Basil Greber
@bjgreber.bsky.social
Structural biologist. High-resolution imaging of macromolecular assemblies (and landscapes). MRC career development fellow/group leader at the Institute of Cancer Research, London. Views my own.
Very bad (in Sci Rep).
"Runctitiononal features"? "Medical fymblal"? "1 Tol Line storee"? This gets worse the longer you look at it. But it's got to be good, because it was published in Nature Scientific Reports last week: www.nature.com/articles/s41... h/t @asa.tsbalans.se
November 28, 2025 at 5:49 AM
Very bad (in Sci Rep).
Reposted by Basil Greber
As usual, Gary Kasparov gets the essence of everything that's going on with Witkoff and the Kremlin... about which most of which the Beltway media hasn't got a clue. Read the whole thing. www.thenextmove.org/p/diplomacy-...
Diplomacy for Sale: How Witkoff and Co. Cut a Deal with Russia
A Moscow-friendly deal that sells out Ukraine exposes how Witkoff and others are reshaping diplomacy for profit.
www.thenextmove.org
November 26, 2025 at 9:15 PM
As usual, Gary Kasparov gets the essence of everything that's going on with Witkoff and the Kremlin... about which most of which the Beltway media hasn't got a clue. Read the whole thing. www.thenextmove.org/p/diplomacy-...
Reposted by Basil Greber
What do you think?
Real SDS-PAGE gel or AI-generated ?
Real SDS-PAGE gel or AI-generated ?
November 26, 2025 at 7:47 AM
What do you think?
Real SDS-PAGE gel or AI-generated ?
Real SDS-PAGE gel or AI-generated ?
Exactly. Just copying two research topics from the website will not cut it. Even worse if applicants additionally want to benefit from my "exquisite leadership" at our "eminent institution". It is best to write like a real person with real interests. We are recruiting people, not LLMs, to our labs.
Students applying for grad school, or reaching out to professors. I have an important piece of advice for you: STOP DOING THIS 👇 (a thread) #STEM #PhD #gradschool #academictips
November 26, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Exactly. Just copying two research topics from the website will not cut it. Even worse if applicants additionally want to benefit from my "exquisite leadership" at our "eminent institution". It is best to write like a real person with real interests. We are recruiting people, not LLMs, to our labs.
Reposted by Basil Greber
I've taken a deep dive into the DOGE bro's open source software code commits to verify they never wrote (or even oversaw) any code beyond culture war messaging. It's all trivial stuff like this: taking out the "nonbiary" option on some form.
November 26, 2025 at 3:39 AM
I've taken a deep dive into the DOGE bro's open source software code commits to verify they never wrote (or even oversaw) any code beyond culture war messaging. It's all trivial stuff like this: taking out the "nonbiary" option on some form.
Reposted by Basil Greber
We saw it with big tobacco, we saw it with the fossil fuels industry. When their own internal research showed the harm from their product, the defunded the research and attacked independent researchers coming to the very same conclusions.
#ScienceUnderSiege
#ScienceUnderSiege
Meta halted internal research that purportedly showed (young) people who stopped using Facebook became less depressed and anxious, according to an unredacted legal filing released on Friday. www.cnbc.com/2025/11/23/m...
Meta halted internal research suggesting social media harm, court filing alleges
Meta is alleged to have halted internal research suggesting social media harm, according to court documents.
www.cnbc.com
November 24, 2025 at 1:59 AM
We saw it with big tobacco, we saw it with the fossil fuels industry. When their own internal research showed the harm from their product, the defunded the research and attacked independent researchers coming to the very same conclusions.
#ScienceUnderSiege
#ScienceUnderSiege
Imagine if Biden and his DOJ had cared about protecting democracy as much as the Brazilians do. The US, and the world, would be a different place.
"Brazil’s former far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has been arrested at his villa in the capital, Brasília, amid suspicions he was poised to abscond to a foreign embassy to avoid going to prison for masterminding a military coup."
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
Brazilian police arrest Bolsonaro amid suspicions he was about to flee
Politician reportedly taken from his villa into custody at a federal police base about 7 miles from presidential palace
www.theguardian.com
November 23, 2025 at 9:48 AM
Imagine if Biden and his DOJ had cared about protecting democracy as much as the Brazilians do. The US, and the world, would be a different place.
Reposted by Basil Greber
Scientific journals: we don’t want you using generative AI because it makes shit up.
Same journal: here is an AI summary or evaluation of this paper. This might be more useful than the actual abstract or paper that the authors freaking wrote
Same journal: AI cover art which makes no sense? Oooh!
Same journal: here is an AI summary or evaluation of this paper. This might be more useful than the actual abstract or paper that the authors freaking wrote
Same journal: AI cover art which makes no sense? Oooh!
November 23, 2025 at 1:51 AM
Scientific journals: we don’t want you using generative AI because it makes shit up.
Same journal: here is an AI summary or evaluation of this paper. This might be more useful than the actual abstract or paper that the authors freaking wrote
Same journal: AI cover art which makes no sense? Oooh!
Same journal: here is an AI summary or evaluation of this paper. This might be more useful than the actual abstract or paper that the authors freaking wrote
Same journal: AI cover art which makes no sense? Oooh!
Reposted by Basil Greber
Image screening is going to fail. We need audit trails for data provenance.
I tried an even harder example on Gemini Pro image generation and this is quite scary/amazing. I asked for a microscopy image of around 20 HeLa cells, GFP tagged 20% nuclear, 10% membrane, +1 nuclear staining, + overlap. Image below and prompt in the following post.
November 22, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Image screening is going to fail. We need audit trails for data provenance.
Reposted by Basil Greber
Messenger RNA is made in the nucleus before it is exported to the cytoplasm for translation. But how are only correctly made mRNAs chosen and remodeled in the nucleus for export?
Our new paper investigates the nuclear events leading to human mRNA export. www.nature.com/articles/s41.... (1/4)
Our new paper investigates the nuclear events leading to human mRNA export. www.nature.com/articles/s41.... (1/4)
November 21, 2025 at 5:02 AM
Messenger RNA is made in the nucleus before it is exported to the cytoplasm for translation. But how are only correctly made mRNAs chosen and remodeled in the nucleus for export?
Our new paper investigates the nuclear events leading to human mRNA export. www.nature.com/articles/s41.... (1/4)
Our new paper investigates the nuclear events leading to human mRNA export. www.nature.com/articles/s41.... (1/4)
Reposted by Basil Greber
Can’t believe the whole country has to suffer through the return of Dickensian childhood diseases because the worst, most ignorant attention-demanders decided other people’s expertise makes them feel bad
November 20, 2025 at 4:19 AM
Can’t believe the whole country has to suffer through the return of Dickensian childhood diseases because the worst, most ignorant attention-demanders decided other people’s expertise makes them feel bad
Reposted by Basil Greber
This is a party for the man who had Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi beheaded and dismembered with a bone saw.
November 19, 2025 at 2:27 PM
This is a party for the man who had Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi beheaded and dismembered with a bone saw.
Not really a cryo-EM paper, but still worth a look for those interested in ligand-bound structures.
Crystal structures of Ryanodine Receptor reveal dantrolene and azumolene interactions guiding inhibitor development pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41253812/ #cryoem
November 19, 2025 at 9:44 AM
Not really a cryo-EM paper, but still worth a look for those interested in ligand-bound structures.
Reposted by Basil Greber
Revolting.
Trump suggests Khashoggi had it coming: "You're mentioning someone that was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn't like that gentleman that you're talking about. Whether you like him or didn't like him, things happen. But he knew nothing about it. You don't have to embarrass our guest."
November 19, 2025 at 12:50 AM
Revolting.
Reposted by Basil Greber
Excited to share our new preprint in collaboration with Ahmet Yildiz's lab. Check out how our team uncovers a novel binding footprint and motor regulation mechanism for MAP9 Congrats to Burak Cetin and @aryantaheri.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
November 18, 2025 at 10:43 PM
Excited to share our new preprint in collaboration with Ahmet Yildiz's lab. Check out how our team uncovers a novel binding footprint and motor regulation mechanism for MAP9 Congrats to Burak Cetin and @aryantaheri.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Basil Greber
Not sure why @lpachter.bsky.social did not post this here. But it is brilliant. Single cell genomics finally makes it to the clinic.
November 18, 2025 at 2:19 AM
Not sure why @lpachter.bsky.social did not post this here. But it is brilliant. Single cell genomics finally makes it to the clinic.
Reposted by Basil Greber
Issue 22:
Maternal antibody interference with rotavirus vaccination
Conserved complex controls developmental & circadian timing
Review: Type IV secretion systems
Method: T-cell smFISH images transcription, RNA localization & fate
Cover: @jomaalab.bsky.social et al
www.embopress.org/toc/14602075...
Maternal antibody interference with rotavirus vaccination
Conserved complex controls developmental & circadian timing
Review: Type IV secretion systems
Method: T-cell smFISH images transcription, RNA localization & fate
Cover: @jomaalab.bsky.social et al
www.embopress.org/toc/14602075...
November 17, 2025 at 9:48 AM
Issue 22:
Maternal antibody interference with rotavirus vaccination
Conserved complex controls developmental & circadian timing
Review: Type IV secretion systems
Method: T-cell smFISH images transcription, RNA localization & fate
Cover: @jomaalab.bsky.social et al
www.embopress.org/toc/14602075...
Maternal antibody interference with rotavirus vaccination
Conserved complex controls developmental & circadian timing
Review: Type IV secretion systems
Method: T-cell smFISH images transcription, RNA localization & fate
Cover: @jomaalab.bsky.social et al
www.embopress.org/toc/14602075...
Reposted by Basil Greber
matt yglesias' primary claim about politics is that to win elections, democrats should adopt the strategy which has given starmer a 13% approval rating in the UK
November 16, 2025 at 8:26 PM
matt yglesias' primary claim about politics is that to win elections, democrats should adopt the strategy which has given starmer a 13% approval rating in the UK
Reposted by Basil Greber
The Founders were so concerned about bribery that the Constitution forbids it three separate times. Two emoluments clauses ban officials—unambiguously including the president—from accepting things of value, plus bribery is the only named impeachable offense besides treason.
Unprecedentedly corrupt.
Unprecedentedly corrupt.
To negotiate a trade deal with the President of the United States, the Swiss government arrived with a "special Rolex desktop clock" and "a 1-kilogram personalized gold bar"
www.axios.com/2025/11/14/t...
www.axios.com/2025/11/14/t...
How to lobby Trump with Swiss precision: gifts, gold and gab
How the Swiss broke a diplomatic logjam on tariffs by arriving with tributes fit for a king.
www.axios.com
November 16, 2025 at 1:50 PM
The Founders were so concerned about bribery that the Constitution forbids it three separate times. Two emoluments clauses ban officials—unambiguously including the president—from accepting things of value, plus bribery is the only named impeachable offense besides treason.
Unprecedentedly corrupt.
Unprecedentedly corrupt.
Reposted by Basil Greber
Lots of people telling me they love Dad jokes, but jokes about graph paper are where they draw the line.
Why shouldn't you trust someone you see drawing on graph paper?
They're definitely plotting something.
They're definitely plotting something.
November 15, 2025 at 11:25 PM
Lots of people telling me they love Dad jokes, but jokes about graph paper are where they draw the line.
👀
This bring me back to one of my favorite anecdotes.
In the early 1980s, a chemical physicist submitted a proposal to NIH that was assigned to NIGMS.
It received a fairly poor score (~60th percentile).
7/13
In the early 1980s, a chemical physicist submitted a proposal to NIH that was assigned to NIGMS.
It received a fairly poor score (~60th percentile).
7/13
November 14, 2025 at 3:56 PM
👀
Reposted by Basil Greber
“The prohibited activities would include joint research, co-authorship on papers, and advising a foreign graduate student or postdoctoral fellow. The language is retroactive, meaning any interactions during the previous 5 years could make a scientist ineligible for future federal funding.”
U.S. Congress considers sweeping ban on Chinese collaborations
Researchers speak out against proposal that would bar funding for U.S. scientists working with Chinese partners or training Chinese students
www.science.org
November 14, 2025 at 1:03 AM
“The prohibited activities would include joint research, co-authorship on papers, and advising a foreign graduate student or postdoctoral fellow. The language is retroactive, meaning any interactions during the previous 5 years could make a scientist ineligible for future federal funding.”
Reposted by Basil Greber
Imagine trying to convince someone a decade ago that this sentence would be a 100% literally accurate description of the American political situation.
The attorney general and the FBI director, a manosphere podcaster bro, pulled into the situation room a member of Congress best known for getting kicked out of a Beetlejuice musical for drunkenly giving her date a handy, in order to pressure her about the president's child sex trafficking scandal.
November 13, 2025 at 2:04 AM
Imagine trying to convince someone a decade ago that this sentence would be a 100% literally accurate description of the American political situation.
Reposted by Basil Greber
Asgard collaborative expedition begins… Falkor (too) has left Montevideo
November 13, 2025 at 12:53 PM
Asgard collaborative expedition begins… Falkor (too) has left Montevideo
I leave the country for a conference, and of course THIS happens. 🙃
November 12, 2025 at 1:07 PM
I leave the country for a conference, and of course THIS happens. 🙃