As our local donuts get bigger and bigger, my wife and I unlocked a new level of self-restraint last week when we bought only one and shared it.
11.03.2026 12:49
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As our local donuts get bigger and bigger, my wife and I unlocked a new level of self-restraint last week when we bought only one and shared it.
Highly recommend this article.
From the abstract: "We predict that 25% of all bacterial non-ribosomal peptide synthetases encode metallophore production 😮 and that significant chemical diversity remains undiscovered."
[emoji added for effect!]
Be sure to read this review by Kenan Bozhüyük & co. @helmholtzhips.bsky.social highlighting the tools and strategies for NRPS and PKS pathway exploration and engineering in our latest issue #natprod #secmet
Find the full article below👇
"The biomedical research community is facing the prospect of major funding disruptions again this year." www.science.org/content/arti...
Cheat sheet for ChimeraX.
ChimeraX cheat sheet brought to you by Alejandro Pereira. www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/dat...
Interesting podcast (transcript of podcast, here).
www.chronicle.com/podcast/coll...
Whoa.
I'm sorry but a pull-quote like this requires that the article contains an image of a Homo habilis individual dressed in jeans and a hoodie.
I don't make the rules.
recently my friend's comics professor told her that it's acceptable to use gen AI for script-writing but not for art, since a machine can't generate meaningful artistic work. meanwhile, my sister's screenwriting professor said that they can use gen AI for concept art and visualization, but that it won't be able to generate a script that's any good. and at my job, it seems like each department says that AI can be useful in every field except the one that they know best. It's only ever the jobs we're unfamiliar with that we assume can be replaced with automation. The more attuned we are with certain processes, crafts, and occupations, the more we realize that gen AI will never be able to provide a suitable replacement. The case for its existence relies on our ignorance of the work and skill required to do everything we don't.
it’s come to my attention that my tumblr post has been crossposted to bluesky, so I’m posting it on my account here #AntiAI #GenAI
Excellent news. The NIGMS Building Undergraduate Research Training (BURT) T34 NOFO is published. First due is Feb 25th, for December 26 funding. This condenses previous UG NOFOs so reach out to email/previous PO if you have Qs. files.simpler.grants.gov/opportunitie...
Hey all, I reached out to the PO of my NIGMS MIRA to ask if the gov't shut down, and rescheduling of study sections, might allow for some accommodation to the standard rule that PIs cannot resubmit a MIRA while their MIRA (or other RPG) is under review (waiting in scores or summary statements) 🧪
Whoa!
There is still time to register and submit an abstract to the 29th Enzyme Mechanisms Conference. The venue has extended the deadline for room reservations at negotiated rate. It is shaping up to be a great event.
www.enzymemechanismsconference.org
So...my undergrad thesis student is doing a quality analysis of studies found in meta-analyses. She identified a few and we contacted the authors to request their effect sizes and other variables for the studies in their papers.
Here's what happened:
scientiapsychiatrica.com/index.php/Sc...
Excited to be going on @thedailyshow.com tonight to discuss climate change, my new book, and the general state of the planet.
I don't disagree with any of this. To clarify, my point was that if you are going to have the current system, that SRO forced us to think about how to assign a number to the concerns that we had.
Like many of us, I've thought about alternate approaches and ranking crops off often.
Of course, the reviewer could always modulate what they considered major or not. But if I deemed something to be a major weakness that I could not downgrade to moderate, I knew what the number had to be.
Similarly, if I could not identify even a moderate weakness, a 1-3 score was justified.
This dictated the numerical score.
If I identified one major weakness, the score was at best a 7. I found this very effective and was always surprised that other SROs did not encourage reviewers to explicitly define a weakness as major, moderate, or minor.
When NIH went to the 1-9 system, the SRO with whom I worked most frequently emphasized the grid on page 20 of the slide deck below. Critically, we were instructed that our weaknesses had to be **labeled** as major, moderate, or minor in our review.
research.ps.columbia.edu/sites/resear...
So, let me share the NIGMS processes from my time.
1/8
One week deadline to abstract submission for the #Enzyme mechanisms Conference.
Dec 1, 2025
www.enzymemechanismsconference.org/abstract-sub...
Happy 100th, structural biology pubs.aip.org/aca/sdy/arti...
Delightful perspective by George Phillips and Ed Lattman. Have a piece of cake everyone.
Directing Biosynthesis VIII - submit your oral abstract by 2 February 2026
Oral abstract submission is now open for Directing Biosynthesis VIII, an event that has been connecting #Biosynthesis researchers for over a decade.
Network and discuss the latest research, get all the details and submit: rsc.li/dbviii
#DBVIII #ChemSky
Notes on NIH matters as the government opens up again drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2025/11/14/n...
Protein Engineering of Biosynthetic Enzymes Unlocks Libraries of Bioactive Tilimycin Analogs
https://doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.5c05921
Screen grab from Dropbox saying Emojis in file names are finally here!
No no no begs every archivist. You are never going to be able to find anything. Please don’t start using emojis in file names. Who asked for this? What fresh hell is next?
As email filters make it hard to let people know about upcoming deadlines, I want to remind everyone here that the Enzyme Mechanisms Conference is fast approaching.
The program is up on the website and the list of posters (not yet posted) looks amazing.
www.enzymemechanismsconference.org
The National Crystallization Center is hiring for two positions: a research scientist position focused on progressing our crystallization optimization projects, and a research support specialist to support operations of the Crystallization Center!
A New Thread on NIH Forward Funding
I recently posted an analysis of forward funding of NIH grants from 2015-25.
This analysis was flawed and should be ignored. I apologize for the misleading information
I present an analysis of my error and a revised analysis which I am confident is right.
1/25
An illustration of a man sitting at a desk in front of a crowd, with the hedline: Transitioning to ‘emeritus professor’ wasn’t always easy. Here’s how I adjusted.
"For me, success in retirement has involved mapping out a realistic plan that is both enjoyable and academically fulfilling." #ScienceWorkingLife https://scim.ag/47iicOq