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Max Stassen

@maxstassen

PhD candidate Plant Microbe Interactions at Utrecht University | Exploring the role of coumarins in the plant's microbiome-root-shoot communication | He/him

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Latest posts by Max Stassen @maxstassen

This is so valuable!
Congrats to the team!

12.03.2026 04:16 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

As someone who freaked out about retracting my own Nature paper, I love this initiative!

10.03.2026 17:41 πŸ‘ 40 πŸ” 11 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1
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Cracking the Code: Using AI to Solve Difficult-to-Map Proteins Leveraging AI and quantum calculations, scientists developed a new tool that yielded higher-quality structural information and solved notoriously elusive proteins.

What if decoding proteins were like using a Rosetta Stone for #biology?

A new tool developed in part by Berkeley Lab researchers uses #AI and #quantum-mechanical calculations to solve protein structures faster, even for notoriously difficult proteins.

Learn more via link.

10.03.2026 17:46 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

There are a lot of scientific illustrators and graphic designers who are building their portfolios and will take on work for less than you might imagine. It's not out of reach.

09.03.2026 23:48 πŸ‘ 168 πŸ” 50 πŸ’¬ 6 πŸ“Œ 1

Good lord this is bleak

10.03.2026 14:10 πŸ‘ 12 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Humorprijs Ignobel verlaat Verenigde Staten: β€˜Het is geen leuk land meer’

Humorprijs Ignobel verlaat Verenigde Staten: β€˜Het is geen leuk land meer’

10.03.2026 14:14 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1

Please check the latest from our lab! Root-fungus senses host nutrient status, determining its infection strategies!

10.03.2026 02:49 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 6 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1

Streptomyces enrichment in roots during drought is uncoupled from plant benefit and is driven by host suppression of iron uptake and immunity https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.06.710171v1

07.03.2026 05:03 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Google pledges roughly three hours of its annual profit to fight climate change Google and others are committing $100 million to combat climate change.

The perfect headline doesn’t exi…

05.03.2026 20:24 πŸ‘ 7546 πŸ” 2185 πŸ’¬ 31 πŸ“Œ 65
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Ministerie verwijderde onderzoek naar risico’s van Amerikaanse cloud van overheidswebsite

Onderzoek naar Amerikaanse cloud-risico’s door ministerie van overheidswebsite verwijderd

05.03.2026 23:41 πŸ‘ 7 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

No. Peter Thiel cannot be allowed to annex the National Science Foundation via this Palantir proxy.

It would be like putting a pyromaniac in charge of the Library of Alexandria: destruction of a global treasure with no "undo" button.

This is a "to the barricades" moment.

06.03.2026 01:45 πŸ‘ 338 πŸ” 149 πŸ’¬ 8 πŸ“Œ 1
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Sovereignty for sale Tech monopolies and the future of the nation state

New post just out:

"Sovereignty for sale"

The UK is uniquely exposed to the power of US tech monopolies - from Palantir to AI and cloud services.

Why is it so dangerous? What are other countries doing? And what should we do?

(Β£/free trial)

open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/s...

05.03.2026 09:03 πŸ‘ 215 πŸ” 106 πŸ’¬ 14 πŸ“Œ 13
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Opinie: Waarom we de wereld zien verkruimelen en niets doen

Opinie: Waarom we de wereld zien verkruimelen en niets doen

05.03.2026 11:45 πŸ‘ 14 πŸ” 6 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Congratulations Shunsuke! Cool paper!

04.03.2026 12:58 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Our new paper is out in @newphyt.bsky.social

04.03.2026 06:12 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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PokΓ©mon turns 30 β€” how the fictional pocket monsters shaped science The Japanese media sensation has inspired generations of researchers in fields as diverse as evolution, biodiversity and research integrity.

For PokΓ©mon’s 30th anniversary, Nature spoke to scientists from around the world about how their work has been shaped by playing PokΓ©mon games, watching animated TV series and films and trading cards in school playgrounds. πŸ§ͺ

03.03.2026 14:05 πŸ‘ 36 πŸ” 14 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Picture of Marjane Satrapi alongside a quote from her. The quote reads:

The world is not divided into countries. The world is not divided between East and West. You are American, I am Iranian, we don't know each other, but we talk together and we understand each other perfectly. The difference between you and your government is much bigger than the difference between you and me. And the difference between me and my government is much bigger than the difference between me and you.

And our governments are very much the same...

- Marjane Satrapi, Iranian-French graphic novelist

Picture of Marjane Satrapi alongside a quote from her. The quote reads: The world is not divided into countries. The world is not divided between East and West. You are American, I am Iranian, we don't know each other, but we talk together and we understand each other perfectly. The difference between you and your government is much bigger than the difference between you and me. And the difference between me and my government is much bigger than the difference between me and you. And our governments are very much the same... - Marjane Satrapi, Iranian-French graphic novelist

Thinking about this quote from Persepolis creator Marjane Satrapi again.

28.02.2026 17:18 πŸ‘ 19242 πŸ” 8220 πŸ’¬ 44 πŸ“Œ 122
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Burger King is testing AI headsets that will know if employees say "welcome" or "thank you" Burger King is testing AI-powered headsets that can recite recipes, alert managers when inventories are low and even track how friendly employees are to customers

Marvelous www.independent.co.uk/news/burger-...

28.02.2026 10:53 πŸ‘ 15 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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@utrechtpmi.bsky.social VICI! The Plant-Microbe Interactions group will hug this guy to pieces! Roeland Berendsen received a prestigious VICI grant from NWO (Dutch Research Council). Congrats Roeland! Looking forward to some very nice #NPEC experiments!
For more: lnkd.in/eyr9a-tP

26.02.2026 19:44 πŸ‘ 12 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Veritasium: What Everyone Gets Wrong About AI and Learning – Derek Muller Explains
Veritasium: What Everyone Gets Wrong About AI and Learning – Derek Muller Explains YouTube video by Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics

Here's a great talk by @veritasium.bsky.social (at @perimeterinstitute.ca) about how learning really works and why using chatbots to help can backfire youtu.be/0xS68sl2D70

24.02.2026 20:47 πŸ‘ 264 πŸ” 36 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 1

I understand why chatbot cheating happens but every time I read about it I want to gently remind everyone that the point of schoolwork is not for the submission to exist. Teachers are not just greedy for more essays or solved equations. The point is to do the work WITH YOUR OWN BRAIN, FOR LEARNING.

24.02.2026 19:37 πŸ‘ 3721 πŸ” 867 πŸ’¬ 100 πŸ“Œ 49

Check out our new preprint by @octaviarmn.bsky.social and @liobarueger.bsky.social in collaboration with @meikeburow.bsky.social - we investigate the spatial effect of glucosinolates on root microbiomes in Arabidopsis and Camelina! www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/... lots of cool stuff!

24.02.2026 13:16 πŸ‘ 31 πŸ” 12 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 2
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Screening, sorting, and the feedback cycles that imperil peer review The process of peer review is vital to contemporary science, but is also under enormous strain. This study uses mathematical models to dissect the threats to the long-term viability of peer review, su...

1. Kevin Gross and I have a new paper out today PLOS Biology.

We used economic models based around screening games and the market for unpaid labor to highlight a meltdown cycle threatening peer review.

24.02.2026 20:54 πŸ‘ 324 πŸ” 132 πŸ’¬ 8 πŸ“Œ 17

What this technology is going to do is not end higher education, but it is going to undo so much of the baseline work on accessibility by pushing overworked professors to take things back to offline modalities, in person timed exams, keeping tech out of the classroom, etc.

23.02.2026 15:46 πŸ‘ 666 πŸ” 168 πŸ’¬ 22 πŸ“Œ 14

Make no mistake this is a concerted and organised attempt to completely undermine science and expert opinion. This is Covid denialism on steroids and it’s on all of academia to see this for what it is and push back as strongly as possible

23.02.2026 20:56 πŸ‘ 74 πŸ” 32 πŸ’¬ 4 πŸ“Œ 1
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Have you ever wondered πŸ€”... Does phenotypic variance respond to environmental perturbation? Does it have a genetic basis? Are mean and variance regulating loci exposed to different selection pressures? These and more questions are explored in our new preprint πŸ”₯

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

23.02.2026 15:37 πŸ‘ 85 πŸ” 48 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 4
CRAGE-RB-PI-seq reveals transcriptional dynamics of plant-associated bacteria during root colonization - Nature Communications This study reveals how plant-associated bacteria dynamically reprogram gene expression during root colonization, using a new high-throughput approach that overcomes low bacterial biomass and interfere...

CRAGE-RB-PI-seq reveals transcriptional dynamics of plant-associated bacteria during root colonization

▢️Pseudomonas simiae WCS417
▢️chassis-independent recombinase-assisted genome engineering-randomly-barcoded promoter-library insertion seq

-in @natcomms.nature.com

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

22.02.2026 11:57 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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πŸš€ Excited to launch the #OpenCloning Assembler!

🧬 Built to demystify Golden Gate for beginners and save time for experts -> MoClo assembly blazing fast ⚑

✍️ Use existing syntaxes or design your own!

#SynBio #GoldenGate #MoClo #OpenSource #Biotech

πŸ‘‰ Try it: app.opencloning.org

Feedback welcome!

20.02.2026 12:54 πŸ‘ 32 πŸ” 14 πŸ’¬ 4 πŸ“Œ 4
The political effects of X's feed algorithm
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10098-2
Received: 16 December 2024
Accepted: 4 January 2026
Published online: 18 February 2026
Open access
β€’ Check for updates
Germain Gauthier,5, Roland Hodler?5, Philine Widmer35 & Ekaterina Zhuravskaya3,4,5 m
Feed algorithms are widely suspected to influence political attitudes. However, previous evidence from switching off the algorithm on Meta platforms found no political effects'. Here we present results from a 2023 field experiment on Elon Musk's platform X shedding light on this puzzle. We assigned active US-based users randomly to either an algorithmic or a chronological feed for 7 weeks, measuring political attitudes and online behaviour. Switching from a chronological to an algorithmic feed increased engagement and shifted political opinion towards more conservative positions, particularly regarding policy priorities, perceptions of criminal investigations into Donald Trump and views on the war in Ukraine. In contrast, switching from the algorithmic to the chronological feed had no comparable effects.
Neither switching the algorithm on nor switching it off significantly affected affective polarization or self-reported partisanship. To investigate the mechanism, we analysed users' feed content and behaviour. We found that the algorithm promotes conservative content and demotes posts by traditional media. Exposure to algorithmic content leads users to follow conservative political activist accounts, which they continue to follow even after switching off the algorithm, helping explain the asymmetry in effects. These results suggest that initial exposure to X's algorithm has persistent effects on users' current political attitudes and account-following behaviour, even in the absence of a detectable effect on partisanship.

The political effects of X's feed algorithm https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10098-2 Received: 16 December 2024 Accepted: 4 January 2026 Published online: 18 February 2026 Open access β€’ Check for updates Germain Gauthier,5, Roland Hodler?5, Philine Widmer35 & Ekaterina Zhuravskaya3,4,5 m Feed algorithms are widely suspected to influence political attitudes. However, previous evidence from switching off the algorithm on Meta platforms found no political effects'. Here we present results from a 2023 field experiment on Elon Musk's platform X shedding light on this puzzle. We assigned active US-based users randomly to either an algorithmic or a chronological feed for 7 weeks, measuring political attitudes and online behaviour. Switching from a chronological to an algorithmic feed increased engagement and shifted political opinion towards more conservative positions, particularly regarding policy priorities, perceptions of criminal investigations into Donald Trump and views on the war in Ukraine. In contrast, switching from the algorithmic to the chronological feed had no comparable effects. Neither switching the algorithm on nor switching it off significantly affected affective polarization or self-reported partisanship. To investigate the mechanism, we analysed users' feed content and behaviour. We found that the algorithm promotes conservative content and demotes posts by traditional media. Exposure to algorithmic content leads users to follow conservative political activist accounts, which they continue to follow even after switching off the algorithm, helping explain the asymmetry in effects. These results suggest that initial exposure to X's algorithm has persistent effects on users' current political attitudes and account-following behaviour, even in the absence of a detectable effect on partisanship.

A new paper shows that less than 2 months of exposure to Twitter’s algorithmic feed significantly shifts people’s political views to the right.

Moving from chronological feed to the algorithmic feed also increases engagement.

This is one of the most concerning papers I’ve read in awhile.

19.02.2026 18:57 πŸ‘ 6480 πŸ” 3242 πŸ’¬ 160 πŸ“Œ 410
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Announcing the publication of TAIR12: Consult the fully reannotated genome on the European Nucleotide Archive - Phoenix Bioinformatics TAIR (The Arabidopsis Information Resource), together with our nonprofit host Phoenix Bioinformatics, is pleased to announce the public release of TAIR12

πŸŽ‰πŸ“£ #TAIR12, the latest reannotation of the Arabidopsis thaliana genome, is now available under accession number PRJEB100887 on ENA and NCBI!

Thank you all the volunteer researchers whose hard work has made this possible!

#plantscience #plantbiology πŸ§ͺ

bit.ly/3ZHtneT

19.02.2026 18:40 πŸ‘ 97 πŸ” 59 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 2