Jeffrey Townsend

Th consequences are so serious. Let’s hope this grows legs

Cartoon by Michael de Adder

This engineered fungus cuts emissions and tastes like meat Scientists used CRISPR to boost the efficiency and digestibility of a fungus already known for its meatlike qualities. The modified strain grows protein far more quickly and with much less sugar while...

Scientists used #CRISPR to turn a simple #fungus into a fast-growing, meatlike #protein with a much smaller #climate & #environment footprint that outperforms (even) #chicken farming in #landuse & water impact: www.sciencedaily.com/releases/202... #plantbreeding #geneediting #fungi #meat

Optimal Annual COVID-19 Vaccine Boosting Dates Following Previous Booster Vaccination or Breakthrough Infection Optimal timing for COVID-19 boosters improves their efficacy. There is an optimal delay of boosters after breakthrough infection. Our analysis enables bene

Our recent paper, "Optimal Annual COVID-19 Vaccine Boosting Dates Following Previous Booster Vaccination or Breakthrough Infection", is amongst the most-read recent articles in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Maybe because everyone can benefit from reading it?

academic.oup.com/cid/article-...

For a most familiar instance, if you take the existence (which here means the conceptual ability to revisit the spacetimeline to observe the event happening) of "quantum events" out of the "Schroedinger's Cat Paradox", you are left with ... no paradox.

Events do not exist: they happen.

100%

Actually, I’ll put it back to you differently:
I don’t think there’s any chance we can “quantize gravity” without first resolving the basic ontological confusion surrounding existence, time, events and space-time.

Eg space-time as an emergent quantum structure is structurally incoherent.

For those who’ve read the article

Is the standard conceptual architecture (eg @quantamagazine.bsky.social) structurally coherent if:
-Emergence requires a substrate
-Quantization presupposes an ontology
-Spacetime cannot be both
-Not without conflating representational levels

🧪 ⚛️ #philsci #philsky

Events do not exist: they happen.

My inexpert coda: not only does the human-centered desire for events to exist commonly cause confusion in the interpretation of relativity, it is the primary cause of ontological confusion in quantum mechanics as well.

How to Get Rid of "Citizens United" We can do away with it without a new Supreme Court. Nor do we need a constitutional amendment. There’s a far simpler way.

substack.com/@robertreich...

Nothing to see here. Just the White House needing to reassure the public that Piggy doesn't want to murder members of Congress. 😩

Is Piggy referring to his attempted coup on January 6th?

My new doc SANDPIPERS' LAST SUPPER is now on the CBC's Nature of Things YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMo0...

The film tells the story of the western sandpiper’s long-distance migration powered by an invisible mud-based superfood that supports the species’ survival. #shorebirds #birdwatching

The life of microplastic: how fragments move through plants, insects, animals – and you Microplastics have been found in the placentas of unborn babies, the depths of the Mariana Trench, the summit of Everest and the organs of Antarctic penguins. But how do they travel through the world,...

What do #soil, #fastfashion, housekeeping, health & #microplastics have in common? This great article by @phoebeweston.bsky.social & Tess McClure explains how they're interlinked.
Unfortunately these topics also hardly feature in the national curriculum 🙄
www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte...

Quanta Contributor Max G. Levy Wins AAAS Kavli Gold Award for Science Journalism | Quanta Magazine Judges from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and The Kavli Foundation recognized Quanta Magazine contributing writer Max G. Levy with a Gold Award in the Magazine category for “...

Quanta contributing writer @maxlevy.bsky.social has received a Kavli Gold Award from @aaas.org and @kavlifoundation.org for “The Hidden World of Electrostatic Ecology,” a detailed account of how small organisms use static electricity to their advantage.

www.quantamagazine.org/quantanews/q...

Optimal Annual COVID-19 Vaccine Boosting Dates Following Previous Booster Vaccination or Breakthrough Infection Optimal timing for COVID-19 boosters improves their efficacy. There is an optimal delay of boosters after breakthrough infection. Our analysis enables bene

Some public health voices are saying the purpose of COVID vaccination and boosting is to prevent hospitalization, implying it doesn't substantially decrease infection.

Wrong!

Timing your booster optimally makes a big difference for prevention.

Now is a good time.

academic.oup.com/cid/article/...

Expanding Access to Weight-Loss Drugs Could Save Thousands of Lives A Year, Study Finds Expanding access to weight-loss medications could prevent more than 40,000 deaths a year in the United States, according to a 2024 study led by researchers at

Expanding access to new, highly effective weight-loss medications could prevent more than 40,000 deaths a year in the United States, according to a new study led by researchers @yalesph.bsky.social and the @ufresearch.bsky.social.

medicine.yale.edu/news-article...

2026 AACR Runners for Research 5K Run/WalkI'm fundraising for American Association for Cancer Research and cancer research! 2026 AACR Runners for Research 5K Run/WalkEvent landing page for 2026 AACR Runners for Research 5K Run/Walk

Join me in supporting the American Association for Cancer Research (@theaacr.bsky.social) for their signature 5K run/walk in San Diego, CA, supporting the prevention and cure of ALL cancers. Please donate today.

#Runners4Research

do.nr/a06ftutx

You can tell them to tear down that wall because a biostatistician at Yale thinks you're right.

😂

It isn't my field—just a "pet hobby"—but for the record, I 100% conceive that black holes "never form".

cosmicave.org/2025/11/06/w...

James Watson, dead at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA who died Thursday at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers.

A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death.

Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."

Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫

This really hasn’t gotten enough attention this week.

@wired.com #ICE
www.wired.com/story/fbi-wa...

Optimal Annual COVID-19 Vaccine Boosting Dates Following Previous Booster Vaccination or Breakthrough Infection Optimal timing for COVID-19 boosters improves their efficacy. There is an optimal delay of boosters after breakthrough infection. Our analysis enables bene

It's a good time to get vaccinated.

academic.oup.com/cid/article/...

Research reveals boosting strategies that mitigate risks of COVID-19 in cancer patients New research led by scientists at Yale University and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte finds that the rate at which additional COVID-19 boosters

ysph.yale.edu/news-article...

Optimal Annual COVID-19 Vaccine Boosting Dates Following Previous Booster Vaccination or Breakthrough Infection Optimal timing for COVID-19 boosters improves their efficacy. There is an optimal delay of boosters after breakthrough infection. Our analysis enables bene

academic.oup.com/cid/article/...

You don't have to move here but I would not recommend staying there.

#ScienceSky journals, seriously, get rid of the "X" button, that place isn't safe to direct ANYONE. #MedSky journals and #AcademiaSky do the same.

Ain't worth keeping a toe in poison waters. 🧪🩺

A man was arrested for playing Darth Vader's theme music, "The Imperial March," behind National Guard troops walking through Logan Circle.

Now the ACLU is suing on his behalf. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

One of these is the White House @whitehouse-47.bsky.social . The other is Dnipro, Ukraine.

What are the common factors?

The White House is asking people not to share pictures of the East Wing because it’s even worse today.

Trump Live Updates: Latest on Government Shutdown and Putin Meeting Reversal

Breaking News: Paul Ingrassia, President Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of Special Counsel, said he planned to formally withdraw his nomination due to lack of Republican support. His path began to unravel after a report that he sent a series of racist text messages.

YouTube video by MSNBC Maddow: 'No Kings' protests send message to Trump from EVERY state in the nation

NO KiNGS protest in New Haven made it onto Rachel Maddow. Check it out at 3:25—

youtu.be/WjSCy54LqaI?...

And yes, @JEFFREYTOWNSEND.BSKY.SOCIAL (bsky.app/profile/jeff...) is me.