Edinburgh via history/philosophy of science eyes! Safe to say the National Museum of Scotland has reached their target audience with the Dolly the Sheep pen. And the largest of shoutouts to @neurathic.bsky.social for spotting the Huxley book for me.

Been reading through lots of old Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists magazines recently for an ongoing project. Here are some of the coolest biology-related covers and illustrations I’ve found:

We’re not the first generation to think about designer babies The past offers both hope and warnings

Ever been even mildly conflicted about the potential of genetic engineering? Unsure what to make of the mix of cool science, therapeutic utility, and potential eugenic misuse? Wrote down a few thoughts on how the history of biology can help us manage some of these ethical issues 👇

Thanks Jeremy! Sadly I had to leave out the Ithaca institute and many others since going for completion on Weill's philanthropy would have been tough. I mentioned the med school since it's probably the most visible of all his donations and UCSF since there was a direct parallel to be made.

Yes, you're absolutely right. Thanks for catching that, really not sure how that got in there...

Iran Strikes Feel Like 2003 All Over Again Less than a year ago, US President Donald Trump gave a speech in the Middle East in which he excoriated his predecessors for their habit of launching “forever wars” in that region. Alluding to the Ame...

“If ever history demanded that Congress reclaim its constitutional monopoly in declaring war, that moment is now.”
www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

A walk through biology history at UC Berkeley What building names can teach us about the history of science

Asking questions like “who the heck is Stanley Hall named for?” can teach you a surprising amount!

Wrote about the clever ways people have figured out for reading DNA! Plus great illustrations by @ellawatkinsdulaney.bsky.social

Things you happen upon in a small coastal town. I give you, a bowl of preserved moss.

As a great admirer of moss in its natural habitat I did not realize that you could preserve it.

#moss 🌱

Alex Pretti from his early days working at the VA

Alex from our time working together, while he was in nursing school. Later, he moved to ICU, working as a nurse to support critically ill Veterans. He had such a great attitude. We’d chat between patients about trying to get in a mountain bike ride together. Will never happen now

At the risk of being classified a domestic terrorist…man fuckkk ICE

Join us in congratulating Philip J. Kranzusch (@kranzuschlab.bsky.social) of @danafarber.bsky.social and @harvardmed.bsky.social, winner of the 2026 NAS Award in Molecular Biology for his groundbreaking work advancing understanding of innate immunity! www.nasonline.org/award/nas-aw... #NASaward

Stepwise DNA unwinding gates TnpB genome-editing activity TnpB is a compact RNA-guided endonuclease and evolutionary ancestor of CRISPR-Cas12 that offers a promising platform for genome engineering. However, the genome-editing activity of TnpBs remains limit...

New preprint 👉Doudna x Bryant x Jacobsen x Savage collaboration!
Work led by @zehanzhou.bsky.social, I. Saffarian-Deemyad, @honglue.bsky.social, T. Weiss
We dissect how stepwise DNA unwinding gates TnpB genome editing, revealing how unwound DNA states enhance cleavage
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Statement on Trump's Venezuela action by Cato Vice President for Legal Studies Clark Neily: * As a legal matter, any challenge by Nicolas Maduro to his capture last night and subsequent rendition to the United States would run headlong into precedents involving the prosecution of Manuel Noriega in the 1990s. Courts have already upheld the unilateral seizure, prosecution, and conviction of a foreign leader under materially similar circumstances, and given longstanding judicial deference in foreign-affairs cases, judges are unlikely to distinguish that line of authority in Maduro's case. That conclusion, however, should not obscure the deeper constitutional concern here, which is profound. The Constitution deliberately assigns to Congress—not the President—the power to decide when the United States will initiate hostilities against foreign sovereigns. That assignment includes the power to declare war and the related authority to issue letters of marque and reprisal to private entities, both of which reflect a constitutional judgment that decisions risking international conflict, retaliation, and escalation should not rest with a single executive actor. When a President unilaterally deploys military force abroad to seize a foreign head of state—effectively collapsing war powers, foreign relations, and criminal law enforcement into a single executive decision—the constitutional safeguards designed to cabin the use of force against other countries are bypassed entirely. That concern is not cured by the existence of a valid indictment. An indictment may (or may not) explain why a President wishes to act, but it cannot supply the constitutional authority to do so through military force without meaningful congressional engagement, let alone authorization.

Statement from Cato VP Clark Neily: Courts probably won't rule against the rendition. Yet Trump has chosen to bypass the constitutional provisions designed to cabin the president's powers in using force against other countries. And an indictment does not supply him with those powers.

The Round-Up #4 AI-designed proteins, embryo editing, Coruscant IRL, and more!

Newest round-up is live, feat. the most entertaining, interesting, and informative stuff I read the past few months. This time around, we've got protein design updates, embryo editing companies, planetary cities, and more: scifinow.substack.com/p/the-round-...

A table that shows the top 10 most popular authors at the Seattle Public LIbrary. Ursula K. Le Guin, Octavia E. Butler, Louise Erdich, N.K. Jemisin, Toni Morrison, Kurt Vonnegut, George Saunders, Philip K. Dick, Sherman Alexie, James Baldwin

Here are the top 10 most popular post-1945 American authors at the Seattle Public Library over the last 20 years.

Missed the stream (whoops!) but had a great time watching the film on YT! Bay Area enjoyers - don’t miss it!

First co-led work from the Doudna lab 🤜🤛
We designed minimal RNA-guided nucleases with AI, and even did Cryo-EM during an earthquake (!) Huge honor working with @petrskopintsev.bsky.social, @evandeturk.bsky.social, Jennifer Doudna and co-authors, everyone at D-Lab and @innovativegenomics.bsky.social

Excited to share our work designing genome editors with machine learning! 🧬💻 Huge thanks to
@petrskopintsev.bsky.social @isabelesain.bsky.social @doudna-lab.bsky.social and all co-authors. Check out the thread for a summary of what we found 👇

What Rosalind Franklin truly contributed to the discovery of DNA’s structure Franklin was no victim in how the DNA double helix was solved. An overlooked letter and an unpublished news article, both written in 1953, reveal that she was an equal player.

If I see one more stupid Rosalind Franklin take I'm going to lose my mind. Thank god for @matthewcobb.bsky.social and @nccomfort.bsky.social. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

James Watson, Co-Discoverer of the Structure of DNA, Is Dead at 97

James D. Watson is dead. Stay tuned for some thoughts, based on my research on his biography, to be published soon.
While I write that up, y'all can throw tomatoes at this if you like. But I will offer a more nuanced take.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/s...

'CRICK FOR GOD' in chalk on a wall.

Cambridge graffiti, late 1960s. This kind of slogan was generally used for guitar heroes (Clapton, Alvin Lee, Hendrix). In this case, it appears the same person also scrawled 'Keep the lefties out' and 'Enoch is right' (amended by another hand to 'Enoch is a right pratt').

Who to Trust If You Can’t Trust the CDC No American institution is equipped to replace the agency. But a few trusted resources can help.

An overly political CDC has stripped Americans of a one stop shop for health recommendations, but this piece has some advice about how to best replicate it:
www.theatlantic.com/health/2025/...

If you thought the Animorphs covers were silly, wait till you see 1863 animorphs making fun of Darwin substack.com/@scifinow/no...

The Round-Up #2 Dire wolves, AI virologists, sci-fi TV, and much more!

For a bit of context, check out the mini-section I wrote on the EO for a Substack news round-up (w/ a bunch of links): scifinow.substack.com/i/165842458/...

The NIH ordered me to stop my ‘dangerous’ gain-of-function research. It isn’t dangerous at all Safe gain-of-function research is necessary to identify new treatments for diseases like for tuberculosis — but the NIH has imposed unfounded stops.

When Trump issued the gain-of-function Executive Order five months ago, people worried it might be applied too broadly. Sarah Stanley's piece for STAT provides evidence supporting that view. Grants flagged for gene knockouts and antibiotic selection markers in tuberculosis.

"Ramsdell couldn’t be reached immediately by the AP or his employer, who thought he might be away on a backpacking trip." Legendary!

A miniature CRISPR–Cas10 enzyme confers immunity by inhibitory signalling - Nature Panoptes, an anti-phage defence system against virus-mediated immune suppression, is revealed.

Now online at @nature.com we show how the Panoptes defense system protects against viruses that attempt immune evasion - and expands our understanding of the role of oligonucleotides in immunity.

Check out this work co-led with @benadler.bsky.social here:

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