Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Elisa Fadda

Carolyn Bertozzi @carolynbertozzi.bskyverified.social · 6h

My HPLC was definitely overlooked

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Prizes must recognize machine contributions to discovery

The future of science will be written by humans and machines together. Awards should reflect that reality.

www.nature.com

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Elisa Fadda @elisafadda.bsky.social · 5h

🤭🤭🤭😎

Elisa Fadda @elisafadda.bsky.social · 6h

🤣🤣🤣

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Michael E. Mann @michaelemann.bsky.social · 9h

Fantastic profile and discussion of our new book #ScienceUnderSiege by the great @willbunch.bsky.social!

Will Bunch @willbunch.bsky.social · 9h

Trump's dictatorship is time for making moral choices

I talked to the top climate scientist, Penn's Michael Mann, about his great new book - and why he sacrificed a key university post in order to keep speaking the truth against anti-science lies

My new column www.inquirer.com/opinion/scie...

Science is under siege. How Penn’s top climate scientist is fighting back | Will Bunch

Michael E. Mann's new book, and the sacrifice this Penn scientist made to fight the war against climate disinformation.

www.inquirer.com

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Arne Elofsson @bioinfo.se · 7h

mRNA initiation and termination are spatially coordinated | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

mRNA initiation and termination are spatially coordinated

Transcriptional initiation and termination decisions drive messenger RNA (mRNA) isoform diversity but the relationship between them remains poorly understood. By systematically profiling joint usage o...

www.science.org

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Quanta Magazine @quantamagazine.bsky.social · 7h

Without sleep, we die. 🧵

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Hiren Joshi @glyco.me · 7h

We’re working on a lot of different problems - but you can look forward to working out how to transform rich datasets (protein sequence, transcriptomics, and genomic data) into insights about how the third, hidden language of life is formed. Also, we’ve got PhD positions open!

PhD fellowship at the Copenhagen Center for Glycocalyx Research at the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine

employment.ku.dk

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Richard Sever @richardsever.bsky.social · 7h

the comment seemed so apt in that context
bsky.app/profile/rich...

Richard Sever @richardsever.bsky.social · 7h

"Lacking even any particularly useful theory of emergence, and confronted with the obvious wild variety of emergent phenomena, it seems likely that predictive theories of biology are unknowably far off" via @dadrummond.art open.substack.com/pub/clauswil...

D. Allan Drummond on Genes, Minds, Machines

Great piece, Claus. Very much enjoying the rebirth of your blog. "Biology is just physics and chemistry" -- you discuss the "levels of organization" later, but perhaps it's worth saying that "just" i...

open.substack.com

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Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · 7h

"Biology is just physics and chemistry, and in principle we should be able to write down the equations of motion of any biological system and solve them numerically. In practice, however, any realistic biological system is way too large for this approach and we don’t have the required compute."

Richard Sever @richardsever.bsky.social · 7h

AI in biology: "I read about some new computational method...get excited because it’s exactly what I need...I try the method...Most of the time things don’t work...I have seen this play out so many times my default assumption is nothing is going to work" blog.genesmindsmachines.com/p/we-still-c...

We still can’t predict much of anything in biology

Biology is hard. Yes, even for AI.

blog.genesmindsmachines.com

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Elisa Fadda @elisafadda.bsky.social · 7h

2/2 I think there is room and loads of potential for ML in biology, but only if people are willing to do it right and to appreciate its limitations, especially for stuff algorithms are *not* trained to predict... signed Rev#2 😁

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Elisa Fadda @elisafadda.bsky.social · 7h

If the publication system was healthy, it wouldn't be saturated with snake oil sold as the next 'fantastic oracle' supported by ridiculous correlation coefficients demonstrating prediction power of much less than a coin toss. None of those yokes works because it never did... 1/2

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Richard Sever @richardsever.bsky.social · 7h

AI in biology: "I read about some new computational method...get excited because it’s exactly what I need...I try the method...Most of the time things don’t work...I have seen this play out so many times my default assumption is nothing is going to work" blog.genesmindsmachines.com/p/we-still-c...

We still can’t predict much of anything in biology

Biology is hard. Yes, even for AI.

blog.genesmindsmachines.com

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The Francis Crick Institute @crick.ac.uk · 7h

Crick researchers, in collaboration with Vividion Therapeutics, have developed a potential drug that blocks a key cancer growth signal, while still allowing healthy cell processes to continue.

The drug is currently undergoing its first clinical trial in humans.

www.crick.ac.uk/news/2025-10...

www.crick.ac.uk

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Kevin Mitchell @wiringthebrain.bsky.social · 15h

In a debate on free will last night one of the speakers said we obviously can't have it because the gut microbiome has so much control over our behavior! 🤪

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Jonathan Cohn @jonathancohn.bsky.social · 8h

All conspiracy theories eventually lead to antisemitism.

Justin Baragona @justinbaragona.bsky.social · 8h

Besides linking Tylenol in pregnant women to autism, RFK Jr. now says circumcision is part of the reason why kids are autistic.

"Children who are circumcised early have double the rate of autism, and it's highly likely because they're given Tylenol. None of this is positive..."

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Elisa Fadda @elisafadda.bsky.social · 8h

A confederacy of DUNCES ⤵️

#FFsAaake

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 9h

RFK Jr on Tylenol and autism: "It is not proof. We're doing the studies to make the proof."

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Stephen Curry @scurry.bsky.social · 11h

Good piece from @himself.bsky.social explaining why is it so important for universities to resist Trump’s invidious ’compact’. open.substack.com/pub/programm...

Would that the @royalsociety.org could see the value of consistent & coordinated action in dealing with challenges to academic norms.

open.substack.com

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Elisa Fadda @elisafadda.bsky.social · 13h

"Characterization of the synthetic G-X6-G TM protein family revealed a range of folding free energies and characteristic interhelical Cα-H∙∙∙O = C H-bonds. Van der Waals (vdW) sidechain packing at ancillary interacting positions as the dominant molecular feature"

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

De novo design of minimal idealized G-X6-G TM proteins. (A) Motif of close antiparallel TM helices in membrane proteins using G-X6-G repeats (white cartoon); glycines, purple sticks or red Cα spheres; yellow dash, Cα-H hydrogen bonds. PDB codes Left to Right: 6LEO, 7C83, 4ZP0, 8SRN. (B) A design model is broken into fragments centered around each interface amino acid (AA), at a and “d-e” packing layers (red and purple Cα spheres, respectively). Natural membrane protein structures (SI Appendix, Table S1) are data-mined for instances of similar local helix–helix geometries, collecting corresponding primary sequences to compile a structure-based MSA. Packing layers represented in a graph-based network (Right) are sampled to statistically infer new de novo TM protein sequences from the MSA data. (C) Models of de novo antiparallel G-X6-G TM homodimer complexes overlaid with ESMfold predicted structures (pLDDT > 0.8). N and C termini are labeled blue and red, respectively.

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Kresten Lindorff-Larsen @lindorfflarsen.bsky.social · 14h

One of the great advantages of biology is that you can write HELLO WORLD in amino acids since PROTEINS ARE AMAZING

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Rebecca R Helm @rebeccarhelm.bsky.social · 21h

Many sea stars begin life as young fairy-like creature (called a brachiolaria) that float through the open ocean. Eventually, a small star forms within them (here in yellow). The fairy-like brachiolaria sinks under the star’s weight, and the star pops out!
🎥@the_story_of_a_biologist (on Insta)

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Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 1d

I adored writing this piece. It brings together several of the things preoccupying me right now, like chromatin organization and gene regulation. There's so much more to be said on that. Also, these marine critters look gorgeous.
www.quantamagazine.org/loops-of-dna...

Loops of DNA Equipped Ancient Life To Become Complex | Quanta Magazine

New work shows that physical folding of the genome to control genes located far away may have been an early evolutionary development.

www.quantamagazine.org

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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 1d

Last bit of MOF stuff for the day… this is one of my very favourite cover lines from back when I was the Chief Ed of @natchem.nature.com… - was incredibly fitting for the paper too (rdcu.be/eJ4zt by @randallsnurr.bsky.social and co-workers) #chemsky 🧪

The cover of the Feb 2012 issue of Nature Chemistry. A series of connectors in various colours are connected with short straight rods. Off to the side is a pile of different coloured connectors. The main cover line is: Every MOF you make.

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Thiago Carvalho @cyrilpedia.bsky.social · 19h

"Risks"?

'(...) an open letter alleging Musk had breached the society’s code of conduct attracted thousands of signatures — but no action resulted. Two fellows have resigned. The Royal Society risks looking like a bystander as reason & rationality come under sustained global assault from populism'

The Royal Society should be protecting science, not Musk

The esteemed club risks becoming a bystander as reason and rationality come under attack

www.ft.com

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Compound Interest | Chemistry infographics @compoundchem.com · 1d

The 2025 #NobelPrize in Chemistry was awarded today for the development of metal-organic frameworks, molecular sponges with applications in gas storage, water purification and more: www.compoundchem.com/2025/10/08/2...

#ChemSky 🧪

Infographic on the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, awarded to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson, and Omar M. Yaghi for the development of metal-organic frameworks. The infographic explains that metal-organic frameworks are molecular sponges built up from metal ions and organic compounds that act as linkers. Small molecules such as gases can move into and out of cavities in these frameworks. The graphic highlights some of the MOFs the laureates have developed and concludes by looking at possible future uses of MOFs, including gas storage and extracting water from air.

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Chise @sailorrooscout.bsky.social · 1d

This finding potentially opens up new perspectives for the prevention and treatment of HIV infections.
• uni-koeln.de/en/universit...

The study has been published in Nature Immunology. YES, it is PEER-REVIEWED.
• www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🧪🧵⬇️

ABSTRACT
Administration of HIV-1 neutralizing antibodies can suppress viremia and prevent infection in vivo. However, clinical use is challenged by envelope diversity and rapid viral escape. Here, we performed single B cell profiling of 32 top HIV-1 elite neutralizers to identify broadly neutralizing antibodies with highest antiviral activity.
From 831 expressed monoclonal antibodies, we identified 04_A06, a VH1-2-encoded broadly neutralizing antibody to the CD4 binding site with remarkable breadth and potency against multiclade pseudovirus panels (geometric mean half-maximal inhibitory concentration =0.059 ug ugml-1, breadth = 98.5%, 332 strains).
Moreover, 04_A06 was not susceptible to classic CD4 binding site escape variants and maintained full viral suppression in HIV-1-infected humanized mice.
Structural analyses revealed an unusually long 11-amino-acid heavy chain insertion that facilitates interprotomer contacts with highly conserved residues on the adjacent gp120 protomer. Finally, 04_A06 demonstrated high activity against contemporaneously circulating viruses from the Antibody-Mediated Prevention trials (geometric mean half-maximal
inhibitory concentration = 0.082 ug ml-1, breadth =
98.4%, 191 virus strains), and in silico modeling for
04_A06LS predicted prevention efficacy of >93%.
Thus, 04_A06 will provide unique opportunities for effective treatment and prevention of HIV-1 infection.

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