Dave Baltrus 🦦

Figure 1 from Adapa et al. 2025, Jerash mass grave site in the context of the First Pandemic. There are three images: A) a map of western Eurasia and North Africa, showing sites where plague aDNA has already been retrieved; B) a diagram of the Jerash hippodrome, where the bodies were found; and C) a photograph of one of the chambers.

Newest addition to the #JustinianicPlague bibliography: Adapa et al., "Genetic Evidence of Yersinia pestis from the First Pandemic," www.mdpi.com/2073-4425/16.... This is a milestone achievement b/c it is the first Y. pestis aDNA to be recovered from the Islamic Mediterranean, in this case, Jerash.

The combination of active partitioning and toxin-antitoxin systems is most advantageous for low-copy plasmid fitness - Nature Communications Effe et al. evaluate how specific plasmid traits influence plasmid fitness; they provide mechanistic insight into the persistence of large conjugative plasmids, including those that disseminate antibi...

Happy to finally share this! Read here about the best strategy the the persistence of low-copy plasmids. @mariosanter.bsky.social @iwangtoknow.bsky.social doi.org/10.1038/s414...

How many plasmids can bacteria carry? A synthetic biology perspective | Open Biology Plasmids are pinnacle tools in synthetic biology and other biotechnological applications. They serve as the simplest approach to introduce recombinant DNA, which is then transcribed into RNA that func...

How many #plasmids can #bacteria carry? royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Relevant for #PlantHealth2025 attendees, even if I am one of the only folks posting from this meeting so far...

Terence Tao (@teorth.bsky.social) has written a thread on Mastodon about the impact of the federal grant freeze to UCLA, particularly to his own field of Mathematics. UCLA's IPAM (Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics) could shut down entirely

mathstodon.xyz/@tao/1149568...

Giving 110% effort here

It is HOT in Tucson today

A black pig sitting in a kiddy pool

TFW

How senior academics can EMPOWER early-to-mid-career researchers - Nature Human Behaviour Nature Human Behaviour - How senior academics can EMPOWER early-to-mid-career researchers

🎓 How to Support early-career researchers

This excellent @nathumbehav.nature.com article offers practical tips for senior academics to better support post-PhD researchers facing high stress, career uncertainty, and life transitions.

🔗 doi.org/10.1038/s415...

#HigherEd #SciComm 🧪

We’re in Hawaii! Looking forward to APS #planthealth2025. Come see Dan’s talk on Pseudomonas phages in the tree disease section on Monday! 🌺

It feels like we should be making a bigger deal of “we actually did in fact find a cure for AIDS”

As usual, Bill Burr doesn’t miss 🎯

Fantastic news for artists: The lost functionality of Google Image Search as a reference image source has been recreated.

Know an Evolutionary Genomicist looking for a faculty position? Join us in EEB @utknoxville.bsky.social Position is open for studying any organism, but personally I have some botany bias. 🌱 Apply before Sept 19 for full consideration. apply.interfolio.com/170735 Please share widely. Thanks!

Never in one million years did I think my research soapbox of “MEASURE MATTERS, YOU GOONS!!” would collide with my political soapbox of “THIS IS FASCISM”, but in 2025 all things are possible.

Here we are:

I had to go to the WH insta account to make sure this was real.
An obvious, bold faced lie. Anybody who knows golf knows this score is not just improbable, it is impossible. I’ll even grant that Trump’s a good golfer for his age. He did not shoot 69. Not close.

The Migration Generation: Inside the Transfer Portal Phenomenon Unbound by NCAA regulations, college athletes such as AJ Storr treat the transfer portal like free agency. But is that always what’s best for them long-term?

Weekend reads, starting with this deep dive into the Migration Generation of college athletes. Many start switching schools well before college, and never stop. What are the long-term effects of constant transferring? We’re just starting to find out. bit.ly/3ISr8jL

Trump And Miller Compel Colleges Not To Enroll International Students Trump officials are using rules, policies and agreements to compel and discourage U.S. universities from enrolling international students.

Wow. Had not realized that Columbia’s settlement with Trump admin included a commitment to decrease international student enrollment. In what way does this help “combat antisemitism,” which is supposedly the administration’s objective?
www.forbes.com/sites/stuart...

Nicely flattened and cleared space where a batting cage is gonna be soon

It’s gonna be legit when done 💯

Lemme just say if President Bernie Sanders had unilaterally imposed, by executive fiat, hundreds of billions of new taxes, personally browbeat executives about job cuts and investments and then fired the head of BLS, the Chamber of Commerce and the business orgs would not be sitting idly by.

Keep sciencing. We are living through a time when looking at a rock and wondering how old it is qualifies as an act of resistance.

Shared a few faves but really everything in this thread is bananas, and it feels like only the energy wonks are talking about it.

DOE climate report response form We are collecting names to assemble a writing team to respond to the DOE climate working group report. If you'd like to contribute, enter your info below. At this point, there is no guarantee what we'll do (if anything), but we want to keep our options open by collecting names. If you have any further questions, feel free to email me. We are primarily looking for Ph.D. scientists at universities or government labs in appropriate fields. I realize that this will exclude some qualified people and I apologize, but we felt this was necessary for a variety of reasons.

🚨 If you're interested in working on a coordinated response to the DOE climate report, please enter your info on this google form 🚨

Please RT this so as many people see it as possible.

forms.gle/BL9xUAfRxA...

A thread that exemplifies why sites like this can be full of awesomeness

Turkey’s Erdogan Fires Statistics Chief After Record Inflation The president of the Turkish statistical institute, Sait Dincer, was removed from office and replaced by Erhan Cetinkaya, who had been deputy president of Turkey’s Banking Regulation and Supervision A...

um. www.wsj.com/world/middle...

We’re so fucked

Accurate

UCLA research grants suspended after Trump administration faulted campus for antisemitism The Justice Department issued UCLA a notice of violation for not responding “adequately” to complaints about antisemitism.

It's not just Ivies. The administration is now trying to shut down pretty much all science at UCLA.

calmatters.org/education/hi...

are they trying to be ironic?

* for the not-a-car-nerd people, that is a soviet era car in the background.

You can't make this up

🧪🦣🏺 Who wants to hear a story about biotech billions, unscientific claims, and shoddy smear tactics attacking women in science*?

Thread 🧵

*which, for legal clarity, are totally denied as being connected