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Jamie Cate

@jhdcate.bsky.social

1.6K followers 760 following 220 posts

Ribosomes and RNA language models. Professor at UC Berkeley. https://sites.google.com/berkeley.edu/cate-lab/home

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Jamie Cate @jhdcate.bsky.social · Nov 10

RNA language models and ribosome engineering. Built from a hackathon sponsored by @innovativegenomics.bsky.social with @cgemcci.bsky.social. What a great experience!

doi.org/10.1101/2024...

RNA language models predict mutations that improve RNA function

Structured RNA lies at the heart of many central biological processes, from gene expression to catalysis. While advances in deep learning enable the prediction of accurate protein structural models, R...

doi.org

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NightMar on Hicks Street, Part 4: The Rabbit’s Revenge @histoftech.bsky.social · 18h

The Virginia Senate just told UVA it’s not getting state funding if it accepts the compact since UVA exists to serve Virginia, its residents, & their interests—not be a tool of the federal govt. Scoop from our student newspaper, who’ve been doing vital reporting www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025...

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Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 19h

chat is it a good idea to raise tariffs on the toy maker before Christmas

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 19h

oh no

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Micah @rincewind.run · 1d

they are clearly trying to terrify everyone out of showing up to the No Kings protest and I simply do not think it is going to work

see you all there

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Sen. Roger Marshall: "October 18 is when the protest gets here. This will be a Soros paid-for protest for his professional protesters. The agitators show up. We'll have to get the National Guard out. Hopefully it will be peaceful. I doubt it."

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Scott Shapiro @scottjshapiro.bsky.social · 1d

Some personal news: My Soros check just cleared at Antifa Savings & Loan so I'll be at the No Kings rally on October 18th.

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Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 1d

Stephen Miller just said that Chicago ICE raid was one of the most successful law enforcement operations ever. I asked Pritzker to respond.

"If this was Pinochet’s Chile, if this was Argentina under authoritarian rule, maybe you’d call it successful," he said. 2/

newrepublic.com/article/2016...

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Ryan Anderson @ryana.bsky.social · 1d

I hope the No Kings events next weekend are flooded with American flags.

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 1d

The Speaker of the House is telling the Fox News audience that a peaceful demonstration by Americans on the National Mall will actually be a gathering of organizations the administration has designated as violent terrorists.

Seems bad?

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Mike Johnson: "We're so angry about it. I mean, I'm a very patient guy, but I've had it with these people. The theory we have right now -- they have a hate America rally that's scheduled for October 18 on the National Mall. It's the pro-Hamas wing and antifa people ... "

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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 1d

MIT President Sally Kornbluth just issued a statement to the campus community saying NO to Trump’s authoritarian compact

“And fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.”

Dear Madam Secretary,
I write in response to your letter of October 1, inviting MIT to review a "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education." I acknowledge the vital importance of these matters.
I appreciated the chance to meet with you earlier this year to discuss the priorities we share for American higher education.
As we discussed, the Institute's mission of service to the nation directs us to advance knowledge, educate students and bring knowledge to bear on the world's great challenges. We do that in line with a clear set of values, with excellence above all. Some practical examples:
• MIT prides itself on rewarding merit.
Students, faculty and staff succeed here based on the strength of their talent, ideas and hard work. For instance, the Institute
was the first to reinstate the SAT/ACT requirement after the pandemic. And MIT has never had legacy preferences in admissions.

• MIT opens its doors to the most talented students regardless of their family's finances. Admissions are need-blind. Incoming undergraduates whose families earn less than $200,000 a year pay no tuition. Nearly 88% of our last graduating class left MIT with no debt for their education. We make a wealth of free courses and low-cost certificates available
to any American with an internet
connection. Of the undergraduate degrees we award, 94% are in STEM fields. And in service to the nation, we cap enrollment of international undergraduates at roughly
10%.
• We value free expression, as clearly described in the MIT Statement on Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom. We must hear facts and opinions we don't like - and engage respectfully with those with whom we disagree.

These values and other MIT practices meet or exceed many standards outlined in the document you sent. We freely choose these values because they're right, and we live by them because they support our mission - work of immense value to the prosperity, competitiveness, health and security of the United States. And of course, MIT abides by the law.
The document also includes principles with which we disagree, including those that would restrict freedom of expression and our independence as an institution. And fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific
funding should be based on scientific merit alone.
In our view, America's leadership in science and innovation depends on independent thinking and open competition for excellence. In that tree marketplace of ideas, the people of MIT gladly compete with the very best, without preferences.
Therefore, with respect, we cannot support the proposed approach to addressing the issues facing higher education.

As you know, MIT's record of service to the nation is long and enduring. Eight decades ago, MIT leaders helped invent a scientific partnership between America's research universities and the
U.S. government that has delivered extraordinary benefits for the American people.
We continue to believe in the power of this partnership to serve the nation.
Sincerely,
Sally Kornbluth
CC
Ms. May Mailman
Mr. Vincent Haley

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David Gilbert @davidgilbert.bsky.social · 1d

BREAKING:

"Just landed."

Mark Bray confirms to me this morning that he and his family did, on the second attempt, make it out of the US and to Spain

www.wired.com/story/mark-b...

He Wrote a Book About Antifa. Death Threats Are Driving Him Out of the US

Rutgers historian Mark Bray is trying to flee to Spain after after an online campaign from far-right influencers was followed by death threats. He was turned back at the airport on his first attempt.

www.wired.com

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Leah Greenberg ❌👑 @leahgreenberg.bsky.social · 1d

JB Pritzker says NO KINGS, SHOW UP ON 10/18

Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 1d

Finally, Pritzker says more Dems must sound the alarm, though he notes some exceptions (like Chris Murphy).

"I am surprised that more leaders have not stood up," he says.

He urges people to join No Kings protests to let the country know something's wrong. 5/5

newrepublic.com/article/2016...

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David Hobby @davidhobby.bsky.social · 1d

If I were choosing this year’s Nobel Peace Prize

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 2d

New from @jeremymberg.bsky.social at Can We Still Govern:
"Silence may protect an institution from becoming an early target, but history shows that it increases the likelihood that that institution (and many others) will be become targets over time."
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/deafening-...

Deafening Quiet from the Scientific Establishment

Leaders are underestimating the risks of not fighting back

donmoynihan.substack.com

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Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 2d

Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE

nyti.ms

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Mark Z. Jacobson @mzjacobson.bsky.social · 2d

Impressive. 5 more days straight with 100% WindWaterSolar on California ISO grid, making it 193 of 280 days in 2025

Gas down 18% v '24 & 37% v '23, replaced largely by solar & batteries

54.7% of all demand met by WWS

Demand down 1.7% v '24 & 1.1% v '23 due largely to growth of roof PV

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Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 3d

I will not back down.

Trump is now calling for the arrest of elected representatives checking his power.

What else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?

Donald Trump Truth Social Post: Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers! Governor Pritzker also.

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Mike Feigin 🥯 @mikefeigin.bsky.social · 3d

“Could?” Let me be clear. A $100,000 H1B will kill our ability to do world class science in the US.

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Ishmail Abdus-Saboor @ishmailsaboor.bsky.social · 3d

Congrats to the winners! Its notable that Omar Yaghi was a refugee. Refugees and immigrants once again making American science great!

Nature @nature.com · 3d

BREAKING: The Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar M. Yaghi “for the development of metal-organic frameworks”

Stay tuned for more.
#NobelPrize

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Prasad Jallepalli, MD, PhD @prasad.bsky.social · 3d

grateful to hear him say this out loud — too few institutions have this decency and courage

AFP News Agency @en.afp.com · 3d

"It is going to be disastrous if this continues"

Nobel Prize physics laureate John Clarke says Trump cuts will 'cripple' US scientific research

u.afp.com/SmAy

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Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 3d

Gonna be thinking about this lede for a minute.

(RNS) — Last month, the Rev. David Black stood in front of a Chicago-area U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility and spread his arms wide. Adorned in all black and wearing a clerical collar, the pastor looked up at a group of masked, heavily armed ICE agents on the roof and began to pray.

“I invited them to repentance,” Black, a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), said in an interview. “I basically offered an altar call. I invited them to come and receive that salvation, and be part of the kingdom that is coming.”

But when Black began to lower his arms a few seconds later, the agents responded to his spiritual plea by firing pepper balls, or chemical agents that cause eye irritation and respiratory distress, video footage shows. One struck Black in the head, exploding into a puff of white pepper smoke and forcing him to his knees. Fellow demonstrators rushed to his aid, and as the pastor rubbed his face in pain, the agents continued to fire.

“We could hear them laughing,” Black said.

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Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 3d

I feel like this photo of masked, armed men pepper spraying a pastor protecting his community is going to be a defining picture of this moment in America for a long, long time.

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 4d

About 1 in 3 US Nobel prize winners are immigrants.
About 1 in 4 were government employees at some point.
About 44% of all Nobel prize winners were educated in US higher education.
As Trump demands a Nobel prize, he is destroying the means by which America came to dominate the prizes.

Sources below

Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 4d

Two things of note in today's announcement of the 2025 Nobel physics prize (besides the work being honored).

1: The US institutional dominance of the prize continues.
2: 2 of the three laureates are immigrants, drawn here decades ago by the then-unmatched opportunities for science here...

1/

Nobel Prize in Physics Is Awarded for Work in Quantum Mechanics

www.nytimes.com

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Mark Z. Jacobson @mzjacobson.bsky.social · 4d

New record battery output of 47.2 GWh on the California ISO grid on Sun 10/5/25. 9.2% of all demand was met by batteries.

Now 191 days of 2025 with > 100% WWS for part of day.

Gas is down 18% v '24, 37% v '23
Solar up 15% v '24, 45% v '23
Demand down 1.7% v' 24, 1% v '23 despite more AI

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Brendan Cantwell @cantb.bsky.social · 4d

The AAUP and other labor groups sue the administration over its plan to charge $100,000 for every new H-1B. The AAU is not party to the suit, even though though its members among the largest employers of foreign academics. We’re seeing which groups are willing to let others take the heat.

Higher ed groups sue over Trump administration’s $100K H-1B visa fee

The surprise policy rolled out last month could cause “catastrophic setbacks” to research in the U.S., the lawsuit alleges.

www.highereddive.com

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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 4d

Everything Trump is doing now is a preamble for his regime's real goal: to invoke the Insurrection Act.

I don’t want to unduly alarm you, but you need to be aware of this imminent danger. It’s unfolding very rapidly. https://robertreich.substack.com/p/trumps-plan

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Marc Elias @marcelias.bsky.social · 5d

🚨BREAKING: Illinois filed a lawsuit Monday to block President Donald Trump’s attempt to send hundreds of Texas National Guard troops in Chicago, saying the deployment infringes on the state’s “sovereignty and right to self-governance.” www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

Illinois Sues to Block Trump’s Deployment of Texas National Guard in Chicago