Is that Buffalo City Hall? Very impressive building!

"Many biographies use a singular life as a kaleidoscope to refract a historical period and view its patterns. Cobb’s biography does something different."

Angela Creager reviews Matthew Cobb’s new book: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/francis-crick-james-watson-double-helix-dna-biography

(bacterial) chromosome segregationists take note 👇

membrane-anchoring of the 𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘊 region to ensure proper daughter chromosome segregation after replication initiation – proposed decades ago but never substantiated... 👉now shown for 𝘚. 𝘢𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘶𝘴 by mariana pinho's lab

Have said this before in other forms, but will reiterate it here: if you're doing long-form writing of any sort, reading the words aloud into a microphone is a completely unparalleled cheat code. It's free, easy, and so effective it feels like it shouldn't be allowed. I do it in a few stages...

Sunderland climbing wall - a beautiful bright & frosty morning outside but somehow feels much colder in here 🥶

Asgard #archaea: have we found our microbial ancestors?
New review (also for newcomers to the field!) by Christa Schleper and Thiago Rodrigues-Oliveira
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Are we falling out of love with nonfiction? In the early 2020s, readers flocked to books to explain political turbulence. But is the world now too grim to read about – and are podcasters taking the place of authors?

my view on this is that publishers should stop it with the 80k wordcount obsession, so many contemporary non-fic books are obviously 40-50k pieces of work stretched to the extent that they become very boring to read - just let people write cheaper, shorter books! www.theguardian.com/books/2025/d...

Ha! The original Lancet article on the dangers of reading in bed is here: doi.org/10.1016/S014...

With Eugene Koonin, we propose a concept of “the selfish ribosome”, under which evolution of life is viewed as a ribosomal takeover, where the ribosome evolved to consume most of the cell’s resources, while other cellular componentry ensures the propagation of the ribosome. arxiv.org/abs/2602.23268

A titan of vaccine development sees his field’s achievements slip away Stanley Plotkin, the 93-year-old "godfather of vaccines," is watching his field’s achievements slip away.

Stanley Plotkin had a major hand in the development of a number of vaccines in use today; he designed the rubella vaccine. He remembers the world before widespread use of vaccines & knows what's coming as vaccine policy is rewritten & vaccine confidence is eroded. www.statnews.com/2026/03/02/s...

FWIW there was more data in ref#6

F1a looks convincing to me...except that n=1

As Nigel Farage is now so concerned about the influence of "foreign-born voters" can he finally explain why a Kazakhstan-born billionaire appears to be bankrolling his own political party?

Bottle of Bolgrad saperavi 2024

Wasn't expecting this Ukrainian dry red (from Lidl) to be quite so delicious. Слава українському вину!

Testosterone might make males more prone to skin infection.

So I pleased to announce the conceptual spawn of FigTree: PearTree (acronym still to be finalised). If you want to dive right in it is hosted as a web app here: artic-network.github.io/peartree (click the “Example...” button for immediate candy and then click every button you can find).

🚀 Huge news for people living with #sleepingsickness!

Acoziborole, a one-day, single-dose oral treatment developed with Sanofi, has received a positive opinion from @ema.europa.eu for the treatment of the most common form of sleeping sickness.

👉 bit.ly/46ZFpEi

🧪 This bacterial strain has been maintained in sterile water since 1994.

Possible carbon sources incl. “phthalic acid - a plastic degradation product likely leached from inoculation tubes“.

Genomic variations accumulated between 1994 and 2022 suggested adaptations to long-term nutrient deprivation

Convergent MurJ flippase inhibition by phage lysis proteins - Nature A common mechanism of inhibition of the essential lipid II flippase MurJ by three distinct phage-encoded single-gene lysis proteins provides insights into potential new targets for antimicrobial devel...

Convergent MurJ flippase inhibition by phage lysis proteins www.nature.com/articles/s41...

That is sad news - must be well over a decade since I last saw him but a great hospitable character and as you say really an unforgettable person with a huge energy & enthusiasm.

Sad to hear the passing of Jeff Cole. I appreciated the small talks with him during my research stay in Birmingham (in 2004); an unforgettable personality, his passion about microbial biotechnology was adherent

via @efbiotechnology.org

Photo of several Cladonia podetia that look like cream coloured trumpets (growing vertically) with the trumpet openings ringed in red.

Cladonia sp #lichen
#Newfoundland Canada.
Lichens are about 3cm high
#fungi #fungifriends

Accessing Underexplored Biosynthetic Potential by Initiation Unit Engineering of Nonribosomal Peptide Synthetases in Proteobacteria Nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) represent a valuable yet underexplored resource for producing bioactive natural products. However, most NRPSs remain silenced potentially due to factors such as dysfunction of the initiation unit. The starter condensation (Cs) domain of the initiation unit catalyzes the lipoinitiation of nonribosomal peptides via the incorporation of an N-terminal fatty acyl chain. The concept of initiation unit engineering introduced herein encompasses the replacement of the native initiation unit of NRPSs with a foreign and well-characterized Cs domain-containing initiation unit to activate the NRPS and optimize its expression. This strategy was employed herein to successfully access three of the six previously silent NRPS pathways in Mycetohabitans rhizoxinica HKI 454, a bacterium of the class β-proteobacteria, resulting in the identification of three classes of lipopeptides. This strategy was then extended to access two NRPS pathways in Pseudomonas syringae (γ-proteobacteria) and obtain novel lipopeptides, thereby establishing a feasible complement to existing genome mining strategies for natural product discovery. Furthermore, change of the initiation regions of biosynthetic pathways of nonlipidated chitinimide (β-proteobacteria) and pseudotetraivprolide (γ-proteobacteria) with heterologous Cs-containing initiation units enabled the successful incorporation of fatty acyl chains into the N-terminus of both peptide backbones, launching a workable approach to create artificial lipopeptides. Overall, this study provides a practical strategy for the rational recovery of silent BGCs and introduction of fatty acyl chains into nonribosomal peptides, at least in Proteobacteria, thereby enriching genome mining and combinatorial biosynthesis approaches for accessing the underexplored biosynthetic potential of NRPSs from various bacteria.

Accessing underexplored biosynthetic potential by initiation unit engineering of nonribosomal peptide synthetases in Proteobacteria pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

How perfect is this

Exam conditions yes but doesn't have to be handwritten if you can get your institution to shell-out for Honorlock(or similar software) to lock down browser.

It surprises me when I notice signs like this in 2026 (and they are still everywhere if you look). You'd think people would scrub away these reminders at the first opportunity, but for some reason that don't / can't.

I've started using gellan gum for environmental isolation of bacteria and it seems superior in every way.

The Origins of Agar First introduced into laboratories in 1881, agar remains indispensable as a culture medium.

The origins of agar
www.asimov.press/p/agar

A figure showing the bactericidal activity of isoniazid, ethionamide, and alpibectir–ethionamide over a 7-day period.

Ethionamide has been used to treat tuberculosis for decades, but dose-dependent toxic effects have limited its use. In a new trial, alpibectir enabled the ethionamide dose to be reduced by two thirds. Full trial results: nej.md/46PP9Rn

#MedSky #IDSky

Technical Programme Manager | Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine Technical Project ManagerLocation: LiverpoolContract: Fixed-term contract until March 2028Salary: £47,389 - £59,967The Parish Lab at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine focuses on antimicrobial ...

Are you interested in being the first biologist in our new team? Come join our small but growing group. Deadline for applications is 3rd March. #Tuberculosis 🧪🦠 #TBDrugDiscovery