Marc Robinson-Rechavi
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marcrr.bsky.social
Marc Robinson-Rechavi
@marcrr.bsky.social
1.6K followers 1.2K following 350 posts
He/Him. Evolution and Bioinformatics. Posts mine alone, in English (mostly) & French. Chair of @dee-unil.bsky.social, Prof at @fbm-unil.bsky.social‬, group leader at @sib.swiss. PI of @bgee.org
🦣 Main account: https://ecoevo.social/@marcrr
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marcrr.bsky.social
Marc Robinson-Rechavi @marcrr.bsky.social · Nov 14
Given the afflux of new science peeps here, and the lack of a similar increase of users at Mastodon, I'll post both here and there for the time being. Although I'm not convinced this place can escape the issues which affect any corporate owned social media pluralistic.net/2024/11/02/u...
Pluralistic: Bluesky and enshittification (02 Nov 2024) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
pluralistic.net
Reposted by Marc Robinson-Rechavi
elizabethjacobs.bsky.social
Started/Going with Dr. Rachael Bedard.

There is no common ground between science and RFK Jr.
Screenshot from the Atlantic that says The Case for Finding Common Ground With RFK A pro-vaccine doctor argues that the left should engage with Americans skeptical of public-health rules. By Jerusalem Demsas Screenshot from NYT that says OPINION GUEST ESSAY I Went to an Anti-Vaccine Conference. Medicine Is in Trouble.
November 25, 2025 at 3:36 PM
marcrr.bsky.social
from www.smbc-comics.com/comic/math
Two comics characters discussing. One asks: Have you created anything interesting or just recategorized known concepts. The other asks, with a determined look: That is a matter for philosophers!
November 25, 2025 at 10:22 AM
Reposted by Marc Robinson-Rechavi
charles.littlegreenfootballs.com
i’m not crying you’re crying

xkcd: Fifteen Years

Fifteen Years
xkcd.com
November 25, 2025 at 1:58 AM
Reposted by Marc Robinson-Rechavi
rlspang.bsky.social
Extremely astute observation. Science as “trauma” was prepared by climate change, activated in the pandemic—same framing is probably relevant for evolution etc.
atwilliams.bsky.social alex williams @atwilliams.bsky.social · 1d
one thing thats crazy about the current era in the states is that it is clear across most domains that science got processed by a lot of people as "traumatic encounter with the real" and now they are just making decisions based on that trauma.

elon, peter, anti-vaxxers, all the same problem
theatlantic.com The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 1d
Over many interviews, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Michael Scherer about how he plans to remake America’s public-health system. Can he lead the scientific establishment he’s spent much of his life crusading against?

Read more in our new cover story: theatln.tc/q9hXxlbM
November 24, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Reposted by Marc Robinson-Rechavi
olivia.science
15-year-old bug 😐 in an industry that has the highest profit margins possible pretty much

www.theguardian.com/science/2017...
November 23, 2025 at 3:45 PM
marcrr.bsky.social
Interesting answers, and striking that I never asked myself that question until now.
emilymbender.bsky.social Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 3d
A question for scientists (construed as broadly as you like) of BlueSky: What makes something data?

(Question inspired by a talk I listened to this morning, and of course I have thoughts, but I wanted to throw this out there first.)
November 22, 2025 at 8:18 AM
Reposted by Marc Robinson-Rechavi
kieraevebutler.bsky.social
New from me: I talked to CDC staffers about the new vaccines and autism page. They said things like:

“The best way I can put it is it feels like we’re on a hijacked airplane.”

“I think people are starting to see that we can’t fulfill our mission here.”
“Embarrassing” and “horrifying”: CDC workers describe the new vaccines and autism page
"The best way I can put it is it feels like we're on a hijacked airplane."
www.motherjones.com
November 21, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Reposted by Marc Robinson-Rechavi
sinamajidian.bsky.social
Our trilogy of orthology publications is online!
Review on Hierarchical Orthologous Groups doi.org/10.1007/s00239-025-10277-1

OrthoXML-Tools doi.org/10.1007/s00239-025-10271-7

A great community effort on Quest for Orthologs in the era of Data Deluge and AI doi.org/10.1007/s00239-025-10272-6
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00239-025-10277-1 Conceptual overview of hierarchical orthologous groups. An example of one HOG, or gene family. A Species tree with four taxa: plant (green), fish (blue), human (orange), and mouse (yellow), each with one or more genes. B The implied gene tree, dubbed “HOG tree,” and inferred nested HOG composition. Duplication nodes (red) can be deduced based on the species tree topology and clusters of homologous genes at each level. Ancestral genes from which the HOGs descended are shown in gray. C HOGs returned at different taxonomic levels. Consider a gene family that was present in the last eukaryotic common ancestor (LECA). At this level, a single HOG encompasses all genes descending from that ancestral gene. At the Vertebrata level, this gene underwent duplication, leading to two distinct copies, i.e., HOGs. At the Mammalia level, a second duplication further subdivides one of these HOGs, showing how deeper HOGs split into nested subHOGs at more recent levels. The HOG composition implies that a loss event occurred after the mammalian speciation https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00239-025-10272-6 Summary of the QfO8 meeting. a Hot topics and future directions in method development and applications within the QfO community, namely artificial intelligence, protein domains, protein structure, RNA and splicing isoforms. b Definition of orthology and paralogy, including various paralogous subtypes (e.g. in-paralogs and out-paralogs). c Duplications and functional divergence. d Applications of orthology https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00239-025-10271-7 Overview of the OrthoXML File Format (simplified). A schematic representation of an OrthoXML file, a standardized XML-based format for representing orthology data. OrthoXML follows a hierarchical structure where elements are enclosed within opening < tag > and closing </tag > tags. < orthoXML > is the root element enclosing other elements. The < species > element contains information about genes. An OrthoXML file can include a < taxonomy > element, which specifies the species tree used to generate the file. Additionally, the < groups > element encapsulates the orthology and paralogy relationships among genes
November 21, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Reposted by Marc Robinson-Rechavi
bffo.bsky.social
From @csoneson.bsky.social , @markrobinsonca.bsky.social & colleagues in @plos.org #Computational #Biology | Building a continuous #benchmarking ecosystem in #bioinformatics | #Education 🧬 🖥️ 🧪 🔓  
⬇️
journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...
Building a continuous benchmarking ecosystem in bioinformatics
Benchmarking, which involves collecting reference datasets and demonstrating method performance, is a requirement for the development of new computational tools, but also becomes a domain of its own t...
journals.plos.org
November 15, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Reposted by Marc Robinson-Rechavi
kkjetelina.bsky.social
For the first time in my career, I can’t tell people to trust what the CDC website says. And that is an incredibly sad and devastating place for this country to be.
ddiamond.bsky.social Dan Diamond @ddiamond.bsky.social · 5d
CDC has overhauled its website to assert that “the claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim”
Autism and Vaccines QUESTIONS AND CONCERNS PAGE 2 OF 9 | ALL PAGES J For Everyone NOV. 19, 2025 KEY POINTS • The claim "vaccines do not cause autism" is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism. • Studies supporting a link have been ignored by health authorities. HHS Research on Plausible Biologic Mechanisms between Vaccines and Autism HHS will evaluate plausible biologic mechanisms between early childhood vaccinations and autism. Mechanisms for further investigation include the impacts of aluminum adjuvants, risks for certain children with mitochondrial disorders, harms of neuroinflammation, and more. * The header "Vaccines do not cause autism" has not been removed due to an agreement with the chair of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee that it would remain on the CDC website.
November 20, 2025 at 4:22 AM
Reposted by Marc Robinson-Rechavi
elizabethjacobs.bsky.social
The U.S. government is now inarguably spreading medical disinformation that is going to kill babies preferentially.

Period.

This is an INTOLERABLE. UNPRECEDENTED. DANGEROUS. ATTACK. ON ALL OF US.
Vaccine Safety MENU V For Everyone NOV. 19, 2025 KEY POINTS • The claim "vaccines do not cause autism" is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism. • Studies supporting a link have been ignored by health authorities. • HHS has launched a comprehensive assessment of the causes of autism, including investigations on plausible biologic mechanisms and potential causal links.
November 20, 2025 at 3:29 AM
Reposted by Marc Robinson-Rechavi
elizabethjacobs.bsky.social
RFK Jr. apparently promised Senator Bill Cassidy that he wouldn’t delete the statement “Vaccines do not cause autism” from the CDC website.

Instead, RFK Jr. published a litany of lies claiming that vaccines *do* cause autism, left the statement with an asterisk, and added this:
The header "Vaccines do not cause autism" has not been removed due to an agreement with the chair of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee that it would remain on the CDC website. Vaccine Safety MENU V ON THIS PAGE Vaccines do not cause Autism* Background State of the Evidence: Infant Vaccines - DTaP, HepB, Hi... State of the Evidence: MMR Vaccine HHS Research on Plausible Biologic Mechanisms betw...
November 20, 2025 at 5:04 AM
Reposted by Marc Robinson-Rechavi
carlbergstrom.com
We need a total and complete shutdown of WSJ data graphics until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on.

h/t @merz.bsky.social @drmikewiser.bsky.social
Multiple Meds: Share of children on two or more psychiatric medications in 2023, based on wether or not they were prescribed ADHD drugs in 2019.
November 20, 2025 at 4:53 AM
marcrr.bsky.social
Interesting @snsf.ch data on career interuptions (parenthood, care duties, illness, part-time work) for academic researchers by gender
data.snf.ch/stories/cv-d...
SNSF Data Portal
The Swiss National Science Foundation's Data Portal presents interactive Key Figures, facts on funded projects and involved people in the Grant Search and the COVID-19 project registry, Dataset downlo...
data.snf.ch
November 19, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Reposted by Marc Robinson-Rechavi
davidho.bsky.social
I attended a talk by a scientist at a Chinese University and realized that all the background climate data that she used came from the US (CO₂ Keeling Curve, global temperature time series, etc.). Although China funds a lot of research, the destruction of US science will affect science globally.
November 17, 2025 at 10:26 PM
Reposted by Marc Robinson-Rechavi
ebharrington.bsky.social
Cartoon mocking the broligarchs' smug, self-serving misunderstanding of philosophers.
November 18, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Reposted by Marc Robinson-Rechavi
kentremendous.bsky.social
A guy makes ONE tiny mistake (has a years-long friendship with the world's worst sex trafficker; brags about sexually harassing colleagues; is racist; says women are stupid) and his whole LIFE is blown up (does slightly fewer speaking engagements; keeps teaching at #1 university)??!?!?!?!?!
karenattiah.bsky.social Karen Attiah @karenattiah.bsky.social · 7d
So Harvard is keeping this guy, but Claudine Gay had to step down over ginned up plagiarism accusations and bad-faith accusations of anti-Semitism.

Got it.
rimaanabtawi.bsky.social Rima I Anabtawi @rimaanabtawi.bsky.social · 7d
Larry Summers tells @theharvardcrimson.bsky.social
he’s stepping back from all public commitments in light of his messages with Epstein, saying he is “deeply ashamed” and hopes “to rebuild trust and repair relationships.”

He will continue teaching.

www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
November 18, 2025 at 10:51 AM
Reposted by Marc Robinson-Rechavi
alexwild.bsky.social
Screen cap of the xkcd cartoon, "Welcome to the Biology Department. It has been three days since we discovered something existentially horrifying about bugs that makes you question your whole reality."
November 17, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Reposted by Marc Robinson-Rechavi
angierasmussen.bsky.social
I've got a bad feeling about the upcoming flu season, given the fact that there are a bunch of subtypes at this party with the potential to wreak varying amounts of havoc. So I broke it all down here.
open.substack.com/pub/rasmusse...
The Real Subtypes of the 2025 Flu Season
Have you ever been to a party where you sensed the messiness before it happened?
open.substack.com
November 17, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Reposted by Marc Robinson-Rechavi
monniauxd.bsky.social
On m'a un certain nombre de fois sorti que telle ou telle chose (ou tel ou tel auteur) est bien sûr connue de toute personne ayant fait des études supérieures.

Beaucoup de monde devrait regarder cette image et la comprendre.
Two stick characters, Cueball and Ponytail (wearing a ponytail) are talking. [Ponytail and Cueball are talking. Ponytail has her hand raised, palm up, towards Cueball.] Ponytail: Silicate chemistry is second nature to us geochemists, so it's easy to forget that the average person probably only knows the formulas for olivine and one or two feldspars. Cueball: And quartz, of course. Ponytail: Of course. [Caption below the panel] Even when they're trying to compensate for it, experts in anything wildly overestimate the average person's familiarity with their field.
November 15, 2025 at 7:28 PM
marcrr.bsky.social
It's valid to call discrimination "racism" when the group isn't a "race", because it never is, since human races don't exist. Racism is always a social construct, with no biological basis to any discriminated group. The only question is whether racism is the appropriate social framing.
taliabhatt.itch.io Talia "Estro Junkies" Bhatt ♀︎♀︎ @taliabhatt.itch.io · 11d
"my least woke opinion is---"

That's enough. We've had enough people indulging in the "thrill of a little conservatism", as a treat. Of considering reactionary thought to be a salacious and taboo in a world descending into reactionary mania.

Give me your MOST woke opinions. We're bringing it back.
November 17, 2025 at 8:04 AM
Reposted by Marc Robinson-Rechavi
benjaminhgood.bsky.social
Many studies have found that w/in-species dN/dS decays w/ the genetic distance between strains, which is often attributed to natural selection. Here Zhiru shows that a large portion of this trend can be quantitatively explained by the accumulation of horizontally transferred DNA segments over time.
Schematic showing how homologous recombination can influence dN/dS between conspecific strains of bacteria.
November 16, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Reposted by Marc Robinson-Rechavi
arghavansallesmd.medsky.social
‘Summers went on to describe what he saw as his "best shot": that the woman finds him
"invaluable and interesting" and concludes
"she can't have it without romance / sex."’

This is called quid pro quo, making career opportunities contingent on sexual favors. It’s the most severe form of…
November 17, 2025 at 4:33 AM
Reposted by Marc Robinson-Rechavi
gro-tsen.bsky.social
Alors là je DOIS reposter ça:
gro-tsen.bsky.social Gro-Tsen @gro-tsen.bsky.social · Jun 6
― Referencing webcomics is second nature to us geeks, so it's easy to forget that the average person probably only knows the xkcd comics “Ten Thousand” and “Standards”.

― And “Duty Calls”, of course.

― Of course.
November 15, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Reposted by Marc Robinson-Rechavi
cgatist.bsky.social
New📢
Between molecular and human traits is a yawning gap: What do molecules do to single cells?
We tested *all* human or mouse miRNA mimics for their cell morphological effects on 5 cell lines.
To do so, we applied Cell Painting at the *single cell* level (100,000+ images).
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Systematic morphological profiling of human and mouse miRNAs in 24M single cells
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression whose contributions to cell biology remain underexplored. Here, we used Cell Painting to quantify the morphological effect of ...
doi.org
November 16, 2025 at 10:33 AM