Alex Crits-Christoph
@acritschristoph.bsky.social
Computational microbiologist
I like to post about: microbial genomics, microbial ecology, evolution, micro+plant biotechnology, climate, symbiosis, virology, ag, sci publishing and policy
I like to post about: microbial genomics, microbial ecology, evolution, micro+plant biotechnology, climate, symbiosis, virology, ag, sci publishing and policy
Reposted by Alex Crits-Christoph
I missed this from a couple of weeks ago, but if you're an NIH-funded investigator, please read.
Peer review will exist to make things look legitimate, but can, and will, be over-ruled. Funding decisions, ultimately, will be done by political appointees.
grants.nih.gov/news-events/...
Peer review will exist to make things look legitimate, but can, and will, be over-ruled. Funding decisions, ultimately, will be done by political appointees.
grants.nih.gov/news-events/...
Implementing a Unified NIH Funding Strategy to Guide Consistent and Clearer Award Decisions | Grants & Funding
grants.nih.gov
December 5, 2025 at 9:06 PM
I missed this from a couple of weeks ago, but if you're an NIH-funded investigator, please read.
Peer review will exist to make things look legitimate, but can, and will, be over-ruled. Funding decisions, ultimately, will be done by political appointees.
grants.nih.gov/news-events/...
Peer review will exist to make things look legitimate, but can, and will, be over-ruled. Funding decisions, ultimately, will be done by political appointees.
grants.nih.gov/news-events/...
Reposted by Alex Crits-Christoph
Sec. Kennedy must appear before the HELP Committee to explain why his vaccine advisory committee, in strong disagreement with the medical & scientific community, voted to end a decades-long recommendation that newborns receive the hepatitis B vaccine.
This vaccine saves lives.
This vaccine saves lives.
Breaking News: A federal vaccine committee voted to end the decades-long recommendation that all newborns be immunized at birth against hepatitis B, a highly infectious virus that leads to chronic liver disease in most infected children.
An End to Hepatitis B Shots for All Newborns
A federal panel voted on Friday to recommend halting the at-birth shots for all infants, in a step toward Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s goal of upending the nation’s vaccine policy.
nyti.ms
December 5, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Sec. Kennedy must appear before the HELP Committee to explain why his vaccine advisory committee, in strong disagreement with the medical & scientific community, voted to end a decades-long recommendation that newborns receive the hepatitis B vaccine.
This vaccine saves lives.
This vaccine saves lives.
Reposted by Alex Crits-Christoph
🚨 New in Nature+Science!🚨
AI chatbots can shift voter attitudes on candidates & policies, often by 10+pp
🔹Exps in US Canada Poland & UK
🔹More “facts”→more persuasion (not psych tricks)
🔹Increasing persuasiveness reduces "fact" accuracy
🔹Right-leaning bots=more inaccurate
AI chatbots can shift voter attitudes on candidates & policies, often by 10+pp
🔹Exps in US Canada Poland & UK
🔹More “facts”→more persuasion (not psych tricks)
🔹Increasing persuasiveness reduces "fact" accuracy
🔹Right-leaning bots=more inaccurate
December 4, 2025 at 8:43 PM
🚨 New in Nature+Science!🚨
AI chatbots can shift voter attitudes on candidates & policies, often by 10+pp
🔹Exps in US Canada Poland & UK
🔹More “facts”→more persuasion (not psych tricks)
🔹Increasing persuasiveness reduces "fact" accuracy
🔹Right-leaning bots=more inaccurate
AI chatbots can shift voter attitudes on candidates & policies, often by 10+pp
🔹Exps in US Canada Poland & UK
🔹More “facts”→more persuasion (not psych tricks)
🔹Increasing persuasiveness reduces "fact" accuracy
🔹Right-leaning bots=more inaccurate
Reposted by Alex Crits-Christoph
“Just a handful of races determine chamber control,” @spears.bsky.social said, “And when chambers in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Virginia flipped, those chambers actually then passed 100% clean energy policies.”
Could not be more proud to be a part of this team at @climatecabinet.org.
Could not be more proud to be a part of this team at @climatecabinet.org.
Inside the climate group working everywhere but DC: ‘You can still have huge wins’
Climate Cabinet supports candidates in state and city races as the federal government ignores the climate crisis
www.theguardian.com
December 4, 2025 at 6:10 PM
“Just a handful of races determine chamber control,” @spears.bsky.social said, “And when chambers in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Virginia flipped, those chambers actually then passed 100% clean energy policies.”
Could not be more proud to be a part of this team at @climatecabinet.org.
Could not be more proud to be a part of this team at @climatecabinet.org.
Reposted by Alex Crits-Christoph
New OA article linking the timing of the Black Death's arrival in Europe to a volcanically induced climate downturn in 1345-1347 that brought famine & desperation among Italian city-states to import additional grain from Black Sea regions already impacted by plague: www.nature.com/articles/s43...
Climate-driven changes in Mediterranean grain trade mitigated famine but introduced the Black Death to medieval Europe - Communications Earth & Environment
Post-volcanic climate downtown in southern Europe around 1345–1347 CE caused widespread famine, leading to Italian maritime republics importing grain from the Black Sea region and introducing fleas ca...
www.nature.com
December 4, 2025 at 4:38 PM
New OA article linking the timing of the Black Death's arrival in Europe to a volcanically induced climate downturn in 1345-1347 that brought famine & desperation among Italian city-states to import additional grain from Black Sea regions already impacted by plague: www.nature.com/articles/s43...
Reposted by Alex Crits-Christoph
It was great to write a brief commentary with @sociovirology.bsky.social on @nanamikubota.bsky.social and @vscooper.micropopbio.org's recent discovery of cheat-driven cycles in Pseudomonas (www.cell.com/current-biol... - amazing example of the tragedy of the commons!
🧪 #socialviruses #evosky
🧪 #socialviruses #evosky
Phage–bacteria dynamics: The tragedy of the commons at hyperspeed
A recent study found that apparently stable coexistence between a clinically important
pathogen, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and its integrated prophages can break down, setting
off an evolutionary cycle ...
www.cell.com
December 4, 2025 at 8:56 PM
It was great to write a brief commentary with @sociovirology.bsky.social on @nanamikubota.bsky.social and @vscooper.micropopbio.org's recent discovery of cheat-driven cycles in Pseudomonas (www.cell.com/current-biol... - amazing example of the tragedy of the commons!
🧪 #socialviruses #evosky
🧪 #socialviruses #evosky
Reposted by Alex Crits-Christoph
Microflora Danica: What can you learn from collecting and sequencing 10,000+ samples from a single country? Check out our new paper in @nature.com to find out. Incredible work led by Caitlin Singleton, Thomas B. N. Jensen, and Mads Albertsen from @aau.dk. 🦠🧫🧬
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The Microflora Danica atlas of Danish environmental microbiomes - Nature
Microflora Danica—an atlas of Danish environmental microbiomes—reveals that although human-disturbed habitats have high alpha diversity, species reoccur, revealing hidden homogeneity.
www.nature.com
December 3, 2025 at 8:50 PM
Microflora Danica: What can you learn from collecting and sequencing 10,000+ samples from a single country? Check out our new paper in @nature.com to find out. Incredible work led by Caitlin Singleton, Thomas B. N. Jensen, and Mads Albertsen from @aau.dk. 🦠🧫🧬
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
It's just crazy how this entire viral story was because someone made up a sequencing date that wasn't true.
And the thing is, they may have almost got away with it!
When something is a (partially) unsolved mystery for years, you risk losing the chance to ever solve it....
And the thing is, they may have almost got away with it!
When something is a (partially) unsolved mystery for years, you risk losing the chance to ever solve it....
December 4, 2025 at 3:05 AM
It's just crazy how this entire viral story was because someone made up a sequencing date that wasn't true.
And the thing is, they may have almost got away with it!
When something is a (partially) unsolved mystery for years, you risk losing the chance to ever solve it....
And the thing is, they may have almost got away with it!
When something is a (partially) unsolved mystery for years, you risk losing the chance to ever solve it....
Reposted by Alex Crits-Christoph
If you want more details, I wrote up the story as a blog post here ⬇️
(I am trying out a new format to preserve some of the work behind my threads) ▫️9/9
(I am trying out a new format to preserve some of the work behind my threads) ▫️9/9
The Antarctica sequences
The “Antarctica sequences” episode shows once again how a wrong date can turn a mundane event into supposed evidence of a cover-up. The story of the Antarctica sequences is one of those narratives in...
pandemonium.hypotheses.org
December 3, 2025 at 10:34 PM
If you want more details, I wrote up the story as a blog post here ⬇️
(I am trying out a new format to preserve some of the work behind my threads) ▫️9/9
(I am trying out a new format to preserve some of the work behind my threads) ▫️9/9
Reposted by Alex Crits-Christoph
A few weeks ago, I contacted the sequencing company (Sangon Biotech) and scientists who had generated and published the Antarctica sequences.
Both told me, independently, that the samples had been received by the company in June 2020. ▫️5/9
Both told me, independently, that the samples had been received by the company in June 2020. ▫️5/9
December 3, 2025 at 10:34 PM
A few weeks ago, I contacted the sequencing company (Sangon Biotech) and scientists who had generated and published the Antarctica sequences.
Both told me, independently, that the samples had been received by the company in June 2020. ▫️5/9
Both told me, independently, that the samples had been received by the company in June 2020. ▫️5/9
Reposted by Alex Crits-Christoph
wow... crawling motility in Asgard #archaea!! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
look at these crazy moves!! Let's face it, what these cells want for Christmas is #cilia... the best type of motility appendage...
look at these crazy moves!! Let's face it, what these cells want for Christmas is #cilia... the best type of motility appendage...
December 2, 2025 at 10:30 PM
wow... crawling motility in Asgard #archaea!! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
look at these crazy moves!! Let's face it, what these cells want for Christmas is #cilia... the best type of motility appendage...
look at these crazy moves!! Let's face it, what these cells want for Christmas is #cilia... the best type of motility appendage...
Reposted by Alex Crits-Christoph
CryoET of microbes inside an animal organ? Yes it’s possible! Check out our new preprint showing how we did it! What an amazing collaboration with amazing scientists who made this possible!
Nanoscale imaging of native symbiotic animal tissue using amultimodal large volume imaging pipeline for cryo-electrontomography https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.30.691379v1
December 1, 2025 at 4:35 AM
CryoET of microbes inside an animal organ? Yes it’s possible! Check out our new preprint showing how we did it! What an amazing collaboration with amazing scientists who made this possible!
Reposted by Alex Crits-Christoph
The grievance blog masquerading as a "journal" founded by Trump HHS appointees (The "Journal" of the "Academy" of Public Health) is now publishing lengthy screeds about how HHS secretary RFK Jr is being treated unfairly by the BMJ and calling it a literature synthesis...
December 2, 2025 at 4:21 PM
The grievance blog masquerading as a "journal" founded by Trump HHS appointees (The "Journal" of the "Academy" of Public Health) is now publishing lengthy screeds about how HHS secretary RFK Jr is being treated unfairly by the BMJ and calling it a literature synthesis...
"There were car gods there: a powerful, serious-faced contingent, with blood on their black gloves and on their chrome teeth: recipients of human sacrifice on a scale undreamed-of since the Aztecs."
Ending road deaths will be one of the greatest public health wins.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/o...
Ending road deaths will be one of the greatest public health wins.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/o...
Opinion | The Data on Self-Driving Cars Is Clear. We Have to Change Course.
www.nytimes.com
December 2, 2025 at 5:05 PM
"There were car gods there: a powerful, serious-faced contingent, with blood on their black gloves and on their chrome teeth: recipients of human sacrifice on a scale undreamed-of since the Aztecs."
Ending road deaths will be one of the greatest public health wins.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/o...
Ending road deaths will be one of the greatest public health wins.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/o...
Reposted by Alex Crits-Christoph
While the administration has said it is cutting “woke programs” that “poison the minds of Americans", it actually funded fewer grants in every area of science and medicine.
“They brought everything to a stop,” said Sarah Kobrin, a branch chief at the N.I.H.’s National Cancer Institute
“They brought everything to a stop,” said Sarah Kobrin, a branch chief at the N.I.H.’s National Cancer Institute
The U.S. Is Funding Fewer Grants in Every Area of Science and Medicine (Gift Article)
A quiet policy change means the government is making fewer bets on long-term science.
www.nytimes.com
December 2, 2025 at 2:31 PM
While the administration has said it is cutting “woke programs” that “poison the minds of Americans", it actually funded fewer grants in every area of science and medicine.
“They brought everything to a stop,” said Sarah Kobrin, a branch chief at the N.I.H.’s National Cancer Institute
“They brought everything to a stop,” said Sarah Kobrin, a branch chief at the N.I.H.’s National Cancer Institute
Reposted by Alex Crits-Christoph
Thanks nature news for featuring our recent preprint on 𝘐𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘢𝘮𝘰𝘦𝘣𝘢 led by @hbrappap.bsky.social
(check out preprint here: doi.org/10.1101/2025...) #protistsonsky
(check out preprint here: doi.org/10.1101/2025...) #protistsonsky
This single-celled amoeba can thrive at temperatures that kill all other known eukaryotic life
go.nature.com/4452LXP
go.nature.com/4452LXP
‘Fire amoeba’ survives in hotter conditions than any other complex cell
The single-celled organism can grow at 63 °C, a record for eukaryotic life.
go.nature.com
December 2, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Thanks nature news for featuring our recent preprint on 𝘐𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘢𝘮𝘰𝘦𝘣𝘢 led by @hbrappap.bsky.social
(check out preprint here: doi.org/10.1101/2025...) #protistsonsky
(check out preprint here: doi.org/10.1101/2025...) #protistsonsky
Reposted by Alex Crits-Christoph
How does a caterpillar completely dissolve inside its chrysalis, before reconstructing itself in the shape of a butterfly?
“Metamorphosis is wild,” marvels historian Oren Harman in his beautiful new book, which I reviewed for this week's @nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
“Metamorphosis is wild,” marvels historian Oren Harman in his beautiful new book, which I reviewed for this week's @nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
December 2, 2025 at 3:55 PM
How does a caterpillar completely dissolve inside its chrysalis, before reconstructing itself in the shape of a butterfly?
“Metamorphosis is wild,” marvels historian Oren Harman in his beautiful new book, which I reviewed for this week's @nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
“Metamorphosis is wild,” marvels historian Oren Harman in his beautiful new book, which I reviewed for this week's @nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Reposted by Alex Crits-Christoph
pLAST - a tool for rapid comparison and classification of bacterial plasmid sequences https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.27.689987v1
December 1, 2025 at 10:46 PM
pLAST - a tool for rapid comparison and classification of bacterial plasmid sequences https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.27.689987v1
Reposted by Alex Crits-Christoph
The worst nightmare I have is not simply that it happens, but that everyone sees it happen, and the question is not simply whether it is unfair (we all agree), but whether I handled it right: should I have said less? Chosen words more carefully? Been more paranoid about who I was speaking to?
December 1, 2025 at 9:59 PM
The worst nightmare I have is not simply that it happens, but that everyone sees it happen, and the question is not simply whether it is unfair (we all agree), but whether I handled it right: should I have said less? Chosen words more carefully? Been more paranoid about who I was speaking to?
Reposted by Alex Crits-Christoph
Here's the most important piece of data (as far as I am concerned). Comparing Earth Microbiome to the new ones (V4EXT) for major phyla. V4EXT by @ppjevac.bsky.social et al cover more diversity than current gold standard😱 Lot's of work, the entire field will benefit! My lab's gonna try V4EXT soon!
November 29, 2025 at 1:41 AM
Here's the most important piece of data (as far as I am concerned). Comparing Earth Microbiome to the new ones (V4EXT) for major phyla. V4EXT by @ppjevac.bsky.social et al cover more diversity than current gold standard😱 Lot's of work, the entire field will benefit! My lab's gonna try V4EXT soon!
Reposted by Alex Crits-Christoph
And as a blast from that terrible past, the motivations are sadly often backed by interests that reward this behavior with power and money. I still think we have not done enough to train scientists to counter the doubt machine... www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Scientists: don’t feed the doubt machine
From climate to COVID, naivety about how science is hijacked promotes more of the same.
www.nature.com
November 30, 2025 at 5:50 PM
And as a blast from that terrible past, the motivations are sadly often backed by interests that reward this behavior with power and money. I still think we have not done enough to train scientists to counter the doubt machine... www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Reposted by Alex Crits-Christoph
Just pointing out how grim the funding situation is. If an institution fights you have no idea where future grants are coming from. Harvard won in court and is still telling researchers to cut everything 20% because they don’t know what happens next. Somehow everybody has to make it to Jan 2029
Yes I agree with this. The problem for grant-dependent researchers is that even if they win in court to get their illegally withheld funds, they’re sure to be denied any new grants by these corrupted agencies. 2026-2028 will be a killing field as institutions hemorrhage their research apparatus
November 29, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Just pointing out how grim the funding situation is. If an institution fights you have no idea where future grants are coming from. Harvard won in court and is still telling researchers to cut everything 20% because they don’t know what happens next. Somehow everybody has to make it to Jan 2029
Reposted by Alex Crits-Christoph
So apparently the administrators at Northwestern have caved to the extortionist demands of the Feds. Faculty voted 595-4 AGAINST this measure.
November 29, 2025 at 3:30 AM
So apparently the administrators at Northwestern have caved to the extortionist demands of the Feds. Faculty voted 595-4 AGAINST this measure.
Reposted by Alex Crits-Christoph
New preprint: 🚀🧬 Starship in the genome of the lichen fungus Xanthoria. Discovery of giant transposons Starships challenged what we thought we knew about fungal genomes. But what about Starships in #lichen fungi? Let us present Tangerine! 🖥️ 🧪 🦠 🧫 #SymbioSky doi.org/10.1101/2025...
November 28, 2025 at 2:20 PM
New preprint: 🚀🧬 Starship in the genome of the lichen fungus Xanthoria. Discovery of giant transposons Starships challenged what we thought we knew about fungal genomes. But what about Starships in #lichen fungi? Let us present Tangerine! 🖥️ 🧪 🦠 🧫 #SymbioSky doi.org/10.1101/2025...