We are raising a generation of literal psychopaths.

🎃👻🧙‍♀️ Vio the VVitch 🧙‍♀️👻🎃@viothevvitch.myatproto.social · 3d ago

this is so fucking sad

This whole era will be remembered mostly by the fact that the most powerful and influential roles in the society were fulfilled by the people which possessed some of the worst human traits, wilful ignorance being the most prominent one.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 3d ago

Q: How do you define socialism personally? JD VANCE: I think in reality what it actually means in the American context is you want to replace American workers with foreigners workers, and you want boys to play in girls' sports

What‘s the biggest, most exciting or nagging unanswered question in biology? What do you really, really wish we knew the answer to? I’m crowdsourcing responses to these Qs for my welcome talk to new Biology undergrads next week. I’d love to know your thoughts - thank you in advance!

Jess is a great scientist and a wonderful mentor, highly recommended!

@jessicalewismic.bsky.social · 2w ago

I’m currently looking for a PhD student for study the Burkholderia jumbo phage Matilda! If you’re interested in going on this journey with me more details can be found here: lnkd.in/p/geuK_-dv Details on how to apply can be found here: le.ac.uk/study/resear...

MScRes bursary of £2000 available at Bangor University to study Bacteriophages as natural biocontrols for plant pathogens. Deadline is 19th October. Please contact me for more details #PhageSky #MicroSky

What a great story and an excellent experimental model system. I'm sure there will be many exciting discoveries arising from this work! Congrats!!

Omri Finkel עמרי عُمري@finkel-lab.bsky.social · 3w ago

Michal Breker and I started our labs around the same time. Michal studies Chlamydomonas, and I plant microbiota. We joined forces to see how our bugs interact. This led us down a long and winding road, with 3 amazing PhDs and help from many friends. This is the first product of this collaboration.

Congrats Ryan and the team! Good job!

Ryan Cook@ryancook94.bsky.social · last mo.

Happy to see the last parts of my PhD with @milja001.bsky.social now published in @microbiomej.bsky.social (many thanks to all involved!) link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Please look at our structure of the Salmonella bacteriophage epsilon15 tailspike. We show activity for the “usual” LPS hydrolysis site and an esterase site by NMR and structures with LPS. It reveals multiple O-antigen binding sites and a protruding esterase domain www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

The structure of the Salmonella phage epsilon15 tailspike reveals multiple O-antigen binding sites and a protruding esterase domain

Many bacteriophages use tailspikes to degrade host bacterial polysaccharides, facilitating access to the outer membrane. The homotrimeric tailspikes of the Salmonella phage epsilon15 feature a slender...

biorxiv.org

This was first done more than 20 years ago, among others by Prof. Shimshon Belkin at HUJI. Reviewed here: doi.org/10.1016/S136...

FEMS Journals@femsjournals.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Can microbes help us monitor the environment? Researchers engineered E. coli to light up when it encounters toxic metals, turning bacteria into biosensors. Read more: buff.ly/po6obAL

I don't think this research measures the mental reassurance component of having the Bunsen burner on as you work with open plates.

Cameron Thrash@jcamthrash.bsky.social · 2mo ago

As a component of aseptic technique, Bunsen burners do not universally decrease deposition of microbe-containing particles journals.asm.org/doi/full/10.... #jcampubs

We should limit paper submission to 3 journals. If 3 separate journals (with different reviewers) reject the same paper, it shouldn't be published, until the authors show that they've addressed all the criticisms.

I read the name of the movie and now all the neighbourhood cats are in front of my house

Dr. Jeroen W.P. Wijnendaele@drdragases.bsky.social · 3mo ago

I am once again begging Hollywood to stop using the Greek alphabet for an Ancient World movie, if they can't afford to even throw a couple of quid at anyone with an inkling of the language. Unless they really think audiences are dying to see THS THDPSSSSPS

🚨 We're hiring! My new lab at EMBL Hamburg is looking for a Research Technician. I'm looking for someone excited by phages, metabolism, enzymes, structural biology and bacterial immunity—if you know the right person, please share this post!🧵⬇️ Apply here: embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/EMBL/j...

Research Technician (Osterman Group – Metabolism-driven immunity)

EMBL Hamburg / CSSB The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) is Europe’s flagship life sciences organization, with more than 110 independent research groups across Heidelberg, Hamburg, Grenobl...

embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com

This is such a fantastic episode. Made even more fantastic by the singing.

Origin Story@originstorypodcast.bsky.social · 3mo ago

The Luddites are the subject of our season finale. The spectre of AI coming for our jobs makes Luddite rebellion feel surprisingly relevant today. Join @dorianlynskey.bsky.social and @iandunt.bsky.social as they search for the true history of the Luddites. Listen / watch ➡️ linktr.ee/originstoryp...

I will never understand why people don't want to test for Covid anymore... It is so easy and readily available. In 15 minutes you know whether you have it or not. The COVID-Flu testing combo costs £4. Why wouldn't you want to know whether you should stay away from people for a few days or not?

Our paper out in Science today: The Metis defense system senses molecular byproducts released when a phage degrades the bacterial genome, and then prevents replication of the phage in the infected cell Congratulations @ostermanilya.bsky.social and co-authors!

Bacteria sense virus-induced genome degradation via methylated mononucleotides

Phages often degrade the genome of their bacterial host to individual nucleotides. Here we describe Metis, a bacterial defense system that directly senses phage-mediated host genome degradation. Metis...

science.org

Osterman Ilya@ostermanilya.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Excited to share that our Metis story is now published in Science! 🎉 Bacteria can sense phage-induced degradation of their genome and activate immunity. Many thanks to everyone who contributed to this work. 📄 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... More details in my earlier thread 🧵⬇️

I have yet to find a phage genome extraction kit that produces a yield comparable to the good old phenol chloroform extraction. Latest comparison: extraction from 20ml of lysate each, 340ng/μl with phenol, 81ng/μl with a commercial kit, in the same elution volume.

Oooooooh excellent. An attendable Evergreen!!

Phage Canada@phagecanada.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Save the date! The 27th Biennial Evergreen International Phage Meeting is coming to Canada for the first time in its history! 🦠 🧬 📅 July 25 - 29, 2027 📍 University of Guelph, Guelph, ON More info to follow...

This is crazy

Kirsty Grainger @kirstygrainger.bsky.social · 5mo ago

If you have a BBSRC Early Independence Fellowship outline in, check your inbox. Please give professional services teams a few days to design demand management processes as we're finding out the same time as you. The outlines per institute data provided is super interesting; 15 awards available 👀👀👀👀

New version of Inphared!!! With improved capabilities, such as defence and anti defence annotation in phage genomes, predicted lifestyle annotation, constantly expanding curated phage genome database and other improvements! Check out the preprint with all the numbers.

Ryan Cook@ryancook94.bsky.social · 5mo ago

During my PhD, @milja001.bsky.social and I started counting phage genomes, and tried to make them available in useful formats with useful metadata. We also described the extent of sequenced phage genomes at the time. Five years on, we've had a look at what's changed www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

It is comforting to know that in this world of social uncertainties, rising fascism, perpetual war, and global economic instability, Gibson cloning still works.

Very glad to see this out. A huge effort by a lot of people. Well done everyone!! www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...

Rolling out Plaque-2-seq: a single plaque sequencing approach enabling rapid, low-cost sequencing of phages directly from plaques

Rapid, accurate and scalable sequencing of bacteriophage genomes is critical to advance phage therapy, build phage biobanks and understand phage genomic diversity. Current methods are based on sequenc...

microbiologyresearch.org

It makes me so angry that we have to justify this technology to people with primary-school level reading skills at best. And those people somehow got to have their thumb on the kill switch of the research that enables this life-saving treatment.

Ignacio GHOULlup-Diaz@igallupd.bsky.social · 6mo ago

"Pancreatic cancer mRNA vaccine shows lasting results in an early trial: Scientists caution that more research is needed, but nearly all of the patients who responded to the personalized vaccine are still alive six years later."

A scientific misconduct on so many levels. Not the least by the journal which 1) doesn't ensure that the study that they published collected the data in a way that can be shared, and 2) refuses to publish the guidelines for reviewers to prevent this from happening again. Retract.

A. Murat Eren (Meren)@merenbey.bsky.social · 6mo ago

How every layer of science's "self-correcting machinery" failed when Iva Veseli and I simply wanted to reproduce the findings of a high-profile study on gut microbiome and autism: merenlab.org/2026/04/15/u...

Wow wonderful work, many congratulations @emmajbanks.bsky.social !!! Looking forward to hearing more about this and your other work when you visit us at @warwicklifesci.bsky.social next month!!!

Tung Le@tunglejic.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Finally published. Many thanks to a wonderful collaborative team and scientific platforms!!! And thanks to editors and reviewers for enthusiasm and a great review. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Find out about how different host-mimicking environments alter P. aeruginosa biofilm from @kadeayomikun.bsky.social at poster 169 at #Microbio26

Cracking talk from @nreddy.bsky.social about her PhD work - designing polymers based on AMPs to kill troublesome biofilm bacteria, or to help antibiotics kill these bacteria #Microbio26

Come to #Microbio26 poster 192 to hear how @charisthompson.bsky.social is sensitising mycobacteria to beta-lactams by making them flip their wall-building strategy #MicroSky

What a wonderful read. Definitely keeping this for future reference.

Jeremy Yoder says no war@jbyoder.org · 6mo ago

"The fact that there is no current consensus of biological sex is not antithetical to science... However, the field urgently needs an ethical and reproducible approach for discussing sex" There is No Consensus on Biological Sex

Wonderful opportunity with a great PI!! Highly recommended.

Ella Sieradzki@sieravirus.bsky.social · 7mo ago

I'm hiring my first postdoc! Apply by 20/4/26, position #20443. Seeking an environmental microbiologist with experience in metagenomics (preferably viromics) and molecular biology. Experience with targeted metabolomics is a plus. international.au.dk/about/profil...