Ed Rybicki 🇿🇲🇿🇦🇬🇧🍷🚀
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edrybicki.bsky.social
Ed Rybicki 🇿🇲🇿🇦🇬🇧🍷🚀
@edrybicki.bsky.social
Semi-retired biotechnologist and virologist, interested in making vaccines, lover of 70s rock and hard SF. And good red wine. Posts are both personal and professional, and may include music and/or strong opinions. And possibly zombies.
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"Cann's Principles of Molecular Virology 7th Edition revised extensively by Ed Rybicki, is an easily accessible introduction to modern virology, presenting principles in a clear and concise manner."

**Selected for Doody’s Core Titles® 2024 in Microbiology**
www.sciencedirect.com/book/9780128...
Cann's Principles of Molecular Virology
**Selected for Doody’s Core Titles® 2024 in Microbiology**Cann's Principles of Molecular Virology, Seventh Edition provides an easily access...
www.sciencedirect.com
Reposted by Ed Rybicki 🇿🇲🇿🇦🇬🇧🍷🚀
This cartoon of his lives rent free in my brain.
February 9, 2026 at 4:05 AM
Reposted by Ed Rybicki 🇿🇲🇿🇦🇬🇧🍷🚀
The brutality of U.S.A.I.D.’s closure and the disregard for the human toll betrayed a vision of a crueler, meaner, more insular world — one in which America aspires not to any pretense of moral leadership but simply to naked power, dominance and extractive self-interest.”
#giftarticle
Opinion | The Aftermath of Feeding America’s Credibility Into the Woodchipper
www.nytimes.com
February 8, 2026 at 9:32 PM
Reposted by Ed Rybicki 🇿🇲🇿🇦🇬🇧🍷🚀
Project Hail Mary – Final Trailer

The final trailer has been released for Project Hail Mary. Believe in the Hail Mary. Project Hail Mary — starring Academy Award® nominee Ryan Gosling and directed by Academy Award®-winning filmmakers Phil Lord & Christopher Miller. Only in theaters and IMAX…
Project Hail Mary – Final Trailer
The final trailer has been released for Project Hail Mary. Believe in the Hail Mary. Project Hail Mary — starring Academy Award® nominee Ryan Gosling and directed by Academy Award®-winning filmmakers Phil Lord & Christopher Miller. Only in theaters and IMAX 3.20.26. RETURN TO SCIENCE FICTION TRAILERS
wevegotbackissues.com
February 8, 2026 at 11:09 PM
FMG, but Xwitter is is a toxic toilet bowl right now! Went there after a xweet prompt from one of my old buddies who’s still hanging out there, and was submerged in shit in moments. Unreal!!
February 9, 2026 at 8:04 AM
Reposted by Ed Rybicki 🇿🇲🇿🇦🇬🇧🍷🚀
Once again. From countries that already had public health emergencies due to various other pathogens… thank you very much for giving no hope of ever getting out of this mess, and making everything worse by keeping a pet SARS virus.
February 9, 2026 at 12:47 AM
Reposted by Ed Rybicki 🇿🇲🇿🇦🇬🇧🍷🚀
GOOD NEWS! A UNIVERSAL sarbecovirus vaccine candidate has officially started clinical trials! GBP511 is the FIRST vaccine to reach human testing that is intended to protect against MULTIPLE strains of SARS-CoV-2 as well as other related coronaviruses with the potential to spark dangerous outbreaks.
February 8, 2026 at 5:00 PM
Reposted by Ed Rybicki 🇿🇲🇿🇦🇬🇧🍷🚀
After repeated setbacks, could this approach lead to an effective vaccine against HIV?

news.mit.edu/2026/new-vac...
New vaccine platform promotes rare protective B cells
Researchers developed a DNA-scaffolded vaccine that achieves the first step in generating a significant population of B cells that produce broadly neutralizing antibodies against HIV.
news.mit.edu
February 8, 2026 at 3:12 PM
Reposted by Ed Rybicki 🇿🇲🇿🇦🇬🇧🍷🚀
Your risk of blood clots after a Covid infection are 30 times higher. There are risks with all medications, the risks are very small compared to the far greater risk from COVID itself! Much of the media is focused on the incredibly small risk.

www.hdruk.ac.uk/news/new-stu...
New study confirms far higher risk of blood clots from COVID-19, than from vaccines
A health data study confirms the risk of blood clots is far higher from COVID-19 infection than from vaccination.
www.hdruk.ac.uk
February 7, 2026 at 1:23 AM
Reposted by Ed Rybicki 🇿🇲🇿🇦🇬🇧🍷🚀
If you liked this don't forget to subscribe to the blog (via pop-up from any page) to get any new writings! I promise they won't over-load your inbox.
Not at the frequency I write ! 😁
February 8, 2026 at 6:52 AM
Reposted by Ed Rybicki 🇿🇲🇿🇦🇬🇧🍷🚀
David Leser in the Nine papers #auspol
February 8, 2026 at 8:40 AM
Reposted by Ed Rybicki 🇿🇲🇿🇦🇬🇧🍷🚀
Aude Bernheim @audeber.bsky.social and Eugene Koonin discuss one of most interesting questions in the field connecting bacterial and animal immunity!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The paradox of immune systems conservation between prokaryotes and eukaryotes - Nature Reviews Microbiology
The widespread prokaryotic immune systems, in particular restriction–modification, CRISPR–Cas and defensive toxin–antitoxin systems, are absent in eukaryotes, whereas relatively rare ones, such as Arg...
www.nature.com
February 6, 2026 at 3:15 PM
Reposted by Ed Rybicki 🇿🇲🇿🇦🇬🇧🍷🚀
#NatMicroPicks

T4 phage-based therapeutics! 💊

T4 phages engineered to produce a protease inhibitor that reduces inflammation-associated enzyme activity in a mouse model of ulcerative colitis

#MicroSky

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Sustained in situ protein production and release in the mammalian gut by an engineered bacteriophage - Nature Biotechnology
Biologics are delivered to the gut using phage that infects resident commensal bacteria.
www.nature.com
February 7, 2026 at 5:47 PM
Reposted by Ed Rybicki 🇿🇲🇿🇦🇬🇧🍷🚀
Hi, FBI? I want to report a nuclear burn.
February 6, 2026 at 7:56 PM
Reposted by Ed Rybicki 🇿🇲🇿🇦🇬🇧🍷🚀
Preprint reveals that centuries-/millennia-old Adelie penguin mummies preserve near-complete RNA virus genomes, enabling the study of long-term #RNA #virus #evolution in Antarctic remains.🧬❄️
📄 https://doi.org/10.64898/2025.12.17.693957
👤 EVBC: C. Lauber, M. A. Suchard, P. Lemey, S. Calvignac-Spencer
RNA virus genomes from centuries- to millennia-old Adélie penguin mummies
Direct studies of long-term RNA virus evolution are largely limited to chemically-fixed specimens from natural history and pathology museums collected over the past two centuries. Detecting genomic traces of RNA viruses in older, buried remains is generally considered highly unlikely. The cold, dry conditions of Antarctica may represent an exception. Under such circumstances, natural mummification of penguins and seals—animals that form large colonies where RNA viruses circulate—is common and may facilitate the recovery of RNA virus genomes. Here, we show that Adélie penguin ( Pygoscelis adeliae ) mummies, ranging in age from recent to nearly two millennia, indeed contain fragments of such ancient viral genomes. Metatranscriptomic analyses yielded near-complete genome sequences of a picornavirus ( Megrivirus epengu ) and a rotavirus D ( Rotavirus deltagastroenteritidis ) from relatively recent specimens. We further retrieved rotavirus D sequences from a 280-year-old individual and a near-complete rotavirus G ( Rotavirus gammagastroenteritidis ) genome from a 1900-year-old one. These findings pave the way to direct studies of RNA virus evolution across millennia. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation), Transregio Collaborative Research Centre 410 “WETSCAPES2.0”, Project-ID 531801029 – TRR 410 National Science Foundation, ANT 1443386, OPP 9909274 US National Institutes of Health, R01 AI153044 Research Foundation - Flanders (‘Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek - Vlaanderen’, G0D5117N, G0B9317N, G051322N Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation), Germany's Excellence Strategy - EXC 2155 - project number 390874280 Helmholtz Association’s Initiative and Network Fund, KA1-Co-02 “CoViPa”
doi.org
February 7, 2026 at 10:57 AM
I did a lot of blog posts, back there in 2015. Here’s one in praise of Pratchett, he of fond memory. edrybicki.wordpress.com/2015/03/13/i...
In Praise of Pratchett
About six years ago, I wrote a paean in praise of Terry Pratchett – because I have, for over 30 years, been enthralled by his prose. And then yesterday, I heard that he had died.  No! I cried…
edrybicki.wordpress.com
February 7, 2026 at 9:17 AM
And seeing as I find myself digging into my own history, here’s another blog post from 11 years back. Music! edrybicki.wordpress.com/2015/05/27/m...
Music of a certain age
And here we are, in 2015, listening to music we grew up with – again.  The good wife and I, sitting in our bedroom during an electricity load shedding episode, listening to The Best of Bread …
edrybicki.wordpress.com
February 7, 2026 at 8:55 AM
Reposted by Ed Rybicki 🇿🇲🇿🇦🇬🇧🍷🚀
Summary of Peter Hartcher article in Nine
February 7, 2026 at 5:33 AM
Like the Democrats, eh? Wordle 1,694 3/6

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February 7, 2026 at 7:53 AM
“Around the icy waters underground…” - on all those moons, eh?!
#MicroSky: ENVIRON BIOTECH: Vidal et al discuss that deep beneath Earth’s surface, life thrives in extremes. Subsurface microbiology reveals the limits and origins of life, and guides the search for biosignatures on Mars, icy moons, and distant exoplanets. Do not miss doi.org/10.1111/1751...
February 7, 2026 at 6:35 AM
Reposted by Ed Rybicki 🇿🇲🇿🇦🇬🇧🍷🚀
Thanks for posting this @mackayim.bsky.social

I have been talking about this for years and how its not just the acute infection but rather the increased risk to subsequent infections that is particularly concerning
February 7, 2026 at 4:26 AM
Reposted by Ed Rybicki 🇿🇲🇿🇦🇬🇧🍷🚀
Quiet, lucid, devastating.
Every American needs to watch this:
February 6, 2026 at 2:53 PM
F you, Wordle 1,693 5/6. For this one, I cheated: just because your country is ruled by them right now, doesn’t mean we all want to be!!

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February 6, 2026 at 1:53 PM
Reposted by Ed Rybicki 🇿🇲🇿🇦🇬🇧🍷🚀
No joke: I got angry hate mail today for writing an obituary of a Black woman scientist—because the person felt she did didn’t deserve the recognition.

Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Gladys Mae West obituary: mathematician who pioneered GPS technology
She made key contributions to US cold-war science despite facing huge barriers as a Black woman.
www.nature.com
February 6, 2026 at 9:09 AM