David Castellano
@castellanoed.bsky.social
𝙴𝚟𝚘𝚕𝚞𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚊𝚛𝚢 biologist 𝚊𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚄𝚗𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚒𝚝𝚢 𝚘𝚏 𝙰𝚛𝚒𝚣𝚘𝚗𝚊 | 𝙼𝚞𝚝𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜 𝙰𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚘𝚕𝚘𝚐𝚎𝚛 | 🅷🅰🆂🅷🆃🅰🅶🆂: #🆂🅲🅸🅴🅽🅲🅴 #🅱🅸🅾🅻🅾🅶🆈 #🅴🆅🅾🅻🆄🆃🅸🅾🅽 #🅿🅾🅿🅶🅴🅽 #🅼🆄🆃🅰🆃🅸🅾🅽🆂 https://msha.ke/dcastellano/
Pinned
🧵1/
Excited to share our new paper in Molecular Biology & Evolution!
👉 [https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf250]
It started as a lab-meeting sanity check for another project — and ended up turning into a new way to interpret machine-learning models in population genomics.
Excited to share our new paper in Molecular Biology & Evolution!
👉 [https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf250]
It started as a lab-meeting sanity check for another project — and ended up turning into a new way to interpret machine-learning models in population genomics.
Reposted by David Castellano
Transcription start sites are new mutational hotspots, according to a new study by the CRG's Donate Weghorn in Nature Communications. The mutations can be passed down to future generations and appear shortly after conception, in the first few rounds of cell division.
Transcription start sites experience a high influx of heritable variants fueled by early development - Nature Communications
The impact of transcription on germline mutagenesis remains poorly understood. Here, the authors identify a mutational hotspot at transcription start sites in the human germline that is significantly ...
www.nature.com
November 26, 2025 at 10:31 AM
Transcription start sites are new mutational hotspots, according to a new study by the CRG's Donate Weghorn in Nature Communications. The mutations can be passed down to future generations and appear shortly after conception, in the first few rounds of cell division.
I found myself writing this weird post about Descartes mind-body dualism, the Frequentist and Bayesian debate in statistics and John's Vervaeke work. open.substack.com/pub/stevecas...
Probability Isn’t in Your Head or in the World — It’s Between Them
We usually talk about statistics as if it were a technical subject, but beneath the formulas runs a very old philosophical tension.
open.substack.com
November 25, 2025 at 6:01 PM
I found myself writing this weird post about Descartes mind-body dualism, the Frequentist and Bayesian debate in statistics and John's Vervaeke work. open.substack.com/pub/stevecas...
Reposted by David Castellano
Phase transitions, bifurcations, thermal vents, exoplanets and their interactive maps, as well as pointers to a whole special issue just published in @royalsocietypublishing.org about origin of life.
With Spotify and Apple podcasts as usual.
What do you need more?
CC: @ricardsole.bsky.social
With Spotify and Apple podcasts as usual.
What do you need more?
CC: @ricardsole.bsky.social
When matter came alive: the physics of life’s emergence
Exploring the origins of life through the mathematical theory of transitions
manlius.substack.com
November 14, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Phase transitions, bifurcations, thermal vents, exoplanets and their interactive maps, as well as pointers to a whole special issue just published in @royalsocietypublishing.org about origin of life.
With Spotify and Apple podcasts as usual.
What do you need more?
CC: @ricardsole.bsky.social
With Spotify and Apple podcasts as usual.
What do you need more?
CC: @ricardsole.bsky.social
Excellent teaching material.
"It may be uncomfortable to conclude that a widely used study design has been producing spurious results. But the evidence is in, and telling uncomfortable truths is a part of doing science."
Problems with twin studies.
theinfinitesimal.substack.com/p/the-missin...
Problems with twin studies.
theinfinitesimal.substack.com/p/the-missin...
The missing heritability question is now (mostly) answered
Not with a bang but with a whimper
theinfinitesimal.substack.com
November 22, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Excellent teaching material.
Reposted by David Castellano
Next paper published in the @hpgg-pivot.bsky.social special issue on popgen methods and software!
Coll Macià & Skov "Best practices and pitfalls in using hmmix for reference-free detection of introgressed sequences"
doi.org/10.47248/hpg...
Submission for contributions still open to 15 January!
Coll Macià & Skov "Best practices and pitfalls in using hmmix for reference-free detection of introgressed sequences"
doi.org/10.47248/hpg...
Submission for contributions still open to 15 January!
Best practices and pitfalls in using <monospace>hmmix</monospace> for reference-free detection of introgressed sequences
Best practices and pitfalls in using <monospace>hmmix</monospace> for reference-free detection of introgressed sequences
doi.org
November 19, 2025 at 11:18 AM
Next paper published in the @hpgg-pivot.bsky.social special issue on popgen methods and software!
Coll Macià & Skov "Best practices and pitfalls in using hmmix for reference-free detection of introgressed sequences"
doi.org/10.47248/hpg...
Submission for contributions still open to 15 January!
Coll Macià & Skov "Best practices and pitfalls in using hmmix for reference-free detection of introgressed sequences"
doi.org/10.47248/hpg...
Submission for contributions still open to 15 January!
Reposted by David Castellano
Amazing to have a byline with @cbo.bsky.social - read our take on Watson’s ultimate legacy in the Boston Globe. Will be in Sunday’s print edition.
"What James Watson got wrong about DNA"
By the great Sohini Ramachandran (@sramach.bsky.social) and your boy for The Boston Globe (@bostonglobe.com).
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/14/o...
By the great Sohini Ramachandran (@sramach.bsky.social) and your boy for The Boston Globe (@bostonglobe.com).
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/14/o...
What James Watson got wrong about DNA - The Boston Globe
The science he helped pioneer consistently undermines his view that genes determine everything about us.
www.bostonglobe.com
November 14, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Amazing to have a byline with @cbo.bsky.social - read our take on Watson’s ultimate legacy in the Boston Globe. Will be in Sunday’s print edition.
Reposted by David Castellano
Putting aside the deeper issues of why this analysis was done and how it has been promoted, the choice to broadcast a tv show before releasing a preprint should make people skeptical of the results. How can one be sure of their scientific claims?
As I told the CNN, without details and data it is not possible to assess the claims.
More importantly, the scientific value of this media campaign, balanced against the possible stigmatization of individuals with these real conditions today, is highly questionable. edition.cnn.com/2025/11/13/s...
More importantly, the scientific value of this media campaign, balanced against the possible stigmatization of individuals with these real conditions today, is highly questionable. edition.cnn.com/2025/11/13/s...
Researchers say they have verified and sequenced Hitler’s DNA – and found a genetic disorder | CNN
Analysis of Adolf Hitler’s DNA reveals he may have had a rare genetic disorder that can delay puberty.
edition.cnn.com
November 15, 2025 at 3:19 AM
Putting aside the deeper issues of why this analysis was done and how it has been promoted, the choice to broadcast a tv show before releasing a preprint should make people skeptical of the results. How can one be sure of their scientific claims?
Reposted by David Castellano
Our recent article on GHIST, the community competition to benchmark methods in genomic history inference, is the focus of this month's Highlight.
Highlight: Community Tournament GHIST Fuels Advances in Computational Genetics
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf278
#evobio #molbio #compbio
Highlight: Community Tournament GHIST Fuels Advances in Computational Genetics
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf278
#evobio #molbio #compbio
November 14, 2025 at 9:32 AM
Our recent article on GHIST, the community competition to benchmark methods in genomic history inference, is the focus of this month's Highlight.
Highlight: Community Tournament GHIST Fuels Advances in Computational Genetics
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf278
#evobio #molbio #compbio
Highlight: Community Tournament GHIST Fuels Advances in Computational Genetics
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf278
#evobio #molbio #compbio
Reposted by David Castellano
I am happy to share our manuscript summarising the outcome of GHIST2024 (ghist.bio). With so many statistical tools and software, population genetics research seems easy. But every case is different. The approaches used vary! doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf257 @ryangutenkunst.bsky.social
GHIST 2024: The First Genomic History Inference Strategies Tournament
Abstract. Evaluating population genetic inference methods is challenging due to the complexity of evolutionary histories, potential model misspecification,
doi.org
November 14, 2025 at 2:05 AM
I am happy to share our manuscript summarising the outcome of GHIST2024 (ghist.bio). With so many statistical tools and software, population genetics research seems easy. But every case is different. The approaches used vary! doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf257 @ryangutenkunst.bsky.social
Reposted by David Castellano
With sequencing of Hitler's DNA making headlines, time for a reminder: analysing a polygenic score from a dead historically-significant figure won't give new insights into that person's behaviour. In a brief paper last year, we used Beethoven's genome to directly illustrate the fallacies involved.🧪👇
Notes from Beethoven’s genome
Wesseldijk et al. compare the genomic information collected from Ludwig van Beethoven
with population-based datasets used to quantify musical achievement.
www.cell.com
November 13, 2025 at 11:26 AM
With sequencing of Hitler's DNA making headlines, time for a reminder: analysing a polygenic score from a dead historically-significant figure won't give new insights into that person's behaviour. In a brief paper last year, we used Beethoven's genome to directly illustrate the fallacies involved.🧪👇
Reposted by David Castellano
The Spanish public television has published the first audiovisual map showing the 6,000 mass graves from the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and the subsequent Francoist dictatorship (1939-1975). A testimony of what happens when fascism wins -something unknown in most of Europe.
El #MapaFosasRTVE es el primer mapa audiovisual con las 6.000 fosas comunes de la guerra civil y el Franquismo.
Los restos de más de 17.000 víctimas se han podido recuperar, pero otras 12.000 personas podrían ser aún exhumadas.
rtve.es/noticias/fos...
Los restos de más de 17.000 víctimas se han podido recuperar, pero otras 12.000 personas podrían ser aún exhumadas.
rtve.es/noticias/fos...
November 10, 2025 at 8:18 AM
The Spanish public television has published the first audiovisual map showing the 6,000 mass graves from the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and the subsequent Francoist dictatorship (1939-1975). A testimony of what happens when fascism wins -something unknown in most of Europe.
Reposted by David Castellano
ICE vehicles waste a whopping 80% of the energy in their fuel. Electric vehicles are propelled by entirely different mechanisms. Energy enters the vehicle as electricity, which directly powers the drivetrain: EVs need not convert one form of energy to another resulting in much higher efficiency.
November 9, 2025 at 9:22 AM
ICE vehicles waste a whopping 80% of the energy in their fuel. Electric vehicles are propelled by entirely different mechanisms. Energy enters the vehicle as electricity, which directly powers the drivetrain: EVs need not convert one form of energy to another resulting in much higher efficiency.
Reposted by David Castellano
@lntran.bsky.social @castellanoed.bsky.social @ryangutenkunst.bsky.social introduce a systematic permutation approach for interpreting haplotype matrix-based methods in population genomics.
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf250
#evobio #molbio
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf250
#evobio #molbio
Interpreting Supervised Machine Learning Inferences in Population Genomics Using Haplotype Matrix Permutations
Abstract. Supervised machine learning methods, such as convolutional neural networks (CNNs), that use haplotype matrices as input data have become powerful
doi.org
October 24, 2025 at 8:41 AM
@lntran.bsky.social @castellanoed.bsky.social @ryangutenkunst.bsky.social introduce a systematic permutation approach for interpreting haplotype matrix-based methods in population genomics.
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf250
#evobio #molbio
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf250
#evobio #molbio
Reposted by David Castellano
Can consciousness arise purely from computation, or does it require the biological mechanisms that allow computing? The tension between computational roles and biological realizers may hold the key. Check this paper by @neddo.bsky.social @mkhochb.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
October 11, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Can consciousness arise purely from computation, or does it require the biological mechanisms that allow computing? The tension between computational roles and biological realizers may hold the key. Check this paper by @neddo.bsky.social @mkhochb.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
🧵1/
Excited to share our new paper in Molecular Biology & Evolution!
👉 [https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf250]
It started as a lab-meeting sanity check for another project — and ended up turning into a new way to interpret machine-learning models in population genomics.
Excited to share our new paper in Molecular Biology & Evolution!
👉 [https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf250]
It started as a lab-meeting sanity check for another project — and ended up turning into a new way to interpret machine-learning models in population genomics.
October 7, 2025 at 8:33 AM
🧵1/
Excited to share our new paper in Molecular Biology & Evolution!
👉 [https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf250]
It started as a lab-meeting sanity check for another project — and ended up turning into a new way to interpret machine-learning models in population genomics.
Excited to share our new paper in Molecular Biology & Evolution!
👉 [https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf250]
It started as a lab-meeting sanity check for another project — and ended up turning into a new way to interpret machine-learning models in population genomics.
Reposted by David Castellano
#Solar becomes main source of electricity in the #EU for first time. More than half of the EU’s #electricity in the second quarter of 2025 came from #RenewableEnergy
www.independent.co.uk/tech/solar-p...
www.independent.co.uk/tech/solar-p...
Solar becomes main source of electricity in the EU for first time
More than half of the EU’s electricity in the second quarter of 2025 came from renewable energy
www.independent.co.uk
October 3, 2025 at 9:15 AM
#Solar becomes main source of electricity in the #EU for first time. More than half of the EU’s #electricity in the second quarter of 2025 came from #RenewableEnergy
www.independent.co.uk/tech/solar-p...
www.independent.co.uk/tech/solar-p...
Reposted by David Castellano
Exciting news!
The next #PopGroup meeting will take place in Lille 🍟, France, 7–9 January 2026 – just 1 hour by train from London, Brussels, and Paris.
This year, PopGroup will also host ALPHY, the annual meeting of Evolutionary Genomics.
More info: populationgeneticsgroup.org.uk
See you there !
The next #PopGroup meeting will take place in Lille 🍟, France, 7–9 January 2026 – just 1 hour by train from London, Brussels, and Paris.
This year, PopGroup will also host ALPHY, the annual meeting of Evolutionary Genomics.
More info: populationgeneticsgroup.org.uk
See you there !
Population Genetics group 59
populationgeneticsgroup.org.uk
September 29, 2025 at 8:52 AM
Exciting news!
The next #PopGroup meeting will take place in Lille 🍟, France, 7–9 January 2026 – just 1 hour by train from London, Brussels, and Paris.
This year, PopGroup will also host ALPHY, the annual meeting of Evolutionary Genomics.
More info: populationgeneticsgroup.org.uk
See you there !
The next #PopGroup meeting will take place in Lille 🍟, France, 7–9 January 2026 – just 1 hour by train from London, Brussels, and Paris.
This year, PopGroup will also host ALPHY, the annual meeting of Evolutionary Genomics.
More info: populationgeneticsgroup.org.uk
See you there !
Reposted by David Castellano
Mathematician Hilda Geiringer was born OTD 9/28/1893. In philosophy of science, best known for translating and adding to her husband Richard von Mises' books on probability and statistics, in biology for seminal work on genetic linkage. www.bbc.com/future/artic... #philsci #evobio #probability #math
The woman who reshaped maths
She fled the Nazis, only to face a new challenge: being accepted in academia.
www.bbc.com
September 29, 2025 at 3:02 AM
Mathematician Hilda Geiringer was born OTD 9/28/1893. In philosophy of science, best known for translating and adding to her husband Richard von Mises' books on probability and statistics, in biology for seminal work on genetic linkage. www.bbc.com/future/artic... #philsci #evobio #probability #math
Reposted by David Castellano
Reposted by David Castellano
Proud to announce the project I've been working on 🏳️⚧️🧬
Had hoped to have more ready, but the events of the last week stressed the importance of speaking up against fascism NOW
I'd appreciate your support in spreading the word, esp if you work in life sciences research, healthcare, or biotech
Had hoped to have more ready, but the events of the last week stressed the importance of speaking up against fascism NOW
I'd appreciate your support in spreading the word, esp if you work in life sciences research, healthcare, or biotech
It's the scientific community's duty to fight misinformation, bioessentialism, and eugenics
That's why we're launching Beyond X&Y, an educational campaign combating the rise of unscientific political propaganda used to attack trans and intersex people
Subscribe to our newsletter at beyondxandy.org
That's why we're launching Beyond X&Y, an educational campaign combating the rise of unscientific political propaganda used to attack trans and intersex people
Subscribe to our newsletter at beyondxandy.org
September 23, 2025 at 9:02 PM
Proud to announce the project I've been working on 🏳️⚧️🧬
Had hoped to have more ready, but the events of the last week stressed the importance of speaking up against fascism NOW
I'd appreciate your support in spreading the word, esp if you work in life sciences research, healthcare, or biotech
Had hoped to have more ready, but the events of the last week stressed the importance of speaking up against fascism NOW
I'd appreciate your support in spreading the word, esp if you work in life sciences research, healthcare, or biotech
Reposted by David Castellano
Women, non-native English speakers & those form low-income countries are disadvantaged in science but by how much? We found that women with non-English first languages from low-income countries publish up to 70% fewer in English than their counterparts. 1/5
doi.org/10.1371/jour...
#languagebarriers
doi.org/10.1371/jour...
#languagebarriers
September 19, 2025 at 2:46 AM
Women, non-native English speakers & those form low-income countries are disadvantaged in science but by how much? We found that women with non-English first languages from low-income countries publish up to 70% fewer in English than their counterparts. 1/5
doi.org/10.1371/jour...
#languagebarriers
doi.org/10.1371/jour...
#languagebarriers
@adameyrewalker.bsky.social Nice to see you here!
September 18, 2025 at 5:41 PM
@adameyrewalker.bsky.social Nice to see you here!
Reposted by David Castellano
Giving a little boost to this appendix to #beyondtheageofmachines:
"Limitations of Mathematical Modeling"
https://expandingpossibilities.org/a4-limitations-of-mathematical-modelling.html
It starts with static network models, then shows how to include dynamics […]
[Original post on spore.social]
"Limitations of Mathematical Modeling"
https://expandingpossibilities.org/a4-limitations-of-mathematical-modelling.html
It starts with static network models, then shows how to include dynamics […]
[Original post on spore.social]
September 17, 2025 at 10:42 AM
Giving a little boost to this appendix to #beyondtheageofmachines:
"Limitations of Mathematical Modeling"
https://expandingpossibilities.org/a4-limitations-of-mathematical-modelling.html
It starts with static network models, then shows how to include dynamics […]
[Original post on spore.social]
"Limitations of Mathematical Modeling"
https://expandingpossibilities.org/a4-limitations-of-mathematical-modelling.html
It starts with static network models, then shows how to include dynamics […]
[Original post on spore.social]
Reposted by David Castellano
I'm excited to share with you all a conference I'm planning Oct. 10-12: Dialectical Biology Today: Legacies of Richard Lewontin.
It will be hybrid in Toronto and on zoom, so please join us however you can! Register for zoom link here: ihpst.utoronto.ca/events/diale...
It will be hybrid in Toronto and on zoom, so please join us however you can! Register for zoom link here: ihpst.utoronto.ca/events/diale...
September 15, 2025 at 5:35 PM
I'm excited to share with you all a conference I'm planning Oct. 10-12: Dialectical Biology Today: Legacies of Richard Lewontin.
It will be hybrid in Toronto and on zoom, so please join us however you can! Register for zoom link here: ihpst.utoronto.ca/events/diale...
It will be hybrid in Toronto and on zoom, so please join us however you can! Register for zoom link here: ihpst.utoronto.ca/events/diale...
Reposted by David Castellano
With two months to go, @alwaysrong.bsky.social is dominating the Genomic History Inference Strategies Tournament leaderboards. Jump into the competition to help dethrone Stephen! Glory, money, and authorship are all on the line! ghi.st
September 15, 2025 at 3:52 PM
With two months to go, @alwaysrong.bsky.social is dominating the Genomic History Inference Strategies Tournament leaderboards. Jump into the competition to help dethrone Stephen! Glory, money, and authorship are all on the line! ghi.st