My group's paper out on the cover of Science! Native Hawaiians are most closely related to the Rapanui of distant Easter Island 😮 Proud of my students the two co-first authors Cole Shanks & former MS student Edward Huang and 3rd author group member Chris Thomassin. www.science.org/eprint/4HAYG...

Hey how about 722 advanced math papers dumped on everyone’s head. Don’t worry, there’s a forty page catalog summarizing all the claimed results. github.com/openai/math

GitHub - openai/math

Contribute to openai/math development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

I’m excited to share our new preprint introducing HipHap, a tool for assigning long reads to haplotype-resolved diploid reference assemblies! With Max Marin, Matthew Meyerson, and @lh3lh3.bsky.social Preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 🧵 1/6

HipHap: Haplotype Assignment and Confidence Scoring for Diploid Reference Genomes

Diploid genome assemblies are now routinely available, but most read aligners were designed for haploid references, which have long been the gold standard. When reads are aligned to a diploid assembly...

biorxiv.org

Thrilled to see this published today! Truly special because we made the initial discovery >15 yrs ago! We found two copies of a human gene called BC200 embedded in a human poxvirus. BC200 blurs the line between gene & transposon—both functional & mutagenic! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🧵1/n

Escape of the BC200 gene to a human poxvirus reveals its persistent transposition in primates

Transposable elements mobilize within and occasionally between genomes, including from host to virus. We identified two insertions of the human BC200 noncoding RNA gene in the poxvirus molluscum conta...

science.org

Shredtools is making it easier to explore regions across a pangenome by quickly finding matching genomic regions across hundreds of genomes. The tool can identify a gene region across 476 human genomes in approximately half a second.  Read more: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Navigating the pangenome coordinate system with Shredtools

Existing notions of pangenome coordinates rely on hard-to-compute multiple sequence alignments. On the other hand, pangenome-wide exact unique matches (multi-MUMs) can be computed efficiently, and rep...

biorxiv.org

"We are probably looking at the strongest El Niño in our recorded lifetime," said #BaskinEngineering Professor of Statistics Robert Lund. This could bring sea level changes, beach erosion, damaged harbors, and inland flooding caused by heavy rainstorms. Via @ksbw.bsky.social: bit.ly/3V26CDh

Central Coast braces for heavy rain as strong El Niño approaches

Central Coast officials are preparing for a potentially wet winter as a strong El Niño is expected to bring heavy rain, flooding, and other impacts to the region.

bit.ly

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic... Asphalt and aluminum meanwhile actually do get recycled. 99% of all asphalt in the US is recycled. 75% of all aluminum ever mined, is still in use via recycling. Plastic basically doesn't get recycled.

Plastic recycling - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Fun fact: plastic recycling basically doesn't exist. Only about 9% of all plastic ever made has been recycled, and only 1% more than once. www.npr.org/2022/10/24/1...

Recycling plastic is practically impossible — and the problem is getting worse

A new report from Greenpeace found that people may be putting plastic into recycling bins — but almost none of it is actually being recycled. Meanwhile, plastic production is ramping up.

npr.org

Pookleblinky@pookleblinky.bsky.social · 7mo ago

The "everything is oil" part of the coming global disruption hasn't sunk in for people yet. The price of gasoline in your car will be one of the smallest effects.

PRDM9-mediated meiotic hotspot specification is constrained in humans despite extensive sequence diversity https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.10.750150v1

Pangenome alignment reveals global diversity and evolution of human centromeric regions https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.03.749043v1

New collaborative paper from the lab on gecko sex chromosome and genome evolution! 🧪🦎 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Genomic predisposition is associated with the direction of sex chromosome evolution

Sex chromosome evolution is among the most dynamic genomic innovations in vertebrates, yet why some lineages evolve XY while others evolve ZW remains unclear. Using chromosome-level genomes from 19 ge...

science.org

NIH is planning on revoking eligibility for international students on visas for the K99/R00 pathway, a key program that supports postdocs in establishing their own labs www.statnews.com/2026/08/07/n...

NIH plans to block international researchers on visas from accessing key funding avenue

The NIH plans to close the door on one of the few pathways available to international students on visas to forge a career in biomedical research in the U.S.

statnews.com

Big news in genomics! #BaskinEngineering Ph.D. student @prajnahebbar.bsky.social led the complete sequencing of the DNA of a common marmoset. 🧬 “Now, we have this really complete, high-quality resource that people can take advantage of," she said. Via The Scientist: bit.ly/4q1O9C3

Complete Reference Genomes Set New Genomics Milestones | The Scientist

Advances in genome assembly methods helped researchers complete reference genomes for humans, marmosets, songbirds, and more, accelerating genomic research.

bit.ly

New issue alert👉https://cell.com/cell/current On the cover: The Telomere-to-Telomere Consortium has finished the complete, diploid genome of a person. The cover is inspired by a karyotype of the chromosomes in metaphase, representing the two haplotypes as different colors.

We’ve sequenced a marmoset! Grad student @prajnahebbar.bsky.social & @benedictpaten.bsky.social led the effort, and expect it to enable scientists to learn more about genes that contribute to memory loss and Alzheimer's. 🔗https://news.ucsc.edu/2026/08/first-complete-marmoset-genome/

For the past 30 years, “whole-genome sequencing” has been a misnomer. Today the T2T Consortium publishes a dozen papers heralding a future of truly complete genomes for humans and nearly any vertebrate 👨‍🔬🐒🐦🐀🦒🐎🫏🐹🐟 (sorry, no salamanders): www.cell.com/consortium/t... 🧵[1/15]

Did Thoreau encounter contagious cancer? A new study finds transmissible tumors in catfish--and raises questions about whether they could arise in humans someday. Gift link: nyti.ms/4whfi6v

Deep in This Lake, a Contagious Cancer Is Spreading (Gift Article)

Transmissible tumors have been reported in a handful of animal species, but never before among fish. Is it possible in humans?

nyti.ms

Our new commentary rdcu.be/ftx6h in @natecoevo.nature.com written with folks from @inaturalist.bsky.social and @cornellbirds.bsky.social shows that use of AI to manipulate existing or create new wildlife images undermines the huge value of vast citizen science databases. 🌍🪰🪶 #Ornithology 🧵 1/10

Citizen science platforms must mitigate against the threat of generative AI

Nature Ecology & Evolution - Citizen science platforms must mitigate against the threat of generative AI

rdcu.be

How did octopuses evolve novel traits? Rishav Mitra, Richard Han, Trey Scott, et al serendipitously discover a unique ribosome adaptation that increases the accuracy of protein synthesis and evolved alongside their elaborate nervous systems vs deep sea relatives. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

🚨 MANUSCRIPT ALERT 🚨 The VGP Phase I manuscript pre-print is now live on bioRxiv! 🧬 doi.org/10.64898/202... Over 8 years, the VGP generated reference genomes for more than 800 vertebrate species, spanning ~95% of vertebrate orders and delivering some of the highest-quality genomes ever produced.

There are a horrifying number of computer science professors that still just "solve problems" with no thoughts. People who publish papers like: "We made an algorithm that can detect human shapes from infrared data, and even works with children behind tent covers."

How can one be a scientist in this world and not be an activist?

I would kill or die for Larry

I made a 2-page Take Action Flyer for anyone to download and use! We need all hands on deck! drive.google.com/file/d/1ppq4...

I've been documenting a pair of black-capped chickadees nesting in our garden as they fly back & forth every few minutes, hunting meals. An avg clutch of 6 to 8 chickadees requires 3,000 to 5,000 feedings over the ~16 days from hatching to fledging. Most popular foods: caterpillars, moths, spiders.

😮 @danielgorelick.bsky.social @biologyopen.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Why paying peer reviewers works, according to a journal’s editor-in-chief

A biology journal that paid peer reviewers found that the approach cut the time to a first editorial decision by 85% and maintained high-quality reviews.

nature.com

The evolution of structural variation across 500 million years of vertebrate evolution https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.26.733778v1

too hungry to bedrot too lazy to write

I’ve officially resigned as Associate Editor for Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience. It used to be a reputable journal, but became a case study in how forced automation destroys academic integrity. 👇

Being a bird nerd is now cool. Well, it always was cool, but the rest of the world is finally cottoning on. Nice write-up in the Sunday Star Times and The Post with quotes from me accessiblenews.xyz/article/www.... @birdsnewzealand.bsky.social

Why Gen Z - and me - have gone to the birds

ESSAY: Once a pastime associated with tweed jackets and thermoses, birdwatching is now soaring in popularity among young people.

accessiblenews.xyz