George Schaible

Mysterious Asgard microbes may point to origins of complex life | CNN Scientists are trying to understand how complex life emerged on Earth about 2 billion years ago. Our microbial ancestors could be the key.

www.cnn.com/2026/03/04/s...

Regardless, I love it!

That’s such a great figure!!

That’s awesome! And good tunes 🎶

Nanopore sequencing reaches amplicon sequence variant (ASV) resolution www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... #jcampubs

Are the black and white images just negatives of the fluorescence data?

The one on the left catches my attention! Both are beautiful!

These are amazing!!! ExM?

Help! We're struggling to choose between these two images of #Mesodinium #karmachamaeleon and its cryptophyte prey, one more "documentary" and one more "action shot," as cover image submissions (to a society journal). If you were an editor, which one would more likely catch your eye? #protistsonsky

Happy 38th birthday to the #LTEE!
#BOTD in 1988.
Keep on evolving!

#science #evolution #microbiology

PhD position with Natalia Tschowri (@unihannover.bsky.social) and Daniel Rozen (@unileiden.bsky.social @leidenscience.bsky.social) within @spp2389.bsky.social program

Regulation and Evolution of Bacterial Multicellularity

Application deadline until 15 March 2026

#PhDposition

US funding for global internet freedom ‘effectively gutted’ Programme that funds groups building tech to evade oppressive government controls under serious threat

I don’t think this will stop people but it’s definitely going to make it harder and slow things down.

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...

Beyond thrilled to share that our study has been published!
This project encompasses years of work, including my thesis research on Asgard archaea in the @archaeal.bsky.social lab at @utmsi.bsky.social and
@texasscience.bsky.social!!!
#MicroSky #ArchaeaSky 1/12

Love hearing about the ongoing work! @archaeal.bsky.social @katyappler.bsky.social

Our latest preprint: Together with the team of Jan Löwe, @danieltamarit.bsky.social and many others we discovered and characterized several Asgard tubulin genes and propose that microtubule architecture and dynamics evolved in Asgard archaea prior to eukaryogenesis
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

I really despise AI generated images…

Here is a recent article speaking directly to your inquiry. It’s an interesting short read:

www.deobald.ca/essays/2026-...

Another small #DIY electronics project. This one is a Li battery powered portable sulfide sensor that reads sulfide, temperature, and humidity and has a SD card so data can be logged in real time. The LEDs on the side are for different levels of sulfide exposure. Good for the field and lab! #science

A stupid argument, or maybe a longer way to do a sales pitch

We build fire rings to contain fire, so it doesn’t start a wildfire. We have fire extinguishers and a fire department to control fires. AI should have the same thing in place to ensure it’s proper use.

AI itself is inherently neutral, it’s not good or bad, it’s an algorithm. What makes it morally gray is the human side, what data is used to train the model. I think fire is a good analogy for this because it’s useful and dangerous. Just because it’s dangerous, should we not use it at all?

I think you are absolutely right, it’s a security dilemma. Countries and companies are worried about falling behind so they overcompensate without really stopping to consider if it is the correct thing to do.

systemic issue than a personal one. How will we deal with government and other nations using the chatbots and AI? Isn’t it already inexorable that this will become common place in STEM? Even if AI companies do their best to train on publicly available data, they cannot avoid the ethical quagmire.

This is an interesting question! However, its does seem like a loaded question.Of course no honest researcher would want to commit misconduct. To me, the question is if the future of science/STEM can avoid the misconduct at all. National labs are being pushed to use AI in workflows so it’s more of a

Expansion Microscopy Has Transformed How We See the Cellular World | Quanta Magazine How physically magnifying objects using a key ingredient in diapers has opened an unprecedented view of the microbial world.

Even with the largest zoom on a classic compound optical system, scientists struggle to make sense of finer details. Microbiologists are turning to an unexpected source to clear things up: a moisture-absorbing material found in diapers. www.quantamagazine.org/expansion-mi...

Thx for @mollyherring.bsky.social for featuring our recent work with @centriolelab.bsky.social and our quest with @gautamdey.bsky.social & the support of the @moorefound.bsky.social to look for the beauty in every #eukaryote out there using #Expansion #Microscopy #UExM

Growth of methanogenic culture under different stress conditions

New preprint: “Proteomic stress response by a novel methanogen enriched from the Great Salt Lake”, first author William Christian. TLDR: we enriched a novel, euryarchaeotal, methyl-dismutating methanogen that grows at 16% salinity. biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.29.702513v2 🧵 🦠 #microsky

In case you use Notepad++ for any of your #bioinformatics, you will want to update your current version! Sounds like China has been accessing all of that data for almost 6 months now.

Fungi can become drug-resistant without changing their DNA. They just... turn off the gene. And turn it back on when the drug's gone. This is wild and concerning for treating infections like mucormycosis (50-90% mortality). From Joe Heitman's group at @duke-university.bsky.social.

NSF GRFP applicants (and mentors): Was your application Returned Without Review and deemed ineligible despite fitting in the allowed topics?
1) Write NSF
2) Write your Congressperson
3) CC us at grfp@grant-witness.us so we can compile + follow up

Details and template at grant-witness.us/grfp-letter