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edrybicki.bsky.social
Ed Rybicki 🇿🇲🇿🇦🇬🇧🍷🚀
@edrybicki.bsky.social
3.7K followers 270 following 20K posts
Semi-retired biotechnologist and virologist, interested in making vaccines, lover of 70s rock and hard SF. And good red wine. Posts are both personal and professional, and may include music and/or strong opinions. And possibly zombies.
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edrybicki.bsky.social
Ed Rybicki 🇿🇲🇿🇦🇬🇧🍷🚀 @edrybicki.bsky.social · Dec 12
"Cann's Principles of Molecular Virology 7th Edition revised extensively by Ed Rybicki, is an easily accessible introduction to modern virology, presenting principles in a clear and concise manner."

**Selected for Doody’s Core Titles® 2024 in Microbiology**
www.sciencedirect.com/book/9780128...
Cann's Principles of Molecular Virology
**Selected for Doody’s Core Titles® 2024 in Microbiology**Cann's Principles of Molecular Virology, Seventh Edition provides an easily access...
www.sciencedirect.com
edrybicki.bsky.social
I did this a while ago, but hey, if it introduces some more people to the Eclipse Trilogy by @johnshirley2024.bsky.social, then so much the better! 😁
November 27, 2025 at 3:28 PM
edrybicki.bsky.social
Pathetic orange-faced trunt. www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025...
SA looks beyond US G20 presidency as Trump moves to block participation | Daily Maverick
<p>Five days after the Leaders’ Declaration from SA’s G20 was adopted without objection by all the members except the absent US, Donald Trump fired another digital missile at SA.</p>
www.dailymaverick.co.za
November 27, 2025 at 12:20 PM
edrybicki.bsky.social
Prompted by @feralharp.bsky.social's recent comment on the radio show I described to him that I ran for a year in the mid-90s, here's a link to a description of Retroid Rock - and one of the tapes I made from it. Enjoy! edrybicki.wordpress.com/2025/11/27/r...
Retroid Rock
From mid 1995 to mid 1996, I hosted a weekly 2 hour music programme on University of Cape Town Radio: UCT Radio, FM 104.5 within about a 5 km radius of UCT Upper Campus. I called the programme &#82…
edrybicki.wordpress.com
November 27, 2025 at 10:49 AM
edrybicki.bsky.social
@penpensl.bsky.social Any connection to a certain editor? 😎
November 27, 2025 at 8:57 AM
edrybicki.bsky.social
You know how you Yanks say “No Kings!”? I appear to have adopted one today: King Chuck, to be precise 😁 I am now legally a soutpiel: one foot in S Africa and one in the UK.
November 27, 2025 at 8:52 AM
edrybicki.bsky.social
I review most of what I read on Kindle on the Amazon site - and I liked this last one 😁
November 27, 2025 at 8:44 AM
edrybicki.bsky.social
No comment 😎
November 27, 2025 at 7:21 AM
edrybicki.bsky.social
A disaster entirely of human making: incompetence and corruption have nuked S Africa’s ability to make animal vaccines, and inevitably a series of FMDV outbreaks followed - exacerbated by uncontrolled stock movement. Need new technology…! @isv-news.bsky.social www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025...
Race to vaccinate 7.2 million cattle as foot-and-mouth crisis bites | Daily Maverick
<p>South Africa is rolling out a nationwide jab for its 7.2 million-strong cattle herd, in a bid to shut the gate on foot-and-mouth disease before more value escapes. The biosecurity blitz is aimed at...
www.dailymaverick.co.za
November 27, 2025 at 5:59 AM
edrybicki.bsky.social
For those who love rugby: about time!! www.dailymaverick.co.za/cartoon/2025...
Players | Daily Maverick
<p><br></p>
www.dailymaverick.co.za
November 27, 2025 at 5:28 AM
Reposted by Ed Rybicki 🇿🇲🇿🇦🇬🇧🍷🚀
almaalexander.bsky.social
okay then - the lates dropped only a few short weeks ago - www.amazon.com/Winds-Four-Q... - take a look! (oh and BTW I did the embroidery that's on the cover, too :) )
November 27, 2025 at 4:09 AM
edrybicki.bsky.social
You’re as bad as @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social 😎
November 26, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Reposted by Ed Rybicki 🇿🇲🇿🇦🇬🇧🍷🚀
kavehmd.bsky.social
New Episode!

Challenging the NIH’s new “pandemic playbook” and COVID revisionism.

With the inimitable @angierasmussen.bsky.social & @codyjohnston.bsky.social

iTunes: tinyurl.com/yr4djnmc
Spotify: tinyurl.com/msnmprrm
November 26, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Reposted by Ed Rybicki 🇿🇲🇿🇦🇬🇧🍷🚀
christophstc.bsky.social
I like the term "intercellular biodiversity" (much more than the old trope of "parasitism") #MicroSky
quantamagazine.bsky.social Quanta Magazine @quantamagazine.bsky.social · 1d
According to the microbial ecologist Puri López-García, pictured here at a salt flat in the Chilean Andes, some 25% to 50% of all bacterial cells may be parasites of other cells.
A Cell So Minimal That It Challenges Definitions of Life | Quanta Magazine
The newly described microbe represents a world of parasitic, intercellular biodiversity only beginning to be revealed by genome sequencing.
www.quantamagazine.org
November 26, 2025 at 9:40 AM
Reposted by Ed Rybicki 🇿🇲🇿🇦🇬🇧🍷🚀
tomgauld.bsky.social
Now for some sports news...
(this week's cartoon for @theguardian.com books pages)
Panel One: A sportscaster speaks to a television camera "You join us just in time for the annual booksellers versus librarians tug of war." Panel Two: We see the participants warming up as he continues... "Two very strong teams this year, they’ve both been in training since February. As always, the real skill in this match is not to start chatting about boo-" Panel Three: "Too late!! A pair of librarians are discussing the new Margaret Atwood! A crowd is forming! The booksellers are joining in! It's all over!!" We see all the participants chatting. Panel Four: The sportscaster finishes up to the camera: "The rope lies untouched! The discussions continue! We have a draw for 325th year in a row! Join us again next year!" End. Bonus alt-text Content: Fun fact! The first tug of war was between the staff of Cranston Library and those of Daniel Midwinter Booksellers www.cranstonlibraryreigate.com/ www.blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/manuscripts/2017/11/10/booksellers/
November 24, 2025 at 2:14 PM
edrybicki.bsky.social
Sitting post-lunch, waiting to go in for an abdominal ultrasound, distracting myself with Jethro Tull’s Benefit. One of the finest proggish rock albums ever released. www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW9_...
J̲e̲thro T̲ull - B̲e̲nefit (Full Album) 1970
YouTube video by Classic Rock
www.youtube.com
November 26, 2025 at 11:41 AM
Reposted by Ed Rybicki 🇿🇲🇿🇦🇬🇧🍷🚀
njbbari3.bsky.social
Stomach flu. It’s a thing.

www.cdc.gov/bird-flu/spo...
Influenza A Viruses May Infect GI Tract and Cause Digestive Symptoms
A new CDC report highlights the potential for influenza A viruses to cause gastrointestinal symptoms
www.cdc.gov
November 26, 2025 at 10:36 AM
edrybicki.bsky.social
@endofthepier.bsky.social Can recommend 😎 soundcloud.com/cromercrox/s...
G&T’s Greatest Hits
A compilation of the best tunes from ‘Shaken & Stirred’ and ‘Flowers & Bromance. Soon to be out on vinyl.
soundcloud.com
November 26, 2025 at 9:58 AM
edrybicki.bsky.social
As an about-to-be British citizen, AND one with a Polish name, I endorse this view 😎
greenparty.org.uk The Green Party of England & Wales @greenparty.org.uk · 1d
"When are we going to see tough choices for multi-millionaires and billionaires?"

@zackpolanski.bsky.social joins Good Morning Britain to discuss the Budget.
November 26, 2025 at 9:47 AM
Reposted by Ed Rybicki 🇿🇲🇿🇦🇬🇧🍷🚀
endofthepier.bsky.social
G&T’s GREATEST HITS: a compilation of the rockingest tunes from the first five years. Soon to be available on vinyl! Meanwhile … on.soundcloud.com/Wy30kggNQ8I6...
G&T’s Greatest Hits
A compilation of the best tunes from ‘Shaken & Stirred’ and ‘Flowers & Bromance. Soon to be out on vinyl.
soundcloud.com
November 26, 2025 at 8:22 AM
Reposted by Ed Rybicki 🇿🇲🇿🇦🇬🇧🍷🚀
c0nc0rdance.bsky.social
To be fair, the citrus ones are also about sex and/or hobbits.
It's a pie chart done in red, orange and yellow, with the title: "What Led Zeppelin Songs are about", and the color coding of sex (red) shows it to be about 40%, "vikings or hobbits or some shit" (orange) to be 59%, and "citrus" (yellow) to be about 1%.
February 19, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Reposted by Ed Rybicki 🇿🇲🇿🇦🇬🇧🍷🚀
Unraveling the mechanism behind the probable extinction of the B/Yamagata lineage of influenza B viruses

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Unraveling the mechanism behind the probable extinction of the B/Yamagata lineage of influenza B viruses - Nature Communications
Influenza B/Yamagata lineage has rarely been detected since COVID-19 non-pharmaceutical interventions were introduced, while transmission of other influenza lineages resumed. Here, the authors investi...
www.nature.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Reposted by Ed Rybicki 🇿🇲🇿🇦🇬🇧🍷🚀
bipisci.bsky.social
Since 2005, the number of wild and domesticated birds H5N1 has killed is greater than the combined human populations of the U.S. and Russia. On this week's episode, why this version of avian influenza won’t go away. bigpicturescience.org/episodes/flu...
November 24, 2025 at 7:46 PM
edrybicki.bsky.social
Just finished "The Green Man's Holiday" by Juliet E. McKenna. Same day I bought it. Meaning…they’re too damn short!! But I’m ready for the next one, @julietemckenna.bsky.social? And - excellent, BTW!!
November 25, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Reposted by Ed Rybicki 🇿🇲🇿🇦🇬🇧🍷🚀
redpenblackpen.bsky.social
♬ Stuck in the middle with you ♪
Four panel comic with two figures: Figure 1: 'So how's mid-career?' Figure 2: 'Well... I wonder shy I get passed over for opportunities but am very afraid of taking them. I alternate between imposter syndrome and wondering why others can't keep up. I have the means and skills to pursue personal interests but not the time or interest to do so. I marvel at how far I've come and lament that I'm not further. I'm way more secure but worry about all kinds of things. I have the power to change the world but am far less sure it's worth it. So pretty good really?"
November 25, 2025 at 5:57 PM
edrybicki.bsky.social
😳 TFW you make an ice coffee with an espresso and cold water, and discover you used sparkling water...even kept its bubbles!
November 25, 2025 at 2:39 PM