Jacob Tennessen
@jacobphd.bsky.social
Scientist errant. Genetics, evolution, whimsy, awe. https://connects.catalyst.harvard.edu/Profiles/display/Person/173289
🧬🦟🐌🩸👤🦠🍓🐸🧬
🧬🦟🐌🩸👤🦠🍓🐸🧬
Google translate automatically rewords your questions to be racist
January 24, 2026 at 3:31 AM
Google translate automatically rewords your questions to be racist
I find myself in Canada this morning, and this is what I’ll be attending
January 18, 2026 at 5:23 PM
I find myself in Canada this morning, and this is what I’ll be attending
In Spanish, the pig genus "Sus" is a possessive pronoun, and here the species name Sus scrofa apparently got autocorrected to "estrofa" meaning "stanza"; secret porcine poetry slipping through peer review.
January 6, 2026 at 1:40 AM
In Spanish, the pig genus "Sus" is a possessive pronoun, and here the species name Sus scrofa apparently got autocorrected to "estrofa" meaning "stanza"; secret porcine poetry slipping through peer review.
I won’t subject you to most of my childhood artwork, but I do like how my 6th grade self inadvertently created a nice visual message to share with homophobes.
January 4, 2026 at 12:26 AM
I won’t subject you to most of my childhood artwork, but I do like how my 6th grade self inadvertently created a nice visual message to share with homophobes.
Unrelated to current geopolitics, it’s good to be reminded that I basically grew up in a natural history museum, which likely shaped who I am today.
January 4, 2026 at 12:23 AM
Unrelated to current geopolitics, it’s good to be reminded that I basically grew up in a natural history museum, which likely shaped who I am today.
Going through old things as my folks prepare to sell my childhood house, and the stuff from my high school year in Venezuela hits extra hard today.
January 4, 2026 at 12:17 AM
Going through old things as my folks prepare to sell my childhood house, and the stuff from my high school year in Venezuela hits extra hard today.
Shout out to the West Virginia State Police for the time they rescued my brother and me after we embarked on an extremely ill-prepared hike in an Appalachian snowstorm.
January 3, 2026 at 2:40 AM
Shout out to the West Virginia State Police for the time they rescued my brother and me after we embarked on an extremely ill-prepared hike in an Appalachian snowstorm.
Love to have my data covered up by a misinformation button that can't be disabled.
December 17, 2025 at 6:17 PM
Love to have my data covered up by a misinformation button that can't be disabled.
Working on a murder mystery game for the upcoming 8th grade hangout
December 14, 2025 at 3:34 AM
Working on a murder mystery game for the upcoming 8th grade hangout
Wolf coat color is an iconic case study in pop gen, but the whole wild story — that it comes from domestic dogs via an antimicrobial peptide gene — isn't widely known. And the parallels with human color polymorphism — both the truth and our ugly misperceptions of it — are striking.
December 5, 2025 at 7:08 PM
Wolf coat color is an iconic case study in pop gen, but the whole wild story — that it comes from domestic dogs via an antimicrobial peptide gene — isn't widely known. And the parallels with human color polymorphism — both the truth and our ugly misperceptions of it — are striking.
Please, Herb Robert was my father. Call me Stinky Bob.
December 3, 2025 at 5:39 PM
Please, Herb Robert was my father. Call me Stinky Bob.
Cookie Monster is a good model of a catabolic enzyme.
•specific substrate
•globular shape
•does not remove anything, but simply breaks large reactants into smaller products
•notable release of energy
•specific substrate
•globular shape
•does not remove anything, but simply breaks large reactants into smaller products
•notable release of energy
December 2, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Cookie Monster is a good model of a catabolic enzyme.
•specific substrate
•globular shape
•does not remove anything, but simply breaks large reactants into smaller products
•notable release of energy
•specific substrate
•globular shape
•does not remove anything, but simply breaks large reactants into smaller products
•notable release of energy
They did not arise independently. They are both synthesized from protoporphyrin IX, sometimes in the same organism. However, there is no evidence that our microbial ancestors were ever photosynthetic. Plants have heme, but animals do not have chlorophyll. So heme probably came first.
November 25, 2025 at 11:20 PM
They did not arise independently. They are both synthesized from protoporphyrin IX, sometimes in the same organism. However, there is no evidence that our microbial ancestors were ever photosynthetic. Plants have heme, but animals do not have chlorophyll. So heme probably came first.
Me: What does Lorem ipsum even mean?
Cicero writing the text:
Cicero writing the text:
November 21, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Me: What does Lorem ipsum even mean?
Cicero writing the text:
Cicero writing the text:
Plasmodium parasites, which cause malaria by infecting our blood cells, have no common name. Their ancestors were light-harvesting algae and they still contain the remnants of photosynthetic parts. In effect, they are a seaweed that traded their sea habitat for blood.
So let's call them bloodweeds.
So let's call them bloodweeds.
November 16, 2025 at 10:13 PM
Plasmodium parasites, which cause malaria by infecting our blood cells, have no common name. Their ancestors were light-harvesting algae and they still contain the remnants of photosynthetic parts. In effect, they are a seaweed that traded their sea habitat for blood.
So let's call them bloodweeds.
So let's call them bloodweeds.
You can't win, for I've already drawn you as the disheveled Putative First Animal and myself as the sleek and sophisticated Complex Early Animal.
November 11, 2025 at 5:28 PM
You can't win, for I've already drawn you as the disheveled Putative First Animal and myself as the sleek and sophisticated Complex Early Animal.
This says Anopheles mosquitoes crossed the Atlantic when it was ~2/3 of its modern width, instead of the conventionally stated Mesozoic timing when the distance was short. Is it plausible? Mosquitoes are delicate and absent from many remote islands, but life finds a way…
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
November 6, 2025 at 11:46 PM
This says Anopheles mosquitoes crossed the Atlantic when it was ~2/3 of its modern width, instead of the conventionally stated Mesozoic timing when the distance was short. Is it plausible? Mosquitoes are delicate and absent from many remote islands, but life finds a way…
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Only one predator species chooses its prey based on what it senses the prey has eaten. Specifically, it wants prey full of human (or other vertebrate) blood! Meet Evarcha culicivora, the spider that prefers blood-fed mosquitoes. Called the vampire spider, but this is misleading: it EATS vampires.
November 6, 2025 at 5:05 AM
Only one predator species chooses its prey based on what it senses the prey has eaten. Specifically, it wants prey full of human (or other vertebrate) blood! Meet Evarcha culicivora, the spider that prefers blood-fed mosquitoes. Called the vampire spider, but this is misleading: it EATS vampires.
Toxoplasma isn't "intelligent" but it manipulates the behavior of rodents & maybe other mammals. A brainless algorithm formed by natural selection to hijack brains.
AI need not know what it's doing either, but versions that engage with human psyche so as to favor their own propagation will prosper.
AI need not know what it's doing either, but versions that engage with human psyche so as to favor their own propagation will prosper.
November 3, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Toxoplasma isn't "intelligent" but it manipulates the behavior of rodents & maybe other mammals. A brainless algorithm formed by natural selection to hijack brains.
AI need not know what it's doing either, but versions that engage with human psyche so as to favor their own propagation will prosper.
AI need not know what it's doing either, but versions that engage with human psyche so as to favor their own propagation will prosper.
An amusing subreddit to browse is /r/Birdsfacingforward
October 31, 2025 at 6:19 AM
An amusing subreddit to browse is /r/Birdsfacingforward
Wasting away again in Amanitaville
October 29, 2025 at 8:13 PM
Wasting away again in Amanitaville
A "monster" was originally a biological abnormality like a birth defect, believed to be an omen. But it's ableist and scientifically inaccurate to classify births as normal vs abnormal: every baby has unique mutations as well as non-genetic quirks. You are a monster, so do the mash!
October 29, 2025 at 3:28 PM
A "monster" was originally a biological abnormality like a birth defect, believed to be an omen. But it's ableist and scientifically inaccurate to classify births as normal vs abnormal: every baby has unique mutations as well as non-genetic quirks. You are a monster, so do the mash!
The move to ban Red 40 dye is comical since it's almost literally a red herring. The problems it's supposed to solve are real, and we don't need it, but ditching it won't make America any healthier. An influencer will call it a poison but a scientist will tell you that the dose makes the poison.
October 29, 2025 at 2:15 AM
The move to ban Red 40 dye is comical since it's almost literally a red herring. The problems it's supposed to solve are real, and we don't need it, but ditching it won't make America any healthier. An influencer will call it a poison but a scientist will tell you that the dose makes the poison.
Fuegian “dogs" were not dogs but a partially domesticated form of the fox-like Patagonian culpeo, bred by the Selk’nam people for aid in hunting. A genocide c. 1900 targeted these pets and drove them extinct, though the Selk’nam survived.
Human ingenuity, and human cruelty, shape genetic diversity.
Human ingenuity, and human cruelty, shape genetic diversity.
October 26, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Fuegian “dogs" were not dogs but a partially domesticated form of the fox-like Patagonian culpeo, bred by the Selk’nam people for aid in hunting. A genocide c. 1900 targeted these pets and drove them extinct, though the Selk’nam survived.
Human ingenuity, and human cruelty, shape genetic diversity.
Human ingenuity, and human cruelty, shape genetic diversity.
For a great satire of American gun culture, see the first chapter of From the Earth to the Moon written in 1865. I guess we've always been like this.
October 22, 2025 at 1:02 AM
For a great satire of American gun culture, see the first chapter of From the Earth to the Moon written in 1865. I guess we've always been like this.