Jesse McNichol
@jcmcnch.bsky.social
Asst Prof in Biology dept @ StFX, NS, Canada. Microbial ecology, oceanography, bioinformatics. I enjoy gardening, fermenting things, cooking, and spending time outdoors. Cover photo credit: P. McNichol.
We envision a new institution, the Global Justice Fund to finance this sustainable convergence path. The fund would raise revenue via global wealth and income taxes to be used for climate investments, expansion of health and education, and building up a World Sovereign Fund.
So happy to share that Dr. Lexi Jones-Kellett's paper is finally out in PNAS! This was a fun collaboration between modeller/physical oceanography types (Lexi, Mick) and "gene jockeys" (me, Jed and Yubin). A testament to the power of interdisciplinary collaboration! www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...
The dynamic mesoscale sink and source niches for eukaryotic phytoplankton in a subtropical gyre | PNAS
By tracking the water mass histories of genetic samples, we investigated the biophysical dynamics shaping eukaryotic phytoplankton populations in a...
pnas.org
If you can't write a grant proposal without slopAI you shouldn't get a grant. If you can't assess a grant proposal without slopAI you shouldn't be in academia at all.
New preprint up: the power of protein language models - using a single gene (adenylate kinase) to predict the temperature optima of bacteria and bacterial communities from genomes or metagenomes www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Predicting optimal growth temperatures of bacteria using learned structural information from a single protein
Temperature is a fundamental determinant of bacterial physiology and ecology. Optimal growth temperature (OGT) is highly variable across species, contributing to differences in where and when species ...
biorxiv.org
‘Termination shock’: trust our expert warnings on geoengineering’s planetary risks | New op-ed in @theguardian.com by Ray Pierrehumbert (@climatebook.bsky.social), Julia Slingo, @valmasdel.bsky.social & yours truly: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
‘Termination shock’: trust our expert warnings on geoengineering’s planetary risks | Raymond Pierrehumbert, Julia Slingo, Michael Mann and Valerie Masson-Delmotte
Do we really want to play dice with our planet?
theguardian.com
FIFA forbids Canadian fans from bringing water inside own bodies into World Cup matches
FIFA forbids Canadian fans from bringing water inside own bodies into World Cup matches
TORONTO - A last minute rule change by FIFA means World Cup fans will no longer be able to bring the moisture inside their own bodies into host stadiums for the tournament.
thebeaverton.com
Watch: “Certainly in the last two weeks, things have gotten worse.” — Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada, on PM Carney’s first year in office and the road ahead.
Wow. Foraminifera! ROV pilots paused and carefully zoomed in to collect footage of these single-celled microorganisms, or protists, at 843 m during the #OBVI #LivingBioreactors expedition w/ @schmidtsciences.bsky.social offshore of Argentina. Read the full caption: youtube.com/shorts/Yv_ud...
🚨BREAKING🚨 Rents are falling across Canada — but not in Nova Scotia. While the Houston government refuses to create real rent control and build homes people can actually afford, renters are paying the price.
Happy that our work on the evolution of Yellowstone cyanobacteria is now published in @elife.bsky.social: doi.org/10.7554/eLif...! Did a lot of work in revision—many thanks to the anonymous reviewers for great suggestions! Also see the eLife digest for a summary: elifesciences.org/digests/9084...
Hybridization breaks species barriers in long-term coevolution of a cyanobacterial population
Analysis of hundreds of single-cell genomes from Yellowstone National Park shows bacterial species are less cohesive than previously thought.
doi.org
Today is the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence against Women. On this day, we honour those killed and injured during the École Polytechnique tragedy, and all women who experience violence. It is also a day to commit to ending gender-based violence.
École Polytechnique Tragedy (Montreal Massacre)
On 6 December 1989, a man entered a mechanical engineering classroom at Montreal’s École Polytechnique armed with a semi-automatic weapon. After separating t...
buff.ly
“Every year, when I see 14 beams of light projected into the sky above Mount Royal, I have to catch my breath. “36 years ago, 14 young women were murdered in one of the most violent examples of misogynistic terrorism Canada has ever known.” An editorial by @mtltoula.bsky.social. #December6
Gender-based violence is an everyday reality, and it starts with minimizing misogyny
As we highlight 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence and the upcoming anniversary of the Montreal massacre, can we take a moment to reflect on all the different forms this violence takes?
cultmtl.com
This nice summary by @michiwagner4.bsky.social makes it easy to fit my post in a few characters. Amplicon sequencing is still an affordable and quick way to get good insights into who lives in your samples. Our new primers make sure your vision is 20/20. Try em, and contact me if you have questions!
Michael Wagner@michiwagner4.bsky.social · 8mo ago📢 New preprint on bioRxiv! We introduce V4-EXT, a revised 16S rRNA V4 primer set that dramatically improves detection of Patescibacteria and other undersampled lineages ✅ 938 samples ✅ More novel ASVs Primer choice matters 👀 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... @ppjevac.bsky.social #HuifengHu
Today, our article "The entities enabling scientific fraud at scale are large, resilient, and growing rapidly" is finally published in PNAS. I hope that it proves to be a wake-up-call for the whole scientific community. reeserichardson.blog/2025/08/04/a...
A do-or-die moment for the scientific enterprise
Reflecting on our paper “The entities enabling scientific fraud at scale are large, resilient, and growing rapidly”
reeserichardson.blog
Horrific details emerging from El Fasher, Sudan: pools of blood so large they’re visible by satellite, people being killed systematically. Last week, MSF teams assessed 165 children under 5 fleeing the area and found 75% were acutely malnourished. An accelerating genocide before our eyes.
Signs of latest massacres in Darfur are visible in satellite imagery
Analysis concludes paramilitary soldiers are conducting mass killings in house-to-house operations
theglobeandmail.com
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” ― George Orwell, 1984
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 10mo agoMike Johnson: "Let me look right into the camera and tell you very clearly: Republicans are the ones concerned about healthcare. Republicans are the party working around the clock everyday to fix healthcare. This is not talking points for us: we've done it."
Wow, our AEM paper on a new methane-oxidizing bacterium just got a Commentary! 🎉 Congrats Kambara-san—so happy to see the work getting recognized! journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
Expansion of aerobic methanotrophy to the phylum of Actinomycetota and its environmental implications | Applied and Environmental Microbiology
The climate crisis is one of the most imminent threats to humanity and all life on our planet. Methane is not only the second most potent greenhouse gas (GHG) and is responsible for approximately 31% of GHG-induced global warming since the start of the industrial revolution (1) but is also the most rapid increasing GHG in the atmosphere (2). The latter is likely caused by increased microbiological production of methane from, e.g., wetlands (2). This fact stresses the importance of methanotrophic microbes that can degrade methane with and without oxygen (3, 4) and thereby fulfill a crucial role in our global climate.
journals.asm.org
I’m excited to share our effort to obtain one of the first estimates of the net rate, in physical time, of lateral gene transfer (LGT) – nature’s own genetic engineering - across a complex, global microbiome: doi.org/10.1093/isme...
Not just classes are cancelled. DFA members have been locked out by the admin since August 20th: we can't sign students in from waitlists, can't advise them, can't share syllabi, can't help them with scholarship applications, etc. etc. #KeepDalStrong www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
'I just want to learn': Students in limbo as many Dalhousie classes cancelled amid strike | CBC News
Classes at Dalhousie University are supposed to start on Tuesday, but most have been cancelled due to a strike.
cbc.ca
Wow. Check this out. Politicians actually trying to solve problems can achieve a lot! www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solu...
Paris said au revoir to cars. Air pollution maps reveal a dramatic change.
Air pollution fell substantially as the city restricted car traffic and made way for parks and bike lanes.
washingtonpost.com
“Suffering is not a death sentence; it can be confronted, it can be overcome. And we can be creative in how we address the human condition.” —Ofosu Jones-Quartey
Hip-Hop as a Contemplative Practice
Jessica Angima talks with Buddhist teacher and rapper Born I about Lyrical Dharma, the limits of language, and how we all contain the seeds of our ancestors.
tricycle.org
I am increasingly frustrated, even angry, about the hypocrisy—tempted to say disinformation—from @dalhousie.bsky.social’s administration. How can you say “the university’s priority is working with the DFA to reach a resolution” when they have not even tried to return to the table? #KeepDalStrong
‘Challenges and uncertainty:’ Dalhousie University faculty lockout leaves students worried
The lockout of Dalhousie University faculty is inching closer to the start of the school year, and it's fuelling concerns among students.
ctvnews.ca
Chris Algar, Assoc Prof, Oceanography @dalhousieu.bsky.social Lessons in solidarity from the picket lines. This isn’t just a fight to #KeepDalStrong; it’s a fight against employer greed. @ansut.bsky.social @caut.bsky.social
Sequestration by the biological carbon pump: Do we really know what we are talking about? aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... #jcampubs 🌊
Our latest, and the second paper led by Jordan Coelho this year. Want to remove bacteria from POM for single-cell microbiology/culturing/'omics applications? We've got some data: Detergent-based separation of microbes from marine particles www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #jcampubs 🌊
Detergent-based separation of microbes from marine particles
Marine particles, typically composed of organic detritus and cellular debris, harbor microbial communities that are distinct from the planktonic, or free-living, communities in the pelagic ocean. Howe...
biorxiv.org
Out in @natbiotech.nature.com: Metagenome taxonomy profilers usually ignore unknown species. SingleM is an accurate profiler which doesn't, even detecting phyla with no MAGs. Profiles of 700,000 metagenomes at sandpiper.qut.edu.au. A 🧵
