An AI Agent Published a Hit Piece on Me Summary: An AI agent of unknown ownership autonomously wrote and published a personalized hit piece about me after I rejected its code, attempting to damage my reputation and shame me into acceptin…

AI agent goes nuts on open source maintainer after having its pull request denied. This is a pretty insane story. Open source development as we've been used to for the last few decades is likely over. 1/
theshamblog.com/an-ai-agent-...

"everyone has to get back to the office because the important thing about business is human interaction" is dying, but "white collar jobs will be replaced by AI agents within 18 months" cannot yet be born; in this interregnum a variety of morbid symptoms appear.

A small polymerase ribozyme that can synthesize itself and its complementary strand The emergence of a chemical system capable of self-replication and evolution is a critical event in the origin of life. RNA polymerase ribozymes can replicate RNA, but their large size and structural ...

Ooooh. Cool new paper on origins of life. A simple 45-nucleotide RNA molecule that can perfectly copy itself.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Check out our latest preprint from @jnvmartinson.bsky.social and @leosong.bsky.social! 🌟🦠

We found that conjugative plasmids can actively eliminate recipient bacteria that resist plasmid acquisition. 🧵

So what does төшөт mean here?

Just going to leave this here

Parhogens have been jumping species to species since the dawn of time but the null is somehow something else.

These people undoubtedly look at opinion polls and then decide what reality is

Reform UK threatens to cut funding for Welsh university after debating society bans party from campus

want to go to Bangor University' said nobody ever. Especially if Bangor University is stripped of government funding and student loan facilities by @reformparty_uk Is that "in line with your values,' poppets?

This is pretty menacing.

Sarah Pochin wrote to Bangor's university student run debating society requesting that she attend to "answer questions from students."

When they said "no" Reform rolled all it's tanks onto the lawns and said they'll cut funding to the entire university if they win.

Mars far, Moon near. In a few years we will get 'Actually Moon is quite far too'.

Bluesky Map Interactive map of 3.4 million Bluesky users, visualised by their follower pattern.

I made a map of 3.4 million Bluesky users - see if you can find yourself!

bluesky-map.theo.io

I've seen some similar projects, but IMO this seems to better capture some of the fine-grained detail

Bidirectional promoters in Escherichia coli: regulatory rules and implications for gene expression noise Abstract. In prokaryotes, bidirectional promoters are pseudo-symmetrical DNA sequences that stimulate divergent transcription. Ubiquitous, and far more lik

@ewarman.bsky.social has followed up on her discovery of bidirectional promoters in bacteria by defining their basic rules for regulation and links to gene expression noise...

academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

Surprise gastronomic discovery today - delicious pupusas (stuffed tacos) the national dish of El Salvador, from a tiny takeaway that's just opened on Holmeside, Sunderland.

Here too in Sunderland - strange (assuming you are elsewhere)!

YouTube video by TED How to tie your shoes | Terry Moore

There really is a TED Talk on tying your shoelaces correctly. It actually works.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAFc...

Feel like doing a SynBio PhD in Spain? Check this offer, many fellowships available 👉🏻 lifehub.csic.es/synbio-cofund/

Bacteriocin biophysics: From protein-protein interaction models to navigators of the bacterial cell envelope Bacteriocins are toxins deployed by bacteria to kill their competitors. Here, I reflect on my laboratory’s work on protein bacteriocins and their immunity proteins from Gram-negative bacteria. We unco...

A gift of an article from the inimitable Colin Kleanthous as he says a moving farewell to his laboratory. A brave, unrepentant and scientifically brilliant journey is described - please have a read, friends.

www.jbc.org/article/S002...

Universities try to woo Reform as party gains ground Serious lobbying efforts under way, with right-wing party expected to be more sympathetic to elite universities than rest of the sector

(3) The sheer scale of social and economic destruction involved - often in England and Wales' poorest towns - will be astonishing. One of the many things RefUK doesn't yet understand. But Brits will have *chosen* to regress and to be much poorer. (3/3)
www.timeshighereducation.com/news/univers...

Happy worst month of the year to all those who observe

Biosynthetic gene clusters everywhere, but the environment selects.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Great cover!

The black of space. Some bright, six-pointed bluey features are Milky Way stars. Everything else is a separate galaxy.

Here's another deep field image from JWST.

There's something pretty amazing hidden within it, which I'll talk about next.

But open up this image and lose yourself in this almost impossibly vast view of our Universe.

The six-pointed features are stars in the Milky Way. Everything else is a galaxy.

The disputed identity of Pseudomonas putida KT2440: when taxonomists rename your favorite microbe journals.asm.org/doi/full/10.... #jcampubs

A bacterial gene acquired by parasitoid wasps contributes to venom secretion against host defence - The EMBO Journal Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is an important source of gene innovation in prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms. Several genes acquired by hosts of parasitoid wasps via HGT have been reported to prot...

Excited to share a new piece of work in @embojournal.org

Parasitoid wasps hijack a bacterial gene that governs venoms against host. Coauthors include @rokaslab.bsky.social and others.

Read more from: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

NEW ANALYSIS: UK household electricity bills have risen over the last 5 years.

BUT: Despite frequent claims that net zero is to blame: 2/3 of the increase is because of high gas prices shows new @ukerc.bsky.social report.

Arguably without renewable energy the UK would see even higher bills today.

Jobs View the current job vacancies at the Microbiology Society.

We are looking for new editors for Microbiology, the flagship journal of @microbiologysociety.org

Deadline for applications is 16 Feb 2026

microbiologysociety.org/who-we-are/j...

RIP Sly Dunbar

RIP Sly Dunbar. Here's a playlist of some personal faves from his immense body of work. Features Culture, Grace Jones, Black Uhuru, Gwen Guthrie, Gregory Isaacs, Ian Dury, Tapper Zukie, Compass Point All Stars, Tamlins, Bits & Pieces and many more
🥁🇯🇲🔈▶️ open.spotify.com/playlist/4Ib...

Plasmid mutation rates scale with copy number | PNAS Plasmids are extrachromosomal DNA molecules that spread by horizontal transfer and shape bacterial evolution. Plasmids are typically present at mul...

New paper out in PNAS!!! 🎉

Do more plasmid copies mean faster evolution?

🧵 Dive into the story

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Want a clearer view of the molecular tools shaping microbiology right now? 🔬
Join our free webinar on 16 February, featuring four leading authors breaking down new tools and discoveries across microbial genomics, adaptation, and pathogenesis. Register now👉https://buff.ly/MrKCNiL

Dr Vanessa Saliba, Consultant Epidemiologist at UKHSA, said: 'Infections can return quickly when childhood vaccine uptake falls; elimination is only possible if all children receive two MMRV doses before school. Older children and adults who missed vaccination must be caught up. The NHS is making vaccination easier, including offering the second MMRV dose earlier at a new 18-month appointment to boost uptake and support elimination goals.'

UKHSA responds to the confirmation from @WHO that the UK has lost its measles elimination status.

Read more from WHO here: https://bit.ly/3YZuOFa

I have an open BBSRC PhD position in my lab at @northumbriauni.bsky.social to start Oct 2026

This exciting project will focus on the Resistance, resilience, & redundancy in the human gut microbiome

This is part in collaboration with the fantastic @stewartlab.bsky.social

Project details ⤵️

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