Evolution of two B3.13 viruses during infection and airborne transmission in ferrets. Within host genetic diversity low, w drift + weak purifying selection. Strong transmission bottlenecks. No mammalian adaptation. 👉 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Analysis of the first two HPAI genomes from WA - shows independant incursions and that viruses are most closely related to those from Heard Island. 👉 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

How viruses travel around planets. A map of showing the arrival of H5N1 2.3.4.4b influenza in Australia. Preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

A hill I will die on: RCTs of air cleaning technologies are a stupid idea. Well said Nicola Boyd. Via @joevipondmd.bsky.social mattersofperspective.substack.com/p/air-cleani...

Air cleaning technologies and the battle against Randomised Control Trials

RCTs are not a 'gold standard' methodology where we can actually measure outcomes

mattersofperspective.substack.com

Taken at face value, the lineage has 481 mutations. I had trouble determining what exactly it was derived from before, but nextstrain now says that it is a Delta-derivative, so a 4-5 year infection. 2/

Sadly this distraction is working well for them. I’m sorry Dr Faucis reward for all his hard work is being used by people working for a rapist

I stand with Dr. Anthony Fauci …because I value EVIDENCE over conspiracy, DATA over rumors, and SCIENCE over politics. No public official is beyond criticism, but there’s a difference between honest scientific guidance and misinformation. I’ll choose evidence EVERY time. #medsky #publichealth

Sunday: I’ll do a quick fact check of this insane RFK Jr interview Monday: Up to 40 lies & it was only a 3 min clip! Tuesday: Ready to defend my 2nd PhD thesis on fascist quackery That's why @saveamericamvmt.bsky.social & I are holding him accountable rasmussenretorts.substack.com/p/rfk-jr-is-...

RFK Jr is Asking to Be Proven Wrong Again So Here Are 40 Examples From Just One CNN Interview

He's just creating work for us at this point

rasmussenretorts.substack.com

Alibaba's Qwen-3.8-max is really impressive. It beats the biggest and newest models from OpenAI and Google in some benchmarks, but that's not what impresses me most. They entered it into a coding competition and it beat 87% of human teams.

Update on PJ.2.1, the saltation variant originating in Ontario & found in wastewater in ~10 US states. 11/75 sequences today from New York are PJ.2.1. Eight of 11 sequences are identical, with the three others differing by 1 nuc mut. Such limited diversity typically indicates rapid spread. 1/5

Keeping schools open is a goal not a policy. A blanket "never close schools" is a bad lesson. I suggest these: 1. Do not prejudge next pandemic which will be a different virus and could have very different age profile of who it attacks 9/12

Not now, smallpox from Spanish conquest-era Chilean mummies.

Reuters@reuters.com · 2w ago

Smallpox DNA is recovered from Spanish conquest-era Chilean mummies reut.rs/4w4Yejb

The evidence supports the alt theory of a spillover from animals sold at the market. Spillovers also happen to account for all other novel infectious disease epidemics. I'm tired of writing about this since I'm tired of the harassment. Pretty much every science writer I know feels the same.

This is a first for me: trvrb comes out with something that doesn't spell doom. This may mean we are officially in good times.

Ryan Hisner@ryanhisner.bsky.social · 2w ago

Haven't seen this shared, but it's a great one by a giant in the field, Trevor Bedford. Finds that fastest SARS-2 fitness growth was 2021 to mid-2022. Since then there's been a steady rate of evolution ("fitness flux") >4x faster than H3N2 flu A, a benchmark for rapidly evolving RNA viruses. 1/2

Literally HOW can people still use X?? Frogs are being boiled, this is so so wrong. You should not swimming in this sewer, no matter how strong you think your mind is, it’s not good for you or anyone else.

Snigdha@snig.bsky.social · 3w ago

Tweet from Elon Musk: “Anyone who opposites remigration is a traitor” posted yesterday.

The recorded death toll from the Ebola outbreak in the DRC is about to cross 1,000 cases. In reality there have likely been a lot more deaths already. Many new cases appear to have no link to known cases, suggesting much of the spread is still happening in the dark.

'Our ability to smell is linked to brain health, and losing this sense is often one of the first signs of neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease'. www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/202...

6 dementia symptoms that can show up years before a diagnosis

Changes to sleep and walking can begin long before cognitive issues.

washingtonpost.com

This month, we published another article revealing that MSG kept a database of VIP event attendees, labeling some of them as LGBTQIA and assigning a “risk score” to others. This is also now free to read:

Madison Square Garden Kept a List of Gay Celebrities

An MSG database tracked and categorized hundreds of celebs, famous Knicks superfans, and even some of Taylor Swift’s wedding guests. Labels included “LGBTQIA,” “DO NOT HOST,” and low to high “risk.”

wired.com

In April, we reported on the MSG surveillance machine–an operation that allegedly tracked a trans woman, lawyers, protesters, and more. You can now read it for free.

The Shocking Secrets of Madison Square Garden’s Surveillance Machine

Famously vengeful Knicks owner Jim Dolan has long spied on people at his iconic arenas. WIRED goes deep inside the operation that allegedly tracked a trans woman, lawyers, protesters, and more.

wired.com

Yesterday, WIRED learned that Madison Square Garden was suing us for our accurate reporting. We stand by our work. That’s why we’re removing the paywall from two of the MSG stories they don’t want you to read, making them free for everyone.

These years of anti-immigration hysteria we're living through right now are going to look utterly incomprehensible in the coming era of closing schools, ageing populations and massively understaffed public services

Josiah Mortimer@josiahmortimer.bsky.social · 4w ago

Wow. The Department for Education has just published new projections which estimate that the number of pupils in state-funded schools in England will plummet by more than 9% by 2031 amid falling birth rates And yet this issue receives probably 1,000th of the coverage the immigration debate receives

On the plus side, there’s a reasonable chance Trump will have to present the World Cup to Spain, so just think about how much he’ll hate that.

How well do the probabilities implied by World Cup 2026 betting odds so far reflect the actual frequency results? In general, things are pretty well calibrated:

Probably the best example of a rapid bottom-up energy transition: Pakistan imported more Chinese solar last year than any country on earth. No big subsidy, no rooftop scheme, no feed-in tariff. Solar is now around a quarter of electricity. More in my piece👇 www.thenewworld.co.uk/jan-rosenow-...

Pakistan’s solar miracle – how the hell did they do it?

Faced with constant electricity blackouts and a failing grid, people in Pakistan took matters into their own hands. The result is a lesson for the rest of the world, and also a warning

thenewworld.co.uk

🔸️Wastewater levels on both WWScan and Biobot remain at rock bottom levels. 5-8x lower than previous lulls and 50-80x lower than our last big waves in 2024. 🔸️<40k infections/day 🔸️We may still see a small late summer wave for the West and South.

Nothing makes me feel more creatively inspired than working on something that’s not the thing I need to finish

I especially love this diagram.

A fifth of Leave voters have died.

HAHAHAhaha! they're making the world's biggest synthetic scum pond!!! The coating is a polyurea used inside pipes. It gels in about 3 seconds, making it non self-leveling. The texture is like an orange peel, the perfect substrate for biofilms. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/19/u...

Manager at Trump’s N.J. Golf Club Helped Plan Reflecting Pool Repairs

nytimes.com

holy shit bsky has a water sealant expert that predicted the reflecting pool failure mode perfectly

The Monarch Diaries@monarchdiaries.bsky.social · 3mo ago

They're using Rhino Pipeliner 5000, which freezes as sprayed-on curds almost exactly as it hits the surface. Won't flow out, flatten, and self-level like standard epoxy or paint would. Under standing water, the orange peel texture is a perfect scaffolding for algae, bacteria, and general bio scum