Kenneth Wasmund
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kennethwasmund.bsky.social
Kenneth Wasmund
@kennethwasmund.bsky.social
Lecturer in Environmental Microbiology -- marine systems, wastewater; biodegradation; functional & microbiome genomics.

Big fan of the ocean, summer & sports!

https://sites.google.com/view/kenneth-wasmund/home
Reposted by Kenneth Wasmund
PhD Opportunity: Advance UTI treatment with on-chip tech! 🔬🧫
Work at the microbiology-bioengineering interface with Hywel Morgan, @fnobrega.bsky.social and me.
Program EPSRC/MOD CISDnS CDT cisdns-cdt.ac.uk
Co-funded by IfLS Southampton
tinyurl.com/infoUTI
tinyurl.com/applyUTI
Deadline: 8 Dec 2025
Advancing urinary tract infection treatment through on-chip technological innovation at University of Southampton on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - Advancing urinary tract infection treatment through on-chip technological innovation at University of Southampton, listed on FindAPhD.com
tinyurl.com
November 26, 2025 at 11:24 AM
Reposted by Kenneth Wasmund
70 teaspoons placed in tearooms around the institute & observed weekly over 5 months. 80% of spoons disappeared; spoon halflife~81 days. Communal room halflife lower than in specific labs. 250 spoons annually required to maintain 70 spoon population.

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
The case of the disappearing teaspoons: longitudinal cohort study of the displacement of teaspoons in an Australian research institute
Objectives To determine the overall rate of loss of workplace teaspoons and whether attrition and displacement are correlated with the relative value of the teaspoons or type of tearoom. Design Longitudinal cohort study. Setting Research institute ...
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
November 20, 2025 at 3:44 AM
Reposted by Kenneth Wasmund
A geothermal amoeba sets a new upper temperature limit for eukaryotes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.24.690213v1
November 25, 2025 at 2:16 AM
Reposted by Kenneth Wasmund
They grow bacteria on those hairy arms and then lick the bacteria off for a delightful snack, isn't that gross and cool?
yeti crab

#art #sciart 🎨🦑🦀
November 24, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Reposted by Kenneth Wasmund
Our paper describing the GlobDB is now published in @bioinfoadv.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1093/bioa...

The GlobDB is the largest species dereplicated genome database currently available, containing 306,260 species representatives.
More information on globdb.org 1/5
🖥️🧬🦠
GlobDB: a comprehensive species-dereplicated microbial genome resource
AbstractMotivation. Over the past years, substantial numbers of microbial species’ genomes have been deposited outside of conventional INSDC databases.Resu
doi.org
November 21, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Reposted by Kenneth Wasmund
Reading from AI summaries (via LLMs) rather than doing your own minimal reading impairs learning and produces shallower knowledge.

"...learning from LLM syntheses (vs. web links) can, at times, limit the development of deeper, more original knowledge."
🧪

academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
Experimental evidence of the effects of large language models versus web search on depth of learning
Abstract. The effects of using large language models (LLMs) versus traditional web search on depth of learning are explored. A theory is proposed that when
academic.oup.com
November 17, 2025 at 11:55 PM
Reposted by Kenneth Wasmund
🧵 1/ New preprint alert! From the FUTURE OAK project, led by the super talented @alejandra1909.bsky.social

Large-scale culturing of the tree microbiome enables targeted disease suppression

Here's what we found... 👇

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Large-scale culturing of the tree microbiome enables targeted disease suppression
The tree microbiome is essential for host health and pathogen suppression. Synthetic microbial communities (SynComs) are emerging as important tools to understand microbiome dynamics and engineer micr...
www.biorxiv.org
November 19, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Reposted by Kenneth Wasmund
Multiheme selenoenzyme essential for elemental sulfur respiration www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #jcampubs
November 20, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Reposted by Kenneth Wasmund
Update: the university is now allegedly offering compensation to faculty who move their exams because of a football game we're not even guaranteed to play in yet.
Because the Big XII championship game is during final exams, our Provost suggests faculty choose from ideas including "exempt students from the exam" and "change your whole method of assessment" with 1 week notice

More than usual I'm feeling I work for a football team with a school on the side.
November 20, 2025 at 4:57 PM
Reposted by Kenneth Wasmund
Hey authors! Check to see if Anthropic stole your book to train their slop generator on. You’re entitled to $1500 per stolen Work.

Look up your work, and if you’re in the database, file a claim
secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup/
Submit a Claim
secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com
November 18, 2025 at 7:39 AM
Reposted by Kenneth Wasmund
Despite the tidy maps found in textbooks, metabolism is still full of unresolved mysteries. Few people are better at uncovering these overlooked but essential puzzles than Antoine Danchin. Here here an analysis of the intriguing guanidine enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Metabolic Origin, Role and Fate of the Denaturant Guanidine
The origin of metabolic guanidine is largely a mystery. We suggest it is created when guanine-containing nucleotides are oxidised by molecular oxygen instead of being broken down into urea as purines....
enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 18, 2025 at 8:28 AM
Reposted by Kenneth Wasmund
Every single thing I read in UK news is about some new form of cruelty and suffering to be meted out against asylum seekers/immigrants/trans people but everytime I'm actually in the UK I'm reminded of what a warm, welcoming, culturally vibrant place it actually is.
November 16, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Reposted by Kenneth Wasmund
'The HeatHub was developed by Thermify and is part of UK Power Networks' SHIELD project, external, which aims to come up with innovative ways for low-income households to transition to net zero.' 1/2
'I heat my Essex home with a data centre in the shed'
www.bbc.co.uk
November 16, 2025 at 12:34 PM
Reposted by Kenneth Wasmund
Very cool print demonstrating how variation in at TonB-dependent transporter repertoires shapes the ability of Bacteroides and Phocaeicola species to utilize fructooligosaccharides (FOS) of different chain lengths
November 16, 2025 at 1:48 AM
So Denmark already does that? Eesh...
If the government really intends to seize jewellery and other valuables from refugees,
either
- it is staggeringly ignorant of the historical precedents
or
- it's aware of the precedents, and thinks, yeah, we'll have some of that.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
No 10 tells Labour MPs it expects support for tough new asylum policies
Some backbenchers already opposing planned immigration crackdown seen as ‘economically and culturally illiterate’
www.theguardian.com
November 15, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Reposted by Kenneth Wasmund
Regretfully (for the sake of the authors and journal staff), I have this morning declined an invitation to review for a @royalsociety.org journal because of the Society’s continued refusal to stand up for its values in dealing with Elon Musk FRS.
November 14, 2025 at 8:02 AM
Reposted by Kenneth Wasmund
Dundee Uni won ‘Entrepreneurial University of the Year’ in 2024… then its principal resigned amid a £30m deficit that exposed serious financial mismanagement

THE awards are spin, branding & optics

They don't align with what's happening behind the scenes
November 14, 2025 at 7:21 AM
Reposted by Kenneth Wasmund
Submit your abstract to our ASLO–SIL 2026 session!
If your waters bubble, breathe, or burp, join SS002 – “Gassy Waters” to explore gas fluxes across the aquatic continuum.

See you in Montreal, 12–16 May 2026!

www.aslo.org/aslo-sil-2026

#ASLOSIL26
@aslo.org
@szndohrn.bsky.social
November 13, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Reposted by Kenneth Wasmund
Very excited to share our latest work in Science on metagenomic editing (MetaEdit) of the gut microbiome in vivo & directly modifying unculturable immune-modulatory SFB bug in the small intestine. 🦠🧬🛠️
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Metagenomic editing of commensal bacteria in vivo using CRISPR-associated transposases
Although metagenomic sequencing has revealed a rich microbial biodiversity in the mammalian gut, methods to genetically alter specific species in the microbiome are highly limited. Here, we introduce ...
www.science.org
November 13, 2025 at 8:53 PM
Reposted by Kenneth Wasmund
Viral NblA proteins negatively affect oceanic cyanobacterial photosynthesis www.nature.com/articles/s41...
this project was led by @omernadel.bsky.social and is a joint work between the labs of @bejalab.bsky.social, Debbie Lindell and Oded Kleifeld from @biologytechnion.bsky.social
the sun is shining through the clouds in the sky above the ocean
ALT: the sun is shining through the clouds in the sky above the ocean
media.tenor.com
November 12, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Reposted by Kenneth Wasmund
Trump: "Nobody knows what magnets are."
November 10, 2025 at 9:07 PM
What kind of dumb clowns would think it’s a good idea to add plastic pellets to a wastewater treatment process, when the company releases raw sewage all the time straight into the sea! Classic UK! 💩
November 10, 2025 at 7:41 PM
Reposted by Kenneth Wasmund
Super excited to be part of this beautiful effort led by @zhuyt0515.bsky.social and Hanna Anderson!

A true team effort to characterize diversity in phytoplankton-excreted metabolites and identify key chemical currencies within the ocean ecosystem and carbon cycle

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Characterization of Phytoplankton-Excreted Metabolites Mediating Carbon Flux through the Surface Ocean
The marine labile dissolved organic carbon (DOC) pool is a dynamic reservoir of thousands of molecules that cycles approximately one-quarter of Earth primary production within days to weeks. After exc...
www.biorxiv.org
November 7, 2025 at 5:05 PM