Weird sleep deprived thought, what do you think Steve Reich thinks about recursive AI improvement and AGI? I wish he were younger and we got a new three tales.
Justin Meyer
@justinmeyer.bsky.social
UCSD Prof, phage experimental evolution, first gen uni, LGTBQIA+, yinzer, wastes time on politics
With Jeff Barrick's return to #MSU, the #LTEE was restarted today after a short pause (frozen) for the move. Today was daily transfer 12,301. With ~6.6 generations per day, they are now at ~82,007 generations. 100,000 generations is fast approaching! Are you ready, #Spartans? @msumgi.bsky.social
@pivotpod.bsky.social @karaswisher.bsky.social fun fact, the three groundbreaking technologies listed in a recent episode - CRISPR, mRNA vaccines, GLP1s - women scientists had a major role in their development.
Listen to my science origin story, 13 minutes and includes my recovery from being blind, paralyzed, and unable to breathe to running a lab, and a message about these perilous times for science. Some LGBTQIA+ and first gen uni representation too. www.buzzsprout.com/2513792/epis...
Cichlids All The Way Down - SASSY San Diego
Justin was just hitting his stride. Excelling in classes, conducting exciting research. But then, everything stopped. Justin's story is about how roadblocks can sometimes turn in to opportunities to a...
buzzsprout.com
~1.5 years ago blood donation was opened up to gay men, and today I've reached the one gallon donation threshold! Still grateful for the change in the discriminatory rule. ***Consider donating if you're able to***
Justin Meyer@justinmeyer.bsky.social · 3y agoOne arm, two symbols of LGTBQ+ progress. 9 years ago and I could not have had that wedding ring, and until 9 days ago I could not donate blood. Let’s keep moving forward!!!
Evolution ( @aburmeister.bsky.social UWM, Tapan Goel, UMD, @justinmeyer.bsky.social) Ecology (Sarah Preheim JHU, @beckettstephen.bsky.social UMD, Daniel Muratore SFI, and Paul Fremont UMD) w/ @mariandm.bsky.social as our lead lab instructor.
A colleague and her brilliant daughter at the #nokings SD March. While these two march often, I’m encouraged by the number of new protestors in my network. Welcome!!
If randomly kidnapping people (including first grade kids) from places of work, education, worship, and immigration appointments and disappearing them without due process to foreign prisons does not meet your definition of fascism, then your definition of fascism is wrong.
Featuring stories by myself, @justinmeyer.bsky.social, two PhD students from @scrippsocean.bsky.social, and more!
What marker delineates when AI is sentient? When AI questions if humans - with their wetware - could actually be sentient.
I've started running routinely again, an activity I gave up 10 years ago when I started my faculty position. I am nowhere near as good as I used to be, so I am not setting any personal records. But, I am setting personal middle aged records for speed and distance. Is there a term for this?
ATTENTION: NSF GRANT RECIPIENTS We received a heads up from a trusted source that you should proactively download/print/screen shot any documentation on research.gov pertaining to your NSF awards, both those that are current and any that have closed in the last 5-6 years. 1/n
a cartoon of a man holding a frying pan and a spoon with red alert written above him
ALT: a cartoon of a man holding a frying pan and a spoon with red alert written above him
media.tenor.com
NSF Director stepping down. Email to staff on a Thursday. This doesn’t bode well for the typical Friday news dump.
Our latest paper, in which @brinda.eu (along with @zaminiqbal.bsky.social and others) introduces phylogenetic compression for storage and search of enormous microbial genome libraries, was published today in @naturemethods.bsky.social: rdcu.be/eg4OA 1/
Efficient and robust search of microbial genomes via phylogenetic compression
Nature Methods - Phylogenetic compression achieves performant and lossless compression of massive collections of microbial genomes, facilitating fast BLAST-like search and versatile alignment tasks.
rdcu.be
Working with an interdisciplinary team, we have developed a website to communicate how the White House's proposed cuts to health research would cause losses of $16B and 68,500 jobs. Find out how your community may be impacted. Explore more at SCIMaP: scienceimpacts.org a 🧵
"I want parents who have children to know that opportunities for your kids, if they aspire to be scientists or engineers, are being stripped away right in front of you," the NSF employee told Axios. www.axios.com/2025/03/10/a...
Exclusive: Science and tech agency cuts spark industry pushback
As Trump administration cuts hit research, some fear American leadership in computer science is at risk.
axios.com
It is finally out! Muntathar Al-Shimary, @doudna-lab.bsky.social , @cresslab.bsky.social and I present a gene knockdown tool that works in diverse bacteriophages: CRISPRi through antisense RNA Targeting (CRISPRi-ART)! Check it out @naturemicrobiol.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...
CRISPRi-ART enables functional genomics of diverse bacteriophages using RNA-binding dCas13d - Nature Microbiology
Leveraging RNA-targeting dCas13d enables selective interference with phage protein translation and facilitates measurement of phage gene fitness at a transcriptome-wide scale.
nature.com
Happy 37th birthday to @relenski.bsky.social long term evolution experiment. Here's a beautiful summary: the-ltee.org/history/
History – The Long-Term Evolution Experiment
the-ltee.org
Join us this summer for a week of learning about the interdisciplinary study of bacteria-phage interactions.
Joshua Weitz@joshuasweitz.bsky.social · 2y agoA small moment of science in the world of the very small... announcing calls for applications from MS + PhD students + postdocs for a Summer School on Quantitative Phage-Bacteria Dynamics Across Scales U of Maryland, College Park, June 23-27, 2025 Apply by 3/21/25: bit.ly/phageschool2...
A small moment of science in the world of the very small... announcing calls for applications from MS + PhD students + postdocs for a Summer School on Quantitative Phage-Bacteria Dynamics Across Scales U of Maryland, College Park, June 23-27, 2025 Apply by 3/21/25: bit.ly/phageschool2...
Educational opportunities for college students across the country are about to tank. A well written article for parents of college students by @joshuasweitz.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/joshuasw...
Welcome to the Incoming Freshman Class of Project 2025 (Science and Research Options Now Limited or Unavailable)
If successful, ongoing efforts to slash federally-funded research mean parents should expect to pay more even as students have fewer options for career-relevant training.
open.substack.com
Looking forward to this! Important question, should I pack hot sauce? I know @luiszaman.bsky.social wouldn’t, but I’m thinking I may need my own supply in Germany! workshops.evolbio.mpg.de/event/119/
Concepts in Evolutionary Biology
Evolutionary Biology has undergone several transitions from the publication of "On the Origin of Species" through holistic gradualism, reconciliation with genetics and the emergence of population gene...
workshops.evolbio.mpg.de
Clear and great writing on the value of the NSF! By @joshuasweitz.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/joshuasw...
Inbox | Substack
open.substack.com
When they go low, we bake, recover, and rally for 2026!!
Delighted to share news that our collaborative study with @justinmeyer.bsky.social 'Inferring strain-level mutational drivers of phage-bacteria interaction phenotypes arising during coevolutionary dynamics' is now officially out in Virus Evolution: academic.oup.com/ve/article/1...
Inferring strain-level mutational drivers of phage-bacteria interaction phenotypes arising during coevolutionary dynamics
Abstract. The enormous diversity of bacteriophages and their bacterial hosts presents a significant challenge to predict which phages infect a focal set of
academic.oup.com
Happy 45 x 45! The only perfect square most of us will see! 🤓https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8FdPhDB/