Kaumudi Prabhakara
@kaumudi.bsky.social
Interdisciplinary scientist interested in microbial communities. Postdoc at Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology https://kaumudiprabhakara.github.io/ Formerly: postdoc at University of Chicago PhD: Cornell University
Open day at @mpi-evolbio.bsky.social: had a great experience setting up Winogradsky columns, thinking about how to explain them and then actually doing it in German. Enjoyed the positive interactions with the public! My experiences: kaumudiprabhakara.github.io/science/wino... #microsky #winogradsky
🌱 Systems Ecology is now live! A new independent, researcher-run, diamond OA journal for ecological research through systems science. Free to read. Free to publish. No APCs. We are now open for submissions: systems-ecology.org Please help spread the word!
Systems Ecology
systems-ecology.org
A fantasy novel, and a female dominated one at that, by @samanthashannon.bsky.social. Enjoyed getting immersed in an alternate universe with a happy end. Looking forward to more. My review here: kaumudiprabhakara.github.io/book%20revie... #booksky #reviews #fantasy
More insightful: www.nytimes.com/2026/09/10/s... 1. It cost an estimated $15 million for Open AI to solve this problem. Two mathematicians (with help from others) were also able to solve it, most probably for a lot less, although they did use AI tools. (Who doesn't, these days?) #navier-stokes #AI
The Mathematician Crushed Between OpenAI and Anthropic Over a Math Problem
Tristan Buckmaster was on the path toward an important proof when one of the A.I. giants used its staggering resources to get there first.
nytimes.com
Kaumudi Prabhakara@kaumudi.bsky.social · 2w agoInteresting read.
Read "Helgoland" while visiting Helgoland. Was a pleasure to read a physics book after so long and humbling to be where Heisenberg founded a field that revolutionize the world! Beautiful book by @rovelli.bsky.social My review here: kaumudiprabhakara.github.io/book%20revie... #booksky #helgoland
I've decided to read a book about countries I visit to learn more about them. For my recent visit to spectacular Asturias in Spain, I read the book Ghosts of Spain. A fun and quite insightful read. My review here: kaumudiprabhakara.github.io/book%20revie... #spain #booksky #reviews #asturias
Apollo and Hermes bet whether or not giving "human intelligence" to dogs will make then unhappy. An interesting premise. My review: kaumudiprabhakara.github.io/book%20revie... #books #dogs #reviews
Fungi are way cooler than you think! Read this book and the next time you see mold, you'll have new respect for it. Especially recommended for students looking for interesting research topics. My review: kaumudiprabhakara.github.io/book%20revie... #books #fungi #sheldrake
Fancy a cozy chat with the ghost of George Orwell? A snail's soul trapped in a human? A "cross-cultural" moment between aliens and humans? Read all this and more in this collection of deep yet cheeky stories by Margaret Atwood. My review: kaumudiprabhakara.github.io/book%20revie... #books #atwood
Unusual endemic plants in South Indian forests? Funny anecdotes of students floundering in the wild? B.G.L. Swamy's remarkable travels with his students into the thick South Indian forests is now translated to English. My review: kaumudiprabhakara.github.io/book%20revie... #kannada #botany #india
I really value: the dynamics of community assembly on 2 contrasting C sources. Daily sampling of communities derived from compost & maintained over 8 wks. No difference in diversity maintained on simple or complex C. AmaZinG. 🙏 all enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Diverse Microbial Communities Assemble on Both Recalcitrant and Labile Carbon Sources
Taxonomically and functionally distinct communities assemble on cellulose and its monomer, glucose. Although single carbon sources were provided, high and comparable diversity was maintained in both ...
enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Excited to share that our paper is now published in Environmental Microbiology! It's open access. Read on to find out how functionally and taxonomically diverse microbial communities assemble on cellulose and glucose. enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Diverse Microbial Communities Assemble on Both Recalcitrant and Labile Carbon Sources
Taxonomically and functionally distinct communities assemble on cellulose and its monomer, glucose. Although single carbon sources were provided, high and comparable diversity was maintained in both ....
enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Kaumudi Prabhakara@kaumudi.bsky.social · last yr.A new preprint! Data from a huge experiment by @prczhaoyansong.bsky.social show that similar microbial communities diverge depending on whether the carbon source is glucose or its polymer, cellulose. Diversity is comparable, but biomass, functions and taxonomy differ: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig - an uplifting read, especially for those feeling stressed. This is not my usual style of book, but I'm glad I read it and surprised by how much I enjoyed it. A definite pro for broadening my reading repertoire. My review: kaumudiprabhakara.github.io/book%20revie...
I bought this novel spontaneously in a museum because it was about an "Artificial Friend". Reading it made me ponder - When does AI become sentient? Can it have feelings? Maybe even come up with religion? My review here: kaumudiprabhakara.github.io/book%20revie...
As a physicist transitioning to microbial ecology and evolution, The Gene, an intimate history, by Siddhartha Mukherjee was an amazing read - informative and unputdownable! My review here: kaumudiprabhakara.github.io/book%20revie...
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...
Unfalsifiable by Design: A Year of Trying and Failing to Reproduce a Human Microbiome and Autism Study
The myth of open data, reproducibility, responsibility, and accountability in science, and your role in it
merenlab.org
Multiple fully funded PhD/postdoc positions available: experimental evolution of tumour suppression, egalitarian & fraternal ETIs, jumbo phage ecology & genetics. Related EoIs welcome. Email CV/statement of motivation written in own words. Open until filled. Grateful for reposting 🙏
A new preprint with Matthew Schmitt, @kiseokmicro.bsky.social and Vincenzo Vitelli makes a huge step forward in learning functional groups of components in complex biological systems. It's dimension reduction that speaks to biological function. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
🧬 EvolCompGen presents: Michael Barnett on the Experimental Evolution of Evolvability 💡 Join us on Friday, December 5 at 11:00 AM EST through iscb.junolive.co Not an ISCB member? Create free Nucleus account here: iscb.swoogo.com/ISCBnucleus-...
Center for Living Systems -- seeking strong post docs at the interface of physics and biology. Consider applying by Oct. 13! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
docs.google.com
A new preprint! Data from a huge experiment by @prczhaoyansong.bsky.social show that similar microbial communities diverge depending on whether the carbon source is glucose or its polymer, cellulose. Diversity is comparable, but biomass, functions and taxonomy differ: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Diverse microbial communities assemble on both recalcitrant and labile carbon sources
Microbial community assembly is shaped by the nature of available resources, with labile carbon sources such as glucose often expected to support low diversity due to rapid growth and competitive excl...
biorxiv.org
