Vaughn Cooper

Yeah, this is a really well done ep, @byrdest.bsky.social! My *only* complaint is that it wasn't twice as long, haha. Seriously, it is beautifully done, from both a storytelling and production perspective- give it a listen!

You know I stan for experimental evolution, and especially the Lenski LTEE, but really, this is terrific storytelling!

Great work by @byrdest.bsky.social @hooliwho.bsky.social with help from @wcratcliff.bsky.social and many more!

12 tiny worlds Podcast Episode · Unexplainable · 07/30/2025 · 38m

So delighted that the #LTEE landed in my podcast feed today! Great job as always @relenski.bsky.social !

Don’t miss this one!
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/u...

OMG, the Pruittgate gift keeps on giving

Update: I offered this simple amendment in the Appropriations Committee to say no President can withhold funds from a college to try to control their speech.

Failed 14-15. Every Republican voted to endorse Trump’s censorship.

Senate appropriators approve Labor-HHS bill with NIH bump The vote and lawmaker comments show that most senators aren't going along with the White House's proposed 40% budget cut to NIH.

BIG NEWS:

“Senate appropriators on Thursday approved an FY26 Labor-HHS bill that included a slight bump in funding for the NIH, with a strong 26–3 bipartisan vote.”

Thank you to members of the Senate Appropriations Committee on both sides of the aisle!

www.axios.com/pro/health-c...

The people, the field, the big questions, and the chance to contribute to them in a real way, partly by helping others join in.

For me, seeing others use experimental evolution in new, creative ways is the juice.

Hope you find your own, take care of yourself!

Scientists Are Learning to Rewrite the Code of Life

E. coli, but with only 57 codons! Honey, who shrunk the genetic code?

By @carlzimmer.com quoting @akosnyerges.bsky.social about work from Jason Chin's lab at the MRC LMB.

"There’s a lot more in genomes than we thought. We are still not great at designing biology.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/31/s...

Big shout out to @c4lifesciences.bsky.social working with Baldwin's team to highlight the poison pill that is multi-year funding.

Delighted to represent @asm.org on this group. Your academic societies play important roles in advocacy!

My department @utoronto.ca (www.utm.utoronto.ca/biology/) is hiring a molecular biologist in any field (e.g., ecology, evolutionary biology, etc.). Please encourage any excellent finishing PhD students, postdocs or assistant professor to apply here:
jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Mississa...

First highlight...

Senator Capito started of the discussion saying that the bill contains AN INCREASE for NIH.

The details are not available, but the bill will be released ofter the hearing.

This is not a done-deal, but it does show where the Senate is on a bipartisan basis.

12 tiny worlds Podcast Episode · Unexplainable · 07/30/2025 · 38m

So delighted that the #LTEE landed in my podcast feed today! Great job as always @relenski.bsky.social !

Don’t miss this one!
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/u...

Russell Vought’s wife posts about how their daughter will be treated with “miracle drug” trikafta, a lifesaving drug developed thanks to NIH research.

Particularly galling because NIH research literally saved his daughter’s life. www.motherjones.com/wp-content/u...

🚨Our study on characterising the within-host SARS-CoV-2 evolution during persistent infections is now out in @lancetmicrobe.bsky.social!
👉 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

What a great, great farewell note

I am barely holding it together this week. When you see your #NIH colleagues, please give them a huge thank you for their service. #NIHStrong #FEDStrong #defenddata #defendresearch #russellvoughtmustgo

Olympic star Léon Marchand crushes 200-meter IM world record at swimming worlds Marchand, who won four golds in Paris, lowered Ryan Lochte's 14-year-old mark by more than 1.3 seconds in Wednesday's semifinals.

HOLY SMOKES. Marchand goes 1:52.6 in the 200M IM. Breaks Lochte's longstanding WR of 1:54.00.

Generational talent!

www.nytimes.com/athletic/652...

Yes, we at #NIH are barely holding it together.

That said, we are resolute. We chose this career to help others.

We didn't go into science for the money.
We did it to help humans: to advance human knowledge, to improve human health, and to make a fairer world built on ideas. 1/

Synteny-aware functional annotation of bacteriophage genomes with Phynteny Accurate genome annotation is fundamental to decoding viral diversity and understanding bacteriophage biology; yet, the majority of bacteriophage genes remain functionally uncharacterised. Bacteriopha...

🚨 New preprint 🚨

My phage annotation tool, Phynteny, finally has a preprint and a brand new version powered by a cool AI transformer architecture and protein language models! #phagesky

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Can confirm.

Let's please keep the remaining staff at NIH, NSF, etc in our thoughts even as you lose sleep over your own lab and scientific career.

They are enduring pure chaos to try to hold the fort.

See snapshot from wapo.st/4feKKuu (gift 🔗) saying they are "barely holding it together"

Come join me and hundreds of your closest biofilm fans in the *other* Portland (says this northern New Englander)!

Abstracts for the 10th ASM Biofilms Conference are due by August 6! 24 invited and 33 abstract talks, plus lightning talks, an Early Career Symposium, a Biofilms Imaging Workshop, and special presentations. Abstract decisions by 08/31. asm.org/events/asm-b.... #ASMBiofilms

Homeword Bound With apologies to Rhymin’ Simon

Homeward Bound! Yes, the #LTEE is homeward bound. After a few thousand generations in Texas, the lines are coming back to #MSU, along with Jeff Barrick, and his team. telliamedrevisited.wordpress.com/2025/07/28/h...

love this, as the former driver of an '82 and '91 Corolla that both exceeded 200K miles, felled only by rust from Michigan and NH winters

The Earthquake That Will Devastate the Pacific Northwest When the Cascadia fault line ruptures, it could be North America’s worst natural disaster in recorded history.

Pacific northwest Tsunami warnings have me thinking of this great, terrifying Kathryn Schulz piece tonight, and hoping that it what it describes remains far off in the unrealized future

www.newyorker.com/magazine/201...

Scoop: Vinay Prasad is out at FDA. HHS spokesperson said "he did not want to be a distraction to the great work of the FDA in the Trump administration."
Story TK in Pink Sheet.

At this point, Dems ought not agree to approps without (a) specific statuory exemption from rescission, (b) statutory language automatically apportioning funds, and (c) serious consideration of Holman Rule.

How conspiracy theories about COVID’s origins are hampering our ability to prevent the next pandemic The COVID pandemic likely began when the virus jumped from animals to humans, and didn’t start in a lab. But false narratives continue to circulate.

You’ve been badly misled over COVID origins theconversation.com/how-conspira...

‼️ New pre-print from co-leads @owentuck.bsky.social and Jason Hu! Check out this fascinating example of how coevolution enables defense system innovation.