Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Christian Baumann

Oded Rechavi @odedrechavi.bsky.social · 2d

Fwd: Fwd: “I hope this email finds you well”

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Reposted by Christian Baumann

Dominik Hrebik @dhrebik.bsky.social · 9d

This comic is becoming increasingly realistic.
m.xkcd.com/3056/

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Reposted by Christian Baumann

Caitie McCafferty @computingcaitie.bsky.social · 15d

I am excited to share our new preprint on the CAGE complex, a mysterious hollow protein complex that I first saw years ago while surveying Tetrahymena ciliary lysate www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #cilia #protistsonsky 🧬🧪

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Christian Baumann @cjbaumann.bsky.social · 22d

Are Asgard archaea the ancestors of eukaryotes? Likely not. Very insightful paper by @pforterrr.bsky.social

Extensive lateral gene transfer between proto‐eukaryotes and Heimdallarchaeia suggests their close association during eukaryogenesis

It has been proposed by Ettema and colleagues, in the two-domain framework for the tree of life, that Eukarya emerged from Heimdallarchaeia, as sister group to Hodarchaeales. Looking at the individua....

doi.org

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Christian Baumann @cjbaumann.bsky.social · Sep 8

Getting closer to the year 3000

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Reposted by Christian Baumann

sam henri gold @samhenrigold.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · Sep 6

Did you know your MacBook has a sensor that knows the exact angle of the screen hinge?

It’s not exposed as a public API, but I figured out a way to read it and make it sound like an old wooden door.

Source code and a downloadable app to try it yourself […]

[Original post on hachyderm.io]

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Christian Baumann @cjbaumann.bsky.social · Jul 24

Sounds very neat:

OPRLM: A Web Tool and a Database for Positioning and Simulations of Proteins in Realistic Lipid Membranes - ScienceDirect share.google/yPJkioKNph4m...

OPRLM: A Web Tool and a Database for Positioning and Simulations of Proteins in Realistic Lipid Membranes

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations in explicit lipid bilayers enable modeling of protein-lipid interactions essential for membrane protein functions …

share.google

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Reposted by Christian Baumann

Vanni Lab at UNIFR, Switzerland @labvanni.bsky.social · Jul 23

Happy to share the latest work from the lab, led by @mudgal17.bsky.social‬, in collaboration with the Weis lab @ethzurich.bsky.social.
How do nuclear membranes fuse during NPC assembly? We answer this question in our latest work, where we identify a new mechanism for membrane fusion… (1/13)

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ErrantScience @errantscience.com · Jul 22

The peer review process is a flawless system that has no issues whatsoever /s

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Reposted by Christian Baumann

Philip Rößler @roesslph.bsky.social · Jul 22

Fresh off the press from the @lek-lab.bsky.social: Modulation of histone tail electrostatic potentials in nucleosome core particles by acetylation and PARylation
#NMRchat
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

PNAS

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...

www.pnas.org

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Reposted by Christian Baumann

Sergey Ovchinnikov @sokrypton.org · Jul 11

Made an attempt at generating a video of protein unfolding with #veo3 😹

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Christian Baumann @cjbaumann.bsky.social · Jun 30

The Vatican now takes a stronger stand for science than the US government:
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

www.pas.va/en/events/20...

Concerned about freedom of science and truth

Letter to the Editor

www.nature.com

Reposted by Christian Baumann

Henry North @henrylnorth.bsky.social · Jun 15

Complexity myths and the misappropriation of evolutionary theory

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Complexity myths and the misappropriation of evolutionary theory | PNAS

Recent papers by physicists, chemists, and geologists lay claim to the discovery of new principles of evolution that have somehow eluded over a cen...

www.pnas.org

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Reposted by Christian Baumann

Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · Jun 19

David R. Hagen just solved a small mystery that I mentioned 13 years ago in the mouseover text of a comic drhagen.com/blog/the-mis...

The Missing 11th of the Month - David R Hagen

Personal website of David R Hagen, scientific software engineer

drhagen.com

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Troy Kervin @meowmuir.bsky.social · Apr 3

#lipidtime The proteolipid code is the ultimate membrane model. It accommodates all observations while also being a falsifiable scientific theory that rejects the status quo (lipid rafts, picket fences, etc.)
doi.org/10.1186/s129...
Please read it.

Membranes are functionalized by a proteolipid code - BMC Biology

Membranes are protein and lipid structures that surround cells and other biological compartments. We present a conceptual model wherein all membranes are organized into structural and functional zones...

doi.org

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Christian Baumann @cjbaumann.bsky.social · Jun 11

I wasn’t aware of this. The concept sounds really cool. I like how it gives proteins a more active role in membrane formation. I’ll have to take a closer look with a fresh mind.

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Christian Baumann @cjbaumann.bsky.social · Jun 10

For everyone interested in how membrane thickness differs between and within organelles, by @deglushk.bsky.social, S. Böhm & M. Beck: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

www.biorxiv.org

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parafilm is cool dot com @parafilmm.bsky.social · May 26

At times like these it's important to remember the 3 branches of science

The side of a box of Parafilm that features the flask, dish, and beaker. Text has been added under them. The flask is labelled chemistry, the dish biology, and the beaker jam making. Jam making is written in a different handwritten font

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Reposted by Christian Baumann

Anna Mazzola @annamazz.bsky.social · May 21

It’s Mary Anning’s birthday, so time to share @katebeaton.bsky.social’s brilliant cartoon again.

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Christian Baumann @cjbaumann.bsky.social · May 19

Huge congrats to the authors for pulling this off:

Activation dynamics traced through a G protein–coupled receptor by 81 1H-15N NMR probes | Science www.science.org/doi/full/10....

www.science.org

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Christian Baumann @cjbaumann.bsky.social · May 17

After years, I finally read this great paper on what the success of trial-and-error methods and AI tells us about emergent properties and reductionism in bio sciences: rdcu.be/emtBS

Irrational methods suggest indecomposability and emergence

rdcu.be

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Reposted by Christian Baumann

David Grimm @david-grimm.bsky.social · May 16

"Dolphins call each other’s signature whistles if they get separated. Once, we played one of those whistles while the pair was still together. They responded with a totally different whistle. We call it the 'WTF whistle,' because it really did seem like that’s what they were asking." @science.org

‘About as close to aliens as we’ll ever get.’ Can AI crack animal language?

Dolittle Prize recognizes breakthroughs in translating “speech” of dolphins, cuttlefish, and other creatures

www.science.org

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Yi-Wei Chang @yiweichang.bsky.social · May 15

...and big thanks to @jiwasa.bsky.social for making this amazing video to illustrate the strand-sliding mechanism!

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Reposted by Christian Baumann

André Nadler @nadlerlab.bsky.social · May 6

Why are biological membranes asymmetric, with different lipids in the two bilayer leaflets? Discovered in the 70s, lipid asymmetry is linked to many cellular processes, but why the cell needs it is largely unclear. @pavelbarahtjan.bsky.social addresses this question: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Ryo Harada @ryoharada.bsky.social · May 3

New paper out!
We discovered a tiny archaeon with the smallest known archaeal genome — only 238 kbp!
Candidatus Sukunaarchaeum mirabile has almost no recognizable metabolic pathways and may rely heavily on a host to survive.
It also represents a novel, deep-branching lineage in the archaeal tree.

bioRxiv Evolutionary Biology @biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social · May 2

A cellular entity retaining only its replicative core: Hidden archaeal lineage with an ultra-reduced genome https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.02.651781v1

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