Elliott Weix

I wrote a quick-start guide for people to replicate this across the country. It was, in our experience, a very effective way to get real action in a short amount of time.

People are willing to talk to scientists! And when you provide everything, they are happy to contact their reps too. Try it!

Rohith Rajasekaran of the Coyle Lab is Awarded Distinguished Graduate Fellowship The year-long fellowship will support Rajasekaran's research into how to repurpose cellular systems that exist in nature to engineer new functions into cells.

Congratulations to Rohith Rajasekaran, who was awarded a @uwmadisoncals.bsky.social Distinguished Graduate Fellowship! In the @cellraiser.bsky.social Lab, Rajasekaran focuses on the MinDE reaction-diffusion system. Learn more about his research: biochem.wisc.edu/2025/06/12/r...

Methane-powered sea spiders: Diverse, epibiotic methanotrophs serve as a source of nutrition for deep-sea methane seep Sericosura | PNAS Methane seeps harbor uncharacterized animal–microbe symbioses with unique nutritional strategies. Three undescribed sea spider species (family Ammo...

Terrifying but also good fodder for undergraduate biochemistry course homework and exams...

www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....

Persistent nitrogenase isotope signatures over two billion years of engineered evolution Nitrogen isotope fractionation (e15N) in sedimentary rocks has provided evidence for biological nitrogen fixation, and thus primary productivity, on the early Earth. However, the extent to which molec...

🧬 New preprint out today, years in the making!

Rucker et al. traces ancient nitrogen fixation over 2 billion years through engineering & synthetic evolution. Supports reliability of N-isotope biosignatures on Earth & beyond.

Congrats @hollyrucker.bsky.social! 🚀

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Listen to Karolin!

Friendly amendment: May was brutal for the US. Trump sowed mass fear and confusion with a slew of illegal and unconstitutional orders. He faced no consequences other than being asked nicely to please stop, and so of course he continues to do destroy our country with this exact same playbook.

Saccharomycopsis yichangensis sp. nov., a Novel Predacious Yeast Species Isolated From Soil Saccharomycopsis yichangensis sp. nov. occurs in soil from a subtropical forest in central China. This novel species is homothallic and produces asci containing four spheroidal ascospores, which can ...

In the latest #Yeast research article of the series #FantasticYeasts, Pei-Jie Han, Feng-Yan Bai & team describe a new yeast species isolated from a Chinese forest: Saccharomycopsis yichangensis, that can prey on Saccharomyces cerevisiae and other yeasts 😲

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Moderna withdraws application for COVID-flu combination vaccine Moderna said on Wednesday it has withdrawn an application seeking approval for its flu and COVID combination vaccine candidate after discussions with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

This is absolutely terrible news.

With the shifting regulatory climate (i.e., antivax ratfuckery), Moderna has withdrawn their application for their eagerly anticipated COVID-flu combo vaccine. This vaccine offered better protection than getting each shot separately.

h/t @merz.bsky.social

I just left a comment.

If you are concerned that RFK Jr.'s FDA chief Marty Makary is limiting the Novavax COVID booster to those over 65 or with underlying conditions, and may do the same for Pfizer/Moderna as well, consider leaving a comment as well.

Congratulations Dr. Lauren Ehehalt on a fantastic thesis defense! We're so excited to see all your future work at Eastman Chemical Co.! 🥳🎉🎓

ASBMB recognizes 2025 outstanding student chapter The Purdue group, led by Orla Hart, developed STEM outreach initiatives for low-income and minority students in Lafayette, Indiana.

Congratulations to Purdue's ASBMB Student Chapter, led by Orla Hart, on winning the 2025 Outstanding Chapter Award. The group was honored for its work developing STEM outreach initiatives for low-income and minority students in Lafayette, Indiana: ow.ly/pip350VO0mr.

PhD Timeline xkcd.com/3081

Let 1000 lawsuits bloom

Eugenics is fake science.

But it’s creeping back into public discourse—through political rhetoric, bad policy, & scientific silence. We’re seeing this pseudoscience rebrand itself once again as legitimate.

We must call it what it is—& stop it before it spreads further. We’ve seen where this leads.

A 3D illustration of a ribosome translating messenger RNA into a polypeptide chain with text that reads advocacy.

Pauses, interruptions and rescissions of research funds are slowing work that is vital for developing lifesaving treatments for chronic and infectious diseases. ASBMB is a member of @c4lifesciences.bsky.social, which calls on the administration to restore funding.
➡️Read CLS' letter: bit.ly/4jmyRDL.

Resources and recommendations for generating & working with protein alignments If you’re looking to create and/or visualize (interactively or for figures) protein alignments, here are a few free resources I recommend. For creating alignments Clustal omega: https://www.ebi.a...

If you’re looking to create and/or visualize (interactively or for figures) protein alignments, I added figures & a video to some of my favorites to my blog & my downloadable guides with links. Hope they help! #365DaysOfScience #chemsky #biochemsky
bit.ly/proteinalign... youtu.be/BesY9nHribI

Improving Performance, Accountability and Responsiveness in the Civil Service The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is proposing a rule to increase career employee accountability. Agency supervisors report great difficulty removing employees for poor performance or misconduc...

The notice and COMMENT PERIOD OPENED TODAY AND CLOSES MAY 23.

Anyone who would like to register an objection or comment should go to this page and click on the green “public comment” button at the top:

www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...

6/n

Advocacy Training Program A three-month externship that provides the skills to create change and to become a leader for those seeking to do the same.

📣Science doesn’t stop at discovery — it drives action. Now, more than ever, we need passionate voices to bring evidence, research & reason to public dialogue.
⬇️Apply for ASBMB's advocacy training program by May 5 to use your knowledge to drive change.
www.asbmb.org/advocacy/adv...
#ASBMBAdvocates

satellite photo of the Atlantic Ocean with the article title, "This Earth Day, we must fund science and our planet's future."

"Climate change is not a future problem. It is a NOW problem [...] When we defund weather, climate, & environmental research, we blindfold ourselves in the middle of a burning house."

#EarthDay op-ed from @irinaclimatemom.bsky.social & @michaelemann.bsky.social

open.substack.com/pub/philadel...

1. I study how science works as a collective endeavor to make sense of the physical world.

I also study how misinformation about science spreads and affects society.

There are fewer examples more poignant than a Minnesota bill that would criminalize mRNA vaccines as weapons of mass destruction.

Getting Started with Machine Learning for Experimental Biochemists and Other Molecular Scientists Machine learning (ML) is rapidly gaining traction in many areas of experimental molecular science for elucidating relationships and patterns in large or complex data sets. Historically, ML was largel....

So, I have been learning about machine learning - if you want to learn with me, see our recently published article! Many thanks to all the trainees who wrote and edited this mammoth of a book chapter and the reviewers for their effort.
Check it out!
doi.org/10.1002/cpz1...

Good luck Ye @uwbiochem.bsky.social on your thesis defense on Wednesday!!!

PRESSURE WORKS, DORKS! 💪

Peeps demonstrating the ideal gas laws Happy Easter peeps! Did you know Peeps are ideal for demonstrating ideal gas laws? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkQXTQiu5a8&ab_channel=thebumblingbiochemist note: this is adapted from a pa...

If anyone has some leftover Peeps this Easter, might I suggest demonstrating ideal gas laws?  bit.ly/peepsidealga... #365DaysOfScience #chemsky

U.S. Consumer Video Game Spending Totaled $57.2 Billion in 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Overall consumer spending on video games in the United States totaled $57.2 billion in 2023, according to data released by the Entertainment...

Finally, big numbers need to be put into context.

$60 billion, what the government spends on university research, is just about the same amount Americans spend on video games ($57b), or on pet food and treats ($64b). 5/x

americanpetproducts.org/news/u.s.-pe...

www.prnewswire.com/news-release...

Can confirm that my NSF grant "How False Beliefs Form & How to Correct Them" was cancelled today because it is "not in alignment with current NSF priorities" Shocking that understanding how people are misled by false information is now a forbidden topic. Our work will continue but at a smaller scale

A projection on the outside of the Old North Church reading "Let the WARNING ride forth ONCE MORE: TYRANNY is at OUR DOOR"

Old North Church in Boston last night on the 250th anniversary of Paul Revere's ride.

If you think you can't make a political issue out of "people shouldn't be grabbed off the street and put in a foreign gulag forever," maybe consider getting out of politics/punditry. And these aren't technical slogans: they appear in the Declaration of Independence and in the Constitution (twice).

Wisconsin Supreme Court upholds Evers' 400-year partial veto that funded schools MADISON, Wis. -- The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Friday ruled to uphold Gov. Tony Evers' controversial partial veto that secured public school funding for the next 400 years.

In positive news...
www.channel3000.com/news/wiscons...

Photo of Senator Chris Van Hollen with Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar. Tonight I had that chance. I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return.