Germán Bonilla-Rosso
@germusthermophilus.bsky.social
🦠🧪🖥🧬microbial ecology & evolution | agricultural microbiomes | food security | metabolism | 🐝🌺 host-microbe interactions | functional -omics | bioinformatics | salsa | philosophy | equality | UNAM | mSystems / mBio
polyimmigrant! 🇲🇽🇸🇪🇦🇺🇨🇭
polyimmigrant! 🇲🇽🇸🇪🇦🇺🇨🇭
Pinned
🎓Part of the current #ScientificCrisis is the cult of the #LoneGenius myth. Great scientists are not isolated geniuses but a cultural phenomena, product of education systems, funding structures, social capital, historical paradigms - and lots of privilege and invisible labor.
1/🧵
#AcademicSky
1/🧵
#AcademicSky
Reposted by Germán Bonilla-Rosso
Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
November 25, 2025 at 1:57 AM
Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
Reposted by Germán Bonilla-Rosso
Next week is #GivingTuesday and we need your help to raise $100,000 before the end of this year! Support our large-scale response to unchecked AI development. Join us with a gift!
www.classy.org/give/313412/...
www.classy.org/give/313412/...
November 25, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Next week is #GivingTuesday and we need your help to raise $100,000 before the end of this year! Support our large-scale response to unchecked AI development. Join us with a gift!
www.classy.org/give/313412/...
www.classy.org/give/313412/...
Reposted by Germán Bonilla-Rosso
It’s time for Austria’s Krampus Parades 🖤
November 23, 2025 at 11:08 PM
It’s time for Austria’s Krampus Parades 🖤
Reposted by Germán Bonilla-Rosso
Geneticist and microbiologist Rita Rossi Colwell was born #OTD in 1934. She was the first researcher in the US to use computers to analyze bacteriological data, and the first woman to serve as director of the NSF. 🧪 👩🔬
November 23, 2025 at 6:32 PM
Geneticist and microbiologist Rita Rossi Colwell was born #OTD in 1934. She was the first researcher in the US to use computers to analyze bacteriological data, and the first woman to serve as director of the NSF. 🧪 👩🔬
Reposted by Germán Bonilla-Rosso
The first crab here looks like AI unfortunately 😬
What are the lateral covers sticking out over some of the legs on the left, why does the right walking leg look to maybe have a claw tip, and why on earth are those mouthparts like...fused onto the face
What are the lateral covers sticking out over some of the legs on the left, why does the right walking leg look to maybe have a claw tip, and why on earth are those mouthparts like...fused onto the face
November 23, 2025 at 2:32 PM
The first crab here looks like AI unfortunately 😬
What are the lateral covers sticking out over some of the legs on the left, why does the right walking leg look to maybe have a claw tip, and why on earth are those mouthparts like...fused onto the face
What are the lateral covers sticking out over some of the legs on the left, why does the right walking leg look to maybe have a claw tip, and why on earth are those mouthparts like...fused onto the face
Reposted by Germán Bonilla-Rosso
These image generators add invisible marks to AI generated content. Publishers need to quickly integrate the detectors into their publishing platforms to flag AI generated images.
November 21, 2025 at 5:02 PM
These image generators add invisible marks to AI generated content. Publishers need to quickly integrate the detectors into their publishing platforms to flag AI generated images.
🧪🔬🔭🎓
#PeerReview is about to get much harder. And this rises the questions
1. Is this tech helping humanity?
2. Whose data was this trained on and was it legal?
#PeerReview is about to get much harder. And this rises the questions
1. Is this tech helping humanity?
2. Whose data was this trained on and was it legal?
I tried the updated Gemini image generator on scientific related image prompts that have failed in the past and I am really impressed by the quality of the outputs. The first is drawing a diagram for a pocket prediction algorithm using Voronoi diagram, Delaunay triangulation and alpha shapes
November 22, 2025 at 4:36 PM
🧪🔬🔭🎓
#PeerReview is about to get much harder. And this rises the questions
1. Is this tech helping humanity?
2. Whose data was this trained on and was it legal?
#PeerReview is about to get much harder. And this rises the questions
1. Is this tech helping humanity?
2. Whose data was this trained on and was it legal?
🧪🔬🔭
I tried an even harder example on Gemini Pro image generation and this is quite scary/amazing. I asked for a microscopy image of around 20 HeLa cells, GFP tagged 20% nuclear, 10% membrane, +1 nuclear staining, + overlap. Image below and prompt in the following post.
November 22, 2025 at 4:32 PM
🧪🔬🔭
Reposted by Germán Bonilla-Rosso
I wonder if it’s already time to update this editorial www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
November 22, 2025 at 10:30 AM
I wonder if it’s already time to update this editorial www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Reposted by Germán Bonilla-Rosso
How does this stuff pass peer review…….
The findings of a study in Nature Medicine introduce microbial elements as a component of the brain tumor microenvironment and lay the foundation for future mechanistic and translational studies. go.nature.com/44bO314 #medsky #microbiome 🧪
November 22, 2025 at 10:13 AM
How does this stuff pass peer review…….
Reposted by Germán Bonilla-Rosso
I haven’t seen this get covered in English yet so let me translate.
Grok is saying that the crematories at Auschwitz’s were conceived as disinfectant chambers, not mass execution and that the law has made it taboo to acknowledge that this is what they were
X is a Nazi site. Get off the Nazi site.
Grok is saying that the crematories at Auschwitz’s were conceived as disinfectant chambers, not mass execution and that the law has made it taboo to acknowledge that this is what they were
X is a Nazi site. Get off the Nazi site.
November 19, 2025 at 3:53 PM
I haven’t seen this get covered in English yet so let me translate.
Grok is saying that the crematories at Auschwitz’s were conceived as disinfectant chambers, not mass execution and that the law has made it taboo to acknowledge that this is what they were
X is a Nazi site. Get off the Nazi site.
Grok is saying that the crematories at Auschwitz’s were conceived as disinfectant chambers, not mass execution and that the law has made it taboo to acknowledge that this is what they were
X is a Nazi site. Get off the Nazi site.
Reposted by Germán Bonilla-Rosso
Not this again
'however, standard culture methods did not yield readily cultivable microbiota.'
'however, standard culture methods did not yield readily cultivable microbiota.'
The findings of a study in Nature Medicine introduce microbial elements as a component of the brain tumor microenvironment and lay the foundation for future mechanistic and translational studies. go.nature.com/44bO314 #medsky #microbiome 🧪
November 22, 2025 at 8:14 AM
Not this again
'however, standard culture methods did not yield readily cultivable microbiota.'
'however, standard culture methods did not yield readily cultivable microbiota.'
🧫🦠🔬🧪🧬🖥📈
Novel claims require rigor. If methods vary widely and false-positive detection isn’t validated, there's no basis to separate true signal from noise.
“46.6% of tumor samples and 76.9% of controls showed no detectable bacterial signal.”
Publish in #SocietyJournals!
Novel claims require rigor. If methods vary widely and false-positive detection isn’t validated, there's no basis to separate true signal from noise.
“46.6% of tumor samples and 76.9% of controls showed no detectable bacterial signal.”
Publish in #SocietyJournals!
The findings of a study in Nature Medicine introduce microbial elements as a component of the brain tumor microenvironment and lay the foundation for future mechanistic and translational studies. go.nature.com/44bO314 #medsky #microbiome 🧪
November 22, 2025 at 9:27 AM
🧫🦠🔬🧪🧬🖥📈
Novel claims require rigor. If methods vary widely and false-positive detection isn’t validated, there's no basis to separate true signal from noise.
“46.6% of tumor samples and 76.9% of controls showed no detectable bacterial signal.”
Publish in #SocietyJournals!
Novel claims require rigor. If methods vary widely and false-positive detection isn’t validated, there's no basis to separate true signal from noise.
“46.6% of tumor samples and 76.9% of controls showed no detectable bacterial signal.”
Publish in #SocietyJournals!
🧫🦠🧬✂️🔬
Happy to share our most recent work www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/.... Here we describe how efficient DNA replication in E. coli is dependent on an interaction between SSB-ssDNA and the DNA polymerase (Pol III). Thanks to all the co-authors for their hard work!
Genome integrity relies on rapid recycling of DNA Pol III in bacteria | PNAS
DNA replication requires precise coordination between DNA unwinding and DNA synthesis.
In all domains of life, protein–protein interactions at the ...
www.pnas.org
November 20, 2025 at 11:47 PM
🧫🦠🧬✂️🔬
Reposted by Germán Bonilla-Rosso
Trump has murdered at least 83 people with extrajudicial military strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats.
He needs to face consequences for this.
His secretary of DHHS, RFK Jr., will kill several orders of magnitude more with this disinformation.
He needs to face consequences for this.
His secretary of DHHS, RFK Jr., will kill several orders of magnitude more with this disinformation.
This is completely disgusting. Today, the CDC updated their vaccine safety page. It now says:
“The claim "vaccines do not cause autism" is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism”.
“The claim "vaccines do not cause autism" is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism”.
November 20, 2025 at 5:31 AM
Trump has murdered at least 83 people with extrajudicial military strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats.
He needs to face consequences for this.
His secretary of DHHS, RFK Jr., will kill several orders of magnitude more with this disinformation.
He needs to face consequences for this.
His secretary of DHHS, RFK Jr., will kill several orders of magnitude more with this disinformation.
🧫🦠🌍🧬
Alexander Harms group just made TnSeq possible for phages, enabling the possibility to infer functions over different hosts and conditions.
This will revolutionise our toolbox to understand not only phage physiology, but also ecological plasticity!
Congrats @aharms485.bsky.social!
Alexander Harms group just made TnSeq possible for phages, enabling the possibility to infer functions over different hosts and conditions.
This will revolutionise our toolbox to understand not only phage physiology, but also ecological plasticity!
Congrats @aharms485.bsky.social!
🚨Preprint alert - this is a big one! We transfer the revolutionary power of TnSeq to bacteriophages.
Our HIDEN-SEQ links the "dark matter" genes of your favorite phage to any selectable phenotype, guiding the path from fun observations to molecular mechanisms.
A thread 1/8
Our HIDEN-SEQ links the "dark matter" genes of your favorite phage to any selectable phenotype, guiding the path from fun observations to molecular mechanisms.
A thread 1/8
November 20, 2025 at 11:20 PM
🧫🦠🌍🧬
Alexander Harms group just made TnSeq possible for phages, enabling the possibility to infer functions over different hosts and conditions.
This will revolutionise our toolbox to understand not only phage physiology, but also ecological plasticity!
Congrats @aharms485.bsky.social!
Alexander Harms group just made TnSeq possible for phages, enabling the possibility to infer functions over different hosts and conditions.
This will revolutionise our toolbox to understand not only phage physiology, but also ecological plasticity!
Congrats @aharms485.bsky.social!
Reposted by Germán Bonilla-Rosso
AI slop gracing the cover of Royal Society B. Not only in AI yellow but scientifically nonsensical. Come on. I'm certain human photographs and artworks were ignored to platform ... this.
November 18, 2025 at 10:49 AM
AI slop gracing the cover of Royal Society B. Not only in AI yellow but scientifically nonsensical. Come on. I'm certain human photographs and artworks were ignored to platform ... this.
Reposted by Germán Bonilla-Rosso
Can’t believe the whole country has to suffer through the return of Dickensian childhood diseases because the worst, most ignorant attention-demanders decided other people’s expertise makes them feel bad
November 20, 2025 at 4:19 AM
Can’t believe the whole country has to suffer through the return of Dickensian childhood diseases because the worst, most ignorant attention-demanders decided other people’s expertise makes them feel bad
Reposted by Germán Bonilla-Rosso
Drug companies have hired over 500 lobbyists this year to gut the Inflation Reduction Act's drug price negotiation provisions.
They outnumber public interest advocates more than 20 to 1.
We must get money out of politics and end Big Pharma's deadly greed once and for all.
They outnumber public interest advocates more than 20 to 1.
We must get money out of politics and end Big Pharma's deadly greed once and for all.
November 20, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Drug companies have hired over 500 lobbyists this year to gut the Inflation Reduction Act's drug price negotiation provisions.
They outnumber public interest advocates more than 20 to 1.
We must get money out of politics and end Big Pharma's deadly greed once and for all.
They outnumber public interest advocates more than 20 to 1.
We must get money out of politics and end Big Pharma's deadly greed once and for all.
Reposted by Germán Bonilla-Rosso
Hot off the press! Our latest paper led by @fernpizza.bsky.social, understanding how plasmids evolve inside cells. These small, self-replicating DNA circles live inside bacteria and carry antibiotic resistance genes, but also compete with one another to replicate. 1/
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Intracellular competition shapes plasmid population dynamics
From populations of multicellular organisms to selfish genetic elements, conflicts between levels of biological organization are central to evolution. Plasmids are extrachromosomal, self-replicating g...
www.science.org
November 20, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Hot off the press! Our latest paper led by @fernpizza.bsky.social, understanding how plasmids evolve inside cells. These small, self-replicating DNA circles live inside bacteria and carry antibiotic resistance genes, but also compete with one another to replicate. 1/
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Also, when people think about scientific failures ans misconduct, it is never academia but unregulated businesses, millionaires or governments:
💵 Theranos
💵 Tesla /SpaceX
💵 Purdue Opioids
💵 CRISPR babies
💵 Antivaxxers
💵 Atomic Bomb
💵 PFAS
💵 Pesticides
💵 Monsanto GMOs
💵 AI
💵 Addictive social media
💵 Theranos
💵 Tesla /SpaceX
💵 Purdue Opioids
💵 CRISPR babies
💵 Antivaxxers
💵 Atomic Bomb
💵 PFAS
💵 Pesticides
💵 Monsanto GMOs
💵 AI
💵 Addictive social media
I really hate it when scientists keep saying that “we need to rebuild trust in science,” because it implies that scientists are to blame for the mistrust rather than the millions of dollars of dark money that have funded political attacks on science in order to advance a far right agenda.
November 20, 2025 at 3:56 AM
Also, when people think about scientific failures ans misconduct, it is never academia but unregulated businesses, millionaires or governments:
💵 Theranos
💵 Tesla /SpaceX
💵 Purdue Opioids
💵 CRISPR babies
💵 Antivaxxers
💵 Atomic Bomb
💵 PFAS
💵 Pesticides
💵 Monsanto GMOs
💵 AI
💵 Addictive social media
💵 Theranos
💵 Tesla /SpaceX
💵 Purdue Opioids
💵 CRISPR babies
💵 Antivaxxers
💵 Atomic Bomb
💵 PFAS
💵 Pesticides
💵 Monsanto GMOs
💵 AI
💵 Addictive social media
🦠🧫🌍🐛🪱
Really cool preprint on host-microbiome and within host-microbe interactions, includign nematodes and the common entomopathogenic fungi Metarhizium and Beauveria
Really cool preprint on host-microbiome and within host-microbe interactions, includign nematodes and the common entomopathogenic fungi Metarhizium and Beauveria
New preprint: "Priority effects drive fungal and nematode emergence from insect larvae," introducing our new study system at 'Ootchamin 'Ooyakma (Stanford's Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve), led by Amaury Payelleville
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
November 15, 2025 at 9:33 AM
🦠🧫🌍🐛🪱
Really cool preprint on host-microbiome and within host-microbe interactions, includign nematodes and the common entomopathogenic fungi Metarhizium and Beauveria
Really cool preprint on host-microbiome and within host-microbe interactions, includign nematodes and the common entomopathogenic fungi Metarhizium and Beauveria
Reposted by Germán Bonilla-Rosso
New preprint: "Priority effects drive fungal and nematode emergence from insect larvae," introducing our new study system at 'Ootchamin 'Ooyakma (Stanford's Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve), led by Amaury Payelleville
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
November 15, 2025 at 8:45 AM
New preprint: "Priority effects drive fungal and nematode emergence from insect larvae," introducing our new study system at 'Ootchamin 'Ooyakma (Stanford's Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve), led by Amaury Payelleville
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
🎓🧪🔬🔭💵
Much-needed data on lottery-based funding! #SNF
Our current system wastes resources (~40 days for applicants, ~10 days for reviewers for ~85% rejection).
It selects great grant writers, not necessarily great projects, with strong biases against minorities.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Much-needed data on lottery-based funding! #SNF
Our current system wastes resources (~40 days for applicants, ~10 days for reviewers for ~85% rejection).
It selects great grant writers, not necessarily great projects, with strong biases against minorities.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Lottery before peer review is associated with increased female representation and reduced estimated economic cost in a German funding line - Nature Communications
The authors show evidence from a German funding line that a lottery-first approach followed by peer review is accompanied by increased female representation both at the submission stage and among fund...
www.nature.com
November 15, 2025 at 8:08 AM
🎓🧪🔬🔭💵
Much-needed data on lottery-based funding! #SNF
Our current system wastes resources (~40 days for applicants, ~10 days for reviewers for ~85% rejection).
It selects great grant writers, not necessarily great projects, with strong biases against minorities.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Much-needed data on lottery-based funding! #SNF
Our current system wastes resources (~40 days for applicants, ~10 days for reviewers for ~85% rejection).
It selects great grant writers, not necessarily great projects, with strong biases against minorities.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Germán Bonilla-Rosso
📣 Calling all senior microbiology postdocs! The University of St Andrews is inviting applications from outstanding visionary Research Fellow and Future Leader candidates to attend a Biomolecular Science Fellowship Day. Applications due by 12th Dec, see link for full details: tinyurl.com/4n3na8vn
Exciting Opportunity: Biomolecular Science Fellowship Day
The School of Biology at the University of St Andrews is inviting applications from outstanding visionary Research Fellow and Future Leader candidates to attend the Biomolecular Science (BMS) Fello…
biology.st-andrews.ac.uk
November 5, 2025 at 9:57 AM
📣 Calling all senior microbiology postdocs! The University of St Andrews is inviting applications from outstanding visionary Research Fellow and Future Leader candidates to attend a Biomolecular Science Fellowship Day. Applications due by 12th Dec, see link for full details: tinyurl.com/4n3na8vn