Max Renner

This graph says it all: instead of starting to go down, the *annual increase* of atmospheric CO2 is setting new records. We're making climate change worse at a record rate.
Turning this around should be our top priority, and it's not.
From: www.carbonbrief.org/met-office-a...

Beautiful picture looking out of the chemistry building at the University of Freiburg in Freiburg Germany. The old cathedral can be seen in the distance with a backdrop of a blue sky with clouds and distant foothills of the black forrest with fall colors showing through in the trees

picture of the Münster at dawn in the Altstadt of Freiburg, Germany, with a still dark sky in the background and moon over the Münster, in the foreground a well-lit flowers stand can be seen preparing for the daily morning market

I have a PhD position available in my lab at the University of Freiburg!! If you, or someone you know, might be looking for a position using modeling and simulations to uncover secrets in (glyco-)protein structure/function relationships please take a look at our website!
www.kearnslab.org

FT Investigation: At least 30 individuals or companies that have collectively donated more than $116mn to Donald Trump’s causes have received benefits or advantages from White House moves.

Read more here: on.ft.com/497fook

Is academic research becoming too competitive? Nature examines the data Applications for European research grants increased in 2025. Scientists say they’re feeling the competition.

Success rates for Europe’s leading research grants are declining as a surge in applications far outweighs the funds available

go.nature.com/479Sni6

MEHA:Make Europe Healthy Again

Dear European colleagues, I strongly advise you to forcefully repudiate this initiative before they end up in a position to influence policy. Let me know if I can help.

Yikes! In this paper the AlphaFold model of human plasminogen (PDB-8uq6) has been refined into noise (EMD-42462) using Phenix & ISOLDE. For some reason the authors even interpret side-chain interactions:
#cryoEM

The recent trajectory, in broad strokes:

- Regime starts militarizing the conflict in early summer
- Regime declares all liberal/leftwing political activity as domestic terrorist or terrorism-adjacent in presidential memo
- Regime ramps up the propaganda against “the Left” across all channels

😬

Feudalism Is Our Future What the next Dark Ages could look like

An insightful read. I hadn’t appreciated the links between feudalism and privatization. The author’s evocation of how future historians may look back on our era in that respect felt important, and a fruitful way to think, to me. I’m hopeful the pendulum will swing back towards effective government.

One week from now I plan to be out marching against the idiotic criminals running our government. I'm not "getting paid" and I'm not part of any "Pro-Hamas" group. I'm just mad as hell.

I will not be punching any police officers, nor setting fires, nor breaking any glass. Why will I turn out? (1/2)

possibly stupid question - does anyone in #teamtomo or #cryoem recognize these little stacks (from EMPIAR-12549, U2OS cell lamellae)? The green circle is 300Å, and the spacing between the layers is ~50Å. The fourth, bell-shaped thing is something else, also not sure of that one..

Prizes must recognize machine contributions to discovery The future of science will be written by humans and machines together. Awards should reflect that reality.

My HPLC was definitely overlooked

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

Beautiful figures mate, looking forward to reading this!

I researched every attempt to stop fascism in history. The success rate is 0%. Once they win elections, it's already too late.

This was an interesting read.

cmarmitage.substack.com/p/i-research...

✨Excited that the main project of my PhD is now available as a pre-print on #bioRxiv

Here, we used #CryoET to visualise mitochondrial proteostatic stress and together with SPA #CryoEM shed light into the functional cycle of the Hsp60:10 chaperone system. #TeamTomo

🔗 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Sam Altman’s AI empire will devour as much power as New York City and San Diego combined. Experts say it’s ‘scary’ | Fortune Andrew Chien told Fortune he’s been a computer scientist for 40 years but we’re close to “some seminal moments for how we think about AI and its impact on society.”

OpenAI’s planned data centers will use more power than New York City & San Diego use at their peak consumption, combined. More power than the entire nations of Switzerland & Portugal combined. And San Altman’s buddies in this administration have been cutting all of our energy infrastructure upgrades

The certificate by Senckenberg Ocean Species Alliance, issued in Voncina, 2025, spells out that a newly described species of chiton has been formally named Craspedochiton zefranki. This is in recognition of his outstanding contributions to science communication, which have inspired curiosity, wonder, and deeper public engagement with the natural world.

I'm excited to report that a species has been named after my son Ze Frank, "in recognition of his outstanding contributions to science communication, which have inspired curiosity, wonder, and deeper public engagement with the natural world"

cryoNET Symposium, 1-2 October 2025 Registration is closed

Thanks to all speakers, participants and organisers of cryoNET 2025 in Umeå! It was a great meeting! See you all in Copenhagen from cryoNET 2026.

www.umu.se/en/chemical-...

Screenshot of the BBC announcement of the death of Jane Goodall 1934-2025

In memory of a wonderful, kind, lremarkable and infinitely inspirational human. Che la terra le sia lieve 🖤 #RIPJaneGoodall

The dawn of the post-literate society And the end of civilisation

As others have already said, this essay by James Marriott is well worth taking the time to read. Now, back to my book if I can just prise my iPhone out of my hand for a few minutes… open.substack.com/pub/jmarriot...

AI-Generated “Workslop” Is Destroying Productivity Despite a surge in generative AI use across workplaces, most companies are seeing little measurable ROI. One possible reason is because AI tools are being used to produce “workslop”—content that appea...

"Employees are using AI tools to create low-effort, passable looking work that ends up creating more work for their coworkers."

I'm so shocked that I might swoon 😱

(Ironically, their attempt to be constructive at the end of the article comes across as AI generated.)

hbr.org/2025/09/ai-g...

From descriptive to quantitative biocatalysis - Nature Catalysis The 1913 study ‘Die Kinetik der Invertinwirkung’, by Michaelis and Menten, marked a pivotal advancement in enzymology by illustrating the application of mechanistic models and quantitative kinetics to biocatalysis. The foundational framework described back then continues to have a strong impact on enzymology, with profound influences that range from undergraduate education to structure–function studies and the format and content of contemporary kinetic databases.

From descriptive to quantitative biocatalysis

“The 1913 study ‘Die Kinetik der Invertinwirkung’, by Michaelis and Menten, marked a pivotal advancement in enzymology by illustrating the application of mechanistic models and quantitative kinetics to biocatalysis.”

doi.org/10.1038/s419...

Philanthropies Strike a Promising Deal to Turn Back H.I.V.

This is huge: “A drug that provides near-perfect protection against H.I.V. with shots just twice a year will be made available at $40 per patient annually in low- and middle-income countries, offering new hope… making lenacapavir a realistic choice in countries with constrained resources.”

And if you think you're not next in the chopping block, you're not paying attention

I am QT dunking but I think this is a case where it is warranted:
Science is political and "not wanting to see politics" as a scientist is a political choice. You may decide it's what works for you, but you need to decide how that fits with the fact your (diverse) colleagues still exist 🧪

Human metapneumovirus: understanding the molecular mechanisms and pathology of infection | Journal of Virology Human metapneumovirus (HMPV) was first identified in 2001 by researchers who analyzed samples from 28 patients suffering from respiratory tract illnesses (1). Since its identification, HMPV has been found to be globally prevalent (2, 3), with most individuals experiencing their first infection by the age of 5 years (4). Despite being discovered in 2001, serological studies with sera collected in 1958 demonstrated that HMPV had been circulating since the 1950s (1). Later on, phylogenetic analysis suggested that HMPV evolved from avian metapneumovirus after a zoonotic event at least 200 years ago (5, 6).

A really great and comprehensive resource on metapneumovirus from the labs of Becky Dutch and Bernadette van den Hoogen.

journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Happy to announce "Technical Innovations Using #SerialEM: A Community Meeting", a new format of hybrid meeting David Mastronarde and I are organizing in April 2026. For more info, a preliminary list of speakers, pre-registration etc. visit
www.nexperion.net/semcm2026

The SerialEM Python interface has been a huge driver of innovation at the hardware-software boundary in cryo-EM: suddenly the scientist with some programming chops can readily implement their ideas 🥰

This looks like a fantastic meeting!

Fact for the day: paracetamol does not cause autism

Oxaloacetate sensing promotes innate immune antiviral defence against influenza virus infection - Nature Microbiology Oxaloacetate is sensed by MDH1, which primes innate immune antiviral defence against influenza virus infection, thus resulting in the activation of ETS2 to promote TBK1-centred type I interferon signa...

Oxaloacetate sensing promotes innate immune antiviral defence against influenza virus infection

www.nature.com/articles/s41...