Dr. Or M. Bialik |📚|🔬|🌊|⚒️

Page from a coloring book, slightly modifidm painted with felt-tip pens

Trying to make the most of the time while sheltering down in the basement with no internet while waiting for missiles and drone threats to pass.

The event concluded, all good here.
Damn, that felt too close.

Diagram of mutants and transgenic lines used in the study. We utilized a set of mutants and transgenic lines with a wide variety of mitochondrial perturbations to examine the interactions between mitochondrial respiration and the chloroplastic Mehler reaction (purple arrow). The mutants and transgenic lines are written in italics next to the affected functions, pathways, or complexes. References for all lines are provided in Materials and methods.

School textbooks will tell you that in plants, oxygen is produced in the chloroplasts, and then it's used for respiration occurs in the mitochondria. How the oxygen gets to the mitochondria is a bit handwaved, but we're starting to get how that works. 🧪

Link: academic.oup.com/plphys/artic...

That I'm editing, writing in the background, I haven't even started...

(as one can surmise, making this meme was one of those ideas I couldn't shush)

Whack a Mole with ideas iontruding trying to stop you from writing or editing.

An annoying reality of having a creative mind that won't ease off, is that as you're trying to write (or worse, edit), there are always new ideas for a scene, or a new story, or a new book... or something, trying to pull you to play with them.
#Writing #Editing #Procrastination

Had a guest over; the Home Front app starts chiming, and we all get up expecting a missile barrage, but they holts us, "it's not here, I got several locations set on my phone".

@jordonhemingway.bsky.social had this paper out for a few months now, but I only got to it last night... it's just not possible to keep up with everything in realtime.

a–d, Integrated non-dimensional pyrite content (a,c) and isotopic composition (b,d) exported from the sulfidic anoxic zone as functions of Γ0 and Da*. Panels a and b were calculated using the global averaged FeHR content, Ψ0 = 10, whereas panels c and d were calculating using Ψ0 = 1 as a low-iron endmember scenario. e, Example profiles showing predicted non-dimensional species contents/concentrations (OC, Γ; sulfate, Σ; sulfide, η; FeHR, Ψ; and pyrite, Π) and isotopic compositions (d34S_SO4, d34S_S^2- and Δpyrite) as functions of non-dimensional depth, ζ, for three contrasting parameter-space conditions (marked as coloured circles in a–d). Stippled lines and lighter colours represent low Ψ0 whereas solid lines and darker colours represent high Ψ0 conditions. Vectors in panel a represent the expected change in global-average Γ0 and Da* for each bathymetric region when using the oxygen-penetration depth (vector base) vs the mixed-layer depth (vector tip) as model input. Boxes in panel b represent the 5th to 95th percentile range of Γ0 vs Da* extent observed for each bathymetric region in the modern ocean. Vectors in panel d represent global changes to various Earth-system evolution processes discussed in the main text. Sed. rate, sedimentation rate.

A big reason we have an oxygenated atmosphere is because there is a lot more pyrite burial than pyrite oxidation (which wasn't always the case). 🧪⚒️

Link: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I think the thing that frustrates me about #StarfleetAcademy is that the showrunners can't make up their mind what sort of show it is. There is more than enough meat in a #StarTrek school drama, but then a third of the episodes are about the Federation vs. the boring space pirate king.

Having recently checked on what's going in the Spider-Man comics... at this point it's really getting ridiculous that they aren't even considering solving some of the tangle with a polycule.

If you want to up your social media game as a scholar, it's worth checking this video out. Very important message here I have repeated before - let the visual media communicate, not just the words (remember that also when preparing your original material, figures are our friends).

Interactions between chickpea (CP), arbuscular mycorrhizae (AMF), and vermicompost (VC) in the rhizosphere. Chickpea has a taproot reaching up to 30 cm with lateral root branching. The root system with AMF (left) accesses a larger volume of the planting medium, reaching otherwise inaccessible nutrients and water while sequestering heavy metals (HMs) from uptake. The root system without AMF (right) has less surface area, shorter roots, and fewer protective mechanisms against HMs. VC introduces rhizosphere microorganisms and provides nutrients necessary for plant development.

Ok, all of us Middle Eastern people can now rest at ease - it's possible to grow chickpeas on the moon (or at least in lunar regolith, with fungal mediation). Still no results on sesame, making the lunar hummus situation an open question. 🧪

Link: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🤦

We really need to make it OK for students and ECRs to just shrug and say "I don't know". It's unrealistic to expect people, esp. early in their career, to just know everything and consider every possibility.

#AcademicSky

Cenozoic evolution of wet season (months when ΔTT > 0) a mean land rainfall averaged over South Asian region (70°E–110°E; 5°N–30°N); accumulated upper tropospheric temperature gradient (ΔTT); atmospheric CO2 levels (right y-axis). The TP area above 3.5 km elevation in the 70°E–105°E, 25°N–45°N domain is shown in the pink shade with the right y-axis. b Mean column-integrated moisture in 40°E–160°E, 15°S–30°N domain (left y-axis); vertical velocity at 500 hPa (ω500) averaged over 70°E–110°E, 5°N–30°N; relative SST (tropical mean subtracted) in the northern Neotethys/Indian Ocean (40°E–120°E, 5°N–30°N); and tropical (30°S–30°N) mean surface temperature (right y-axis). The correlation between rainfall and the variables are mentioned in parenthesis. The Y-axis colors and labels are matched to their respective curves. c Normalized Mass Accumulation Rate (MAR) from combined Mekong, Pearl, and Red river fans, and Indus river fan. MAR values are normalized by their own standard deviation. The minimum and maximum ranges are shaded around the curves. The timeline of the different geological stages is shown along the top x-axis, while the geological stages, epochs, and periods of the Cenozoic era are indicated along the bottom x-axis.

#WeekendReading: Abhik et al. on the evolution of the Asian summer #monsoon through the Cenozoic era. It's mostly models (s.h., numerical experiments), but still offers an interesting set of hypotheses. 🧪🌊

Link: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Tagged you for a reason.

a Optimal temperature (Topt), b denaturation temperature (Td), and e phase transition temperature (Tp) patterns as a function of the MAT at the site from which the 78 esterases originated along the North–South latitudinal transect. c Topt, d Td, and f Tp patterns of 150 esterases from 56 TARA ocean locations as a function of the MAT at the site. Topt, Td, and Tp of esterases are determined by measuring the initial hydrolysis rate of 4-nitrophenyl-propionate, the CD ellipticity changes (in millidegrees, mdeg; θ) at 220 nm at different temperatures at a rate of 0.5 °C per min, and performing Constraint Network Analysis (CNA), respectively. Topt and Td values are plotted as mean (n = 3) and related SD are reported in Supplementary Data S3 and S4. Tp values are presented as the mean of five independent MD simulations analysed with CNA and related SEM. The linear regressions are performed using a two-sided test in R; R2, degrees of freedom, F and p-values are reported in each graph. Significant regressions are reported as blue lines, while non-significant in grey. The blue/grey zone represents the confidence value of 95%. In the case of esterases from the TARA ocean dataset, piecewise regressions were run, and the breakpoints (flexus) where the slope of the regressions significantly changed are indicated with dashed lines on the MAT axis. Red boxes in panels c, d and f indicate the MAT range covered by the Irish Sea–Red Sea transect in panels a, b and e.

When we talk about thresholds, it's important to remember that biology, notably microbiology, doesn't respond linearly. Some have plasticity, some don't; that means that ecosystems (notably marine) can shift very fast as the microbiome alters it's respose. 🧪🌊

Link: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Some days, the boundary between "respectable" and "predatory" publications is rather blurred, given things the former do.

#AcademicSky

OK, new menuscript. Going with @zotero.org this time, been a while since I used it (as the two updates I had to install so far attest), let's see how the experience will play out.

Two from Norway
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
academic.oup.com/jsm/article/...
One from Croatia
hrcak.srce.hr/284573

Ran into a few more I haven't read yet, the keywords used were "appearance", "satisfaction", and also "self".

like any mollusks related post, tagging @dantheclamman.blog

Some Cambrian mollusks (1-8) and a mollusk-like problematic fossil (9) Source: https://www.app.pan.pl/archive/published/app45/app45-119.pdf

It's not unknown that mollusks adapted to many environments, but the rate at which they evolved is uncanny. In the first 100 million years they were around, they developed a new traits about every 2 million years (which is relatively fast for multicelled organisms). 🧪

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

One of the many things I love about the local SF&F community: Literal war outside, one con already canceled, but as the program for the next one comes up, everyone still gets excited and exchanges fill up with "carp, this thing I want to attend overlaps with your panel" and such.

I forgot that they changed the host of the panel I'm no, so I had to ask to figure out when it is.

I thought I remembered a study or two that would fit that, but revisiting them, diet was a factor. There is also a cluster of studies from Korea about appearance satisfaction and self esteem I ran into, but they were in Korean.

Academic writing-tip/recommendation (discipline agnostic): Have a summary figure.
It makes it a lot easier for the reviewers and editor to gauge your message and intention, and for readers to take the message you want them to take from your manuscript.

#AcademicSky

I'll not be too hard on them for not citing any of my work, JRL has a ref limit, but I am grinding my teeth at the election to focus so much on older referances on dolomitization when there are some really critical new ones, some from the same department as some authors.

Conceptual model of two-stage dolomitization and its global implications. (a) Stage I: Deposition and early diagenesis. Evaporation within a shallow lagoon generates brine that promotes initial Mg-charging of the lagoonal sediments. This process leads to the formation of metastable proto-dolomite precursors at or near the lagoon floor. (b) Stage II: Burial recrystallization and mineralogical stabilization. During subsequent burial (estimated at 1–2 km), elevated temperatures trigger the recrystallization of the proto-dolomite precursors into ordered dolomite. This stage involves open-system isotopic resetting facilitated by the circulation of seawater through the permeable post-Albian overburden (blue arrow). The reef core and fore-reef facies (right) remain calcitic because they were not charged with magnesium during Stage I. (c) Dolomite fraction in carbonate rocks versus time based on rock samples from North America (Given & Wilkinson, 1987), the Russian Platform (Vinogradov & Ronov, 1956), and a worldwide compilation using dissolved Mg2+ and Ca2+ measurements in rivers draining carbonate-bearing bedrock (modified after Husson & Coogan, 2023). The gap between the Mg/(Mg + Ca) in rivers and the observed dolomite abundance in Cenozoic strata may possibly reflect the thermal maturity limitation, where younger platforms have not yet experienced the burial heating required for the second stage of mineral stabilization.

I think, at this point, we've established that the Dolomite Problem doesn't really exist; it's just an issue of triggers and timescales. Studies like this really hammer that message: proto-dolomite at surface, matures at depth. 🧪⚒️

Link: agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Last night we had three of those, none of them followed by an actual siren.
Lots of staring at the dark ceiling, waiting, thinking, and taking forever to get back to sleep (since there might be another one).
Now everyone's rugged.