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Reposted by Ewan Birney

Protein Data Bank in Europe (PDBe) @pdbeurope.bsky.social · 1d

📣Important update for #AlphaFold API users! New API fields launched on October 7th, 2025. We’ll maintain BOTH fields until June 25, 2026! Check the docs! 🔗
For more information, read the news item: www.ebi.ac.uk/pdbe/news/br...

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Ewan Birney @ewanbirney.bsky.social · 1d

So sorry to hear this. He was a great - and generous - scientist

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Reposted by Ewan Birney

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 1d

Sunder Katwala on race, patriotism and flag-waving: ‘The far right is vocal and angry because it is shrinking’

The director of British Future has spent his career trying to find common ground when it comes to race and immigration. He describes his own experience of racism – and why he’s still hopeful for the UK

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Ewan Birney

Joannes Laveyne @jolaveyne.bsky.social · 1d

It may have escaped your attention, but the Belgian energy system has quietly passed an important test. During the weekend of 4-5 October 2025, our consumption was almost entirely covered by renewable energy. And yet the system ticked like a Swiss watch. /

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Ewan Birney @ewanbirney.bsky.social · 1d

I’d love to know what happens next but presumably no one knows (or just Macron knows ??)

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Ewan Birney @ewanbirney.bsky.social · 1d

So my French colleagues - am I right that France has had a prime minister with a shorter tenure than Liz Truss - 50 days. Or could he patch it all up this week? French parliamentary politics is murky enough from the outside but … this is pretty impressive

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Ewan Birney @ewanbirney.bsky.social · 1d

10,000 foot take home message is ... biology is very complex. Gob-smakingly complex!

Bart Deplancke @bartdeplancke.bsky.social · 2d

🧵1/ Excited to share our new paper introducing a new #singlecell assay: scTF-seq, a high-throughput single-cell approach to explore how transcription factor (TF) dose shapes cell identity and reprogramming outcomes. 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41... Big congrats to the entire team @EPFL & @SIAT_China

Dissecting the impact of transcription factor dose on cell reprogramming heterogeneity using scTF-seq - Nature Genetics

This study introduces single-cell transcription factor (TF) sequencing, a single-cell barcoded and doxycycline-inducible TF overexpression approach that reveals dose-sensitive functional classes of TFs and cellular heterogeneity by mapping TF dose-dependent transcriptomic changes during the reprogramming of mouse embryonic multipotent stromal cells.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Ewan Birney

Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 1d

Ping

xkcd.com/3150/

4-panel comic. (1) [person finds bottle on shore] (2) [person reads message from inside bottle: ICMP ECHO REQUEST...] (3) [person writes on message ICMP ECHO REPLY...] (4) [person puts bottle back in water and leaves]

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Reposted by Ewan Birney

Jonathan Pritchard @jkpritch.bsky.social · 1d

I want to try something again at #ASHG25 this year: I'll block some time on Thursday and Friday afternoons to meet with trainees who would be interested to chat on any topic.

I did this last year and it was great to meet a whole bunch of new people, at all career stages!

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Ewan Birney @ewanbirney.bsky.social · 2d

Well - this is why I want to go air to water via the radiators - like for like.

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Ewan Birney @ewanbirney.bsky.social · 2d

Why is it so high at 0? (Solar?)

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Ewan Birney @ewanbirney.bsky.social · 3d

Ugh. Where is the dislike button !!

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Reposted by Ewan Birney

Carmelo Ferrai @carmeloferrai.bsky.social · 3d

2- I feel that people shouldn’t be annoyed talking about “epigenetics” and a refresh every now an then probably is not bad 🤣 I don’t see any concern to the study of @jamiehackett.bsky.social that indeed is very nice… mainly the fight should point other fronts where epigenetic goes very South!!!👇🏽

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Reposted by Ewan Birney

John Greally @greally.bsky.social · 3d

Using the word in the title to lull people into a false sense of security. It's very devious, I'll admit.

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Ewan Birney @ewanbirney.bsky.social · 3d

That said, it is a word with a lot of history people have... or even are... writing books with it in the title right? and the word has it uses in particular in contexts where the definition being used is clear by context.

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Ewan Birney @ewanbirney.bsky.social · 3d

We're in danger of the classic issue between academics - agreeing on many things but arguing passionately about the few things - often semantics and language - where we disagree. I am not a big fan of the word epigenetics, and it's multiple meanings absolutely confuse comms

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Ewan Birney @ewanbirney.bsky.social · 3d

The tech for heat pumps is now fine and personally people have over empaised aspects like efficiency (requiring lower central heating temperatures at higher flow / more insulated houses) vs like-for-like swaps. This where we need tech, policy and social change /comfort (literally) to come together

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Ewan Birney @ewanbirney.bsky.social · 3d

However the uk is in a blind spot on home heating; most is via gas via a near ubiquitous gas network , uk has a lot of old housing stock and it’s a culturally important thing to fix up, restore etc (compare to - say - Japan)

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Ewan Birney @ewanbirney.bsky.social · 3d

As important as low carbon grid is moving consumption to electricity. Transport now is largely market barriers aspect (though the oversupply in batteries from China is a conundrum of exploiting this vs protecting longer view on technology)

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Ewan Birney @ewanbirney.bsky.social · 3d

Both future modelling and practical considerations say that one can achieve a 90-95% low carbon grid relatively easily and cheaply - and the British grid is heading that way. There’s a strong argument to not tackling the big economic cost to get that last 10% this decade

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Ewan Birney @ewanbirney.bsky.social · 3d

With more wind generation being built now, much offshore, solar being added to many south location + rooftops, more batteries arriving and more north-south internal to uk interconnection (including East Anglia to Kent) low / net zero British grid is pretty secure

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Ewan Birney @ewanbirney.bsky.social · 3d

British grid had a number of hours last night when exports > fossil fuel generation - ie net zero operation. It will be at least another month or so before the British grid can operate with no fossil fuels due to inertia and other services being supplied in other ways (chart from grid.iamkate.com)

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Ewan Birney @ewanbirney.bsky.social · 6d

It is ... good. Fun. Definitely something to do once (or perhaps more than once) in your life. Not more than once a year probably).

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Ewan Birney @ewanbirney.bsky.social · 6d

(As a Brit it took me a while to realise that not all of Germany partakes in Oktoberfest like things - indeed the Bavaria is very unique part of Germany overall. Oktoberfest is a strange combination of an outdoor fun-fair, drindls and lederhosen worn unironically and just insane amounts of beer.

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Ewan Birney @ewanbirney.bsky.social · 6d

For my German colleagues - happy unification day tomorrow! ( Deutschen Einheit? is there another snappy German phrase?). As far as I can work out you either go to a beer tent in southern Germany for the end of Oktoberfest or you go to a compass point on German borders, or you ... chill at home?

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