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@phoeberice.bsky.social
84 followers 43 following 68 posts
Interested in mobile DNA, molecular machines, structural biology
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How to look under the hood of protein sequence functional annotations? We have a DUF that is sometimes labeled with 2 different types of "___ase". One traces back to google's ProtNLM (natural language model) (I think), the other ... ? No clear structural homologs with experimental functions.
February 11, 2026 at 8:10 PM
Reposted
cyrilpedia.bsky.social
'Cribraria Cluster – A cluster of 1.5mm tall, immature Cribraria rufa slime moulds in ancient woodland, south Buckinghamshire, England.'
Photograph: Barry Webb

www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
February 9, 2026 at 9:24 AM
Large Serine Integrase fans: Multiple structures of 2 different integrases, with and without their RDFs. Amazing machines, different details, same concepts!
Our work on SPbeta: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Or friends' work on PhiC31:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

#SyntheticBiology #phage
February 6, 2026 at 9:17 PM
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admirablewomen.bsky.social
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
Vibrant color portrait of Jane S. Richardson, the visionary biophysicist and artist who revolutionized structural biology with her invention of ribbon diagrams. She gazes warmly at the camera with a bright, knowing smile that radiates quiet brilliance and decades of curiosity. Her silver-blonde hair woven with gentle waves. Large, elegant dangling earrings catch the light, and she wears a richly patterned brown blouse embroidered with intricate turquoise paisley motifs and delicate beadwork that echoes the molecular elegance she has spent her life depicting. Behind her floats a luminous, dreamlike backdrop of glowing molecular structures--interlocking hexagonal and ribbon-like forms in electric blues, teals, and greens--blending science and art in a single, living canvas. Hand-drawn and hand-colored (by Jane Richardson) scientific artwork known as a Richardson ribbon diagram (or “ribbon model”), one of the iconic visual inventions of Jane Richardson that transformed the way we see and understand protein structures. A graceful, three-dimensional tangle of protein backbone ribbons twists and spirals through space, rendered in soft pencil lines and luminous watercolor hues. Smooth golden-brown coils represent α-helices that curl like elegant ribbons, while broad teal-green arrows trace the flat, pleated strands of β-sheets slicing through the molecule with directional purpose. Thin, looping golden threads connect the secondary structures, creating a delicate, almost dance-like choreography of biology’s hidden architecture. The entire form is framed by a simple olive-green mat and dark border, giving the drawing the quiet dignity of both fine art and precise scientific illustration—a timeless bridge between molecular reality and human imagination.
January 26, 2026 at 12:06 AM
Great resource!
January 22, 2026 at 8:14 PM
Reposted
davidho.bsky.social
This is the most astonishing graph of what the Trump regime has done to US science. They have destroyed the federal science workforce across the board. The negative impacts on Americans will be felt for generations, and the US might never be the same again.

www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
This line graph illustrates the percentage change in agency staff levels from the previous year for nine major U.S. federal scientific and health organizations between the fiscal years 2016 and 2025. The agencies tracked include the CDC, Department of Energy, EPA, FDA, NASA, NIH, NIST, NOAA, and NSF. For the majority of the timeline between 2016 and 2023, the agencies show relatively stable fluctuations, generally staying within a range of +5% to -5% change per year. However, there is a dramatic and uniform plummet starting in the 2024–25 period. Every agency depicted shows a sharp downward trajectory, with staffing losses ranging from approximately -15% to over -25%. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows the most significant decline, dropping to roughly -26%, while the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) shows the least severe but still substantial drop at approximately -15%.
January 20, 2026 at 10:53 PM
Sun trying to shine through freezing fog rising from a partially- frozen Lake Michigan. Trying to come up with a political analogy about making rainbows out of less-than-pleasant circumstances, but failing, so please just enjoy the pic.
January 19, 2026 at 4:32 PM
Reposted
slavov-n.bsky.social
What's larger, a protein or its templating mRNA ?

> The mRNA is much larger.

⬛ 𝐀 𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐞 -- 𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 & 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐬 -- 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡.

The figure shows myoglobin protein drawn to scale next to its mRNA template. The coding sequence of an mRNA ...
January 17, 2026 at 1:29 PM
Reposted
denisedwheeler.bsky.social
🧵For those who don't know, this has been in the works for a while.

There have been plans in the works to close down and consolidate some of the libraries with NASA.

But the closure of the Goddard library was never part of the plan.

Planning was being done to make Goddard the hub/main library.
The historic largest library of NASA, linked to the development of the Hubble and James Webb telescopes, is being closed by the Trump administration, resulting in job losses and strong criticism regar...
The Donald Trump administration shut down the library at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, threatening its unique scientific collection.
en.clickpetroleoegas.com.br
January 2, 2026 at 11:31 PM
Something hopeful to ponder
varietyoflife.bsky.social Variety of Life @varietyoflife.bsky.social · Jul 16
The Nocardioidaceae: obscure bacteria that could be key to cleaning up some of the world's worst pollution.
varietyoflife.net/nocardioidac...
Nocardioides halotolerans, from Dastager et al. (2008).
January 4, 2026 at 4:47 PM
January 1, 2026 at 11:40 PM
Tidied up an old desk drawer, found this. It was transcribed from a Brandeis science library bathroom wall in the 1980s:
December 30, 2025 at 4:28 PM
I don't remember requests like this before! No deadline either. Have others been getting them?
December 22, 2025 at 2:59 PM
A physics demo seen from Chicago this AM: steam rising from our side of Lake Michigan into sunny but frigid air, and condensing into snow clouds on the Michigan side.
December 14, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Thank you for publicizing what is going on! Even us grateful NSF grantees find it hard to know.
ljrissler.bsky.social Leslie Rissler @ljrissler.bsky.social · Dec 11
NSF

- Forced reorg

- POs down ~ 40% (DRP, most rotators not renewed, retirements)

- Forced move (and we have to pack and clean) to a building with no furniture, little to no conference space for panels, inadequate 🛜, …)

I personally love the boxes they gave us for packing.
“Details matter” 🙃
Boxing up the NSF at Eisenhower Av for the forced relocation. Boxes have “Details Matter” signage.
December 11, 2025 at 5:47 PM
Wonderful history, but that picture with the positive supercoiling node has always bugged me.
stcmicrobeblog.bsky.social STCmicrobeblog @stcmicrobeblog.bsky.social · Dec 8
Lac operon: Two gems from the early days (1|2)

by Christoph — When I recently wrote about noise in the basement of the lac operon, I stumbled across two papers in said basement, both of which I – and not only I – consider gems of early molecular biology: 'Isolation of the lac repressor'…
Lac operon: Two gems from the early days (1|2)
by Christoph — When I recently wrote about noise in the basement of the lac operon, I stumbled across two papers in said basement, both of which I – and not only I – consider gems of early molecular biology: 'Isolation of the lac repressor' (Gilbert & Müller-Hill, 1966), and 'The nucleotide sequence of the lac operator' (Gilbert & Maxam, 1973). Here in part 1, I will dust off the lac repressor story a bit to make this gem sparkle again...
smallthingsconsidered.blog
December 8, 2025 at 7:09 PM
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erictopol.bsky.social
The top 10 people of 2025 @nature.com who shaped science.
Recognizes Dr. Susan Monarez, the CDC Director who was "fired for holding the line on scientific integrity"
www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
December 8, 2025 at 5:05 PM
love it!
socialinfluenza.bsky.social Ed Hutchinson @socialinfluenza.bsky.social · Dec 1
Feeling festive?
Why not deck the halls with @cvrinfo.bsky.social's papercraft #VirusSnowflakes and celebrate the science of viruses and the fight against viral diseases.
Download for free: cvr-engagement.co.uk/virus-snowfl...
#scicomm #sciart #decorations
A poster with branding for the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre fo Virus Research, labelled 'Virus Snowflakes.' The poster shows snowflake-like virus designs and song lyrics reading: On the twelfth day of Christmas, a virus gave to me, Twelve fights worth winning, Eleven Christmas dinners, Ten lunar landers, Nine childhood vaccines, Eight tools for teaching, Seven dogs a-barking, Six wasps a-laying, FIIIIVE TIIINY RIIIIIIINGS, Four vaccine platforms, Three genome segments, Two twinned capsids, and A world that is too small to see
December 6, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Anybody else bugged by the loose definitions in headlines like this? For example, "Breakfast cereal" could be plain oatmeal or shredded wheat, or it could be candy-in-a-bowl. They're not the same thing!
nytimes.com The New York Times @nytimes.com · Nov 24
Ultraprocessed foods, like breakfast cereals, frozen meals and processed meats, have been linked to colorectal cancer and other digestive conditions. Here's what to know.
How Do Ultraprocessed Foods Affect the Gut?
www.nytimes.com
November 25, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Reposted
standupforscience.bsky.social
Drake Hotline bling meme template with RFK Jr acting disgusted in the face of "Tylenol and lifesaving vaccinations," while being accepting of "Forever chemicals literally proven to cause cancer"
November 24, 2025 at 6:12 PM
while home sick yesterday I watched a history channel thing that claimed the discovery really came from Fleming's hobby of "agar art" with different-colored bacteria. Was there any truth to that?
kevinsblake.bsky.social Kevin Blake PhD @kevinsblake.bsky.social · Nov 24
Every biologist knows the story of Fleming's chance discovery of penicillin. But is it true?

Here, with @asimovpress.bsky.social, I write about inconsistencies in the canonical story, and explore a few alternative theories about what really happened in that St. Mary's lab in the summer of 1928.
The Penicillin Myth
Competing theories seek to explain inconsistencies surrounding Alexander Fleming’s famed discovery.
press.asimov.com
November 25, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Reposted
nucleosomepolice.bsky.social
OMG this is amazing.
brucedstaylor.bsky.social Bruce Taylor @brucedstaylor.bsky.social · Nov 21
Weird word of the day: "kleptosquamy." The testate amoeba Awerintzewia cyclostoma steals scales from other amoeboid organisms to build its own shell. This one has robbed Quadrulella, Netzelia, various euglyphids, and even an Acanthocystis. Kleptosquamy! #amoebae #ProtistsOnSky #biology #nature
November 22, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Reposted
sternberglab.bsky.social
1/9 Metagenomics lets us read microbiomes in nature without cultivation, but writing (editing) them in their native context is still a major challenge.

Meet MetaEdit: a platform for pathway-scale metagenomic editing inside the gut microbiome. science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Metagenomic editing of commensal bacteria in vivo using CRISPR-associated transposases
Although metagenomic sequencing has revealed a rich microbial biodiversity in the mammalian gut, methods to genetically alter specific species in the microbiome are highly limited. Here, we introduce ...
science.org
November 14, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Reposted
uwmadisonrna.bsky.social
Awesome paper from Kathy Collins' lab

Different repair pathways support intact or truncated insertions by R2 retrotransposon protein | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Different repair pathways support intact or truncated insertions by R2 retrotransposon protein
Non-LTR retrotransposon proteins copy their RNA template into a genome via coordinated nicking and reverse transcriptase activities of target-primed reverse transcription. Mechanisms by which the firs...
www.science.org
November 13, 2025 at 8:05 PM
Reposted
nucleosomepolice.bsky.social
way to go @cnn.com to put this little tidbit of info behind a paywall.
November 12, 2025 at 3:51 PM