DYLAN THOMAS converted the garage of his house in Laugharne - Carmarthenshire into his writing shed, and it’s been kept the way it was when he worked in there.
Tim Read
@timothyread.bsky.social
Professor, Emory University Schools of Medicine, Atlanta. Microbiology, genomics, genetics, bioinformatics. https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=XF5C7cgAAAAJ&hl=en
This is a really good paper on the mechanics of pandemics. Really timely as I am writing a talk on this topic. The authors do a phenomenal job providing complementary multidisciplinary insights on the topic. Immediate save as go to reference :). www.thelancet.com/journals/ecl...
Mechanics of pandemics
COVID-19 and previous pandemics have shown how diseases can disrupt, threaten, and transform daily life. Since pathogens and societies are continuously evolving, every pandemic is different. However, ...
thelancet.com
New from 404 Media: we solved which AI company is buying massive shipments of rare books, scanning and destroying them to train AI. We put an Apple AirTag in a rare book, followed it. It ended up at an Amazon facility. Its logo is a dinosaur ripping through a book www.404media.co/we-tracked-a...
We Tracked a Shipment of Rare Books. It Ended at an Amazon AI Training Facility
We placed a tracking device in a shipment of rare books to see which AI company was buying it, and found an Amazon facility where Amazon scans and destroys books.
404media.co
Get your vaccine advice from trained healthcare professionals not from politicians. Expertise still matters.
Filling out the intake form for a new doctor's office, and I'm just gonna go out on a limb and guess that their patient portal was at least partially coded by AI... This does not inspire confidence in their HIPAA compliance.
Scientists in the US have for the first time used AI to create complete, viable virus genomes unlike any known in nature. AI is writing genomes. Potential impact? Programmable phage therapies, faster responses to antibiotic. It also raises urgent biosecurity questions www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
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]
Important @nejm.org correspondence today. Investigators found that licensed Ebola vaccines generate cross-reactive binding antibody responses against Bundibugyo ebolavirus (BDBV) in humans. www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....
So far the best Arsenal performance v France since 1989
There is still time to submit your comment and tell the government that you don't want US research to be completely destroyed by politicians meddling in individual grants. You can submit your comments here: www.regulations.gov/commenton/OM...
Rebecca Solnit@rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · last mo.Comments due by Monday on the attempt to politicize science/aka kill American research as we know it. Do it at the link (counter the ton of Heritage-foudnatoin-prompted comments): www.regulations.gov/document/OMB...
Hot off the presses! S. aureus populations hold a surprising amount of diversity that can be observed by selecting a handful of colonies from a clinical sample. @huiqiloo.bsky.social @vishnu-raghuram.bsky.social @timothyread.bsky.social doi.org/10.1128/spec...
Intraspecific diversity of Staphylococcus aureus populations isolated from cystic fibrosis respiratory infections | Microbiology Spectrum
When obtaining bacterial isolates from infections, it is important to consider the ecological biases introduced by methods used for collection and processing. In this study, we demonstrate how reducti...
doi.org
Well… it wouldn’t be an England game if it wasn’t batshit and dramatic! 😅
Oh, The Drama - Lion King Meme
ALT: Oh, The Drama - Lion King Meme
static.klipy.com
Climate.us is live. Built by members of the team behind Climate.gov, this new independent nonprofit website keeps trusted climate information easy to find, easy to use, and harder to erase. #ClimateForUs #ClimateUS
Stephen Colbert wore a tan suit to the Obama Presidential Center opening ceremony 😂 REUTERS/Octavio Jones
Huge win!! In partnership with Senator Lisa Murkowski, we protected the Ocean Observatories Initiative—critical sensors that are essential for managing our fisheries, forecasting weather, and understanding climate change.
Trump Administration Backs Off Plan to End Ocean Monitoring
nytimes.com
Omar Artan is to referee the Super Cup between PSG and Aston Villa, UEFA have announced. "UEFA wants to show its respect to Omar and his outstanding officiating skills," says Aleksander Ceferin.
James Benge@jamesbenge.bsky.social · 2mo agoInfantino calls for critics to "chill and relax" over Somali referee Omar Abdulkadir Artan being blocked from travel to the US. The mind boggles.
Congratulations Shaun!
Shaun Brinsmade (he/him)@shaunbrinsmade.bsky.social · 2mo agoMy promotion went through - full professor as of August 1. It’s still sinking in! Thanks to all of you out there who have supported me over the years (especially my lab - couldn’t do it w/o you!) and a special thanks to my letter writers! 🎉 #brinsmadelab
In public health, you learn an awful lot about people willing to profit off of harms to children. But my jaw is on the floor. It never occurred to me that the sentence “I’ve put a couple kids in the hospital” would ever be followed by the phrase: “But here’s the thing.” @jackiantonovich.bsky.social
ProPublica@propublica.org · 2mo agoNEW: Regulators have linked Mark McAfee’s raw dairy farm to more than a dozen recalls and outbreaks that left hundreds of people ill. “I’ve put a couple kids in the hospital,” McAfee said. “But here’s the thing: I’m a pioneer.”
✅ Yes, more articles like this, PLEASE. Not (only) the specific take (which I like), but the honest attempt to clarify a disastrously dubious concept, using history, technical details, clear writing, rhetoric. 'Actually, what is a gain-of-function mutation?' academic.oup.com/genetics/art...
Actually, what is a gain-of-function mutation?
Abstract. For more than a century, scientists have worked to characterize, understand, and predict the consequences of mutations. For almost as long, scien
academic.oup.com
The May average of atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa (based on daily values) was around 432.3 ppm, that's 1.8 ppm higher than last year, and probably the highest in at least 15 million years.
🦑 Kalamari v5.9 adds new outbreak‑relevant viral genomes to the curated set. This includes topical organisms related to ongoing outbreaks: measles, hantavirus, and ebola. 🔗 github.com/lskatz/Kalam...
Release v5.9 now with ebola, hentavirus, and measles (oh my!) · lskatz/Kalamari
What's Changed Fix build-sketch CI failure due to slash in github.ref_name for PRs by @Copilot in #72 Add Bundibugyo ebolavirus reference genome to Kalamari chromosome catalog by @Copilot in #80 F...
github.com
The Proximal Origin of the MV Hondius Andes virus outbreak. virological.org/t/potential-...
Potential geographical and ecological origin of the MV Hondius Andes virus outbreak
The recent outbreak aboard the MV Hondius caused by Andes virus raises two key questions [1]: (i) where do the outbreak genomes cluster geographically, and (ii) how can the phylogenetic signal be reco...
virological.org
🧵 1/15 The WHO Emergency Committee just met on Ebola Bundibugyo. This is the first time a WHO Director-General declared a PHEIC before convening the committee a signal of how urgent this is. I listened in and made a few notes which I share here. www.youtube.com/live/vLlbTW5...
LIVE: Media briefing on the Ebola outbreak in the DRC and Uganda with Dr Tedros
YouTube video by World Health Organization (WHO)
youtube.com
Rapid genomic data release and analysis from DRC and Uganda public health teams on Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak confirms new spillover: virological.org/t/initial-ge... - sequences shared via @pathoplexus.org
Initial genomes from May 2026 Bundibugyo Virus Disease Outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda
Initial genomes from May 2026 Bundibugyo Virus Disease Outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, reveal a new spillover event Context On 15 May 2026, the Ministry of Public Health, ...
virological.org
Rapid release of multiplex PCR amplicon scheme for Andes hantavirus whole genome sequencing validated on control material: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... @scalene.bsky.social @stevepullan.bsky.social @ukhsa.bsky.social output from HPRU in Public Health Genomics
biorxiv.org
Baric, who is among the most-cited coronavirus researchers in the world, says his lab’s work played pivotal roles in helping companies bring COVID drugs and vaccines to market, saving millions of lives. “My payment for this is to be debarred?” he asks. “I’m being strung out for being a scientist.“ 🧪
Virologist accused of starting COVID-19 will fight U.S. ban on funding
HHS memo says Ralph Baric had a “pattern of deception” in describing virus studies long before pandemic
science.org
Incredibly proud of the @pathoplexus.org team for getting this up so quickly. In an outbreak like this, it's critical to share data quickly & openly - so scientists can do public health analyses (like the @nextstrain.org builds) - while still protecting the right to publish on generated sequences.
Pathoplexus@pathoplexus.org · 4mo ago1/ 🚀 Pathoplexus now supports the Andes variant of Hantavirus (ANDV). ANDV is the variant identified in the recent MV Hondius cases, & the Hantavirus variant previously identified as having occasional human-to-human transmission. pathoplexus.org/andv #hantavirus #hondius
