Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Wayne Riekhof @wayneriekhof.bsky.social · 3d

Kitchen smells pretty good right now. Whole house, actually!

Apple pie, golden brown from cinnamon and the Maillard reaction, sitting on a stovetop to cool.

Wayne Riekhof @wayneriekhof.bsky.social · 4d

There used to be a fast neutron source in the basement of the PRL, and a bunch of different high specific activity radionuclides related to nuclear weapons testing, but they may have been disposed of in the 80’s or 90’s.

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Wayne Riekhof @wayneriekhof.bsky.social · 4d

Reposting this to remind me to talk about it in class…Today was on nitrogen fixing bacteria that live in the fungus gardens of leaf cutter ants.

So I guess this could be part of the microbial physiology physiology course with a strong myrmecological theme…

Jennifer Ouellette @jenlucpiquant.bsky.social · 4d

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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Reposted by Wayne Riekhof

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 11d

“Twilight Override,” the latest solo project by Jeff Tweedy, who leads the long-running band Wilco, is a triple album that earns every minute. “I just thought that it flies in the face of a culture that’s gotten faster, more surface level,” he said. nyti.ms/4ngMQgu

Jeff Tweedy, wearing clear-framed glasses and a plaid shirt. A headline reads: "How Jeff Tweedy Made a New Magnum Opus." Photo by Lyndon French for The New York Times

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Wayne Riekhof @wayneriekhof.bsky.social · 15d

Yet again, never having learned how to swim remains a net positive as far as I’m concerned.

MPR News @mprnews.org · 16d

Swimmer's itch is caused by microscopic parasites in the water.

Scientists are working to figure out whether certain waterfowl, invasive species or warming lakes could be factors driving the increase, and whether anything can be done to prevent it.

Scientists look for cause of spike in swimmer’s itch plaguing Minnesota lakes

The itchy red rash is caused by tiny parasites in the water that can burrow into human skin. Researchers are looking at whether certain waterfowl, invasive species or warming lakes could be factors.

www.mprnews.org

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Wayne Riekhof @wayneriekhof.bsky.social · 17d

Last of the hot peppers for the season! Scotch Bonnet, Habenero, Jalapeño, and Habenada (a mutant Habenero that has a defective capsaicin biosynthetic pathway.)

Turning some of these into jam shortly!

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Wayne Riekhof @wayneriekhof.bsky.social · 18d

I noticed the same thing when I grew some last year, then realized they’re closely related to Hibiscus and it made sense. Can’t go wrong with battered and deep fried okra!

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Wayne Riekhof @wayneriekhof.bsky.social · 18d

I’ve told students for years now, a good term paper idea for an evolution/pop gen course or a music course (or both!) would be a thorough analysis of the claims in Kendrick Lamar’s “DNA” through the lens of genes x environment interactions. There’s a lot to mine, there.

Sinner Representative @irepresentsinners.bsky.social · 19d

The beginning quotes for the 107 Days book.

She’s fuckin HILARIOUS!! 😭😂

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Wayne Riekhof @wayneriekhof.bsky.social · 19d

Guess no one in the NYT puzzle writers room has ever force-fed a mouse. Sad.

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Wayne Riekhof @wayneriekhof.bsky.social · 21d

I think D very narrowly edges out G for me, but a different day might find that switched...

Brilliant Maps @brilliantmaps.bsky.social · 21d

For the rest of your life, you can only eat food from one of these regions. Which do you choose?

For more maps: brilliantmaps.beehiiv.com/s...

Wayne Riekhof @wayneriekhof.bsky.social · 21d

Caveat: this only works in rats that have been engineered to express a cocaine responsive ion channel in the brain. Probably not going to stop a given human from using or help someone get clean any time in the near future...but still very, very cool approach!

University of California @uofcalifornia.bsky.social · 21d

A new biochemical approach to combat addiction, developed by researchers at @UC San Diego and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (@NIDAnews), has shown promising results in reducing drug-seeking behavior. https://bit.ly/3V0MvlK #SpeakUp4Science

Rewiring Addiction With Designer Proteins

By custom engineering proteins in the brain, scientists at UC San Diego have shown that addiction can be rewired at the molecular level without negatively impacting enjoyment of normal activities.

bit.ly

Wayne Riekhof @wayneriekhof.bsky.social · 25d

...I am teaching this semester (as BIOS 440/840.) So this paper will be the next subject of our tri-weekly Journal Club, every third Friday in the class this semester. A classic, still well worth a read!

www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...

Dependency on Medium and Temperature of Cell Size and Chemical Composition during Balanced Growth of Salmonella typhimurium

Summary: Ceil mass, the average number of nuclei/cell and the content of RNA and DNA were studied in (Salmonella typhimurium during balanced (steady state) growth in different media. These quantities ...

www.microbiologyresearch.org

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Wayne Riekhof @wayneriekhof.bsky.social · 25d

Very nice writeup on someone I've admired and learned from for many years. I didn't know he had passed until catching up on This Week in Microbiology driving to campus this morning. His 1958 paper on Salmonella growth rates basically founded the formal study of microbial physiology, which...

STCmicrobeblog @stcmicrobeblog.bsky.social · Aug 21

schaechter.asmblog.org/schaechter/2...
#MicroSky

Elio (1928-2025)

by The STC Team — Losing a close friend always saddens one deeply, regardless of age. Losing a person who has so immensely influenced our worldview through his guidance and example makes the sadness e...

schaechter.asmblog.org

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Wayne Riekhof @wayneriekhof.bsky.social · Aug 20

Festival of capsaicin at the house tonight…

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Wayne Riekhof @wayneriekhof.bsky.social · Jul 23

Text from my daughter giving @lukelukeluke.bsky.social vibes 🍄‍🟫🍄🍄‍🟫🍄 😂

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Wayne Riekhof @wayneriekhof.bsky.social · Jun 14

True. I’ve been schlepping this around for 25+ years now.

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Wayne Riekhof @wayneriekhof.bsky.social · Jun 2

It’s a shame I can’t go back in time like 25 or 30 years and ask the yeast genome sequencing and KO collection folks to use something other than S288c derivatives & designer deletion strains. The BY474x strains suck!

Wayne Riekhof @wayneriekhof.bsky.social · Jun 2

Yeah, still got it! (Doing yeast genetics with my own hands, that is.)

Measuring mutagenesis efficiency by EMS in 2 S. cerevisiae wild-types, by loss of CAN1 function leading to canavanine resistant colonies.

Does the BY474x background have a mismatch repair defect? 🤔

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Wayne Riekhof @wayneriekhof.bsky.social · May 30

It’s Friday afternoon and I was working in the lab all day and my impulse control was slipping so I gave in. I finally did it. Almost felt like I didn’t have a choice…

I licked a Petri dish!

Stay tuned on Monday to see what grows… 👅 🧪 🦠 🤓

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Wayne Riekhof @wayneriekhof.bsky.social · May 30

Try course semolina flour for pasta making. It’s just the right size and shape of granules to act like micro ball bearings. And stays slipperier when dampened by the dough.

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Wayne Riekhof @wayneriekhof.bsky.social · May 29

Not my picture, but this lovely couple are nesting a few blocks from my house, in the woods adjacent to Holmes Lake in Lincoln. Haven't seen any juveniles yet, but here's hoping!

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Wayne Riekhof @wayneriekhof.bsky.social · May 27

I did something similar recently with a 6502. Fun!

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Wayne Riekhof @wayneriekhof.bsky.social · May 22

Ask Andy Bent at Wisconsin, he invented the method. Might be something about it in the original Clough and Bent paper, too? My hunch is you need something that’s really non-polar as the hydrophobic part to make the cuticle porous enough to get the bacteria in but 🤷‍♂️

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10069079/

Floral dip: a simplified method for Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of Arabidopsis thaliana - PubMed

The Agrobacterium vacuum infiltration method has made it possible to transform Arabidopsis thaliana without plant tissue culture or regeneration. In the present study, this method was evaluated and a ...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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Wayne Riekhof @wayneriekhof.bsky.social · May 22

I’ve been feeding the yeast inferior YPD. Found this bottle from 1992 in a retired colleague’s chemical inventory and decided to give them this well aged, vintage treat. It’s like wine, right?

Wayne Riekhof @wayneriekhof.bsky.social · May 20

Just saw a Grackle attack and kill a House Sparrow and start eating it...or at least it seemed to be aggressively stabbing it with murderous intend and an end goal of eating it, while the sparrow fought for it's life!

I'm not a birder but I was captivated!