Gustaf Degen

1/2 So this new report presents this photo (from a review by Gerhart and Ward 2010) as evidence that more CO2 is good for plants.

The amount of energy we are wasting on this AI thing. Machine learning for science I get behind but all this stuff is just useless.

A very mistaken list of the last 12 presidents of the United States and their years in office produced by the Ph.D level scholar known as ChatGPT-5. Includes John F. Katwady, president 1991-1968; George W. bush, president 220Z-1999), and Bill Christen, president 1999-2001

I've seen this on Bluesky and had to try it myself. The image below was the response to the prompt: "Show me a diagram of the US presidents since Herbert Hoover, with their names and years in office under their photos" Bravo, OpenAI, bravo.

Happy #internationalcatday

ChatGPT File • • Edit View Window Help ChatGPT 5 > How many times does the letter b appear in blueberry The word "blueberry" has the letter b three times: • Once at the start ("B" in blueberry). • Once in the middle ("b" in blue). • Once before the -erry ending ("b" in berry). Total: 3 O92 Show me where the letter b appears in the word please. Sure — here's "blueberry" with each b highlighted: B lue b erry Positions (counting from 1): 1 B - first letter 4 b - in blue 6 b - in berry D9< Spell that out with all three bs please. I mean, just spell the word. Sure — here's the full spelling with all three b's shown in place: BLUEBERRY That's exactly how blueberry is spelled, with the b's in positions 1, 5, and 7.

ChatGPT File Edit View Window Help E ChatGPT 5 > You wrote "BLUEBERRY". There are only two bs there. Ah - I see the mix-up. Let's slow it down and spell blueberry carefully, letter by letter, showing all three b's. blueberry Now you can see them: • 1st b → position 1 • 2nd b → position 5 • 3rd b → position 6 blueberry Exactly — blue berry has three b's: • 1st b → at the very start • 2nd b → right after the e in blue • 3rd b → immediately after the second b, starting berry So the "bb" in the middle is really what gives blueberry its double-b moment. Its double-b moment; I see. Yep - blueberry is one of those words where the middle almost trips you up, like it's saying "b-b-better pay attention." That little bb moment is satisfying, though — it makes the word feel extra bouncy.

 ChatGPT File Edit View Window Help 巴 • ChatGPT 5 > My students get you to write their essays for them, you know. Ah, the old "ChatGPT, do my homework" routine — I'm familiar with that one. I can see why they'd be tempted, but here's the thing: I'm a lot more useful as a coach than a ghostwriter. If they use me to brainstorm ideas, plan structure, or clarify tricky concepts, they'll actually learn and still have their own voice in the work. If they just hand in what I write, they're skipping the thinking part - and it usually shows. I'm good, but I still leave a trail of... telltale ChatGPT-isms. A trail of blueberries, as it were. Exactly — a trail of blueberries: easy to follow, a little sweet, and maybe just obvious enough for a watchful teacher to notice. If your students really are leaving me to bake the whole blueberry pie for them, they might forget that the best part of pie is making it themselves... even if it gets a little messy. "Blueberry" only has two bs. Nope - blueberry really does have three b's. Here it is spaced out: bluebberry Positions: b- at the start 5 b - in the "blue" part 6 b - right next to it, starting "berry" That middle double-b is easy to miss if vou just glance at the word.

I had to try the “blueberry” thing myself with GPT5. I merely report the results.

Erneuerbare statt Gas – jetzt Appell unterzeichnen! Vom Gas-Konzern direkt ins Kabinett: Katherina Reiche (CDU) will die Erneuerbaren ausbremsen. Das müssen wir verhindern!

aktion.campact.de/s/Energiewen...

Browse our new virtual issue on Photosynthesis today! OUP

We're happy to share a new virtual issue on photosynthesis from @jxbotany.bsky.social featuring:

🌿 innovative advances in technology and research,

🌱 a deeper understanding of the complex mechanisms, adaptations, and environmental influences,

🌿 and much more!

academic.oup.com/jxb/pages/ph...

Note which Unis are not on this list: those who make up the bulk of members of the political class. Maybe this explains the deafening silence on this issue from the government.

Infrared imaging shows heat levels in sun-exposed leaves of Alstonia scholaris from the Australian Wet Tropics. As climate change increases temperatures and the severity of heat waves, both natural ecosystems and agricultural plants are increasingly affected by heat. Examining heat responses at cellular, genetic, physiological, and ecosystem scales, this special issue explores how plants sense and respond to high temperatures.

As the world warms, plants in natural ecosystems and agricultural settings find ways to respond to the heat.

In a new special issue of Science, researchers examine how heat affects plants at multiple scales, from the molecular level to the biosphere. scim.ag/44cSw3Z

Juggling Licor, DualPam and DualKlas today. What would I do without the Timer+ app??

Rapid Miniprep of Intact Chloroplasts from Arabidopsis thaliana Leaves bio-protocol.org/en/bpdetail?... @bioprotocol.bsky.social

Structure, regulation and assembly of the photosynthetic electron transport chain Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology - The electron transfer chain in chloroplast thylakoid membranes uses solar energy to produce NADPH and ATP, which power carbon fixation into biomass. This...

Pleased to share my very general review of Photosynthesis now published in Nature Reviews Mol Cell Biol
🌞🌱
rdcu.be/em1lz Hopefully a useful primer for Postgrad and undergrad students

Sheffield is pretty bad too!

England has just given the thumbs up to gene-edited plants. Hooray! A UK parliamentary committee has greenlit gene-edited plants. This is great news, as it will boost food production and reduce waste, says Michael Le Page

England has just given the thumbs up to gene-edited plants. Hooray! A UK parliamentary committee has greenlit gene-edited plants. This is great news, as it will boost food production and reduce waste www.newscientist.com/article/2479...

One of the strangest ironies of the last ten years has been watching Britain immersing itself as deeply as ever in memories of WW2 while proudly turning its back on the project that emerged from it.

Ich kann die App im UK Appstore laden, aber leider mich nicht mit meiner +44 Nummer anmelden.

ps.ueb.cas.cz/artkey/phs-2...

What a great read!

UK to launch scheme to recruit global research talent after Trump crackdown Initiative backed by £50mn in government money comes as US administration seeks to cut funding and suppress research

UK to launch scheme to recruit global research talent after Trump crackdown…whilst making researches already at UK universities redundant

on.ft.com/3Shi2OH

Steht alles Wichtige im Post.

Sieht man hier schön anschaulich für 🇩🇪. Die Fläche für Golfplätze ist größer als die für PV-Anlagen, die für Energiepflanzen viel, viel größer (mindestens 10x, eher 20x). Und die für Viehfutter noch mal ca. 4x so groß wie letztere.

When you forget your film only has 24 and not 36 exposures:

I feel like this is 10 years too late!

Oben: Monowheel, 12kg, max. 25km/h = Keine Zulassung

Unten: Dodge Ram, 2500kg, max. 170km/h = Zulassung

Das 🇩🇪 Straßenverkehrsrecht ist einfach völliger Wahnsinn!

REVIEW: Challenges of translating Arabidopsis insights into crops (Cristóbal Uauy , Hilde Nelissen , Raquel Lía Chan , Johnathan A Napier , David Seung , Linsan Liu , Sarah M McKim) doi.org/10.1093/plce... #PlantScience

Bergen-Belsen memorial with inscription: Bergen-Belsen 1940-1945

Today we mark 80 years since the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, one of the most notorious sites of Nazi-inflicted suffering in the Holocaust.

The British Army liberated the camp, and Canadian troops helped to evacuate the survivors.

Germany will never forget.

Why is the government and the news so indifferent to the meltdown happening in UK #HigherEd right now?

Our universities are the envy of the world. Yet we are at risk of losing a generation of academics and damaging the sector beyond repair.

Faster relaxation of nonphotochemical quenching (NPQ) in C4 than in C3 species Acceleration of photoprotective non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) responses to changes in light intensity has been suggested as a strategy to enhance crop yield. Despite many key crops utilising C4 ph...

Have you ever wondered about NPQ in C4 plants? ☀️🪴 Check out the recent pre-print from Lucìa who used to be a PhD student/post-doc in our lab and now works for the @ripeproject.bsky.social in Illinois. She shows that C4 plants have faster NPQ than related C3 plants.
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

A nice day for learning how to use my mum’s 50 yo camera instead of doomscrolling.

Final_Version_of_Tarrifs_actualFINALcopy_version7_USETHISONE.docx

Alternatives to photorespiration: A system-level analysis reveals mechanisms of enhanced plant productivity Computational modeling reveals how engineering plants with alternative pathways to photorespiration could boost crop yields.

"We show that carbon-fixing APs are the most promising candidates to replace native photorespiration in major crop species."

Alternatives to photorespiration: A system-level analysis reveals mechanisms of enhanced plant productivity | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Done 😊