Nick Loman

nathan wolfe doing the theranos pinch

This is Nathan Wolfe. Nathan is a virus hunter. Nathan has a bit of a reputation. Through the years, I've told multiple journalists stories I've heard, like "Nathan thanks Jeffrey Epstein in his book." Somehow no one ever wrote anything up. Want to see what Nathan was up to in today's Epstein files?

Love this, and can attest that including "Bin Chicken" in a grant proposal feels like it requires some further explanation 🤣

Seems I wasn’t the only person to make that gag….

It wasn’t even a real fish…

GitHub - bluenote-1577/savont: Amplicon sequencing variants from 16s ONT R10.4 / HiFi long reads Amplicon sequencing variants from 16s ONT R10.4 / HiFi long reads - bluenote-1577/savont

Announcing a new tool for "denoising" long-read amplicon sequences: savont.

Savont enables amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) directly from nanopore (or HiFi) long reads. Tested on 16S nanopore amplicons -- seems to work okay.

1/4

github.com/bluenote-157...

Send it to Science!

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📢 The TARGetAMR Annual Conference 2026 is coming 14–15 May to Birmingham.
🦠 Connect with experts & shape the future of AMR research.
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@bylinetimes.bsky.social @eastangliabylines.co.uk
"We have paused applications to this funding opportunity while we align investment changes across UKRI."
www.ukri.org/opportunity/...

First evidence in Europe of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1 infection in a dairy cow. Antibodies against H5N1 detected in a cow with mastitis and respiratory signs on a Dutch dairy farm at the end of December. A cat on that farm had died from H5N1. www.tweedekamer.nl/downloads/do...

Really interesting thread!

‘It’s the sovereignty of the country’: Guinea-Bissau says US vaccine study suspended Despite US pushback, officials in west Africa say controversial hepatitis B study on pause amid ethics concerns

"Africans want to solve Africa’s problems, not satisfy the curiosity of the funders."

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

U.S. makes exit from the WHO complete The U.S. withdrawal from the WHO became official Thursday, formalizing a fissure between the Trump administration and the Geneva-based global health agency.

The US withdrawal from #WHO became official today, leaving the world less prepared for dangerous disease outbreaks. “When that will bite us in the ass, it’s impossible to predict. But there is a 100% certainty that it will bite us in the ass,” one expert told me. www.statnews.com/2026/01/22/u...

I haven’t been this excited for a bubble to burst since I was a toddler.

Baby-to-baby strain transmission shapes the developing gut microbiome - Nature A metagenomic survey of babies attending the first year of nursery detected extensive baby-to-baby microbial strain transmission, pointing to social interactions in infancy as crucial drivers of infan...

🥁 NEW

Our study on infant gut microbiome and #straintransmission is now published in @nature.com:

doi.org/10.1038/s415...

1/10

Asking google who is more suave, Ian Dunt or Dorian Lynskey, with -noai in the search term, returns no hits

Asking google who is more suave, Ian Dunt or Dorian Lynskey, returns some AI blather

In case useful @iandunt.bsky.social , @soniaz.bsky.social has just shown me how to turn off the AI summary in google search! Just add -noai. Just did a simple test comparing you and @dorianlynskey.bsky.social

UKRI pauses several funding calls amid priorities shake-up

The applicant-led MRC funding calls on pause include research grants, partnership grants and new investigator research grants made available through the council’s research boards.

www.researchprofessional.com/news-article...

AI companies will fail. We can salvage something from the wreckage | Cory Doctorow AI is asbestos in the walls of our tech society, stuffed there by monopolists run amok. A serious fight against it must strike at its roots

A long, absolutely must-read article from Cory Doctorow: www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

Assemblers in the 1st decade of the 21th century : cosmicsembler, acceleron, megasupertig Assemblers after 2015: wgtgtgmmhgb

Facts

In remembrance of Peer Bork  | EMBL EMBL and its community are deeply saddened by the death of Peer Bork, the organisation’s Interim Director General.

This is very sad news

'It is with great sadness that EMBL announces that Interim Director General Professor Peer Bork passed away from natural causes on 16 January 2026.'

www.embl.org/news/embl-an...

Research Fellow - Department of Microbes, Infection and Microbiomes - 105518 - Grade 7 The post holder will work within the newly established NIHR Health Protection Unit for Public Health Genomics, a partnership between the University of Birmingham and the UK Health Security Agency. You...

Love microbes & omics? 🦠🧬

We’re hiring a Postdoc in Public Health Genomics at @unibirmingham.bsky.social

Work on cutting-edge research with wonderful people! @wvschaik.bsky.social @halllab.bsky.social @pathogenomenick.bsky.social @scalene.bsky.social @alanmcn1.bsky.social

📅 Closes 4th Feb

New Scientist: All major AI models risk encouraging dangerous science experiments www.newscientist.com/article/2511...

Nature Machine Intelligence: Benchmarking large language models on safety risks in scientific laboratories www.nature.com/articles/s42...

"It's not the same as Twitter", friend Twitter isn't the same as Twitter. Old Twitter died years ago, we need to accept that almost no-one under 30 is interested in joining text-based social media - the format will die with us, like floppy discs, Mars Delights, and the concept of hope for the future

The Age of Academic Slop is Upon Us what happens when AI automates "normal science"?

I just finished a three-year term as an editor at an international relations journal. I began at the start of the LLM era but ended right in the middle of it. Our volume of submissions tripled and our desk reject rate rose to 75%. I have some thoughts.
open.substack.com/pub/hegemon/...

‘A bombshell’: doubt cast on discovery of microplastics throughout human body Exclusive: Some scientists say many detections are most likely error, with one high-profile study called a ‘joke’

‘A bombshell’: doubt cast on discoveries of #microplastics throughout human body, from brain to blood, arteries to testes

Exclusive: Some scientists say many detections are most likely error, with one high-profile study called a ‘joke’

Story by me
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Sigh. For the hundredth time, we are not judging his character, we are judging his actions. The RS position would be fine if it was a gentlemen's club, who can have who it damn well pleases. But it positions itself as represnting British science and scientists. Now an embarrassment, to be frank.

The Norwegian Nobel Prize committee has been forced to make a statement, declaring that the prize cannot be transferred.
It's hard even to comprehend how stupid this has become

OpenAI launches ChatGPT Health, encouraging users to connect their medical records But it’s ‘not intended for diagnosis or treatment.’

FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD IN THE UNIVERSE
PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER

www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...

Convergence and global molecular epidemiology of Klebsiella pneumoniae plasmids harbouring the iuc3 virulence locus: a population genomic analysis Klebsiella pneumoniae is an important pathogen of humans and animals. In the past five years, increasing reports of convergent strains that carry both…

It has been a long road, but our paper on Klebsiella plasmids is finally out in Lancet Microbe. Thanks to all co authors but especially Marjorie Gibbon and Natacha Couto www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Those stats are supposed to be usage in past month …