Eugene Plavskin

C. elegans is a real animal and we set out to understand how it comes to have its distinctive biogeography. Its ancestral center of diversity is in the higher elevation forests of Hawaii. Its closest relatives are spread across east Asia. Did they travel from Asia? [Preprint 🧵]

*chef's kiss* the nichest humor

Every basic scientist & PhD program director should be watching how cell culture and rodent models of Tylenol exposure are being used by motivated parties (e.g. it depletes your glutathione! Science proves it PMID...) to sell a narrative and sow confusion right now.

Visualizing Human Genetic Diversity A key insight from human genetics is that, as a species, we are all very genetically similar to one another and share much of our genetic variation. Our genome can be depicted as a string of letters (...

Another year using @kitchensjn.bsky.social + @gcbias.bsky.social's intuitive circle plots to discuss human genetic variation in my undergrad genetics class james-kitchens.com/blog/visuali...

Feels like a great opportunity to have students read scientific papers about the complicated genetics underlying sex and gender in humans, and to have them write about how such things legally exist in nature

on the sort-of-robot side, have been trying to get my 9-year-old into some of these projects:
learn.adafruit.com
The "circuitexpress" that runs a lot of these is SUPER kid-friendly, with a block coding interface like scratch has

One of the absolute coolest things about teaching bio now is showing students a list of the diseases I learned about when I first took genetics, and starting to check off ones that have become either very treatable or cured in just the last handful of years: SMA, Sickle Cell, CF, and now this...

ughhhhhhhh dear students, you and ChatGPT have distinctive writing styles and we can really tell the difference, i promise!

Holy shit, this is a huge deal

So cool they discovered the cause of autism on basically day they guessed they would. I’m also glad they are withholding this information for a few days to prep for a WrestleMania-style announcement. This is how science works.

Equity in science is a beautiful lie — and I’m done pretending Science isn’t really moving towards equity; institutions are just perfecting the appearance of equity. We need to build an alternative system.

“Nothing changed. These weren’t bad people. That’s the hardest part. They were playing by the rules of a system that rewards extractive collaboration — especially when it’s wrapped in the language of equity.”

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

What a perfect date for my cells and microscopy day In intro bio!

ggplot2 4.0.0 A new major version of ggplot2 has been released on CRAN. Find out what is new here.

I am beyond excited to announce that ggplot2 4.0.0 has just landed on CRAN.

It's not every day we have a new major #ggplot2 release but it is a fitting 18 year birthday present for the package.

Get an overview of the release in this blog post and be on the lookout for more in-depth posts #rstats

(def need good controls to account for drying...)

so, the paper found a twisting pattern to the epidermal cells that line the root. I'm not sure if you're able to look at roots, but I think venus flytraps have very similar columnar org of epidermal cells in their sensor hairs - I wonder if you could see a twist in those?

This afternoon, following full consideration of the facts related to this situation, I directed the Provost to terminate the professor involved, effective immediately. Please understand that these decisions were mine alone and were not made lightly. While I cannot provide all the details at this time, I will share the following facts.

Update on the Texas A&M professor / cell phone video situation: the professor has been fired by the A&M president
president.tamu.edu/messages/an-...

very cool - would be really curious to know what you see under the scope!

you grew these from seed!?
That is SUPER cool!

I bet you could do some fast microscopy on one of those trigger hairs to see if it twists too.......

maybe tubulin mutant???
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Anyway, the guy seems like a good dude, but it’s interesting to watch someone realize what faculty do in real time. His latest TikTok is about how he explained that he’s OK with AI in the classroom as long as students use it for brainstorming. I can’t wait till he gets to his first grading session

A student in my undergrad genetics class asked me about my favorite example of epistasis and I totally blanked. Does anyone have any favorites to share?

Genetic Interactions Involving Five or More Genes Contribute to a Complex Trait in Yeast Author Summary Although it is well known that interactions among genetic variants contribute to many complex traits, the forms of these interactions have not been fully characterized. Most work on thi...

I love this one because of the sheer ridiculousness of the locus number involved (and the fact that they were able to dissect it!)
journals.plos.org/plosgenetics...

I am thrilled to announce that I just opened my lab at New York University in @nyucns.bsky.social and Biology! Our work will explore the richness of animal behavior, dissecting the genetic and circuit mechanisms that shape its evolution.

"Eugenics was rooted in rational modern science then" needs re-stating. Far too many people describe eugenics as a "pseudoscience", but it wasn't to those who studied it, wrote books and papers, formed societies and argued its benefits.

AI Is Designing Bizarre New Physics Experiments That Actually Work Artificial intelligence software is designing novel experimental protocols that improve upon the work of human physicists, although the humans are still “doing a lot of baby-sitting.”

This article is pretty clear evidence that the word AI needs to die. Using it makes people think LLMs but all these methods are something entirely different. If AI is going to be a big thing, we should teach people the different words

www.wired.com/story/ai-com...

What do you all think of an idea to create a paper viewer that allows people to annotate published papers publicly and add suggested missing citations. Do you think it would improve scholarship or create a horrible mess? Or both?

Fall is almost here…
A hint of cold in the air…
A few leaves about to drop from the trees…

TIME TO GIVE SOME METABOLISM LECTURES TO STUDENTS WHO DONT CARE ABOUT METABOLISM

Read it in New York! But can’t remember whether part of school curriculum

Fasciation so pretty