Mike Rugen

Study for life

AI Data Centers Are Sending Power Bills Soaring Wholesale electricity costs as much as 267% more than it did five years ago in areas near data centers. That’s being passed on to customers.

Not sure people realize how INSANELY DRAINING data centers will be on our planet.

If you imagine data centers as their own country, they'll rank fourth in global electricity use by 2035 — outranked only by China, India, and the U.S.

Read this in @bloomberg.com👇

www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

glad to be born at a time when i got to see what life was like before the internet and will be dead before AI completely destroys humanity

Non-catalytic functions of ISOAMYLASE 1 and 2 affect the proportion of insoluble and soluble α-polyglucans in maize Complexes containing isoamylase 1 and isoamylase 2 affect the distribution between soluble and insoluble α-polyglucans in maize endosperm in part by functi

Non-catalytic functions of ISOAMYLASE 1 and 2 affect the proportion of insoluble and soluble α-polyglucans in maize (Tracie A Hennen-Bierwagen, Martha G James, et al) doi.org/10.1093/plce... #PlantScience

Some excellent points by @helenbrabs.bsky.social

We are looking for a postdoctoral researcher to join our team! They will work on homeolog-informed approaches to tackle cold tolerance in wheat @johninnescentre.bsky.social

Please find out more and apply here: jobs.jic.ac.uk/Details.asp?...

#plantsciences #plantscijobs

Happy birthday, Rex!! 🥳🎂

Yesterday, Rex the JIC #Science Cat celebrated his 10th birthday. Rex has been an iconic figure at the JIC for the last five years, greeting visitors at reception and proudly prowling around the NRP 🐾

Image of man wearing hi-vis pushing a beer barrel along a footpath in the rain for charity.

Just spotted you on my way to work. Keep pushing David (despite the rain)!!! ☔👏🍻

Representing @johninnescentre.bsky.social and @philippaborrill.bsky.social group.

A cat opens its mouth to eat grass outside on a deck, with text that reads: Gold-covered hairballs may reveal why cats eat grass.

Why do cats insist on eating grass, when it only seems to make them throw up? Scientists have proposed many theories over the years, but the latest may be the one that sticks—literally. https://scim.ag/4ntn8VB

🚨Happening in three days, Friday, September 26, 2025, at 12:00 pm Eastern Time. Join us!🌱

👉Free registration at plantae.org/plantaeprese...

#PlantScience

Validate User

The putative endo-1,4-β-D-glucanase GLU3 regulates cellulose biosynthesis in barley roots (Li Guo , Serena Rosignoli , Magnus Wohlfahrt Rasmussen , et al) doi.org/10.1093/plph... #PlantScience

📢 Join us for the next GlySpace Alliance Webinar!

🗓️ Tuesday, September 16, 2025 | 10 AM ET
🎙️ @dbojar.bsky.social‬ presents: “Structure, Function and Everything in Between: Glyco-AI goes 3D”
🔗 Info: wiki.glygen.org/GlySpace_All...

#glycotime #bioinformatics #cfde

Strategies and applications of synthetic cell communication - Nature Chemical Biology Recent advances in engineering bottom-up synthetic cells have created powerful compartmentalized biochemical reactors with cell-like abilities. To push the boundaries of the collective capabilities of...

Our collaborative review article on the latest strategies and applications of synthetic cell communication is now out!

With Allen Liu (+group)
Published in Nature Chemical Biology @natchembio.nature.com

#syncell #syntheticcell @syncelleu.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

An interesting sentiment; bringing more critical thinking, analysis, and interdisciplinary work across all courses is crucial to develop and empower students in the age of AI.

ChatGPT tends to ignore retractions on scientific papers Study finds the chatbot doesn’t acknowledge concerns with problematic studies

100%! Critical thinking is more crucial than ever. Especially in the context of these findings:
cen.acs.org/policy/publi...
Original paper: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Not to add to the discourse, but…

It’s ‘toe the line,’ not ‘tow the line.’
It’s ‘free rein,’ and not ‘free reign.’
It’s ‘eke out,’ not ‘eek out.’
It’s ‘sleight of hand,’ not ‘slight of hand.’
It's ‘Anchors aweigh,’ and not ‘Anchor's away!’

Google Scholar Is Doomed Academia built entire careers on a free Google service with zero guarantees. What could go wrong?

Since search is dead, how soon do you think Google Scholar is headed for the Google Graveyard? I'm betting it's soon, and academia is NOT prepared

Tuition fees are rising again and nobody is happy – it’s time to actually fix our broken university sector | Zoe Williams The figures simply don’t add up for higher education in England and Wales. Yet delusional politicians from all parties seem intent on avoiding the issue, says Guardian columnist Zoe Williams

'Put simply, we have a really strange system in higher education, where nobody admits how much things actually cost, nobody admits who’s paying for what, research is kept alive on the toil and goodwill of underpaid academics....'

Norwich Pride 2025 Norwich Research Park

Plastidial starch phosphorylase regulates maltodextrin turnover during starch granule initiation in Arabidopsis leaves (Liping Wang , You Wang , Regina Feil , Gregory J MacNeill , John E Lunn , Ian J Tetlow , Michael J Emes) doi.org/10.1093/plph... #PlantScience

Non-profits wade in where for-profit life science investment fears to tread - Nature Biotechnology For decades, and in the exceptional instance of the Institut Pasteur for over a century, non-profit organizations have augmented R&D to advance scientific understanding and develop affordable and ...

Non-profits wade in where for-profit life science investment fears to tread www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Mapping the chemical complexity of plastics - Nature An inventory of 16,325 known plastic chemicals, including >4,200 hazardous compounds, supports the development of safer plastics.

Over the past few years, our PlastChem team has worked tirelessly to map the chemical complexity of #plastics. Today, we publish the findings in @nature.com. We hope this evidence propels the development of safer plastics to protect human health and environment. 1/4
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Fig. 2.Schematic representation of the main components of plant cell walls. Minimal representative structures are shown according to the most accepted models. Suspended dots indicate the continuation of the pattern. Monosaccharides, monolignols, and other possible constituents are included in the box on the right.

🧬🌿 DARWIN REVIEW 🧬🌿

🧱 Fuertes-Rabanal et al. compare the cell surfaces of plant, algae, and microbial cells, known as cell walls, which, despite being different, also share designs and functionalities 🧱

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...

#PlantScience 🧪

The 500 best pubs in England Use our tool to find the perfect pub nearest to you

I've spent the past few months researching and writing (what I think is) the biggest pub guide ever published by a national newspaper (50,000 words!) - and today its been published! www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/best-...

Meeting with your PI

Position of flask on magnetic stirrers can drastically affect reproducibility of experiments Comprehensive examination reveals improper siting of reaction vessels can affect catalyst formation, alter nanoparticle formation and change yields

New research shows that simply changing how a reaction vessel is positioned on a magnetic stirrer can significantly change a reaction's speed and product quality, influencing the reproducibility of results. #ChemSky #ScienceSky #EduSky

‘Deeply concerned’: Are chemistry departments across the US at real risk of closure? Chemistry chairs warn that they face the same problems afflicting the UK with the Trump administration adding to their woes

The UK isn't alone in its chemistry department cut-back woes. From New York to California, the alarm bells are ringing, with tariffs and a tense political climate feeding a climate of concern.

Click biology highlights the opportunities from reliable biological reactions - Nature Chemical Biology This Perspective discusses click biology as an analogy to click chemistry and examines reactions carried out using building blocks present in every living cell, enabling rapid selective covalent bond ...

A Perspective by Mark Howarth @howarthsci.bsky.social‬ discusses click biology as an analogy to click chemistry, examines reactions using building blocks present in living cells, and highlights opportunities for fundamental research and synthetic biology

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

Is a world without #beer, #wine #sake #bread, #cheese livable or even imaginable?

All of these delights & more, we owe to the domestication of one particular kind of #fungi by our ancestors.

Jose Paulo Sampaio & Ana Pontes review the biology of #yeast domestication

www.cell.com/current-biol...