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Jake Wintermute @synbio1.bsky.social · 1d

Fair. How many pages would you guess we need to tech transfer a typical piece of biology in, say, 2030?

Jake Wintermute @synbio1.bsky.social · 1d

In 1988 a computer mouse came with a 200-page manual with details like the custom drivers needed to make the device work with your specific hardware

Biology tech transfer is not quite that efficient yet, but I’m hopeful we are entering the 200-page-manual era of biology

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Jake Wintermute @synbio1.bsky.social · 2d

Me (the world’s greatest biohacker) typing the DNA sequence I need directly into the raw FASTA file because the genAI agent was too slow

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Jake Wintermute @synbio1.bsky.social · 3d

She’s just like me fr!!!

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Jake Wintermute @synbio1.bsky.social · 3d

At the Asilomar conference in 1975, biologists chose to be pro-active about calling their own work risky

50 years later, you can’t ask chatGPT for a PCR recipe without getting shut down like a bioterrorist

My fellow biologists: this is our fault. We built this regulatory culture

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Jake Wintermute @synbio1.bsky.social · 3d

TIL you can get bottle labels printed directly on actual wood veneer instead of paper which is technically just replacing wood with wood but this way has stronger wood energy

www.wausaucoated.com/wine-spirits...

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Jake Wintermute @synbio1.bsky.social · 4d

Yum ants

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Reposted by Jake Wintermute

Gerrich @gerrich.bsky.social · 5d

@synbio1.bsky.social

I guess one can biologize biological processes and go even more archaic/futuristic.

Jennifer Ouellette @jenlucpiquant.bsky.social · 5d

Scientists revive old Bulgarian recipe to make yogurt with ants. Ants carry lactic and acetic acid bacteria that help coagulate milk, as well as formic acid to acidify it. They even partnered with Danish chefs to create three recipes using ant yogurt. arstechnica.com/science/2025...

Scientists revive old Bulgarian recipe to make yogurt with ants

Ants carry lactic and acetic acid bacteria that help coagulate milk, as well as formic acid to acidify it.

arstechnica.com

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Jake Wintermute @synbio1.bsky.social · 5d

If you’re watching for signs that AI transforms bio, drugs in the clinic will be a lagging indicator

The leading indicator will be fast bioproducts shipped without billion-dollar R&D budgets

Look for the AI-engineered enzyme that beats tomato sauce stains, then start to believe

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Jake Wintermute @synbio1.bsky.social · 6d

Oyster-inspired bone healing juice
interestingengineering.com/science/chin...

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Jake Wintermute @synbio1.bsky.social · 7d

100% fake

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Jake Wintermute @synbio1.bsky.social · 7d

Love to see innovation in the self-eating technology space
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09...

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Jake Wintermute @synbio1.bsky.social · 8d

My career goal is to become a quest giver in cyberpunk video game where I'm all like "use these biometric keys to infiltrate the megacorp and recover the stolen plans for the symbiote interface"

And on my desk is a CRT TV converted into an aquarium like this

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Jake Wintermute @synbio1.bsky.social · 9d

Bioeconomy investing 101 always go long on the forest

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Jake Wintermute @synbio1.bsky.social · 9d

If we invest wisely in the science of biomaterials the future of bubble gum can look like endless acceleration into an infinite horizon of bubble gum fun

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Jake Wintermute @synbio1.bsky.social · 10d

Family game night with Lorelei and the Laser Eyes (this game is sweet if you like shape rotator puzzles and Italian new wave cinema)

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Jake Wintermute @synbio1.bsky.social · 12d

Agree with this. Community maker spaces are the real-world version of the maker videos. People come to be empowered, not to have their misunderstandings corrected.

Jake Wintermute @synbio1.bsky.social · 12d

The point here that institutional science misses is that people don't trust doctors because of their credentials, or because they speak with sciencey caveats like "the evidence suggests"

People trust doctors that make them feel cared for - a sentiment that scientists actively suppress from comms

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Jake Wintermute @synbio1.bsky.social · 13d

When you realize that complex assay you needed to run is offered as a pre-made kit but then it still fails

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Jake Wintermute @synbio1.bsky.social · 14d

Old timey DNA sequences where they wrote the phosphate groups as lowercase ps make me feel like I'm reading the sPonGEbOb moCkINg SaRcaSTiC vOiCE

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Jake Wintermute @synbio1.bsky.social · 15d

I daresay the ism in which the individual is encouraged to believe mainly in themself is called classical liberalism

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Jake Wintermute @synbio1.bsky.social · 15d

An effective alternative might be found in "maker" YouTube channels. They need to be engaging to be supported, so they are keenly aware of how to win an audience.

They don't say "you view is wrong and mine is right." They say "check this out you can do this too."

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFZF...

Backyard Squirrel Maze 1.0- Ninja Warrior Course

YouTube video by Mark Rober

www.youtube.com

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Jake Wintermute @synbio1.bsky.social · 15d

I would say that almost all institutional scicomm is based on the "deficiency model", the idea that the public is ignorant and that the expert's role is to correct that ignorance

This premise sets up a power hierarchy and therefore resentment

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Informa...

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Jake Wintermute @synbio1.bsky.social · 15d

I wouldn't consider appealing to a bare majority as evidence that a message is "effective."

Particularly when that majority has been in steady decline and the same message provokes a strong backlash in the growing minority.

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Jake Wintermute @synbio1.bsky.social · 15d

"Trust the experts" hasn't been an effective public health message since the 90s. But scientists stuck to it, hoping that faith in institutions would return.

It isn't going to return. It's time to rethink how we communicate. We have to win in the messy marketplace of ideas.

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