Here's the new paper I was referring to: "Epigenetic insights into extreme longevity in the world’s oldest terrestrial animal, Jonathan" | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Epigenetic insights into extreme longevity in the world’s oldest terrestrial animal, Jonathan

Aldabra giant tortoises (Aldabrachelys gigantea) are exceptionally long-lived. We sequenced the genome and methylome of Jonathan, a 194-year-old Aldabra, to explore the molecular basis of his longevit...

science.org

Justin Gerlach@jstgerlach.bsky.social · 24h ago

A crazy week: meeting new students & organising teaching for the new term, taking up my new role as Admissions Tutor @peterhousecam.bsky.social, fielding press enquiries for a paper coming out tonight (teaser photo), planning the next round of Partula reintroductions and its only Wednesday! 🐢🐌🌍

Today we published a study in Science Advances (@science.org), led by researchers at Kallel, a longevity research nonprofit, on Jonathan, the world's oldest known land animal: a 194-year-old Aldabra giant tortoise on St. Helena. We wanted to learn what he could tell us about aging.

PhD Timeline xkcd.com/3081

it is just so hard to wrap my head around what is going on but this is literally it. they're just destroying the american research enterprise and it feels fucking insane.

Josh Marshall@joshtpm.bsky.social · 2y ago

5/ off but most people don't realize it yet. It's like Bobby Kennedy and Elon and Trump just drove a big semi full of fertilizer Tim McVeigh-style up in front of the national labs and detonated it. The prospect of more life saving cures and treatments already got much bleaker. If you think you ...

This will never stop blowing my mind.

Jake Wintermute@synbio1.bsky.social · 2y ago

I know that the mRNA is larger than the protein it codes for but I don't believe it

Lungfish xkcd.com/3064

Watching Jurassic Park, where a computer nerd with a debt problem and delusions of grandeur tears down all the safety systems, with no understanding of the consequences, so he can better facilitate his planned espionage and theft.

This is horrible to post, but I may as well post it. We are essentially shutting down research operations in my group, which is focused on treatments for pediatric brain cancer. I’m a well funded investigator, and there’s no choice. Science can’t function without the stability of NIH

"You maniacs!!! You blew it up!"

It is worth paying close attention to the new bill "Dangerous Viral Gain of Function Research Moratorium Act" introduced by Senator Roger Marshall. If enacted, it will effectively stop all of virological research, including for vaccines. www.marshall.senate.gov/wp-content/u... 🧵👇

Today's @usatoday.com front page First US death from measles in 10 years First child to die from measles in 22 years in the US All of this fully preventable

RNA xkcd.com/3056

You better download your data while the NCBI still exists..

I think people both within science and outside science don’t fully appreciate the miracle that were the Covid-19 vaccines. How much courage it took to get the sequence out, how much work had already gone into figuring out the best viral antigen and how best to present it. 1/

How do giant tortoises live so long? We sequenced the genome & methylome of 192-year-old Jonathan, revealing insights into his extreme longevity! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

the reason NIH exists -- and the reason American biomedicine is as strong as it is -- is to "buy" research that the government wants and needs but thinks it can't produce on its own

The measles outbreak in Texas is reminding me of the public letter Roald Dahl wrote about losing his daughter to measles in 1962, just before the vaccine was publicly available.

So much insanity happening. Saw this new article and thought, there's a creature that's lived through it all. The mighty tortoise. 🐢 Let's try to learn from this creature. 🧪 🧬 💻 #genomics www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Epigenomic insights into extreme longevity in the world’s oldest terrestrial animal, Jonathan

Giant tortoises exhibit exceptional longevity, often exceeding the human lifespan. To understand the genomic and epigenomic basis of their longevity, awe analyzed the DNA sequence and methylome of Jon...

biorxiv.org

For me, writing is a form of thinking. It really helps clarify what's going on in my brain, because I have to like, explain it to write it down. So, if you're a beginner and you want to write a blog post on something you're learning? Please do! It will help you, and everyone else.

Just pathetic

STAT@statnews.com · 2y ago

The professional society for microbiologists began stripping content about Black, female, and LGBTQ+ scientists from its website in the last few days, angering its members and highlighting the reach of President Trump’s directives.

If you search “HIV data” on the CDC’s main page right now, the whole first two pages of results are nothing but broken links, a silent wasteland where there used to be data that helped keep Americans safe. 🧪

CDC Data Are Disappearing

The agency has already removed scientific data from public view. More could follow.

theatlantic.com