Paolo De Los Rios
@paolodelosrios.bsky.social
720 followers 560 following 540 posts
Biophysicist/Statistical physicist, Protein Quality Control / proteostasis (chaperones galore), energy-driven processes in the cell, machine learning/AI for proteins, and origins of life @EPFL, Lausanne. Opinions are mine. #SempreForzaToro
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
paolodelosrios.bsky.social
100 years of anti-fascism because… check notes… fascism has consistently been bad for a 100 years.
paolodelosrios.bsky.social
Ultimately shame on us who allowed so important projects to depend so crucially on a single funding source.
paolodelosrios.bsky.social
Physicists were working on them, but got the funds cut and the students expelled.
paolodelosrios.bsky.social
I see you argument, but at some point in the authoritarian/fascist slide, is there a moment when the real fantasy becomes “we are still citizens of a democracy“?
You know history better than I do: which events would make you say that the line has been crossed in the US?
paolodelosrios.bsky.social
Their problem is that they are deeply ignorant and most likely unread. They act as if their reign will last 1000 years, when instead, according to history, you can shave a couple zeroes (orders of magnitude).
Still too much for many of us, but much shorter than they think.
paolodelosrios.bsky.social
My point is that no matter the problems one can find in unions, we are far better off with them than without.
paolodelosrios.bsky.social
As an Italian, raised in the 70s and 80s, I’d say that they are mostly a force for good. That said, they suffer some of the same problems that organisations wielding power have, with some part of them being self-serving.
It is not intrinsic to unions, though.
But beware doing without them!
paolodelosrios.bsky.social
And we go back to your point: labor rights and a minimal safety net are necessary to give workers a minimum of power to counterbalance the one of employers in any negotiation. And this is also why unions, with all their problems, are so indispensable. Collective bargains/contracts are game changers.
paolodelosrios.bsky.social
"Gilets jaunes" in France paralysed the country for a month for way way way less. And it does not even take such a huge % of striking people to block everything.

The problem is that US society is stacked against, with many people going check-by-check and not affording to lose even a single pay day.
paolodelosrios.bsky.social
No, you can’t put it back in the same box. You’ll have to go through it, throw away everything that’s rotten and find a new box for what is left.
Choose wisely a new box that is made better than the old one if you do not want it to happen again.
paolodelosrios.bsky.social
There is a nice account of this in “The light eaters”, an intriguing book about plant “intelligence” (essentially amazing problem solving skills, even through community) by @zoeschlanger.bsky.social
paolodelosrios.bsky.social
Immortal
drdind.bsky.social
Friday was the 50th anniversary of the The Rocky Horror Picture Show release, which bombed at the time but quickly became perhaps the biggest, most durable cult classic in history, spanning generations in appeal.

So, let's do the time warp again, folks!

www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...
a close up of a woman 's face with the words how bout that written below her
Alt: a close up of a man 's face with the words how bout that written below him - Frankfurter played by Tim Curry from Rocky Horror, released 9/26/75
media.tenor.com
paolodelosrios.bsky.social
I would go for Ichnusa or Moretti, but if they have a local one, take it
paolodelosrios.bsky.social
Pizza and beer, not wine!!!

I know I know, it's two different irreconcilable worldviews.
Reposted by Paolo De Los Rios
chercheurjuteux.com
Je lance donc la suite de #lesmétazoairesdupèreconnard après la grande musaraigne.

Cela sera des formats courts juste pour présenter un métazoaire un peu rigolo / étrange / spécial.

Aujourd'hui Heterocephalus glaber, dit le Rat-taupe nu. De l'Ordre des Rodentia et du sous-ordre des Hystricomorpha.
Un rat-taupe nu. Ressemble à une vieille couille fripée avec des tous petits yeux et deux grandes dents de devant
paolodelosrios.bsky.social
They said the president is constitutionally authorised to break the law if done in (what he thinks to be) the exercise of his presidential duties.
Stopping him now would be irreparable harm, if he deems it urgent, knowing that down the line they would side with him because of the immunity ruling.
Reposted by Paolo De Los Rios
markusdeserno.bsky.social
I am super excited to announce that we have a tenure-track faculty position in biophysics open in the Department of Physics at Carnegie Mellon! 🧪

Interfolio link: apply.interfolio.com/174360

PLEASE, share widely across the blue skies!

Let me briefly explain what we're looking for:

1/10
Tenure-track Position in Biophysics at Carnegie Mellon University, Department of Physics

Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Open Date: Sep 19, 2025

Description
The Department of Physics at Carnegie Mellon University invites applications for a tenure-track faculty position in biophysics. The appointment is intended to be at the Assistant Professor level, but exceptional candidates at a higher level may also be considered. We seek outstanding candidates with a strong record in cellular and subcellular biophysics. Topics of particular interest include, but are not limited to, uncovering how key characteristics of living systems arise from the interplay between supramolecular cellular structures, how the emergent cellular circuitry defines goals and enables robust decision making, and how metabolic resources are allocated. This encompasses understanding of how information is learned, stored, transduced, and processed across subcellular structures. Applicants with theoretical, data science, or experimental backgrounds within biological physics are encouraged to apply. The ideal candidate will strengthen and extend research programs of current biophysics faculty in the Department of Physics and collaborate with broader life science activities across many departments at CMU and the wider Pittsburgh area.

More details on Interfolio: https://apply.interfolio.com/174360
paolodelosrios.bsky.social
To me the idea that the country hosting the UN HQs, everybody's home, can decide not to allow some other country's representative (president!!!) in, is nuts.

When all the folly going on around the world will be over, and it will, new rules will be dearly needed, inside and between countries.
paolodelosrios.bsky.social
Or they will normalize it so that in a couple of weeks they will also host similar columns.
They can’t backpedal, only run forward.
paolodelosrios.bsky.social
Are classified documents bathroom vanities?
paolodelosrios.bsky.social
‘Nuf said
rebeccarhelm.bsky.social
I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA

10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)