Dan Samorodnitsky
@dsamorod.bsky.social
i'm an editor and science writer. i cover biology, genetics, the environment, stuff like that. i live in Minneapolis. my pronouns are he/him. i am the news editor at biospace and am a cofounder at @sequencermag.bsky.social
dansamorodnitsky.com
dansamorodnitsky.com
Reposted by Dan Samorodnitsky
Very cool paper out today on ancient variants of genes that supposedly got an "update" shared by all modern humans — and the effects these variants *don't* have on the rare people who carry them.
If you needed more evidence that a single gene can't explain what makes us human, here it is! 🧪
If you needed more evidence that a single gene can't explain what makes us human, here it is! 🧪
Evaluating the effects of archaic protein-altering variants in living human adults
Promise and pitfalls of using large biobanks to study impacts of archaic protein-coding variants in living humans.
www.science.org
December 10, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Very cool paper out today on ancient variants of genes that supposedly got an "update" shared by all modern humans — and the effects these variants *don't* have on the rare people who carry them.
If you needed more evidence that a single gene can't explain what makes us human, here it is! 🧪
If you needed more evidence that a single gene can't explain what makes us human, here it is! 🧪
hopelessly naive about what? STEM degrees aren't any more useful for getting jobs than anything else
Yes we all agree that this is the reason colleges are in trouble
December 9, 2025 at 5:02 PM
hopelessly naive about what? STEM degrees aren't any more useful for getting jobs than anything else
Reposted by Dan Samorodnitsky
The work is slow and hard. An Intergovernmental Panel on Pandemics, for example, mustn't have an answer that boils down to "panic! but: science!" The problems are complex, and like with climate change, we're past the era of silver bullets and into Forever Solving Tiny Consequential Problems
December 8, 2025 at 12:12 AM
The work is slow and hard. An Intergovernmental Panel on Pandemics, for example, mustn't have an answer that boils down to "panic! but: science!" The problems are complex, and like with climate change, we're past the era of silver bullets and into Forever Solving Tiny Consequential Problems
Reposted by Dan Samorodnitsky
Worth noting that what Walsh is citing here isn't just the idea of IQ—it's the much more egregious "national IQ" data from Richard Lynn, something several colleagues and I wrote about last year for STAT News
December 7, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Worth noting that what Walsh is citing here isn't just the idea of IQ—it's the much more egregious "national IQ" data from Richard Lynn, something several colleagues and I wrote about last year for STAT News
Reposted by Dan Samorodnitsky
Experts Decry Prasad Memo’s Lack of Transparency as Vaccine Stocks Dip www.biospace.com/fda/experts-... via @biospace.bsky.social
Experts Decry Prasad Memo’s Lack of Transparency as Vaccine Stocks Dip
With no evidence to support the claim that 10 children died due to COVID-19 vaccines, experts unpack the impact of CBER chief Vinay Prasad's leaked vaccine memo.
www.biospace.com
December 6, 2025 at 3:35 AM
Experts Decry Prasad Memo’s Lack of Transparency as Vaccine Stocks Dip www.biospace.com/fda/experts-... via @biospace.bsky.social
Reposted by Dan Samorodnitsky
Thanks Dan, you freak. Sequencer's newsletter is available here, for free:
www.sequencermag.com/beautiful-se...
www.sequencermag.com/beautiful-se...
December 4, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Thanks Dan, you freak. Sequencer's newsletter is available here, for free:
www.sequencermag.com/beautiful-se...
www.sequencermag.com/beautiful-se...
In today's @sequencermag.bsky.social newsletter, I have a bit of writing about Stephen Jay Gould, and how his writing shaped my worldview. Particularly these two diagrams of hyena genitalia.
December 4, 2025 at 3:02 PM
In today's @sequencermag.bsky.social newsletter, I have a bit of writing about Stephen Jay Gould, and how his writing shaped my worldview. Particularly these two diagrams of hyena genitalia.
Reposted by Dan Samorodnitsky
Historian of eugenics here. I don't normally like to retweet bad arguments, but this is such a fundamental misunderstanding of eugenics, I think it's important to point out. I don't have time to debunk all of the ways this is inaccurate, but I'll highlight a few things and then recommend some books🧵
December 4, 2025 at 12:44 PM
Historian of eugenics here. I don't normally like to retweet bad arguments, but this is such a fundamental misunderstanding of eugenics, I think it's important to point out. I don't have time to debunk all of the ways this is inaccurate, but I'll highlight a few things and then recommend some books🧵
Reposted by Dan Samorodnitsky
Worth watching this whole clip. Indistinguishable from Nazi leaders talking about Jews in the 1930s.
TRUMP: If you look at Somalia, they are taking over Minnesota.
REPORTER: What do the Somalians have to do with this Afghan guy who shot the National Guard members?
TRUMP: Ah, nothing. But Somalians have caused a lot of trouble. They're ripping us off.
REPORTER: What do the Somalians have to do with this Afghan guy who shot the National Guard members?
TRUMP: Ah, nothing. But Somalians have caused a lot of trouble. They're ripping us off.
November 28, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Worth watching this whole clip. Indistinguishable from Nazi leaders talking about Jews in the 1930s.
Reposted by Dan Samorodnitsky
The Elsevier investigation mentioned was initiated after a STAT news piece on the problem, co-authored with Cathryn, @dsamorod.bsky.social, @stairwaytokevin.bsky.social, @jedidiahcarlson.com, @jameslingford.bsky.social and @jowiph.bsky.social
www.statnews.com/2024/06/20/r...
www.statnews.com/2024/06/20/r...
Journals that published Richard Lynn's racist 'research' articles should retract them
Richard Lynn's work has been repeatedly condemned for using flawed methodology and deceptively collated data to support racism. It's past time to retract the studies.
www.statnews.com
November 26, 2025 at 3:33 PM
The Elsevier investigation mentioned was initiated after a STAT news piece on the problem, co-authored with Cathryn, @dsamorod.bsky.social, @stairwaytokevin.bsky.social, @jedidiahcarlson.com, @jameslingford.bsky.social and @jowiph.bsky.social
www.statnews.com/2024/06/20/r...
www.statnews.com/2024/06/20/r...
MPR reported earlier today that the number of Somali people in the entire *country* with TPS is 705.
www.mprnews.org/story/2025/1...
www.mprnews.org/story/2025/1...
November 24, 2025 at 2:23 AM
MPR reported earlier today that the number of Somali people in the entire *country* with TPS is 705.
www.mprnews.org/story/2025/1...
www.mprnews.org/story/2025/1...
Reposted by Dan Samorodnitsky
I also collated some responses to my request for encounters with James Watson in the wild:
www.sequencermag.com/a-few-encoun...
www.sequencermag.com/a-few-encoun...
A few encounters with James Watson
We asked for stories about the famed biochemist James Watson.
www.sequencermag.com
November 21, 2025 at 5:28 PM
I also collated some responses to my request for encounters with James Watson in the wild:
www.sequencermag.com/a-few-encoun...
www.sequencermag.com/a-few-encoun...
In the wake of James Watson's death, I tried really, really hard to come up with something to say. And all I really had to say was: we really fucked up with treating this guy like a hero. Watson sold the world a bill of goods. For @sequencermag.bsky.social.
www.sequencermag.com/james-watson...
www.sequencermag.com/james-watson...
James Watson sold the idea of himself
How much could a man like Watson, an unrepentant racist, really understand about what DNA is?
www.sequencermag.com
November 21, 2025 at 5:14 PM
In the wake of James Watson's death, I tried really, really hard to come up with something to say. And all I really had to say was: we really fucked up with treating this guy like a hero. Watson sold the world a bill of goods. For @sequencermag.bsky.social.
www.sequencermag.com/james-watson...
www.sequencermag.com/james-watson...
The Making of the Atomic Bomb is one of the best books ever written.
Ok BlueSky: what are your favorite history books in terms of sheer page-turning, narrative propulsion? Thinking along the line of Killers of the Flower Moon, etc. Nonfiction chronicles that read like novels or movies.
November 19, 2025 at 11:20 PM
The Making of the Atomic Bomb is one of the best books ever written.
Reposted by Dan Samorodnitsky
Very rare to see someone lay out so explicitly that they do not consider "never again" to be a universalist creed. I don't know how people who talk like this can stand to look themselves in the mirror.
I'm struck by this clip of former Obama speechwriter Sarah Hurwitz saying Holocaust education has backfired in part because people Palestinians as victims: "They think the lesson of the Holocaust is…you fight the big powerful people hurting the weak people."
www.reddit.com/r/JewsOfCons...
www.reddit.com/r/JewsOfCons...
From the JewsOfConscience community on Reddit: Former Obama speechwriter Sarah Hurwitz speaking to the Jewish Federation and lamenting that young people are learning the wrong lessons from Holocaust e...
Explore this post and more from the JewsOfConscience community
www.reddit.com
November 18, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Very rare to see someone lay out so explicitly that they do not consider "never again" to be a universalist creed. I don't know how people who talk like this can stand to look themselves in the mirror.
this really irks me. she means "the bullet hypothetical."
they're calling it "some of the worst writing of the century"
November 17, 2025 at 8:05 PM
this really irks me. she means "the bullet hypothetical."
LOCAL ANGLE: we need to talk about how every physicist on planet earth was on Epstein island
November 12, 2025 at 11:18 PM
LOCAL ANGLE: we need to talk about how every physicist on planet earth was on Epstein island
The Central Dogma is really more of a guideline.
Despair seems like a reasonable course of action
'Some estimates are that up to 20% of the entire proteome can bind RNA and moreover that about 20% of all known protein complexes have an RNA component in them and you really have to think about how to deal with such large figures.'
'Some estimates are that up to 20% of the entire proteome can bind RNA and moreover that about 20% of all known protein complexes have an RNA component in them and you really have to think about how to deal with such large figures.'
RNA and Proteins: Who Bosses Whom?
www.science.org
November 12, 2025 at 3:28 PM
The Central Dogma is really more of a guideline.
wrong
59/ I haven't liked a Mountain Goats album in 20 years. Those early ones though... worth keeping in rotation.
November 10, 2025 at 11:25 PM
wrong
Reposted by Dan Samorodnitsky
In case anyone is wondering if Watson was really THAT bad, @lpachter.bsky.social compiled a list of quotes that are absolutely not for the faint of heart.
liorpachter.wordpress.com/2018/05/18/j...
liorpachter.wordpress.com/2018/05/18/j...
November 7, 2025 at 10:18 PM
In case anyone is wondering if Watson was really THAT bad, @lpachter.bsky.social compiled a list of quotes that are absolutely not for the faint of heart.
liorpachter.wordpress.com/2018/05/18/j...
liorpachter.wordpress.com/2018/05/18/j...
If you have a James Watson story you'd like to share with me, DM me here or msg me on signal, dsamorod.25
November 7, 2025 at 8:15 PM
If you have a James Watson story you'd like to share with me, DM me here or msg me on signal, dsamorod.25
It's really important to note that not only was Watson a racist and misogynist but his contribution to the double helix was listening to a Rosalind Franklin lecture and getting mad because Francis Crick wouldn't invite him to his sex parties.
Hey folks, as news of Watson's demise spreads, please don't set aside his weighty legacy of misogyny and racism. He was truly among the worst of us. www.vox.com/2019/1/15/18...
DNA scientist James Watson has a remarkably long history of sexist, racist public comments
“People say it would be terrible if we made all girls pretty,” he said in 2003. “I think it would be great.”
www.vox.com
November 7, 2025 at 7:59 PM
It's really important to note that not only was Watson a racist and misogynist but his contribution to the double helix was listening to a Rosalind Franklin lecture and getting mad because Francis Crick wouldn't invite him to his sex parties.
That sucks ass but I find succor in Jacob Frey being miserable for another four years.
jacob frey won
November 5, 2025 at 5:40 PM
That sucks ass but I find succor in Jacob Frey being miserable for another four years.
Reposted by Dan Samorodnitsky
It only ratchets one way — until the fear-mongering hate and consultant-class grift are called out for what they are.
Earle-Sears ran what felt like 12 billion ads about how much she hated trans kids and I didn’t hear a single pundit say she should stick to real issues that affect real people.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrat Abigail Spanberger wins Virginia governor’s race.
November 5, 2025 at 1:43 AM
It only ratchets one way — until the fear-mongering hate and consultant-class grift are called out for what they are.
Reposted by Dan Samorodnitsky
Waterfall in Fall Creek Gorge, Ithaca, NY
November 4, 2025 at 12:29 AM
Waterfall in Fall Creek Gorge, Ithaca, NY