These people are ridiculous

Infectious diseases killed about two thirds of soldiers in the American Civil War, rather than actual fighting

Periodically I am reminded of this post from @tracyking.bsky.social - part of a much longer thread packed with great advice for people trying to forge a creative career. Don't moan about people not hiring you, buying your stuff or coming to your shows - show them why it's brilliant and worth it.

BTW...

www.barrons.com/articles/ai-...

Exactly. As i understand it's a protein creating a physical template for a two base nucleotide sequence by mimicking the same structure as a DNA template would have. But it is kind of mad that can happen.

If you are remotely biology-minded this is well worth a read. Thanks @philipcball.bsky.social for unpacking a fascinating and very very cool paper. I suspect the synbio nerds are already on the case working out how to hack this into a de novo oligo printing factory...

I get why the public doesn't notice most of the corrupt or fascist stuff that Trump does, but how does *this* not set off widespread outrage? Income tax is half the total federal tax take, and there are 150m federal income taxpayers. Every tax payer is personally paying Trump thirty bucks!

BBC Radio 4 - Ingenious, The Ginger Gene Find out what you're made of, one gene at a time - with Dr Kat Arney

We made a whole radio programme about MC1R aka The Ginger Gene a few years ago - listen here www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

You don't say!!

A ticket with ‘5 Geschlechtskrankheiten’

Not sure how this train booking platform works, or how this happened -

AI translated ‘STD’ meaning ‘Stunden’ (hours) into English as ‘Sexually Transmitted Disease’.

So it appeared as ‘Geschlechtskrankheiten’ on ticket.

www.krone.at/4109338

Half my timeline losing its mind over Starmer/Mandelson, the other half over a protein that can make DNA without a template. If you need me, I'll be over there with the science nerds.

Who are you and why are you in my house?

Ooooh that is cool

Exactly one year ago today:

"Scotland" by palette knife painter Georgia Hart

There was literally a pangolin that flew combat sorties with the CIA in a dirty war in Laos that then died after drinking too much gin, so there’s at least one pangolin whose record is morally ambiguous

As part of my efforts to combat the COVID Amnesia Project, let's accurately remember what 3 influential laptop class doctors from Stanford said 6 years ago as COVID overflowed hospitals and morgues.

They won't remind you.

I will.

My latest.

So cool! I had to look this up to learn more:

Hello where is this hotel and how do I book?

The two golden rules for using AI to generate content: Know your sh1t. And know what's sh1t. It's become quite trendy to rant about the growing amount of poor quality AI-generated content circulating online - I myself have written about the coming AI Slopocalypse and how to survive it. But th...

The two golden rules of using AI in content creation: know your shit, and know what's shit. www.linkedin.com/pulse/two-go... Inspired by some particularly egregious recent incidents I experienced, and @naomialderman.bsky.social writing about the importance of discernment when using these tools.

Crater McCraterface, obviously

Illustration featuring a comet about to land on a rocky landscape as two hippo like creatures watch from the right

After living through the Nazi & atomic bomb eras, Tove Jansson writings would often encompass fearful ideas about loss of a familiar world. However she would balance this with characters who displayed kindness & community, showing goodness even in the darkest times
#BookArtWeek

Brazil creates the South Atlantic's largest marine park | Conservation International Conservation International helped secure a million-hectare marine park, two decades in the making.

This is how it's done!

"a core reserve where fishing is banned outright, surrounded by a buffer zone that allows some artisanal fishing — designed to allow local fishing communities to retain their traditional livelihoods"

www.conservation.org/news/brazil-...

Defeated Prime Minister Viktor Orban throttled Hungary’s news media, cracked down on migrants and fought against progressive causes.

Among Orbán's many corrosive effects in Hungary, he politically strangled universities and research funding. His defeat offers the possibility of a better, more open future for Hungarian science. 🧪

www.statnews.com/2025/09/02/h...

In Bruges scene where Colin Farrell is pointing a gun at his head and Brendon Gleeson is also pointing a gun at Colin Farrell's head

Current status of the Strait of Hormuz dispute

Maybe, but there's a limited pot of money for academic research & also it's about people/ skills - it's hard to bring in global research talent from US to UK and other places thanks to anti-immigration environment. Also sends a signal to industry that it's not a great area to be investing in rn.

I can't even find the words to express how spectacularly dumb and damaging this administration is, not just for US science and healthcare but for the world. Innovations like mRNA vaccines - for pathogens, cancer, autoimmune diseases etc - benefit all of humanity.

Painting of a woodland carpeted with light purple blossoms

Britain is home to almost half of the world’s bluebells, found in ancient or semi-natural woodlands, flowering in April and May. 'Bluebell woods' by contemporary UK painter Susan Entwistle #WomensArt

A glamorous black padded postage bag with gold text saying Divagift.com

A bottle of seaweed-based plant food

Very confused by the disconnect between the glamorous packaging of my recent purchase and the much more mundane contents.

Another banger from Martin