Harmit Singh Malik
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harmitmalik.bsky.social
Harmit Singh Malik
@harmitmalik.bsky.social
Study genetic conflicts professionally. Try to avoid conflicts in personal life (with mixed results).
Fred Hutch Basic Sciences,
UW Genome Sciences,
HHMI.

Posting in a personal capacity. My posts don’t reflect my employers’ opinions.
Pinned
@harryboschquote.bsky.social :

Everybody counts or nobody counts
Reposted by Harmit Singh Malik
i’m not crying you’re crying

xkcd: Fifteen Years

Fifteen Years
xkcd.com
November 25, 2025 at 1:58 AM
I am procrastinating on writing by reading this interview of one of the true pioneers in evolutionary biology (and one of the nicest people I have ever met in my life)

Why we should be thinking of Welwitschia. What is Welwitschia you might ask (I did!)? Read on.

www.edge.org/conversation...
GENOMIC IMPRINTING | Edge.org
www.edge.org
November 25, 2025 at 2:20 AM
Reposted by Harmit Singh Malik
This is absolutely f'ing horrifying.
Emmanuel, a 15-year-old with intellectual disabilities, wandered away from his mom’s fruit stand in October.

She reported him missing to Houston police. But instead of reuniting them, the city turned him over to ICE.

“They’re failing all of us,” his mom said.

thebarbedwire.com/2025/11/24/d...
A Disabled Child’s Mom Reported Him Missing. He Was Locked Away by Federal Immigration Authorities for 48 Days.
Emmanuel, a 15-year-old who has an intellectual disability, walked away from his mom’s fruit stand in October. Houston Police called ICE.
thebarbedwire.com
November 24, 2025 at 3:13 PM
In unrelated news to the dismissal of indictments against James Comey and Letitia James, tomato ketchup futures are suddenly way up.
November 24, 2025 at 9:43 PM
Reposted by Harmit Singh Malik
Reposted by Harmit Singh Malik
A mother and her 15 year old autistic son are reunited after nearly 50 days apart.

Emmanuel Garcia went missing, and rather than check missing person’s reports, Houston PD called ICE.

ICE sent him to the Office of Refugee Resettlement and his mom has been fighting to get him back ever since.
November 24, 2025 at 3:41 AM
Reposted by Harmit Singh Malik
November 23, 2025 at 1:23 AM
Scientific journals: we don’t want you using generative AI because it makes shit up.

Same journal: here is an AI summary or evaluation of this paper. This might be more useful than the actual abstract or paper that the authors freaking wrote

Same journal: AI cover art which makes no sense? Oooh!
November 23, 2025 at 1:51 AM
The universe did not wish for me to become a chemical engineer.

Anything else, it said, that could cause less harm.

Evolutionary geneticist? I asked.

Sold!
What’s the lore behind choosing your career path ?
November 23, 2025 at 1:40 AM
Sharing this important article... for no reason whatsoever.

"We must also continue to deepen and refine our understanding of fundamental biological processes because these details frequently hold the keys to major advances in applied research."

elifesciences.org/articles/102...
November 23, 2025 at 12:21 AM
Reposted by Harmit Singh Malik
Just an absolutely gutting essay by Tatiana Schlossberg, a writer, mother of two young children, and cousin of RFK Jr who is dying of leukemia.

www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
November 22, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Reposted by Harmit Singh Malik
November 22, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Reposted by Harmit Singh Malik
You inspired me! I bought a laptop for a 20 yo looking to finish their GED. What a wonderful idea.
I have been looking at Black Friday sales for a week but I do not actually need anything so instead I closed all those tabs and bought a Polaroid for a foster kid in Florida who uses photography to deal with big feelings. Perhaps you would like to do the same for one of the kids at the link below?
🧵 We are, in fact, doing the thing again for @onesimplewish.bsky.social. In 2024, the kind people of this community put the money cannon on blast to help grant $75K in wishes for children in foster care. Toys, tech, a suit for job interviews. Here we go again! 👇
www.onesimplewish.org/giving/megwa...
November 22, 2025 at 10:07 PM
Reposted by Harmit Singh Malik
Imagine, if you will, that NASA updated its website to suggest gravity might not exist, prompting CalTech and CERN to release statements saying, "With great sadness, we can no longer recommend listening to NASA."

This is what's happening in epidemiology.
November 21, 2025 at 8:58 PM
🧵 🧪
It's Friday. This means it is time for a new post on #Autism : The Evidence. If you missed last week, I discussed what is TRULY behind the rise in prevalence. Today I am going to talk about what it is not: #VACCINES . They are SAFE and EFFECTIVE, but where did this idea come from?
November 22, 2025 at 5:44 AM
Reposted by Harmit Singh Malik
In an era filled with tech dipshits who never developed emotionally past the age of 13 & use their wealth to become odious monsters ...

... listen to Steve Wozniak.
November 21, 2025 at 7:41 PM
On this Friday evening, all I can say is that I miss the drafts feature on Twitter. Some good stuff there.

Maybe an alternative Bluesky feature would be a timer so that you get 12 hours to reconsider whether this really is ‘the ship you want to go down on, guns blazing’ before your post goes live.
November 22, 2025 at 5:31 AM
Reposted by Harmit Singh Malik
you'd think the forced displacement of 10 million people from one of the oldest centres of civilisation in human history would get a little more news attention than beltway journalists writing essays on how Olivia Nuzzi is a genius because they want to bone her and you'd be wrong
'Iran’s capital must be moved because the country “no longer has a choice,” President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Thursday in remarks carried by state media, warning that severe ecological strain has made Tehran impossible to sustain'

#Iran 🇮🇷
Iran president says capital move now a necessity as water crisis deepens
Iran’s capital must be moved because the country “no longer has a choice,” President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Thursday in remarks carried by state media, warning that severe ecological strain has mad...
www.iranintl.com
November 21, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Reposted by Harmit Singh Malik
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/...
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
I think it's not too much to ask future science conference moderators (including poster sessions) to walk around in Batman costumes to 'encourage' good behavior and reduce the likelihood of senior scientists being jerks to students, who are much more intelligent and more polite than they are.
November 21, 2025 at 11:34 PM
Lo behold!

The consequences of your actions.
November 21, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Reposted by Harmit Singh Malik
Sedition?
Sedation!
November 21, 2025 at 3:50 AM
Reposted by Harmit Singh Malik
for the humanity left in us 🖤
November 20, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Reposted by Harmit Singh Malik
In related news, the claim ‘the Tooth Fairy does not actually take lost baby teeth from under pillows’ is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that magical beings are secretly thieving teeth in the dead of night…”

www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...
CDC backpedals on vaccines and autism, despite earlier assurances from RFK Jr.
The CDC, under the direction of an unqualified health secretary, is now promoting claims that flunk Logic 101.
www.ms.now
November 20, 2025 at 8:43 PM