Reposted by Chris Jackson
NY is having a bad flu season. More hospitalizations last week than any week on record.
Health authorities are encouraging everyone aged 6mo+ to get the flu vax (it's not too late).
Find a provider here: on.nyc.gov/getvaccinated. You can filter for sites where there's no cost for the uninsured.
Health authorities are encouraging everyone aged 6mo+ to get the flu vax (it's not too late).
Find a provider here: on.nyc.gov/getvaccinated. You can filter for sites where there's no cost for the uninsured.
December 28, 2025 at 3:09 PM
NY is having a bad flu season. More hospitalizations last week than any week on record.
Health authorities are encouraging everyone aged 6mo+ to get the flu vax (it's not too late).
Find a provider here: on.nyc.gov/getvaccinated. You can filter for sites where there's no cost for the uninsured.
Health authorities are encouraging everyone aged 6mo+ to get the flu vax (it's not too late).
Find a provider here: on.nyc.gov/getvaccinated. You can filter for sites where there's no cost for the uninsured.
Reposted by Chris Jackson
Biophysical modeling with variational autoencoders for bimodal, single-cell RNA sequencing data www.nature.com/articles/s41... (free: rdcu.be/dSsaH) 🧬🖥️
December 28, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Biophysical modeling with variational autoencoders for bimodal, single-cell RNA sequencing data www.nature.com/articles/s41... (free: rdcu.be/dSsaH) 🧬🖥️
"You need AI skills to engineer a prompt"
Is just
"The random seed is another hyperparameter to tune"
in a hat and trenchcoat
Is just
"The random seed is another hyperparameter to tune"
in a hat and trenchcoat
I find the idea that you need to know “how to use” AI tools really funny, as if it isn’t incredibly easy to type in prompts and the marketing these tools is that literally anyone can do it
December 23, 2025 at 5:37 PM
"You need AI skills to engineer a prompt"
Is just
"The random seed is another hyperparameter to tune"
in a hat and trenchcoat
Is just
"The random seed is another hyperparameter to tune"
in a hat and trenchcoat
Reposted by Chris Jackson
I just finished my 28th yr of teaching grad compbio.
Following the inevitable trend, a 3rd of the course is now Deep Learning (DL).
One activity we did was a deep dive into the AlphaGenome pre-print (www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...).
Question is, how do we evaluate it as a science paper?
1/n
Following the inevitable trend, a 3rd of the course is now Deep Learning (DL).
One activity we did was a deep dive into the AlphaGenome pre-print (www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...).
Question is, how do we evaluate it as a science paper?
1/n
AlphaGenome: advancing regulatory variant effect prediction with a unified DNA sequence model
Deep learning models that predict functional genomic measurements from DNA sequence are powerful tools for deciphering the genetic regulatory code. Existing methods trade off between input sequence le...
www.biorxiv.org
December 22, 2025 at 7:10 PM
I just finished my 28th yr of teaching grad compbio.
Following the inevitable trend, a 3rd of the course is now Deep Learning (DL).
One activity we did was a deep dive into the AlphaGenome pre-print (www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...).
Question is, how do we evaluate it as a science paper?
1/n
Following the inevitable trend, a 3rd of the course is now Deep Learning (DL).
One activity we did was a deep dive into the AlphaGenome pre-print (www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...).
Question is, how do we evaluate it as a science paper?
1/n
Reposted by Chris Jackson
Intrigued by a long-standing conundrum in small RNA biology—how nuclear Argonaute proteins silence transposons when they *need* target transcription for their own recruitment—we studied the piRNA pathway.
And found a hidden RNA-decay axis from Piwi to the RNA exosome.
And found a hidden RNA-decay axis from Piwi to the RNA exosome.
RNA decay via the nuclear exosome is essential for piwi-mediated transposon silencing https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.16.694471v1
December 22, 2025 at 6:14 PM
Intrigued by a long-standing conundrum in small RNA biology—how nuclear Argonaute proteins silence transposons when they *need* target transcription for their own recruitment—we studied the piRNA pathway.
And found a hidden RNA-decay axis from Piwi to the RNA exosome.
And found a hidden RNA-decay axis from Piwi to the RNA exosome.
I had a student explain that they were taught OLS (and knockoffs like ridge regression) were AI, in class, by her data science department
🤷♂️
🤷♂️
Is logistic regression "AI"? What about convex optimization? Is LLM AI? What about an image recognition system built without using "feature learning" techniques but done through "feature engineering"?
December 22, 2025 at 6:00 PM
I had a student explain that they were taught OLS (and knockoffs like ridge regression) were AI, in class, by her data science department
🤷♂️
🤷♂️
Reposted by Chris Jackson
Wildly different things, tasks, techniques, subspecialties being lumped into "AI" and then being conflated with each other, doesn't help. Different types of models vs the techniques to train them vs the tasks they are supposed to accomplish, all under "AI".
December 22, 2025 at 5:21 PM
Wildly different things, tasks, techniques, subspecialties being lumped into "AI" and then being conflated with each other, doesn't help. Different types of models vs the techniques to train them vs the tasks they are supposed to accomplish, all under "AI".
Reposted by Chris Jackson
She expects us to believe that a university communicated anything of substance to an unsuccessful job candidate.
December 18, 2025 at 11:48 PM
She expects us to believe that a university communicated anything of substance to an unsuccessful job candidate.
Reposted by Chris Jackson
Gift link, probably the funniest thing the Wall Street Journal has done this year.
We Let AI Run Our Office Vending Machine. It Lost Hundreds of Dollars.
An AI agent ran a snack operation in the WSJ newsroom. It gave away a free PlayStation, ordered a live fish—and taught us lessons about the future of AI.
www.wsj.com
December 18, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Gift link, probably the funniest thing the Wall Street Journal has done this year.
Reposted by Chris Jackson
"Changes to centers and institutes were initially projected to save $4.8 million."
Bill Belichick's annual salary is $10 million.
Bill Belichick's annual salary is $10 million.
America First, at America’s first public university.
UNC cuts all six area studies research centers, effective 2026
As part of the University's plan to make $70 million in budget cuts across the institution, Vice Chancellor for Finance and Operations Nate Knuffman projected that cutting 14 centers and institutes in...
www.dailytarheel.com
December 18, 2025 at 12:51 AM
"Changes to centers and institutes were initially projected to save $4.8 million."
Bill Belichick's annual salary is $10 million.
Bill Belichick's annual salary is $10 million.
Reposted by Chris Jackson
everyone who uses an llm to code more than me is voluntarily deskilling themselves, everyone who uses it less than me might as well be hand-wiring together vacuum tubes
December 16, 2025 at 7:04 PM
everyone who uses an llm to code more than me is voluntarily deskilling themselves, everyone who uses it less than me might as well be hand-wiring together vacuum tubes
Reposted by Chris Jackson
Excited to share that this work is now published in its final form!
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
December 15, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Excited to share that this work is now published in its final form!
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Reposted by Chris Jackson
absolutely losing it at my 14yo's biology homework
December 15, 2025 at 2:02 AM
absolutely losing it at my 14yo's biology homework
Reposted by Chris Jackson
Alright it's the 15th. 10 days to Christmas.
Would someone in your life benefit from a calendar featuring animals???
We have 47 Love Notes From Nature calendars left. When they're gone, they're gone forever.
Bonus? The proceeds fund our native plant project in Philly!
Get one at SquidFacts.net!
Would someone in your life benefit from a calendar featuring animals???
We have 47 Love Notes From Nature calendars left. When they're gone, they're gone forever.
Bonus? The proceeds fund our native plant project in Philly!
Get one at SquidFacts.net!
December 15, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Alright it's the 15th. 10 days to Christmas.
Would someone in your life benefit from a calendar featuring animals???
We have 47 Love Notes From Nature calendars left. When they're gone, they're gone forever.
Bonus? The proceeds fund our native plant project in Philly!
Get one at SquidFacts.net!
Would someone in your life benefit from a calendar featuring animals???
We have 47 Love Notes From Nature calendars left. When they're gone, they're gone forever.
Bonus? The proceeds fund our native plant project in Philly!
Get one at SquidFacts.net!
Reposted by Chris Jackson
Christian Benford did it again.
The Bills cornerback intercepted Joe Burrow and returned it 63 yards for a go-ahead touchdown.
The Bills cornerback intercepted Joe Burrow and returned it 63 yards for a go-ahead touchdown.
December 7, 2025 at 8:40 PM
Christian Benford did it again.
The Bills cornerback intercepted Joe Burrow and returned it 63 yards for a go-ahead touchdown.
The Bills cornerback intercepted Joe Burrow and returned it 63 yards for a go-ahead touchdown.
Reposted by Chris Jackson
I missed this from a couple of weeks ago, but if you're an NIH-funded investigator, please read.
Peer review will exist to make things look legitimate, but can, and will, be over-ruled. Funding decisions, ultimately, will be done by political appointees.
grants.nih.gov/news-events/...
Peer review will exist to make things look legitimate, but can, and will, be over-ruled. Funding decisions, ultimately, will be done by political appointees.
grants.nih.gov/news-events/...
Implementing a Unified NIH Funding Strategy to Guide Consistent and Clearer Award Decisions | Grants & Funding
grants.nih.gov
December 5, 2025 at 9:06 PM
I missed this from a couple of weeks ago, but if you're an NIH-funded investigator, please read.
Peer review will exist to make things look legitimate, but can, and will, be over-ruled. Funding decisions, ultimately, will be done by political appointees.
grants.nih.gov/news-events/...
Peer review will exist to make things look legitimate, but can, and will, be over-ruled. Funding decisions, ultimately, will be done by political appointees.
grants.nih.gov/news-events/...
Reposted by Chris Jackson
30 years ago today, Netscape announced a new programming language, one that emerged from a frantic, week-and-a-half-long sprint. It ended up sticking around far longer than anyone could've expected.
In 1995, a Netscape employee wrote a hack in 10 days that now runs the Internet
Thirty years later, JavaScript is the glue that holds the interactive web together, warts and all.
arstechnica.com
December 4, 2025 at 9:01 PM
30 years ago today, Netscape announced a new programming language, one that emerged from a frantic, week-and-a-half-long sprint. It ended up sticking around far longer than anyone could've expected.
Reposted by Chris Jackson
Reposted by Chris Jackson
"Runctitiononal features"? "Medical fymblal"? "1 Tol Line storee"? This gets worse the longer you look at it. But it's got to be good, because it was published in Nature Scientific Reports last week: www.nature.com/articles/s41... h/t @asa.tsbalans.se
November 27, 2025 at 9:30 AM
"Runctitiononal features"? "Medical fymblal"? "1 Tol Line storee"? This gets worse the longer you look at it. But it's got to be good, because it was published in Nature Scientific Reports last week: www.nature.com/articles/s41... h/t @asa.tsbalans.se
Reposted by Chris Jackson
"We followed everything we were supposed to do"
Legitimate green card applicants with US spouses are being
arrested by armed, masked men at scheduled immigration interviews, taken away from their children, sent to prison
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/u...
Legitimate green card applicants with US spouses are being
arrested by armed, masked men at scheduled immigration interviews, taken away from their children, sent to prison
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/u...
Green Card Interviews End in Handcuffs for Spouses of U.S. Citizens
www.nytimes.com
November 27, 2025 at 11:55 AM
"We followed everything we were supposed to do"
Legitimate green card applicants with US spouses are being
arrested by armed, masked men at scheduled immigration interviews, taken away from their children, sent to prison
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/u...
Legitimate green card applicants with US spouses are being
arrested by armed, masked men at scheduled immigration interviews, taken away from their children, sent to prison
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/u...
Reposted by Chris Jackson
Some well-founded warnings about the use of LLMs in medicine:
LLMs for Medical Practice: Look Out
www.science.org
November 25, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Some well-founded warnings about the use of LLMs in medicine:
Reposted by Chris Jackson
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 21, 2025 at 5:32 PM
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.
Reposted by Chris Jackson
Before you have kids, you intellectually understand they need to eat dinner every day. But you do not understand what this means. You can't. They need to eat dinner EVERY day
November 20, 2025 at 7:02 PM
Before you have kids, you intellectually understand they need to eat dinner every day. But you do not understand what this means. You can't. They need to eat dinner EVERY day
Reposted by Chris Jackson
By knocking a hole in his house right before winter and then boasting about spraypainted Home Depot decor, Donald Trump is showing a savvy empathy for the DIY skills of the average American male.
November 15, 2025 at 8:39 PM
By knocking a hole in his house right before winter and then boasting about spraypainted Home Depot decor, Donald Trump is showing a savvy empathy for the DIY skills of the average American male.
Reposted by Chris Jackson
![4-panel vertical comic. (1) 100 Years Ago [two people standing next to bicycle with small car nearby] PERSON 1: It’s too dangerous riding a bike with these cars around. I should get a car, too. (2) 50 Years Ago [two people between smaller car and bigger car] PERSON 2 with short hair: Small cars are less safe in collisions with larger vehicles, so I should get a bigger one. (3) Today [two people between big car and even bigger car] PERSON 1: Everyone has huge SUVs now. If I don’t get the biggest one, I’m putting my family at risk. (4) Soon [two people next to large armored car with spiked clubs attached] PERSON 2: If I don’t install more whirling spike clubs, I’ll be destroyed by all the other drivers who...](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cz73r7iyiqn26upot4jtjdhk/bafkreiby6can6k76yzfmv2czxs4pu2l7zie7bqbrpswi7h3ifmiadkuqvu@jpeg)