Markus Deserno
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markusdeserno.bsky.social
Markus Deserno
@markusdeserno.bsky.social
Theoretical and computational biophysicist at Carnegie Mellon University. Loves lipid membranes, music, and art. (he/him) 🇩🇪🇺🇸
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I am super excited to announce that we have a tenure-track faculty position in biophysics open in the Department of Physics at Carnegie Mellon! 🧪

Interfolio link: apply.interfolio.com/174360

PLEASE, share widely across the blue skies!

Let me briefly explain what we're looking for:

1/10
Awesome colleague alert!
One day, @bridgesbio.bsky.social might save your life by disrupting bacterial communication and behavior. No need to kill your enemy—just confuse the heck out of them!
January 31, 2026 at 1:25 AM
Many have already shared this powerful image by MJ.Hiblen, over on Insta under www.instagram.com/mjhiblenart/. It really makes me well up. May Renée and Alex rest in peace. 💔
January 27, 2026 at 5:19 PM
Just like I don’t want to go to war zones to bear witness to atrocities first hand, I don’t want to watch snuff videos to confirm that ICE is executing protestors in broad daylight. I want professional journalists to do that. And I don’t want them to both-sides the content. DO YOUR JOB!
January 26, 2026 at 12:59 PM
Martens, Turkowyd, Hohlbein, and Endesfelder would politely disagree! 🧪
January 26, 2026 at 12:31 PM
Reposted by Markus Deserno
Kudos to the NYT editor who took “Appears to” out of the lead headline (finally)
January 25, 2026 at 3:19 PM
Oh, apparently just one day.
bsky.app/profile/froo...
How long until the word “appear” disappears? Not holding my breath.
January 26, 2026 at 12:25 PM
Reposted by Markus Deserno
Jane Richardson was born #OTD in 1941

+ Developed the Richardson (ribbon) diagram to represent proteins' 3D structure (becoming a standard representation for protein structures)
+ MacArthur Fellow, 1985
+ Elected, Nat'l Academy of Sciences, 1991
+ President, Biophysical Society, 2012

#WomenInSTEM
January 26, 2026 at 12:06 AM
How long until the word “appear” disappears? Not holding my breath.
January 25, 2026 at 2:23 PM
Reposted by Markus Deserno
“Get it all on record now — get the films — get the witnesses — because somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower, after visiting liberated concentration camps in April 1945
January 24, 2026 at 9:24 PM
Reposted by Markus Deserno
Alex Pretti was a colleague at the VA. We hired him to recruit for our trial. He became an ICU nurse- I lover working with him. He was a good kind person who lived to help and these fuckers executed him.

White. Hot. Rage.
January 24, 2026 at 7:31 PM
Reposted by Markus Deserno
“Freedom is not free. We have to work at it. Nurture it. Protect it. Even sacrifice for it.”
January 25, 2026 at 2:56 AM
Reposted by Markus Deserno
I was a sensitive kid. I loved cats. I had OCD, undiagnosed.

When I was 9, a fraternity brother tortured a cat to death in my hometown. The details even now are beyond imagination. archive.is/xdmUL

I was traumatized for years from reading the news story.

The torturer? Now the head of the NRA.
January 25, 2026 at 4:55 AM
Reposted by Markus Deserno
A reminder to the news media: “conflicting accounts” is what you say BEFORE the incontrovertible video evidence appears. After that, your job is to ask why one side is lying, not to repeat the lie and pretend no one knows the truth.
January 25, 2026 at 12:28 PM
Reposted by Markus Deserno
Ursula K. Le Guin died #OTD in 2018.

First female author to win both the Nebula & Hugo awards for Best Novel for 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘦𝘧𝘵 𝘏𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘋𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 (1970). In total, she won 8 Hugo & 6 Nebula awards. Second woman Grand Master of the #ScienceFiction & Fantasy Writers of America. #scifi #literature #booksky
January 22, 2026 at 5:11 PM
10 years ago today, 1/22/2016, a massive blizzard hit Western Pennsylvania. I measured 2 feet of snow outside my apartment in Pittsburgh on the next day. The city was crippled for a week, Carnegie Mellon was closed for 3 days.

That incoming winter storm is probably history trolling us. 🙄
January 23, 2026 at 3:46 AM
Reposted by Markus Deserno
Felix Klein lectured “On Hilbert’s first note on the foundations of physics" at the Mathematical Society of Göttingen #OTD in 1918. He included excerpts from letters in which he and Hilbert give priority to Emmy Noether’s results on conservation of energy in general relativity. (1/n) 🧪 ⚛️ 👩‍🔬
January 22, 2026 at 4:07 PM
One source of my current heartbreak comes from looking at clips like this. How many people—from composition to performance—came together to create this glorious moment in time! Behold the limitless human potential! The beauty! And then realize that some losers just want to burn the whole world down.
Jonas Kaufmann - Turandot, Atto III: "Nessun Dorma"
YouTube video by JonasKaufmannVEVO
www.youtube.com
January 18, 2026 at 3:09 PM
Reposted by Markus Deserno
Hey Dems, when we ask you to do something we want you to do something.. where are you? Get the police to free these Americans!!!!
January 18, 2026 at 8:08 AM
When I think of a funny reply to a post, but then I see that replies are disabled, and so my witticism has to die with me.
a cartoon character is screaming in front of a purple couch with cn hd written on the bottom
ALT: a cartoon character is screaming in front of a purple couch with cn hd written on the bottom
media.tenor.com
January 18, 2026 at 2:01 PM
Reposted by Markus Deserno
Non-protesting dad just trying to hustle his kids, as young as 6mo, out of the neighborhood. ICE threw a flash-bang INTO HIS car, all 6 kids in the hospital now.

If anyone wondered how things turn against occupying armies there's a case study playing out in front of you.
That is what was relayed
January 15, 2026 at 4:27 AM
Reposted by Markus Deserno
I really want ppl w/o Minneapolis connections to understand

You might've heard that Mpls public schools went hybrid bc so many families are in hiding. Well, a coworker just told me that today, during his kid's hybrid class, a kid's apt building was raided onscreen

*Everyone has stories like this*
January 13, 2026 at 6:06 PM
Is this the "dynamic duo" in the regime of low Reynolds number?
On this day in 1966 Batman, starring Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin, was first shown on US television.
January 12, 2026 at 3:19 PM
“When kids weren’t as clumsy as nowadays, they used to build snowstorks in the winter.”
January 12, 2026 at 12:17 PM
We live in a world where the Norwegian Nobel Committee and the Norwegian Nobel Institute feel it’s necessary to clarify that a Nobel Peace Prize cannot be transferred.
January 10, 2026 at 4:16 PM
Switzerland has mail-in voting.
Germany has mail-in voting.
Austria has mail-in voting.
Australia has mail-in voting.
New Zealand has mail-in voting.
Canada has mail-in voting.
UK has mail-in voting.
...and a few more

Also, *many* more countries permit mail-in voting when you're abroad.
January 9, 2026 at 10:22 PM