Caroline Seydel
@carolineseydel.bsky.social
Independent science writer covering genetic technology. Always hopeful yet discontent.
Pinned
Pest control gets the CRISPR treatment - Nature Biotechnology
Precision genetic methods are enabling more efficient, environmentally friendly pest control methods for agricultural use as well as stopping the spread of disease.
www.nature.com
Hello Blue Sky! Might as well start things off here by sharing my latest piece for @naturebiotech.bsky.social about how genetically modified insects are central to emerging pest control strategies:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Caroline Seydel
This month @genomeresearch.bsky.social publishes a special @recombconf.bsky.social issue highlighting algorithmic innovations in haplotype assembly and phasing, analysis of genomic variation and its association to phenotype, metagenomic analyses, and more. genome.cshlp.org/content/35/1...
December 3, 2025 at 4:38 PM
This month @genomeresearch.bsky.social publishes a special @recombconf.bsky.social issue highlighting algorithmic innovations in haplotype assembly and phasing, analysis of genomic variation and its association to phenotype, metagenomic analyses, and more. genome.cshlp.org/content/35/1...
🎯
The assignment feels like a set-up, on par with deliberately asking something edgy on social media. The assignment was vague and invited opinions at a school in heavily religious Oklahoma. The student took the bait. The instructor doubled down with more poor judgment by giving the 0/25.
December 1, 2025 at 5:14 PM
🎯
Reposted by Caroline Seydel
Pretty much ANY statistic you see cited to frighten you about vaccines comes from the VAERS database. (Including the recent evidence-free missive from Vinay Prasad). Here's why VAERS can NEVER be a proper source for population-level vaccine risk estimates.
Thread [1/9]
Thread [1/9]
November 30, 2025 at 3:01 AM
Pretty much ANY statistic you see cited to frighten you about vaccines comes from the VAERS database. (Including the recent evidence-free missive from Vinay Prasad). Here's why VAERS can NEVER be a proper source for population-level vaccine risk estimates.
Thread [1/9]
Thread [1/9]
Introduce yourself with five concerts you've seen —
Of Monsters and Men
The Head and the Heart
The National Parks
Nada Surf
Walk the Moon
Of Monsters and Men
The Head and the Heart
The National Parks
Nada Surf
Walk the Moon
Introduce yourself with five concerts you've seen —
Stevie Ray Vaughn / Jeff Beck
Buckwheat Zydeco
They Might Be Giants
Tom Petty
The Kinks
Stevie Ray Vaughn / Jeff Beck
Buckwheat Zydeco
They Might Be Giants
Tom Petty
The Kinks
Introduce yourself with five concerts you've seen —
NIN
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Soul Coughing
Poe
Tom Morello
NIN
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Soul Coughing
Poe
Tom Morello
November 28, 2025 at 6:19 AM
Introduce yourself with five concerts you've seen —
Of Monsters and Men
The Head and the Heart
The National Parks
Nada Surf
Walk the Moon
Of Monsters and Men
The Head and the Heart
The National Parks
Nada Surf
Walk the Moon
People’s feelings: a reliably accurate measurement tool.
November 25, 2025 at 8:54 PM
People’s feelings: a reliably accurate measurement tool.
Reposted by Caroline Seydel
Every year around Thanksgiving, I see tons of grad students post heartbreaking messages on social media about how their loved ones don’t understand or support their decision to study what seems like something pointless or silly.
Perhaps my American Scientist essay can help!
🧪🌎🦑 #SciComm
Perhaps my American Scientist essay can help!
🧪🌎🦑 #SciComm
“Why Are We Funding This?”
Long-standing myths about “silly science” have contributed to the reckless slashing of government-supported research.
www.americanscientist.org
November 25, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Every year around Thanksgiving, I see tons of grad students post heartbreaking messages on social media about how their loved ones don’t understand or support their decision to study what seems like something pointless or silly.
Perhaps my American Scientist essay can help!
🧪🌎🦑 #SciComm
Perhaps my American Scientist essay can help!
🧪🌎🦑 #SciComm
Gonna go against the crowd here and say that online recipe searches were already a disaster, AI is just the final nail in the coffin. Human (I assume) “content creators” have been drowning out reliable sources for years with poor quality and/or plagiarized recipes by exploiting SEO tricks.
NEW: AI “recipe slop” is overrunning search and social. Food creators say Google’s AI Overviews and glossy fake food pics are drowning out real, tested recipes — collapsing traffic and setting home cooks up for disaster, especially this Thanksgiving.
Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
AI Slop Recipes Are Taking Over the Internet -- And Thanksgiving Dinner
Food bloggers see traffic dip as home cooks turn to AI, inspired by impossible pictures
www.bloomberg.com
November 25, 2025 at 5:46 PM
Gonna go against the crowd here and say that online recipe searches were already a disaster, AI is just the final nail in the coffin. Human (I assume) “content creators” have been drowning out reliable sources for years with poor quality and/or plagiarized recipes by exploiting SEO tricks.
Reposted by Caroline Seydel
George was right, and the trend of men dressing like little boys with baseball caps and shorts year round was part of our overall cultural decline.
I remember when George Will wrote a whole op ed on how distasteful wearing blue jeans was.
washingtoncitypaper.com/article/3956...
washingtoncitypaper.com/article/3956...
George F. Will Hates Jeans
So, George F. Will wrote 700 words in the Washington Post yesterday on why he hates jeans. The column, “America’s Bad Jeans,” was largely inspired by last month’s Wall Street Journal piece by Daniel A...
washingtoncitypaper.com
November 24, 2025 at 9:24 PM
George was right, and the trend of men dressing like little boys with baseball caps and shorts year round was part of our overall cultural decline.
Reposted by Caroline Seydel
Based on this rubric I can only assume Philadelphia is in flames
November 24, 2025 at 1:01 AM
Based on this rubric I can only assume Philadelphia is in flames
Reposted by Caroline Seydel
Journalist challenge: Use “Machine Learning” when you mean machine learning and “LLM” when you mean LLM. Ditch “AI” as a catch-all term, it’s not useful for readers and it helps companies trying to confuse the public by obscuring the roles played by different technologies. 🧪
November 22, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Journalist challenge: Use “Machine Learning” when you mean machine learning and “LLM” when you mean LLM. Ditch “AI” as a catch-all term, it’s not useful for readers and it helps companies trying to confuse the public by obscuring the roles played by different technologies. 🧪
Reposted by Caroline Seydel
60 attorneys describe a year of chaos and suspicion inside Trump's Justice Department.
“If we’re indicting people because the president hates them, that’s counter to the whole point of doing my job.”
- Mike Romano, former prosecutor in the Public Integrity Section
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
“If we’re indicting people because the president hates them, that’s counter to the whole point of doing my job.”
- Mike Romano, former prosecutor in the Public Integrity Section
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
60 Attorneys on the Year of Chaos Inside Trump’s Justice Department (Gift Article)
Sixty former staffers describe an environment of suspicion and intimidation within the nation’s most powerful law enforcement agency.
www.nytimes.com
November 17, 2025 at 5:22 PM
60 attorneys describe a year of chaos and suspicion inside Trump's Justice Department.
“If we’re indicting people because the president hates them, that’s counter to the whole point of doing my job.”
- Mike Romano, former prosecutor in the Public Integrity Section
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
“If we’re indicting people because the president hates them, that’s counter to the whole point of doing my job.”
- Mike Romano, former prosecutor in the Public Integrity Section
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Reposted by Caroline Seydel
It's gotta be frustrating for journalists scraping by and doing great work to go to NY Times dot com and read a puff piece written by a nepo baby that whitewashes a journalist who had sex with a source and has now parlayed that into a new book and a job at Vanity Fair
November 14, 2025 at 6:07 PM
It's gotta be frustrating for journalists scraping by and doing great work to go to NY Times dot com and read a puff piece written by a nepo baby that whitewashes a journalist who had sex with a source and has now parlayed that into a new book and a job at Vanity Fair
Reposted by Caroline Seydel
Can we circle back to the part where the NY Times never disclosed that they have incriminating information on Donald Trump from sent by Epstein that's been sitting on their email servers for nearly a decade?
Stuff like this makes me wonder why there hasn't been any reporting about Trump having affairs during his presidencies
November 12, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Can we circle back to the part where the NY Times never disclosed that they have incriminating information on Donald Trump from sent by Epstein that's been sitting on their email servers for nearly a decade?
Reposted by Caroline Seydel
William Gibson called it 40 years ago: “And, for an instant, she stared directly into those soft blue eyes and knew, with an instinctive mammalian certainty, that the exceedingly rich were no longer even remotely human.”
November 10, 2025 at 8:33 PM
William Gibson called it 40 years ago: “And, for an instant, she stared directly into those soft blue eyes and knew, with an instinctive mammalian certainty, that the exceedingly rich were no longer even remotely human.”
Reposted by Caroline Seydel
James Watson, Co-Discoverer of the Structure of DNA, Is Dead at 97 www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/s...
James Watson, Co-Discoverer of the Structure of DNA, Is Dead at 97
www.nytimes.com
November 7, 2025 at 7:29 PM
James Watson, Co-Discoverer of the Structure of DNA, Is Dead at 97 www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/s...
Reposted by Caroline Seydel
For every minute I sit in my car alone I get +1 stamina regen
November 2, 2025 at 3:35 PM
For every minute I sit in my car alone I get +1 stamina regen
Reposted by Caroline Seydel
My annual plea to leave the damn clocks alone, and why morning people are the worst:
www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...
www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...
Overthrow the Tyranny of Morning People
Leave the clocks alone.
www.theatlantic.com
November 2, 2025 at 3:53 PM
My annual plea to leave the damn clocks alone, and why morning people are the worst:
www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...
www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...
Reposted by Caroline Seydel
Reposted by Caroline Seydel
I’m gonna be angry at you for wanting higher wages
I’m gonna be angry at you for being on food stamps
I’m gonna be angry at you for working full time and being on food stamps
I’m gonna be angry at you for trying to get me to connect the dots to the actual problem
I’m gonna be angry at you for being on food stamps
I’m gonna be angry at you for working full time and being on food stamps
I’m gonna be angry at you for trying to get me to connect the dots to the actual problem
October 27, 2025 at 3:38 AM
I’m gonna be angry at you for wanting higher wages
I’m gonna be angry at you for being on food stamps
I’m gonna be angry at you for working full time and being on food stamps
I’m gonna be angry at you for trying to get me to connect the dots to the actual problem
I’m gonna be angry at you for being on food stamps
I’m gonna be angry at you for working full time and being on food stamps
I’m gonna be angry at you for trying to get me to connect the dots to the actual problem
Reposted by Caroline Seydel
The instinct on this site to respond to anyone who expresses surprise or uncertainty with a smug “how can you be surprised” is really unpleasant and obnoxious and says a lot about the kind of person who has gathered here
September 30, 2025 at 4:21 AM
The instinct on this site to respond to anyone who expresses surprise or uncertainty with a smug “how can you be surprised” is really unpleasant and obnoxious and says a lot about the kind of person who has gathered here
Reposted by Caroline Seydel
Experts warn loss of USAID endangers the fight against deadly TB
In high-burden countries around the world, the loss of USAID funding has had a devastating impact on critical TB intervention and treatment efforts.
www.cidrap.umn.edu/t...
In high-burden countries around the world, the loss of USAID funding has had a devastating impact on critical TB intervention and treatment efforts.
www.cidrap.umn.edu/t...
September 11, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Experts warn loss of USAID endangers the fight against deadly TB
In high-burden countries around the world, the loss of USAID funding has had a devastating impact on critical TB intervention and treatment efforts.
www.cidrap.umn.edu/t...
In high-burden countries around the world, the loss of USAID funding has had a devastating impact on critical TB intervention and treatment efforts.
www.cidrap.umn.edu/t...
Reposted by Caroline Seydel
By combining the information storage capabilities of DNA with a design inspired by a cassette tape, researchers have created a storage medium that can hold 36 petabytes of data
DNA cassette tape can store every song ever recorded
By combining the information storage capabilities of DNA with a design inspired by a cassette tape, researchers have created a storage medium that can hold 36 petabytes of data
www.newscientist.com
September 11, 2025 at 10:23 PM
By combining the information storage capabilities of DNA with a design inspired by a cassette tape, researchers have created a storage medium that can hold 36 petabytes of data
Reposted by Caroline Seydel
One noteworthy fact about local control of land use in Los Angeles is that it's why City Councilmembers keep going to prison.
As it turns out, land use rules that are so complex that you need special permission from the Councilmember to build ~anything create irresistible incentives for corruption!
As it turns out, land use rules that are so complex that you need special permission from the Councilmember to build ~anything create irresistible incentives for corruption!
August 21, 2025 at 7:13 PM
One noteworthy fact about local control of land use in Los Angeles is that it's why City Councilmembers keep going to prison.
As it turns out, land use rules that are so complex that you need special permission from the Councilmember to build ~anything create irresistible incentives for corruption!
As it turns out, land use rules that are so complex that you need special permission from the Councilmember to build ~anything create irresistible incentives for corruption!
✨bookish checkpoint✨💙📚
✧ last book read: TILT by Emma Pattee
✧ current read: MICKEY7 by Edward Ashton
✧ last book added to the tbr: LAST RITUALS by Yrsa Sigurdardottir
✧ next anticipated read: EVERYTHING IS TUBERCULOSIS by John Green
✧ last book read: TILT by Emma Pattee
✧ current read: MICKEY7 by Edward Ashton
✧ last book added to the tbr: LAST RITUALS by Yrsa Sigurdardottir
✧ next anticipated read: EVERYTHING IS TUBERCULOSIS by John Green
✨bookish checkpoint✨💙📚
✧ last book read: ALL FOURS by Miranda July
✧ current read: THE GHOST MAP by Steven Johnson
✧ last book added to the tbr: THE MEMORY COLLECTORS by Dete Meserve
✧ next anticipated read: FREE: MY SEARCH FOR MEANING by Amanda Knox
✧ last book read: ALL FOURS by Miranda July
✧ current read: THE GHOST MAP by Steven Johnson
✧ last book added to the tbr: THE MEMORY COLLECTORS by Dete Meserve
✧ next anticipated read: FREE: MY SEARCH FOR MEANING by Amanda Knox
✨bookish checkpoint✨💙📚
✧ last book read: CHALLENGER by Adam Higginbotham
✧ current read: MY FAMILY AND OTHER ANIMALS by Gerald Durrell
✧ last book added to the tbr: ISLAND AT THE CENTER OF THE WORLD by Russell Shorto
✧ next anticipated read: LAST BUS TO WISDOM by Ivan Doig
✧ last book read: CHALLENGER by Adam Higginbotham
✧ current read: MY FAMILY AND OTHER ANIMALS by Gerald Durrell
✧ last book added to the tbr: ISLAND AT THE CENTER OF THE WORLD by Russell Shorto
✧ next anticipated read: LAST BUS TO WISDOM by Ivan Doig
August 7, 2025 at 5:28 AM
✨bookish checkpoint✨💙📚
✧ last book read: TILT by Emma Pattee
✧ current read: MICKEY7 by Edward Ashton
✧ last book added to the tbr: LAST RITUALS by Yrsa Sigurdardottir
✧ next anticipated read: EVERYTHING IS TUBERCULOSIS by John Green
✧ last book read: TILT by Emma Pattee
✧ current read: MICKEY7 by Edward Ashton
✧ last book added to the tbr: LAST RITUALS by Yrsa Sigurdardottir
✧ next anticipated read: EVERYTHING IS TUBERCULOSIS by John Green
Reposted by Caroline Seydel
For decades, the only way to make custom DNA in bulk has been phosphoramidite synthesis, a chemical process that can construct nucleic acids up to 350 nucleotides or so in length. Advances in chemical & enzymatic methods has more than doubled that. 🧪 By @carolineseydel.bsky.social @nature.com
Made-to-order DNA goes big: new tech doubles size of custom genetic sequences
Enzyme-based techniques and refinements in organic chemistry ease the generation of extended DNA sequences.
www.nature.com
July 22, 2025 at 4:41 PM
For decades, the only way to make custom DNA in bulk has been phosphoramidite synthesis, a chemical process that can construct nucleic acids up to 350 nucleotides or so in length. Advances in chemical & enzymatic methods has more than doubled that. 🧪 By @carolineseydel.bsky.social @nature.com