Mastodawn

So, I noticed something about #Trump’s trip to #China, because I tend to pay attention to #bioethics stuff. Amongst all the panopticon bros was a solitary biotech executive; Jacob #Thaysen, CEO of #Illumina.

Illumina holds the patents that mean 80% of the world’s #genomic analysis is done via their products or databases.

According to #CIA agents, the #US left the #WHO so we didn’t have to admit that we’d funded the Chinese lab where #COVID seems to have originated.

Leaving the WHO also means Illumina no longer has to share their data with public health experts. And they’ve been first on the ground in both #hantavirus and #Ebola to sequence these outbreaks. #African countries must sign away their #genome rights before America will pay the health budget Congress authorized. So, that’s fun.

And once again, as I start digging, the #DreyDossier brings receipts. She’s a hella investigator.

https://youtu.be/_GZAHsl20b4

What we caught in Beijing

YouTube

michael May 15

After more than two weeks, the Grauniad now has an #obituary for #CraigVenter: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/may/14/craig-venter-obituary I was kind of surprised that he died at a normal age, rather than using his resources to engineer his own immortality.

#science #genome #DNA #sequencing #humanGenome

Craig Venter obituary

Pioneering and controversial geneticist who was one of the first to sequence the human genome, in part by using his own DNA

The Guardian

GenomeBiolEvol May 14

Chantzi et al. examined the prevalence of perfect inverted repeats across 118,019 complete organismal genomes, showing that they exhibit distinct genomic features and sequence compositions, while being strategically positioned at key regulatory elements.

🔗 https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evag089

#genome #evolution

El Club De Los Físicos Muertos May 13

Similarity in the sequencing results of S, M, and L segments of viral #Genome points to ONE single 🐭 #HantaVirus, present in samples of autopsies
of those who died from 🚢 MV #Hondius outbreak.
Most plausible hypothesis is that the "Los Andes" virus #ADNV infected patient zero,who was then able to easily infect other passengers on cruise ship.
👉️️ https://bit.ly/3Pe3Lok
More on this topic soon.

GenomeBiolEvol May 11

📣 GBE is launching a Methods section

💻 Rapid advances in genomic sequencing and computational approaches are transforming evolutionary biology.

To support the community in this expanding methodological landscape, GBE is launching a new Methods section dedicated to theoretical advances, methodological innovation, and critical assessments of existing approaches.

🔗 https://academic.oup.com/gbe/pages/methods-articles

#genome #evolution #societyjournal

michael May 10

8-May-2026
#Plants survived the dinosaur-killing asteroid by duplicating genomes

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1126408

#polyploidy #science #genome #ecology #extinction

Plants survived the dinosaur-killing asteroid by duplicating genomes

When an asteroid as big as Mount Everest struck Earth 66 million years ago, it wiped out all non-avian dinosaurs and roughly a third of life on the planet. But many plants survived the devastation. In a new study publishing May 8 in the Cell Press journal Cell, researchers reveal that the accidental duplications of genomes—a natural phenomenon—might have helped many flowering plants survive some of the most extreme environmental upheavals in Earth’s history. This strategy could help plants adapt to the rapid climate changes unfolding today.

EurekAlert!

Patrick

May 8

One Open-source Project Daily

🦄 An Artificial Inteligence to teach Google's Dinosaur to jump cactus

https://github.com/ivanseidel/IAMDinosaur

#1ospd #opensource #artificialintelligence #dino #geneticalgorithm #genome #googledinosaur #neuralnetwork

GitHub - ivanseidel/IAMDinosaur: 🦄 An Artificial Inteligence to teach Google's Dinosaur to jump cactus

🦄 An Artificial Inteligence to teach Google's Dinosaur to jump cactus - ivanseidel/IAMDinosaur

GitHub

J of Systematics and Evolution May 5

💮#Magnolia spp. are highly valuable in #phylogenetic and #conservation #biology studies.
🦕Zhou et al. use chromosome-level #genome assembly of endangered M. sinostellata to explore its #evolution, cold resistance & more!
🔗https://doi.org/10.1111/jse.70025
@WileyEcology
#PlantSci #JSE #botany

GenomeBiolEvol May 4

Lorena Lorenzo-Fernández et al. scanned the genomes of the four extant species of lynx for recent selective sweeps, revealing species-specific signatures of ecological differentiation in their genomes, with minimal overlap.

🔗 https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evag086

📷 Jorge Monje Martín (@jrgmonje)

#genome #evolution