A lot of excitement on here about the article in Science summarising the discoveries of @alistairsponsel.bsky.social and Brian Sutton, just published in the Journal of the History of Biology. Some people have asked, so here is what I think they show, and what are the implications:

Photograph 49 is the Key to Understanding the History of Rosalind Franklin’s DNA Photograph 51 - Journal of the History of Biology

This essay, co-authored by a historian of science and an X-ray crystallographer, sheds new light on Rosalind Franklin’s Photograph 51. We refute the infamous claim that, unlike James Watson, Franklin ...

link.springer.com

Important new article on Rosalind Franklin: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Photograph 49 is the Key to Understanding the History of Rosalind Franklin’s DNA Photograph 51 - Journal of the History of Biology

This essay, co-authored by a historian of science and an X-ray crystallographer, sheds new light on Rosalind Franklin’s Photograph 51. We refute the infamous claim that, unlike James Watson, Franklin ...

link.springer.com

Are viruses alive? And prions? You don’t know I don’t know and nothing hangs on these questions. It is in fact not a scientific question. The same is true of AI consciousness. Everything that matters can be reformulated without the C word.

Interested in a concrete intersection between Science and Art? Check out the early history of virus structure. Viruses structured like Bucksminster Fuller's Geodesic Domes or Kenneth Snelson's Tensegrity Sculptures #virosky 🧪 #STS #historyofbiology apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/pdf/10.1...

www.bostonreview.net/forum/how-to... #scisky #valuesinscience

How to Save Science

Trump has killed the postwar social contract, but its demise was long in the making. To protect science as a public good, we need a different approach.

bostonreview.net

The Hoboken terminal update Is making progress

We are launching a new school of computing: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lWA...

Stevens Launches the School of Computing This Fall

YouTube video by Stevens Institute of Technology

youtube.com

#hps #philsci #histsci

Gregory Morgan 🇺🇸🇳🇿@drgregorymorgan.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Interested in the genesis of the molecular clock? It is tied up with Linus Pauling's fight against nuclear testing. www.researchgate.net/profile/Greg...

🧪 #evolution

Gregory Morgan 🇺🇸🇳🇿@drgregorymorgan.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Interested in the genesis of the molecular clock? It is tied up with Linus Pauling's fight against nuclear testing. www.researchgate.net/profile/Greg...

Interested in the genesis of the molecular clock? It is tied up with Linus Pauling's fight against nuclear testing. www.researchgate.net/profile/Greg...

And I should add, are you looking for a good historical source to cite for your Epstein Barr virus research? I can send you a copy of Cancer Virus Hunters #epsteinbarrvirus #EBV #virosky #virology #microsky #tumorvirus #cancervirus

Gregory Morgan 🇺🇸🇳🇿@drgregorymorgan.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Looking for a good source to cite in your historical introduction to HPV, HepB, tumor virology, oncogene, cancer, p53, retrovirus, HIV, or Rous sarcoma virus research? Contact me and I will send you my book Cancer Virus Hunters. @biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social 🧪#microsky #virosky #cancersky🧫♋

This review of an objectively great book (by my man😍) is especially nice for emphasising the aesthetic dimension of fragility with some great metaphors. Thank you @adrian-currie.bsky.social #philsci

Science for a Fragile World

Maybe the world is like an armillary sphere. Metallic balls representing celestial objects are placed just-so along spherical rings, tracing an at-first...

ndpr.nd.edu

Looking for a good source to cite in your historical introduction to HPV, HepB, tumor virology, oncogene, cancer, p53, retrovirus, HIV, or Rous sarcoma virus research? Contact me and I will send you my book Cancer Virus Hunters. @biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social 🧪#microsky #virosky #cancersky🧫♋

Fun review on viral taxonomy: www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour... 🧫🦠

Virus taxonomy and the ICTV – 21 FAQs for the perplexed virologist

Just over 125 years has passed since the ‘filterable’ agents of tobacco mosaic disease and foot-and-mouth disease were first described as infectious, replicating entities smaller than bacteria. Today,...

microbiologyresearch.org

@asavage.bsky.social was an amazing commencement speaker blending science technology and art

RIP Craig Venter. I have fond memories of being invited to give a history of biology talk at his institute in Rockville, Maryland that was telecast in California and talking to him afterwards. 🧪 #virosky

The New York Times@nytimes.com · 5mo ago

J. Craig Venter, a scientist and entrepreneur who decoded the human genome, has died at 79.

What Gregory J. Morgan's publications say about them: virus, biodiversity, design, science, bacteriophage, beauty @drgregorymorgan.bsky.social #AcademicSky See yours at https://scholargoggler.com/

Red bellied woodpecker at our new window mounted bird feeder

🧪

Eric Topol@erictopol.bsky.social · 6mo ago

The Shingles vaccine is linked w/ reduced risk of Alzheimer's in 4 large natural experiments Today, the potential of high-dose flu vaccines vs standard dose in a large retrospective age 65+ cohort for less Alzheimer’s. More pronounced in women (like Shingles vaccines) neurology.org/doi/pdf/10.1...

Michael Bishop, co-discoverer of the src oncogene and one of the heroes of my book Cancer Virus Hunters, has passed. #oncogene #cancer #nobel #ucsf #roussarcomavirus www.nytimes.com/2026/03/22/o...

J. Michael Bishop, Nobel Prize Winner for Cancer Research, Dies at 90

nytimes.com

Angela Creager's review of Matthew Cobb's @matthewcobb.bsky.social new biography of Francis Crick: lareviewofbooks.org/article/fran...

Doing Someone Else’s Crossword | Los Angeles Review of Books

The Francis Crick of Matthew Cobb’s new biography was both the consummate insider and a scientific outlier.

lareviewofbooks.org

Sad to hear of the passing of David Botstein, one of the greats in that 1st gen of folks to be trained in molecular biology. He generously talked with me, a lowly grad student, about Barbara McClintock... 30 years ago! @drgregorymorgan.bsky.social @alistairsponsel.bsky.social

Jonathan Eisen@phylogenomics.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Thinking about David Botstein, who passed away a few days ago. In searching for stories about my work w/ him I found something I had never seen - a lecture where he discusses a paper on MutS from when I was in grad school (which I discussed with him extensively). youtu.be/giEySXUewsk?...

www.science.org/content/arti...

ChatGPT spits out surprising insight in particle physics

Physicists combined human acumen and AI-assisted math to show that a doubted particle interaction is possible after all

science.org

Ice in the Hudson River Today

Peter Duesberg has died. I discussed his excellent early work on retroviruses and cancer (before the infamous HIV-AIDS denialism) in my book Cancer Virus Hunters #virosky 🧪 www.nytimes.com/2026/01/27/s...

Peter H. Duesberg, 89, Renowned Biologist Turned H.I.V. Denialist, Dies

nytimes.com

A circular economy turns waste into resources—and JCVI scientists are making it real. We are engineering microbes to upcycle mixed plastic waste into valuable products like lycopene and lipids. No sorting, no landfills—just innovation for a sustainable future. 🧪🧬 www.jcvi.org/media-center...

Scientists engineer microbial teams to transform mixed plastics into valuable products

La Jolla, California—December 11, 2025—Each year, the world produces more than 400 million metric tons of plastic, much of which ends up in...

jcvi.org

Why tumor viruses are more important than you think! @markowenmartin.bsky.social Mark O Martin's podcast is out. #virosky 🧪 www.youtube.com/watch?v=thSt...

Matters Microbial #117: Cancer Virus Hunters and Molecular Biology

YouTube video by MicrobeTV

youtube.com

A thoughtful review of Cancer Virus Hunters in BJHS by @ctimmermann.bsky.social #cancer #historyofbiology #tumorvirology #HPV #cancervaccine #oncogenes #historyofscience #historyof20thcentury www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Looking forward to being on the podcast of @markowenmartin.bsky.social to talk about the history of tumor virology. We will talk about some of these viruses:

If you are looking to read a more nuanced account of Rosalind Franklin and Jim Watson following the Double Helix, check out an article Angela Creager and I wrote a while back: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

After the Double Helix : Rosalind Franklin's Research on Tobacco mosaic virus | Isis: Vol 99, No 2

ABSTRACT Rosalind Franklin is best known for her informative X-ray diffraction patterns of DNA that provided vital clues for James Watson and Francis Crick's double-stranded helical model. Her scienti...

journals.uchicago.edu