Excited to share our new preprint! 🧬❄️ by brilliant @mdreimann.bsky.social and great collaborators! Using cryo-ET&EM, we reveal archaeal chromatin in a near-native state: variable-beads-on-a-string fibers shaped by growth phase and histone composition #ArchaeaSky www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Every single thing I have tried running with Fable 5 has been flagged 🫠 not sure how to try this out if it flags everything

it's summer, and time to go to the pool. our post next monday will be about bacteria that swim the backstroke. stay tuned... #MicroSky

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Early fossil eukaryotes were benthic aerobes - Nature

Integrated palaeontological, sedimentological and geochemical analyses of ancient rocks from Australia show that early eukaryotes were largely restricted to oxygenated benthic habitats, probably posse...

nature.com

"Look for the helpers" —Mister Rogers Focus on the good, compassionate people acting during crises rather than fearing the disaster itself to reduce anxiety, inspire hope, and highlight humanity's inherent goodness (even it’s very hard to believe in this).

An exciting new study in PNAS led by postdoc Andrea Unzueta Martinez and Prof. @pgirguis.bsky.social lab shows that oysters coordinate with microbes living inside of them to build their hard shells! A game changer for understanding ocean resilience as waters become more acidic from #climatechange

Watch the House Committee Hearing "Beneath the Waves: The Science and Technology of Deep-Sea Mining" Live on YouTube now (Tuesday, March 26 at 10am Eastern) #deepseamining 🌊 www.youtube.com/live/pf6fnin...

Beneath the Waves: The Science and Technology of Deep-Sea Mining

YouTube video by House Science, Space, and Technology Committee

youtube.com

Hey guess what - I wrote a book, and it's coming out soon! The Dark Frontier is about the wonders of the deep sea...and the threats they face. Check it out, and if you're so moved, you can preorder from your favorite purveyor of fine literature 📚❤️ www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/652987...

The Dark Frontier by Jeffrey Marlow: 9780593230183 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

An awe-inspiring investigation into the hidden world of the deep sea—the most mysterious, unforgiving environment on Earth—whose secrets can radically revise our understanding of life itself...

penguinrandomhouse.com

Microbiome research according to Gary Borisy

Some of you may know I simulate a lot of biological systems. And after 15 years of doing this, I can confidently tell you: spatial structure is never irrelevant. It shapes the frequency of mutants... (Fusco et. al, 2016)

The moment you’ve all been waiting for… 🦠 SAVE THE DATE! 🦠 BBM2026 will be held from June 22nd - 23rd at Boston University’s George Sherman Union. Our featured speaker this year is Dr. Eric Skaar from Vanderbilt University! Registration opens soon! More info at: bostonbacterial.org #BBM2026

Come work with us on #darkoxygen as part of the NASA Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. It is an amazing opportunity to get up to 3 years of funding. Deadlines are March 1. and November 1. Happy to discuss your ideas! Details here: zintellect.com/Opportunity/... @mblscience.bsky.social #astrobiology

New collaborative paper! ⚡ Hannah Feinsibler et al. show that synthetic FeS, FeNiS, and NiS compounds catalyze H+ and nitrate reduction under hydrothermal-vent–like conditions, supporting mineral precursors to enzymes like hydrogenases and nitrogenases! #astrobiology chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10....

The Trump administration wants to open our oceans to a destructive deep sea mining industry that would destroy the sea floor and the ecosystems it supports, causing long-lasting harm to the marine environment.

The Trump Administration Is Racing to Launch the Deep-Sea Mining Industry, Despite Huge Risks and Broad Opposition

This would destroy deep-sea habitats and the ecosystems they support.

nrdc.org

Trump and DOGE gutted US science: Scientists from a variety of fields researching anything from chemical hazards, drug addiction, pollution, LBTQ health care & paediatric brain disease report how grants were withdrawn and and they struggle to support students, staff and research 🧪

‘This year nearly broke me as a scientist’ – US researchers reflect on how 2025’s science cuts have changed their lives

US science lost a great deal in 2025, including tens of billions of dollars of federal funding, entire research agencies and programs, and a generation of researchers.

theconversation.com

New blog post for my microbiologist colleagues: merenlab.org/2025/12/15/r... In which Meren talks about a paper by Valentina Marcheselli on how microbiologists navigate the tension between reductionism and complexity in their everyday practices.

Lost and Found in Modern Microbiology: An Ethnography of Modern Microbiologists

A paper on how microbiologists navigate the tension between reductionism and complexity in their everyday practices, and my 2 cents on it.

merenlab.org

Thinking of all the colleagues and friends I have who are connected to Brown University. What a devastating day for Brown, and for all of us.

Brown University is a beautiful place, where people come to work and learn. I am filled with horror by news of this tragedy.

American Mineralogist: Mariakrite, [Ca4Al2(OH)12(H2O)4][Fe2S4]: A new mineral and the first layered double hydroxide intercalated with dithioferrate (iron disulfide) chains Mikhail N. Murashko, et al. doi.org/10.2138/am-2... Found in pyrometamorphic rocks in the Negev Desert.

Here's the most important piece of data (as far as I am concerned). Comparing Earth Microbiome to the new ones (V4EXT) for major phyla. V4EXT by @ppjevac.bsky.social et al cover more diversity than current gold standard😱 Lot's of work, the entire field will benefit! My lab's gonna try V4EXT soon!

Petra Pjevac@ppjevac.bsky.social · 8mo ago

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!

So happy to announce our new preprint, “A geothermal amoeba sets a new upper temperature limit for eukaryotes.” We cultured a novel amoeba from Lassen Volcanic NP (CA, USA) that divides at 63°C (145°F) 🔥 - a new record for euk growth! #protistsonsky 🧵

bioRxiv Microbiology@biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social · 8mo ago

A geothermal amoeba sets a new upper temperature limit for eukaryotes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.24.690213v1

An Asgard archaeon with internal membrane compartments Brilliant study led by @fmacleod.bsky.social and Andriko von Kügelgen. Tight collaboration with @buzzbaum.bsky.social and lab. Congrats to all authors! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Deep-sea mining waste in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone may disrupt the ocean's twilight zone food webs by reducing the nutritional quality of particles vital to zooplankton and micronekton.

First study of its kind finds deep-sea mining waste threatens life and foodwebs in the ocean's dim 'twilight zone'

A new study led by researchers at the University of Hawaii (UH) at Mānoa published in Nature Communications is the first of its kind to show that waste discharged from deep-sea mining operations in the Pacific's biodiverse Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) could disrupt marine life in the midwater "twilight zone"—a vital region 200–1,500 meters below sea level that supports vast communities of zooplankton, tiny animals that serve as the ocean's basic food building blocks.

phys.org

WE ARE BACK!!! Archaea Power Hour will return this coming WEDNESDAY, Oct. 22nd at 10AM EST/4PM CET. Check your email for the Zoom link (coming soon) or register here: forms.gle/6QvCjHH2H4pxro…. Take a look at the exciting talks we have planned to kick off our fall seminar series:

New episode of #MattersMicrobial! The superlative Dr. Jeff Gralnick chats with the #QualityQuorum about bacteria that breathe metal! Please spread the #GoodMicrobialWord! @univpugetsound @asmicrobiology @microbe.tv youtu.be/rh-TK2Bvxj8?...

New on Think Like a Microbe ... Iron! 🧫🧪 #philsci open.substack.com/pub/thinkmic...

Ecological Consequences of Iron Scarcity

Gold is for the mistress, silver for the maid, copper for the craftsman, cunning at his trade, ‘Good’ said the Baron, sitting in his hall, ‘but iron — cold iron — is master of them all’.

open.substack.com

How Jane Goodall turned her childhood dream into reality – a sweet illustrated story of purpose and deep determination www.themarginalian.org/2015/01/19/m...

How Jane Goodall Turned Her Childhood Dream into Reality: A Sweet Illustrated Story of Purpose and Deep Determination

A heartening testament to the power of undivided intention.

themarginalian.org

Tonight I learned that one of my heroes has died. I loved her and colleagues' "adventures" as a child and grew up to admire her scientific work for so many reasons. RIP Jane Goodall. Jane Goodall, wildlife advocate and primate expert, dies at 91 - www.reuters.com/business/env...

Wildlife advocate, primate expert Jane Goodall dies at 91

Scientist and global activist Jane Goodall, who turned her childhood love of primates into a lifelong quest for protecting the environment, died on Wednesday at the age of 91, the institute she founded said.

reuters.com

Silent Spring was published on this day in 1962, catalyzing the environmental movement. The deeply human story behind it: www.themarginalian.org/2017/01/27/r...

The Story Behind “Silent Spring”: How Rachel Carson’s Countercultural Courage Catalyzed the Environmental Movement

“It is, in the deepest sense, a privilege as well as a duty to have the opportunity to speak out — to many thousands of people — on something so important.”

themarginalian.org

I find this reassuring. LLMs don't replace the need to learn how to write whatsoever. There really are no shortcuts to thinking super hard for many hours. That is the only wait to do good science. All shortcuts are an illusion. --> This is good for the humans! Roll your sleeves up and think.