genetics-gsa.bsky.social · 5d ago

Thank you to everyone advocating for genetics research. The GSA Board of Directors submitted a public comment to OMB on the proposed "Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance." Your voice remains essential. Read GSA’s comment here: buff.ly/QFuNpw2

Thank you to everyone advocating for genetics research. The GSA Board of Directors submitted a public comment to OMB on the proposed "Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance." Your voice remains essential. Read GSA’s comment here: buff.ly/QFuNpw2

I can tell the bond folks the exact date Kevin Warsh will start advocating for major rate hikes to tame inflation: January 20, 2029

ryan cooper@ryanlcooper.com · 5d ago

"it’s clear that the bond market reaction wasn’t a judgment on the rate decision itself. It was, instead, a judgment on Warsh." paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-bond-m...

All my Kansas peeps - Jerry Moran is a close friend of Thune. And I have sensed some skepticism of Vought from his office. TIME TO STRIKE WHILE THE IRON IS HOT! Call his office or send an email or even visit his office. I might do so Monday...

Colette Delawalla, PhD@cdelawalla.bsky.social · 5d ago

WHEN WE FIGHT, WE WIN. It's time to APPLY HEAVY PRESSURE. Call you Senators NOW: fight2win.standupforscience.net/campaign/omb... I know, everyone hates calling. But this is CRITICAL. Make the calls today! (Use our super easy autodialer tool linked above) www.politico.com/live-updates...

WHEN WE FIGHT, WE WIN. It's time to APPLY HEAVY PRESSURE. Call you Senators NOW: fight2win.standupforscience.net/campaign/omb... I know, everyone hates calling. But this is CRITICAL. Make the calls today! (Use our super easy autodialer tool linked above) www.politico.com/live-updates...

Top senators consider blocking Trump’s grant shakeup in spending stopgap

It’s now “up to leadership” whether to head off the controversial changes, Sen. Susan Collins said.

politico.com

Some fun sleuthing here provides a nice historical view.

Dr. Tyler A. Elliott@transposableman.bsky.social · last wk.

A question for my #Drosophila #TEsky friends: any clues as to why copia (doi.org/10.1101/SQB....) is called copia? copious amounts of RNA? copia as in 'plenty'?

I did not have this in my bingo card this year: "DeepMind dismantles AlphaFold team in strategy shift" #Alphafold #AI #Biotech #DeepMind

Switching my basic search option from google to wikipedia has been one of the best decisions I've made in a minute. Beyond giving me more accurate results/info (without a stupid AI description) I feel like I'm learning a lot more.

Website tracking math problems solved (or partly solved) by AI. Remarkable stuff. vibemathed.com

VibeMathed - tracking math problems solved by AI models

A website tracking mathematical problems solved by AI models - from famous conjectures to the Erdős problems at erdosproblems.com - each with a checkable source, a verification label, and a notability...

vibemathed.com

Avocados come in 2 varieties - A-types start each day female and switch to male midday. B-types do the reverse. In work just published from the last chapter of my PhD, we show this system evolved 40+million yrs ago and is regulated by alleles of 1 transcription factor www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Balanced polymorphism in a floral transcription factor underlies the ancient rhythm of daily sex alternation in avocado | PNAS

In avocado and certain wild relatives in Lauraceae, a highly synchronized daily rhythm of floral sex timing promotes cross-pollination between two ...

pnas.org

23andMe is hiring for 2 amazing roles! - Scientist, ML for Health Risk Prediction: build next-gen health prediction tools integrating genetics. - Scientist, Population Genetics: build state-of-the-art algorithms for genetic relationship & ancestry inference. Links below!

Our NIH funded PREP postbaccalaurate program just got renewed! PREP is fully funded postbac program for recent graduates interested in pursuing a PhD in biomedical research. Applications are open for a start date of this Fall. prep.ku.edu/apply

Apply

prep.ku.edu

i have purchased $150 million in tickets to the odyssey to support Woke

How do transposons jump when they’re released from host control? I babysat two chromosomes for 2 years, making sure they are ok without most piRNAs. Here’s what we found & excited to share my 1st postdoc paper: “piRNA loss unleashes episodic transposition bursts” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

piRNA loss unleashes episodic transposition bursts

In Metazoa, transposon expression is suppressed by the piRNA pathway, and disruption of this pathway leads to rampant transposon expression. However, it remains unclear whether increased transposon ex...

biorxiv.org