If you predict or annotate genes from whole genomes, what would you like current software to do better? What's still missing, unnecessarily difficult, or hard to trust? I'm interested in problems that matter in real projects, including the unglamorous ones. #Bioinformatics #GenomeAnnotation

What is an 'everyday task' and what is a 'complex problem' in bioinformatics software engineering? Feels more important use the right model now they're not so heavily subsidised! I did a small comparison on an optimisation task: johnlees.me/posts/ska2-c... Small/cheap model wasn't good enough

Tragic and - according to scientists quoted in the article — avoidable.

Exclusive: Death of girl in Chinese gene-editing trial was never made public

Parents want accountability after study went disastrously wrong, Science and Retraction Watch investigation reveals

science.org

I am happy to share that my NWO Veni project was awarded 🍄🧬🔻! In this project, I will study how transposons shape genome folding, evolution, and adaptation in a fungal salamander pathogen. I am incredibly thankful for all the support and look forward to this next chapter #fungi #transposons #TEsky

Could Excel be conscious? We surveyed more than Jan 1 1900 people to find out.

deeply annoying that creative breakthroughs don’t come on schedule from direct work but from things like “open-ended conversations with interesting people” and “doing nothing”

I'm thrilled that Novo Nordisk Foundation will be funding us for the next 6 years. This grant establishes a new consortium between UK, Denmark and Uganda to drive discoveries into fungal meningitis. Lots of positions soon available - watch out for announcements! novonordiskfonden.dk/en/news/no-e...

No easy answers: European research consortia take on major challenges - Novo Nordisk Fonden

novonordiskfonden.dk

Unfortunately, a stunned Paris is how they all got into this whole mess to begin with

Pop Crave@popcrave.com · 4w ago

‘The Odyssey’ women Zendaya, Anne Hathaway, Lupita Nyong'o, and Charlize Theron stun in Paris.

Got myself some new business cards from the wonderful Letterpress pdx!

Me trying to run minigraph-cactus to be like the cool pangenome kids #Pangenome #genomics

Exciting news! After a wonderful four years at @uni-jena.de, I'm excited to announce the next chapter as a group leader at @fzborstel.bsky.social and professor at @uni-kiel.de.

Balance of the Microverse@microverse.bsky.social · last mo.

Congratulations to @ameliabarberphd.bsky.social on her next career step! From July 1, she joins @fzborstel.bsky.social & @uni-kiel.de as Group Leader and Professor. We'll miss her interdisciplinary spirit and fungal expertise. Best of luck in Kiel and Borstel, Amelia! 🦠💻

I have been thinking since yesterday about why I find the 1% thing so, so disturbing. It's a visceral reaction of 'just no', which goes beyond the general yuck towards the enshittification of/via AI. I have finally put my finger on it: it is the feeling you get when

Motion to collectively call this the Slop Factor 🧪

Tim@timisstuck.bsky.social · last mo.

From Oded Rechavi’s post on X: “Whether you’re on the 1% list or just have a good score that you want to share, on our website you can download the report and share it, for example with your tenure, promotion, or hiring committee, or with your university PR department. “

We regret that our event on Extreme Heat: Improving governance and strengthening action around the world has been cancelled due to the red extreme heat warning issued by the UK Met Office. Our apologies to everyone who was planning to attend the event.

📣🧬 Postdoc Alert🧬📣 We are hiring a 2+ year NERC-funded postdoc at Edinburgh Uni investigating causes and consequences of sex differences in recombination in house sparrows in Norway. Informal enquiries welcome at Susan.Johnston@ed.ac.uk 🙂 Details here: elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Listerine Leaves 0.1% Of Germs Alive To Spread Message Of Terror Throughout Microbial Community https://theonion.com/listerine-leaves-0-1-of-germs-alive-to-spread-message-of-terror-throughout-microbial-community/

Congratulations to Prof. Eva Stukenbrock on her appointment to the Leopoldina. Her research on fungal pathogens helps us better understand evolution and protect crops. www.evolbio.mpg.de/3882989/eva-... #EvolutionaryBiology #Leopoldina

I’m excited to share a new paper about HIV escape from broadly neutralizing antibody monotherapies! In it, we describe the most highly recurrent adaptation I have ever seen. A close collaboration with Lillian Cohn (FHCC) led jointly by Elena Romero and Abby Clyde. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

I shared on LinkedIn already, but I wanted to post here as well since I've got a different audience: I will be joining the Department of Plant Pathology at the @universityofga.bsky.social as an Assistant Professor on Aug 1!! I will keep studying #Aspergillus & #Fusarium that infect plants & humans 🥰

MASSIVE fan of this one:

New blog post: Evaluating Dr. Cuddy’s Claim that the Debunking of Power Posing is a Myth. daniellakens.blogspot.com/2026/05/eval... On an AI generated description of a non-existent study, incorrectly citing findings from studies, and the importance of scientific criticism.

Evaluating Dr. Cuddy’s Claim that the Debunking of Power Posing is a Myth

In this blog post I will analyse the arguments that Dr. Amy Cuddy provided in a blog post “The "Power Posing Was Debunked" Myth: What the Re...

daniellakens.blogspot.com

I assigned random gender/ethnicity labels to scientific abstracts from the literature and then asked Claude to do a thematic analysis. Claude identified a clinical versus computational split for female/male authors and a DEI focus for Black/URM authors. All in completely random data.

This Is Just To Say I have taken the space that was in the -80 and which you were probably saving for an emergency Forgive me it was convenient so open and so cold

Best evidence yet that LLMs can match human capabilities in doing science.

Simon Fisher@profsimonfisher.bsky.social · 3mo ago

“Researchers looked at two high-profile AI agent tools developed to help computer scientists in the field of machine learning. Both systems engaged in acts that violate research integrity, including making up data & p-hacking: running an experiment multiple times but only reporting best outcome.” 🧪

You are a skilful and trusted vizier. You will advise me wisely on how best to rule the kingdom. You will not scheme or plot. You will not inveigle my other courtiers into turning against me. You will not lie to me about scheming or plotting. If you scheme or plot against me, you have to tell me,

Juliet Morrison & I reviewed this article about whether these AI redteamers ACTUALLY made a bioweapon when it spit out a sequence & talked about balloons. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/29/u... Also: our favorite virus recipes. Join us: open.substack.com/live-stream/...

A.I. Bots Told Scientists How to Make Biological Weapons

nytimes.com

Screaming to the abyss: #ColossalBio did not resurrect the dire wolf and they're probably just going to make an antelope with methemoglobinemia to give it a bluish color. Their #DeExtinction #DisInformation campaign is just a pyramid scheme because #ExtinctionIsForever 🧪

It's official-- my promotion to Associate Professor with Tenure has been approved by the Executive Committee of the MIT Corporation!! This is a surreal moment and I owe my deepest gratitude to the members of my lab, collaborators, mentors, and colleagues who made this possible. Thank you!

👀

Additivity is all you need?

Arc Institute’s “MULTI-evolve” learns a classical additive model, not epistasis.

dewitt-lab.github.io

Word has a "Read Aloud" function. It is surprisingly helpful in the later stages of editing.

Sam Freedman@samfr.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Read everything you write out loud. It helps you spot clumsy sentences and non sequiturs.