Jacob Tennessen

Born to Belong: Spirituality for Mammals. Pictures of mammal species and emotional behaviors.

Neat resource my friend made for getting in touch with our mammalian emotions www.jlshattuck.com/belong

Cristiani Returns The Anthropic Principle explains certain observations about the physical world: that we could not be here observing them if things were otherwise. Several different related concepts have been calle…

Cristiani returns: more musings on the anthropic principle
adaptivediversity.wordpress.com/2025/08/05/c...

Herman Melville's most enduring contribution to society, long after his novels are forgotten, will be the name of a coffee shop permeating the refuse of the 21st century.

Moby Dick was named for real-life sperm whale Mocha Dick so really it's his legacy, a mocha-hawking logo to outlast the whales.

Yes, you can store data on a bird — enthusiast converts PNG to bird-shaped waveform, teaches young starling to recall file at up to 2MB/s Who needs Starlink when you've got an actual starling

How to store a png file in the brain of a starling: www.tomshardware.com/pc-component...

You don't think of graphic design and aesthetics as an central skill for scientists, and it's not formally taught in PhD programs, but so much of success in science depends on making compelling and intelligible figures.

Tropea onion

If not shallot why shallot shaped?

The same thing could be said for the diseases I study like malaria and schistosomiasis. Yes they’re caused by parasites, but most deaths are really caused by apathy among the wealthy nations and institutions that could muster more effort to prevent them.

Just finished Everything is Tuberculosis by @johngreensbluesky.bsky.social, who eloquently shows that this disease isn’t really caused by bacteria but by social forces: we choose to let people die of a curable illness because they’re mostly poor, nonwhite, and out of view of westerners. Superb book.

Genes in one of the snail genomic regions found in this study

We hope the genes we've found can lead to new strategies for blocking parasite transmission at the snail stage, thereby reducing the >200 million cases of schistosomiasis that happen each year.

Genes linked to schistosome resistance identified in a genome-wide association study of African snail vectors - Nature Communications A genome wide association study of an African vector of schistosomiasis revealed two genomic regions associated with resistance to Schistosoma mansoni. These findings will inform novel control strateg...

In a genome-wide association study of the African snail B. sudanica, we find completely different genes to be important for resisting infection. Although these African snails can be harder to work with, it's important to study them since species aren't all the same.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Life cycle of Schistosoma mansoni from https://blogs.biomedcentral.com/bugbitten/

Schistosomiasis is a human disease from worms spread by snails. I and others have long studied Latin American snails B. glabrata to find genomic regions affecting schisto resistance. But most schisto occurs in Africa, transmitted by other snails. Now with @schistosoma.bsky.social we address this…

Genes linked to schistosome resistance identified in a genome-wide association study of African snail vectors - Nature Communications A genome wide association study of an African vector of schistosomiasis revealed two genomic regions associated with resistance to Schistosoma mansoni. These findings will inform novel control strateg...

New research w/ @jacobphd.bsky.social et al. published today in Nature Communications: Genes linked to schistosome resistance identified in a genome-wide association study of African snail vectors doi.org/10.1038/s414... 🐌🪱🧬

See also:
A computer now writes news articles because it’s like 80% as good as a person and it’s cheaper than paying somebody.
A computer now teaches students because it’s like 80% as good as a person and it’s cheaper than paying somebody.
A computer is now your doctor because…

The future in sci fi: A computer now runs the government because it’s so smart, either we’re helpless to stop it or else we all agree it makes better decisions than us.
Actual future: A computer now runs the government because it’s like 80% as good as a person and it’s cheaper than paying somebody.

And yet the lyrics also clearly state that it’s Sunday

iNaturalist Animals and Plants

It hasn't popped up in the @xkcd.com feed yet (which is a few days behind for some reason), but today's comic about @inaturalist.bsky.social data is truly fascination:

xkcd.com/3118/

What people see often AND consider interesting enough to photograph. So, common but not boringly so.

Rapid Reviews Infectious Diseases RR\ID is an open-access overlay journal that accelerates peer review of important infectious disease-related research preprints.

Just did a preprint review for RR\ID rrid.mitpress.mit.edu —is this the future of peer review? It grew out of COVID-19 need for urgent action from preliminary findings. Sadly parasitic disease lacks this urgency—not that people aren't dying, but decision makers aren't equipped/motivated to act fast.

The Light Eaters by Zoë Schlanger

Now reading

With a clamor of bells that set the swallows soaring, July 4th came. The ringing of the boats in harbor sparkled with flags. In the streets between houses with red roofs & painted walls, between old moss-grown gardens & under avenues of trees, past great parks & public buildings, processions moved.

Everything I know about Pokémon is also true of infectious disease:
1. Evolve rapidly
2. Viably transported within a small confined space
3. Eventually you catch them all
4. Peak ah-choo 🤧

A biologist wearing a black t-shirt that says: Biology is bigger than binaries

New shirt from @skypeascientist.bsky.social

…you’re gonna grin and bear it: your new-found estuarity!

Gwynnda the Good Wheel of the West, a trash collection device in Baltimore

Look! It’s Gwynnda the Good Wheel of the West!

“Whenever I see someone more trashy than I
(And let's face it, who isn't more trashy than I?)
My tender wheel tends to feel a need.
And when harbors need a makeover
I simply have to take over!
I know, I know just how to filter-feed!”

Sign saying Literature Only

Me: Cite your sources
Them: Well I asked ChatGPT and…
Me:

Snack package indicating 3% of proceeds donated to research

We could always launch a line of snacks to fund our research. Parasite Crisps, anyone?

I've been seeing BFX used as a shorthand for bioinformatics, and, well... can we not do that? Such a grating and unnecessary term.

(and no, we’re not related)

If the market gets an invisible hand and the law gets a long arm, why can’t natural selection get metaphorical body parts? The obvious candidates are the red tooth and claw.
Tired: We detected a positive selective sweep.
Wired: We detected the red tooth and claw of Nature.

In the days of the Yellow Pages everything started with “a” to be listed first.
Then computers arrived and everything started with “e”.
Then Apple took over and everything started with “i”.
I look forward to the inevitable coming era of “o” words.