This. A thousand times this.

People who like rocks see cool rocks everywhere, People who like birds see interesting birds everywhere. The tree in your yard could be an exceptional specimen. The world around you can be amazing and magical if you're enough of a nerd to see it.

It's important to remember that whatever is happening, anywhere in the world, it's almost March 1st and those garden beds aren't going to dig themselves. Tempus fugit!

And you may saye to yourselfe
These are not my lone and level sandes
And you may saye to yourselfe
These are not my vast and trunklesse legges of stone

It always helps to be reminded:

By the time you're finished converting that reference file you found on the server you could have just downloaded the correct format and already had your command running.

wait you’re telling me that this simple task I’ve been putting off for two weeks, that has tormented me like a two hour task, only took 30 seconds to complete? If only there were a valuable lesson I could learn from this.

Ah well. Nevertheless.

Claret Bio SRSLY

I vibe coded today. I kinda liked it.

September Everywhere (Extended Mix) YouTube video by Sultan Shepard - Topic

Goodbye Summer 2025, it's been emotional.

youtu.be/lpIBsWM42PU?...

10X Genomics acquiring Scale Biosciences.

Vaya con dios, 3730.

The innovation trade-off: how following superstars shapes academic novelty - Humanities and Social Sciences Communications Humanities and Social Sciences Communications - The innovation trade-off: how following superstars shapes academic novelty

"our results indicate that academia pays a price by focusing attention and resources on superstars"

Nice to see this supported by data analysis, now.

H/T: @cxdig.bsky.social

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

Found out the free drinks fountain at work can also output straight club soda. Couple that with some lemon wedges and I AM HYDRATED AF RIGHT NOW.

Illumina to acquire SomaLogic, accelerating its proteomics business and advancing the company's multiomics strategy

Illumina to acquire Somalogic.
www.illumina.com/company/news...

Timeline: All updates coming Q3/Q4 this year, probably alongside the long-awaited 600-cycle 1.5B flowcells that Steve Barnard teased over a year ago. Hardware improvements finally catching up to promises.

DRAGEN v4.4: Onboard analysis getting updated but unclear if it's full version like standalone servers or stripped-down instrument version. Details TBD - hoping someone in the know can clarify.

Quality Improvements: Better Q-scores with less PhiX needed (1% new = 5% old). Likely algorithm tweaks reducing signal crosstalk. Means more robust sequencing for tricky low-complexity libraries plus overall quality gains.

Index-First Sequencing: New feature lets you check pooling quality before full sequencing starts. Sounds useful but creates a dilemma - what if it looks bad? Can't reuse reagents once you've started, so may only help well-funded cores.

Staggered Runs: NovaSeq X finally gets dual flowcell capability - no more 48hr waits while one side monopolizes the instrument. Game changer for high-throughput labs dealing with batching headaches when mixing different run types.

As hardware stabilizes, it's time to start performance tweaking on the Illumina NovaSeq X. Here are some of the highlights from the latest batch of rumors regarding the next control software iteration:

One of the best things in the world is a slice of ricotta cheesecake with a dollop of lemon curd. Or marmalade. Or both... Or just a dusting of powdered sugar. Some sliced strawberries. Maybe raspberries?

Anyway, the point is ricotta cheesecake is awesome. That's all.

Happy Monday!

Tariffs hit the $ILMN supply chain.

Right after having you round to the mothership?

For all their faults they've got tech support down cold.

Happy Friday, everyone.

A natural experiment on the effect of herpes zoster vaccination on dementia - Nature Using a natural experiment that avoids common bias concerns, this study finds that the live-attenuated shingles vaccine reduced the probability of a new dementia diagnosis within a follow-up period of...

The vaccine against Shingles helps protect against dementia, results of a natural experiment, adding to prior evidence
"implications are profound"
New @nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com/articles/s41...

Bone Thugs N Harmony - 1st of tha Month YouTube video by Bone Thugs-N-Harmony

Wake up y'all, it's the 1st of tha month.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j_c...

Ultima Genomics Gives Away Sequencing for Free. Literally. Ultima Genomics announces that it will provide three trillion DNA sequencing reads free of charge to researchers across the United States and Canada.

I am thrilled to be a part of this initiative to help keep science moving forward. If you have samples you can get them sequenced for free with Ultima Genomics: www.genengnews.com/topics/omics...