Prof. Walter Lewin (MIT) shows Rayleigh Scattering by ripping 5 cigarettes in lecture:

I am sad to learn that the great Frans de Waal has died. He was a compassionate primatologist, a truly wonderful writer, and a thoroughly decent fellow. I bare my teeth and hoot in his honour.

Obituary: Frans de Waal (1948–2024), primatologist who questioned the uniqueness of human minds go.nature.com/3PZvuGq

#LongCovid is complex to diagnose and treat, so we need #biomarkers! 1. to confirm viral persistence, and 2. to map the failing/overactive immune response. So we tried to hit two birds with one stone using digital transcriptomics 👇👇 (1/n) thelancet.com/journals/lanmi…

From the article: "I once watched Frans reunite with Mama, a chimpanzee he had known for years, at Burgers’ Zoo, and their mutual excitement was evident. They were not blinded by species differences—they were just two primates happy to see a friend."

We developed an assay for testing for H5N1 from wastewater over a year ago. (I wasn't expecting it in milk, but I figured it was going to poke up somewhere.) However, I was just on a call with the CDC and they are advising us NOT to use it. I need a drink.

JH It's not my call. I got burned once for finding Polio somewhere I wasn't supposed to find it.

Key points aren’t actually very key when they are factually incorrect. Good of the New York Times Opinion to help the mob sharpen their pitchforks for Fauci’s Select Subcommittee hearing by enshrining the lies that he will be attacked with as truth in the paper of record.

Dorado/herro error correction transforms 🍌 Oxford Nanopore simplex data into Q30+ data allowing phasing of diploid genomes. Assembly contiguity improves from contig N50 of 1.5Mb (Flye) to 31Mb (phase 1) & 16Mb (phase 2) using Hifiasm. #WYMM

"Today’s appetite for hot takes unmoored from expertise has become fashionable for some of the largest media outlets...This does not serve us well." Self-appointed "experts" further undermine trust. Essential reading from Gregg Gonsalves & John Moore 👇 thenation.com/article/societ…

All eagerly awaiting the The Pilgrim Players and their performance of As You Like It

Now published in Virus Evolution academic.oup.com/ve/article/doi…

Needs to be said #ont #nanopore #porechop

Heads up, the GC and all-context models in dorado v0.8 basecaller are swapped around. Leaving this here as a note for others and for me to reference later in any future reviews or advice.

A few points on recent developments in the Marburg response: - We’ve sequenced the virus genomes from three branches of a single cluster. - Using genomic tools, we found that all sequences share a single zoonotic origin, meaning the virus jumped from animal to human just once.

But, most important is the bottom line (literally the last line): "New technologies like mRNA vaccines, next-generation sequencing, and CRISPR-Cas diagnostics provide rapid, flexible tools for outbreak response, but are of little use when they are not allowed on the farm."

Need a little help. Does anyone know someone that works at the Patuxent Water Reclamation Facility in Crofton, MD that they could put me in touch with? Here's why. 1/

The 🇷🇼 Marburg team just published in Nature Medicine work on genomic analysis revealing an outbreak characterized by limited genetic variation, consistent with single zoonotic (🦇) transmission event and limited human-to-human transmission. Read here: rdcu.be/d3HxV

A very happy Christmas to one and all. (Please retweet).