Scientists stunned by ‘fundamentally new way’ life produces DNA Newly discovered bacterial defense system challenges genetic code’s central dogma

Scientists stunned by ‘fundamentally new way’ life produces DNA | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

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Evolving initial conditions: an alternative developmental route to morphological diversity

with Shannon Taylor and @jamesehammond.bsky.social

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Yes!

It has been so helpful—thank you for all that you did!

Ok now for a real kicker—the oldest nematode known from fossil record was a plant-parasitic one that lived in stomatal chambers of this same plant! Discovered and imaged here by George Poinar and Hans Kerp from Rhynie Chert from around 400 mya. brill.com/view/journal...

Image of a cross section of a different plant species from same site (~409 million years old) taken by Hans Kerp. You can see the packed parenchyma cells and also the presumably mutualistic mycorrhizal fungi (blue ring) that were partners of land plants from the beginning…glass-like preservation.

This unbelievable microscopic image taken by Hans Kerp is of an early land plant from ~409 million years ago. Exquisite preservation in Scottish sandstone (Rhynie Chert) reveals sperm cells (upper right) released on a fateful day by the “antheridium.” The paper: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

Best read waiting for laundry to dry! Thanks for that…I’m glad you are enjoying it.

Kevin (or Bruce) is looking good today. The local peacock!

Drosophila and anti-parasitoid defense gained through horizontal gene transfer from phages make a cameo at the end of this fun article by @vcallier.bsky.social...

Trees of Oakland: Melaleuca linariifolia aka “Snow in Summer” (native to Australia).

An octogenarian monk and concert pianist and organist (Bob) playing the organ for me (with a broken arm!). Was my Faculty Resident as a sophomore 31 years ago.

Marcel Breuer-designed Abbey and University Church of Saint John the Baptist, run by the Benedictines

Pope Leo XIV walks the Way of the Cross, offering lesson on power The last pontiff to carry the Cross for the entire fourteen-station Way of the Cross procession was Pope St. John Paul II.

“Make good use of the power given to you, and remember that whatever you do to another human being, especially to the small and vulnerable, you do unto me.”
cruxnow.com/vatican/2026...

A spread of today’s New York Times. My story about science replication is on the left. A story about a FEMA official claiming he has teleported to a Waffle House is on the right, complete with skeptical quote from a physicist

My story on science replication is in today’s print New York Times. The juxtaposition is interesting…

We took our wonderful NIH Genetic Dissection of Cells and Organisms T32 Training Program predoctoral trainees to the UC Botanical Garden today (and some very very junior trainees were there too!) on a field trip.

Well deserved!

Colour me better: fixing figures for colour blindness Images can be made more accessible by choosing hues, shapes and textures carefully.

If preparing figures please consider "colorblind friendly" approaches (www.nature.com/articles/d41...). I am missing the long-wave opsin, which manifests in strange ways: I can't discern red vs. black. This dichromacy is rare and severe, but ~300 million have more common forms addressed in link.

A green and black caterpillar with a ruffle texture in the top image. Bottom image is a bit of Locke. Attached to a twig and the two images look very much alike

That’s a caterpillar in the top image with the bit of lichen it’s supposed to be at the bottom. See the next post to get a closer look at the caterpillar. Been looking for more of the caterpillars but get faked out by the lichen.

This university started the first National Public Radio station in the country (via the first Minnesota Public Radio station) and the anti-Vietnam War Senator from MN Eugene McCarthy (and Presidential candidate) was rooted here. It is a really interesting place.

Most are Benedictine monastics and each was welcoming and loving to me. Sister Jeanne (my left) taught intro bio in 1994 and told me she remembered me because I was the only one who understood the yeast genetics experiments she designed! Ken Jones (my right) taught 1960's History (class size of 6!).

At the dinner before the Ford Science Literacy Lecture, the organizers asked who I'd like to invite. I suggested set of retired professors who taught me 28-32 years ago. As they arrived, I greeted each one and told them that they had been invited because they had such a great impact on my life.

A chair along the lake

Lake Sagatagan with ice in distance

Abbey Guesthouse and Lake Sagatagan with Eastern White Pines in foreground

At my alma mater in MN giving the Ford Lecture in Science Literacy! Some of the faculty who taught me 32 years ago were in the audience! 😭. That building behind me is a bauhaus masterpiece of Marcel Breuer and that wall so the largest stained glass one in the world.

Open postdoc position in my lab at Cornell, conducting comparative and experimental studies on transcriptomic responses to diet and toxins, utilizing the milkweed-insect community. Background in molecular bio & herbivory desired. academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/31867

Thanks Mohammed!

Thanks Curt!

Same to you!