Chris Balakrishnan
Nerd Nite Founder and author/editor of "How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi" bit.ly/NerdNiteBook opinions my own
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanOur point in this research is not that bird feeding causes zoonotic spillover, but that we can actually *predict* when spillover is likely to occur, so that we can adjust our behavior (e.g., bird feeding) when the risk supports us making a change.
- New paper links Salmonellosis disease dynamics to avian irruptions mediated by transmission at bird feeders - with subsequent spillover to humans causing severe illness and death 🪶🌎 #ornithology #UKBirding www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... #BirdFeeding #Rethink @mwtingley.bsky.social
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanThe Business and Biodiversity Assessment looks at how economic activities both depend on and affect biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people. Which aspect are you most curious about? 👀 More info about the #BizBiodiversity report set for approval at #IPBES12: ipbes.canto.de/b/HJAGG
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanLabor calls a general strike in Minnesota to protest the ICE invasion of the state.
- Reposted by Chris Balakrishnan"Less than 24 hours after the Trump administration informed more than 2,000 addiction and mental health programs nationwide that it was immediately terminating almost $2 billion of their funding, the administration reversed course and reinstated the money." Gift link: nyti.ms/4pzDSLz
- Still the best holiday album as far as I know: youtube.com/watch?v=kImY...
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanI think the answer to stopping the harms of the Big AI companies is *not* to say "we need to kill all the AI", even though we hate seeing the creeping impacts of that bad AI in our lives. The model has to be how Bluesky is a better alternative to Twitter. We need a tolerable AI alternative instead.
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanGrateful to share our paper on gene-specific selective sweeps in human gut microbiomes, now out in Nature! It has been a joy to work with @rwolff.bsky.social, whose insights and hard work made this possible. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanHave you ever wondered: just how strong *is* the evidence for Muller's ratchet on mtDNA? Well, wonder no more! (Project led by Yu Mo, with @smishra677.bsky.social and @yadirapga.bsky.social) "No molecular evidence for Muller's ratchet in mitochondrial genomes" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
- A good time for a reminder that the BIO Directorate will hold a Virtual Office Hour on Thursday www.nsf.gov/events/nsf-b...
- In all likelihood I’ll provide some other nuance, but after the official communications all go out!
- I know there are pressing issues afoot, but why did Apple move everything that was on top to the bottom and vice versa in the new iOS?
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanZoe Weissman - survivor of 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, FL Mia Tretta - survivor of 2019 Saugus High School shooting in Santa Clarita, CA Both are now students at Brown University in Providence, RI.
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanNew paper out. If you like colorful birds, hybridization, and phylogenetics, read on! 🧵https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003501
- Ok, now with the correct link! BiO-wide virtual office hours at the NSF! www.nsf.gov/events/nsf-b...
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanNSF - Forced reorg - POs down ~ 40% (DRP, most rotators not renewed, retirements) - Forced move (and we have to pack and clean) to a building with no furniture, little to no conference space for panels, inadequate 🛜, …) I personally love the boxes they gave us for packing. “Details matter” 🙃
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanNow out in @asm.org #mSystems! journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... Congratulations to Robert and thanks to all collaborators. See thread below for a summary of the work, exploring the use of cross-species coexpression analyses to predict primary and secondary metabolic interactions in microbiomes.
- New preprint out by #RobertKoetsier, the first of his PhD project, on assessing the use of cross-species coexpression analysis to identify primary and secondary metabolic interactions in microbiomes: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanIn collaboration w/ @groundwork.bsky.social & @moreperfectunion.bsky.social, we convened hundreds of volunteers from across the country to investigate Instacart’s AI-assisted pricing experiments at popular grocery stores like Target & Kroger. Read our full investigation below:
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanFascinated to learn that we are still discovering new species at the highest rate ever. Mapping Earth's biodiversity is far from over, and while we learn more and more about it, let's protect what we do know as well as we can! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
- Why is the adobe “Ask AI assistant” right in the middle of the text I am trying to read?
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanLol, Zillow tried to rate the climate risks facing individual properties. The real estate industry *hated* it, precisely because it worked -- it made selling risky properties more difficult. So they rebelled & Zillow caved. Don't look up!
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanAlso, I am so grateful for funding - notably from the NSF PurSUiT program - that has valued and recognized the importance of biodiversity & discovery science and that is enabling our lab to continue this geothermal research. Incl @maureenmkearney.bsky.social @evolutionpirate.bsky.social & others
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanIntroducing ** Incendiamoeba **, a eukaryote that can live at temperatures well beyond what we thought possible. 63C!! Read @hbrappap.bsky.social thread to see what we’ve already started to learn from this amazing organism! doi.org/10.1101/2025... #MicroSky #protistsonsky 🧪 #evobio
- So happy to announce our new preprint, “A geothermal amoeba sets a new upper temperature limit for eukaryotes.” We cultured a novel amoeba from Lassen Volcanic NP (CA, USA) that divides at 63°C (145°F) 🔥 - a new record for euk growth! #protistsonsky 🧵
- Reposted by Chris Balakrishnan4) US being left behind: The US absence was quickly normalized. Whether out of frustration or honest conviction, delegates spoke of the US declining in relevance. As an African govt rep said: “Americans should realize the world is moving on from them... other nations are this as an opportunity.”
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanNot that you asked, but here's a thread of intriguing (real!) food facts to amuse/bore your friends and family. Great for gatherings when you need to change the subject!
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanI keep saying, Google intentionally making its search worse is a world-historical fumble, and it's a huge opportunity for so many others across the internet, if they'll just seize it..
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanUnfortunately, I can confirm that this is true. I have known Carl for 2 decades and he is smart, dedicated, and quite apolitical, focused on science and getting stuff done on important problems. Huge unnecessary loss of leadership and expertise.
- Hearing news that Carl Dieffenbach, the Director of the Division of AIDS at #NIH (NIAID), has been removed from his position because he was "not aligned with HHS/OMB." Russell Vought continues to remove great scientists as part of the Project 2025 mission to politicize and destroy NIH. 🧪 1/
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanTrump’s thugs have come to my state to kidnap people/put them in concentration camps Anthony Lewis, Superintendent of Durham Public Schools, sent around a really wonderful letter to all parents explaining how DPS would handle any of these thugs coming to any public school What a time we live in 😢
- All time achievement. Our #nerdnite book “How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi” is touching @edyong209.bsky.social ‘s book.
- Reposted by Chris Balakrishnantwo contradictory ideas that i hold in my head at the same time: 1) i think the threat to both SNAP recipients and federal workers is significant enough now that even bad deals are worth making to prevent further harm, and, 2) everyone who caves now should retire in shame
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanI so appreciate this attention to what we’ve been doing with ed tech at CUNY and the notion that the higher ed ecosystem can benefit from it. Too many folks to name have been involved in those projects over the years, and it builds upon work and commitments at CUNY that goes back generations.
- Huge thanks to @mattseybold.bsky.social for writing this great post, which highlights CUNY's transformative potential to build open educational infrastructure theamericanvandal.substack.com/p/mamdani-wi...
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanToday, our article "The entities enabling scientific fraud at scale are large, resilient, and growing rapidly" is finally published in PNAS. I hope that it proves to be a wake-up-call for the whole scientific community. reeserichardson.blog/2025/08/04/a...
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanIf you are a Democratic senator watching these results and the lesson you take is "I should cave and help Republicans reopen the government for nothing more than a promise written on toilet paper" then you shouldn't be in the Senate anymore
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanNew-to-me but very helpful visualizations how all the actions of the past ten months are affecting the CDC www.cdcdataproject.org
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanHAPPENING NOW: A MASSIVE crowd of protesters flood the streets of San Diego for a “No Kings Day” rally showing their love for America and standing up against the corrupt fascist Trump administration. look how huge it is
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanPicture how big the Hoover Dam is. An absolute unit. The Hoover Dam has a power capacity of 2 gigawatts (GW). The solar farm that the Admin just cancelled could have produces 6.2 GW of power. That's more than 3 Hoover Dams.
- SCOOP: The Bureau of Land Management says the largest solar project in Nevada — the Esmeralda 7 mega-farm — has been canceled The news was quietly dropped via a sudden website update with no public word from any of the companies involved or a statement from the agency @heatmap.news
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanSix of the nine Nobel Prize winners this year work in the U.S. Three of the six were born outside the U.S., which is the pattern most years. No country has benefited more from welcoming immigrants from around the world. www.nobelprize.org
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanThis is remarkable. The world added more solar and wind capacity in 2024 than we added demand. 100% of demand growth PLUS 9% to retire dirtier sources. Cheap energy keeps winning. ember-energy.org/latest-insig...
- Reposted by Chris Balakrishnan🚨We're hiring! The Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History is seeking a tenure-track split position as Assistant Curator of Ichthyology and Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences. Please retweet & share with colleagues! 🐟🐠🧪 Apply here: apply.interfolio.com/174674
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanMan, I'm sorry, but reading all these AI generated essays from students, it just sucks all the joy out of everything. It's exhausting, makes you into a weird paranoid cop, grinds you down, wastes your time, makes you feel like shit about everything. Fuck this shit technology and all its enablers.
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanNice piece on power consumption by LLMs & GenAI spectrum.ieee.org/ai-energy-use #energy #artificialintelligence #llms #genAI
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanTransformative change for a just and sustainable world often seems overwhelming. @annelarigauderie.bsky.social and the @ipbes.net Transformative Change Assessment co-chairs highlight the roles we can each have in achieving #transformativechange. 🧪 #biodiversity #sustainability plos.io/3VGKknN
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanYes! A fantastic way for folks who don’t have access to a major university library to be able to read articles.
- Great news! JSTOR now have a free account with an Independent Researcher category. You can access 100 documents per month www.jstor.org/action/showL...
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanThe World's Newest Whale Species Makes Moans Like No Other And There Are Only 50 Individuals Left To Hear Them | IFLScience 🦑🌎🧪
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanWe don't structure our programs to reflect this, but in reality faculty is the alternative career path, not the default.
- “Overall, the message from this survey is positive; evolutionary biologists are readily employable outside of academia, generally well-prepared for those jobs, and report high levels of satisfaction” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Has anyone attempted to figure out if posting a preprint decreases the likelihood of acceptance? Asking for a friend …
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanWhile Trump froze $7B in solar funding, you can’t stop the future of solar energy. 24/7 solar energy now costs less than coal 😊 #news #energy #solar
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanMore foundations should do this: "Funding is exclusively available to applicants who have already received federal funding (e.g., from the NIH, CDC, NSF) for their health equity research, but have since had their funding rescinded due to federal administrative actions" www.rwjf.org/en/grants/ac...
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanWe built a calculator that doesn't work, but don't worry, it's also a plagiarism machine that will tell you to kill yourself. It runs on the world's oceans and costs 10 trillion dollars.
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanGood news! KU's IRACDA program was reinstated! We are now taking applications for postdocs. Please spread the word. sjobs.brassring.com/TGnewUI/Sear...
- Reposted by Chris Balakrishnan
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanThe Toucan Barbet is such a great bird. Found in the Western Andes of Colombia and Ecuador, I shot this at Doña Dora #Colombia #birds #nature
- Reposted by Chris Balakrishnan
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanIf you’re in Louisiana and eligible for a COVID shot, CVS won’t give them at all. They’re cowards. But Walgreens will. I have mine scheduled for next week.
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanPeople really refuse to understand how short the distance is between these firings and the harm being done to communities
- Reposted by Chris Balakrishnan
- I am recruiting a postdoc to work for 2-3 yrs on our NSF-funded project aiming to investigate plant migration and river connectivity with the closure of the Isthmus of Panama. Leading publications, fieldwork in CR & Panama, applying and expanding phylo. & pop.gen tools👇 www.nybg.org/about/work-w...
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanStarbucks’ CEO made 6,666x more than the company's median employee in 2024. This was the widest CEO-to-Worker pay gap in the entire S&P 500. Remember this before you order your next pumpkin spice latte.
- Reposted by Chris BalakrishnanAbbe Lowell and I represent CDC Director #SusanMonarez. Contrary to govt statements, Dr. Monarez has neither resigned nor yet been fired. She will not resign. We have issued the following statement:
