Roland Hatzenpichler

Our latest preprint: Together with the team of Jan Löwe, @danieltamarit.bsky.social and many others we discovered and characterized several Asgard tubulin genes and propose that microtubule architecture and dynamics evolved in Asgard archaea prior to eukaryogenesis
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

For @jennifer.j.quinn . @twisteddoodles.bsky.social is brilliant.

It’s also a common discussion on BoardGameGeek, the headquarter of board gamer discussion because many individual designers and some publisher studios are starting to use AI to generate art for board games. The majority of posters say they would not buy a game that used AI to generate art.

Thanks.

Die gesamte EU sollte boykottieren. Gut Ungarn wird wohl mitmachen, aber sind die ueberhaupt qualifiziert?

Many scientists portray or like to be portrayed as lonesome geniuses that fight against all odds. Media love the idea of the lone wolf fighting against the establishment, without a team, all by themself. Some of the most read US authors portray the ideal American as the arrogant loner, see Ayn Rand

Thanks Stavros will apply for them. Currently Asgard work in my lab is not directly funded.

I mean look at Musk. For a long time, he warned about the risk of AI. Until he realized he would loose (i.e. not earn) a lot of money so he jumped onto the wagon and now says "Only I can build a good/safe general AI, so I have to beat all others to it". It's such a stupid argument.

The New Fire: War, Peace, and Democracy in the Age of AI The New Fire: War, Peace, and Democracy in the Age of AI - Kindle edition by Buchanan, Ben, Imbrie, Andrew. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading The New Fire: War, Peace, and Democracy in the Age of AI.

Well i see where the fire analogy comes from ;) For those who don't: www.amazon.com/New-Fire-War...

YouTube video by MicrobeTV Matters Microbial #123: What Whooping Cough Can Teach US

New from Matters Microbial— episode 123: What Whooping Cough Can Teach Us

Dr. Seema Mattoo joins @markowenmartin.bsky.social to discuss the fascinating molecular genetics of the bacterium Bordetella pertussis, which can cause the human disease whooping cough. 🔗⬇️

Why methane surged in the atmosphere during the early 2020s The atmospheric methane (CH4) growth rate surged after 2019, peaking at 16.2 parts per billion per year (ppb year−1) in 2020 before declining to 8.6 ppb year−1 in 2023. Using multiple atmospheric inve...

Why methane surged in the atmosphere during the early 2020s www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #jcampubs

But I think as a society we are, once again, asking us the wrong question: we ask “how can we best use it” while we should ask “should we”?

But I agree. It’s a systemic and - mostly - moral issue that scientists cannot solve by themselves. The chance people will not use it is virtually zero despite the risks, snake oil salesmanship, and moral gray areas.

Sure but you essentially describe the same dilemma as about nuclear weapons after ww2. Well, the other side invests billions of dollars in WMDs, we must too. This time it’s AI and it’s more of an economy argument but without the AI firms delivering anything of substance. It’s a gigantic bubble.

The reason national lab push AI is because they are being told by people in the federal government, many of which have received millions of dollars donations by AI firms, and who decided to hand out hundreds of millions to push AI to generate demand for AI.

My mind is not made up yet, but I lean towards yes, it is research misconduct.

Is it research misconduct to use chatbots because the training used stolen data? You cannot avoid it! The question is just if you are ok with it. Please argue pro or con misconduct.

Thanks for providing a virtual option!

Can we just agree to call generative AI tools “plagiarism robots” from now on?

Btw my lab’s Asgard culture is called Skadiarchaeum cthulhuensis.

So, in contrast to all your previous paintings, this is fictional though. Odinarchaeum has never been imaged or cultured.

Come work with us on #darkoxygen as part of the NASA Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. It is an amazing opportunity to get up to 3 years of funding. Deadlines are March 1. and November 1. Happy to discuss your ideas! Details here: zintellect.com/Opportunity/...

@mblscience.bsky.social #astrobiology

Our research was funded by the NASA Exobiology (to Tim McDermott) and DOE BER (me) programs.

attenuated two influenza pandemics in the 20th century, and his cumulative contributions are credited with saving 10s of millions of lives worldwide. See hillemanfilm.com/dr-hilleman for more information.

We named this archaeon in honor of Maurice Hilleman (1919-2005), a microbiologist and vaccinologist who graduated from Montana State University. Over the course of his career, he developed over 40 vaccines, including 8 that are recommended for children in the USA. His vaccines

Methane flux and methanogenic community from the Great Salt Lake.

and in situ methane flux measurements revealed extremely high and variable methane flux. Our results show that the novel methanogen, Ca. M. hillemani, is active when challenged with environmentally relevant stressors and contributes to the methane flux emanating from the GSL.

In contrast, Ca. M. hillemani prioritizes trace metal uptake and immune functions in response to the presence of the co-enriched sulfate-reducing bacterium Desulfovermiculus. 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing of GSL shore soils demonstrated the presence of Ca. M. hillemani, along other methanogens,

Ca. Methanohalophilus hillemani differential protein expression between control and test conditions

when exposed to environmental stressors: low salt, high salt, and the presence of oxygen, a gas toxic to most methanogens. We demonstrate that Ca. M. hillemani does not increase expression of energy-conservation or osmo-tolerance proteins when challenged with salinity or oxygen.

In this study, we cultured a novel methanogen, for which we propose the name Candidatus Methanohalophilus hillemani, from the GSL at a time when its salinity reached a historical high. We obtained a complete, circular genome from this archaeon and study how it changes protein expression

The Great Salt Lake (GSL, Utah, USA) is an environment that has been heavily impacted by human activity and is an important local source of methane emissions. It has more than doubled its salt concentration since the last methanogenic archaeon was cultured from it in 1985.