This may dramatically slow down the attacks on science. It also provides a template for how to prevent the federal government from becoming a patronage state. It’s a big deal!

Politico@politico.com · 3d ago

Senate finalizes funding patch that would block Trump’s grant overhaul

Hey everyone, as usual please glance at the comments before reposting whatever emotion-inducing post with unsourced claims and images scraped off some random cesspit. ESPECIALLY when the author is pretending the thing happened to them but in the comments admit they just 'found' the image

It’s almost as if for-profit companies are not a reliable partner in developing long term scientific innovation for public good.

Well that sucks. www.engadget.com/2225849/goog... Least bummer interpretation: AlphaFold served its purpose, DeepMind already spun off a drug lab, so it was time to reassign the time.

Google shuts down its Nobel-prize winning AlphaFold project as it focuses on Gemini - Engadget

DeepMind's award-winning AlphaFold team is no more.

engadget.com

I will say one thing about grief, I'm getting a ton of work done trying to avoid facing it.

Bless the people who do euthanasia services, especially in home. Their compassion and bravery save so many so much pain and heartache.

Yesterday we said goodbye to our beautiful, silly, rambunctious, baby girl Cece. I fell in love with her the second I saw her big brown eyes on a Facebook adoption post 10 years ago, and I knew she was my soul dog instantly. I miss her so much, but now she's running free. I love you baby girl.

Technological research can survive and do well enough without universities, but science requires something with the independence and autonomy of university-like institutions

Microbiology professors/PIs, would you like to join the microPI slack? Microbiology is defined broadly. This is an open tent. Professor/PI is inclusive to teaching focused roles, or pure research PI roles like a National lab PI. Reply or DM me and I will send you a link.

It's out! Excited to present the Great Barrier Reef Microbial Genomes Database (GBR-MGD), a comprehensive DB of 1000s of high-quality prokaryote, virus, plasmid, and chromosome-level eukaryote MAGs using Nanopore long reads. Subthreads incoming. Please share widely. 🙂 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The planktonic microbiome of the Great Barrier Reef - Nature

The Great Barrier Reef Microbial Genomes Database compiles prokaryotic, viral and eukaryotic genomes from seawater collected from the Great Barrier Reef, providing a rich resource for the study of mar...

nature.com

Sometimes balancing journal editor duties is overwhelming in addition to regular workload but damn if I don't learn a TON of science while handling many manuscripts. Same for reviewing for other journals.

Ok now I'm confused. Important notes: 1) the carrot aliquot accidentally took the fat layer so it's a different consistency, 2) the root veggies only boiled for 10 mins before adding the carrots. Sigh.... Redo time.

Elinne Becket, PhD@bielleogy.bsky.social · 2w ago

Plot twist!!!! It's the root veggies that make the strain this color! Color not fully developed yet, and it gets darker as the veggies boil longer, not because of new ingredients, imo. #bluesoup

It works!! Super robust workflow, performed by a 2nd year undergrad. @bjesseshapiro.bsky.social

Elinne Becket, PhD@bielleogy.bsky.social · last mo.

So I'm finally thoroughly parsing through this preprint from @bjesseshapiro.bsky.social & Patrick Lypaczewski where they homebrewed targeted ONT library prep, and it's even more brilliant than at first glance. Plus they've been so generous in answering my questions. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Plot twist!!!! It's the root veggies that make the strain this color! Color not fully developed yet, and it gets darker as the veggies boil longer, not because of new ingredients, imo. #bluesoup

Elinne Becket, PhD@bielleogy.bsky.social · 2w ago

Success!! Now to inoculate the strain when I get back to lab 😈

Success!! Now to inoculate the strain when I get back to lab 😈

Elinne Becket, PhD@bielleogy.bsky.social · 2w ago

Picking up soup sampling materials where I'm finally doing the long awaited experiment to remove aliquots of the soup after each added ingredient, as I have yet to find a non-soup medium that truly replicates the color.

senior male academics giving a conference paper, after being shown the "one more minute" sign

Erin Dwyer aka Ginger Is A Construct@erindwyer.bsky.social · 2w ago

Time keeping is my passion.

Picking up soup sampling materials where I'm finally doing the long awaited experiment to remove aliquots of the soup after each added ingredient, as I have yet to find a non-soup medium that truly replicates the color.

This dude… It’s refreshing to have a politician that loves their city

Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani@mayor.nyc.gov · 3w ago

This summer, we kept the lights on all night, every night, at five soccer fields across New York City.

This was the scene at Calvert Vaux Park in Gravesend, Brooklyn Tuesday night.

I think it's important for people to hear that even my non-interview pile are incredible, the differentiating factor is specific fit for the call, where there are applications in the pile that just match/address the call's needs better. Not getting interviewed doesn't mean you're not awesome.

Elinne Becket, PhD@bielleogy.bsky.social · 3w ago

Reviewing faculty apps is heartbreaking because there are so many phenomenal people that our system is just spitting out and there isn't room for 💔💔💔

Reviewing faculty apps is heartbreaking because there are so many phenomenal people that our system is just spitting out and there isn't room for 💔💔💔

We composited soil cores and lost 49 AM fungal taxa doing it. Sequencing individual subsamples found them. The ones that vanish are rare, patchy, and phylogenetically clustered. Also drying vs freezing made no difference really. Sample at the scale your question lives at. doi.org/10.1016/j.so...

Officers shooting a man, running away from law enforcement, who is not a target of law enforcement, and who poses no threat to law enforcement, is murder. Federal officers do not have the power to commit summary executions because they are aggrieved.

OUR WORK IS NOT DONE. In unusual move, NSF issued a request for information on plan to conform grant policies to the proposed (unfinalized) OMB rule. Plan includes changes to grant termination provisions & disallowing publication costs. Comments due August 24. www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...

Agency Information Collection Activities: Comment Request; National Science Foundation Proposal/Award Information-NSF Guidance on Financial Assistance

The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is announcing plans to renew and revise its collection for its financial assistance policies and procedures. In accordance with the requirements of the Paper...

federalregister.gov

I wonder if watching these games counts for my Zone 2 training

If you have time to browse bluesky this weekend, you have time to submit your comment on the proposed OMB rule to politicize science funding agencies. This one is important. Here's my comment if some inspiration will help. 🧪 scienceforeveryone.science/submit-your-...

Submit your OMB comment this weekend.

This one is important. It's due on Monday.

scienceforeveryone.science

If we didn't give up on FIFA on moral principle before this we need to after literally every game full of BS and rigged calls.

The type and amount of bacterial DNA carried by virus-like particles in the gut microbiome is simply mind-boggling. Amazing work by PhD candidate Jessie Maier in my group and collaborators @duerkoplab.bsky.social and Ben Callahan www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Perturbations shift the composition of bacterial DNA carried by virus-like particles in the murine gut microbiome

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is a driving force in microbial evolution that allows community members to rapidly evolve to cope with environmental stressors and competition. Despite the importance of...

biorxiv.org

First thoughts on Sol 5.6. It's an absolute beast for actual work. It one shotted a hardness proof in 43 min that 5.5 & opus failed to resolve over days. Fable was utterly useless and refused to even attempt the proof. For actual research, it seems 5.6 sol is the current king!

SUPER MARIO 2026 JUST DROPPED!

My journey with @anthropic.com's Fable 5 model has been a very short one; characterized by "No". So, in my most recent blog post, I explain why I think "Fable is not a useful model" combine-lab.github.io/blog/2026/07...

COMBINE-lab - Fable is not a useful model

COMBINE-lab develops algorithms, data structures, and software for high-throughput genomics.

combine-lab.github.io