🚨Big update!🚨. I’m thrilled to share that I will be joining the Department of Microbiology @OregonState as an Assistant Professor this fall! 🦫. Graduate school first took me to the Pacific Northwest and I am very excited to make the (admittedly very long) journey back.

“Are we witnessing something like the scholasticism of science - a treason, not of the clerks but of the investigators?” . Christopher Caudwell, “The Crisis in Physics”. 5/5.

“…and this itself would be the result of a general reduction in experimental effort, a slackening of the magnificent tempo of research characteristic of the last century.” . 4/5.

“If such an attitude were to become general in physics - and there is every sign that it may—it would be serious for the whole future of science. It might lead to a withdrawal of science from experiment into a barren theorizing, […]” . 3/5.

“Evidently this philosophy is a symptom of a tendency for theory to drift away from practice in physics-the 'descientification' of science. Theory remains attached to practice on more and more limited and specialized fronts.” . 2/5.

“But with Jeans and Eddington and Russell objective reality is indistinguishable from mind: hence it seems rather a waste of time to engage in practice and in experiment—to go out into phenomena to discover what is already in essence in the subject.” . 1/5.

RT @ShechnerLab: Hello RNA World! Ever wonder what's "talking to" your favorite transcript, but were too scared to ask? In our review in @C….

RT @Denis_V_Titov: Final version of our paper showing that a redundant function of several allosteric regulators of glycolytic enzymes HK a….

If you are interested in the basic mechanisms of gene expression and regulation in microbes, make sure to put this conference on your calendar for 2027. I expect the conference will only keep getting better!.

This year we got to honor the lifelong contributions of field-defining scientists Carol Gross and Steve Busby. It was truly humbling and such an honor to witness the enormous scope and impact of their science, mentorship, and advocacy over 40+ years.

The Mechanisms of Microbial Transcription GRC was excellent this year. This is a community of the highest caliber: rigorous science at the frontier of microbial gene expression, covering a wide range of organisms and processes, presented by PhD students and legends alike.

RT @DPlazaSaez: The GRS on Microbial Transcription @GordonConf 2025 is now over!.Amazon science and people! 🦠🧬. Great experience to have se….

@DPlazaSaez.

That’s a wrap on the 2025 Mechanisms of Microbial Transcription GRS!

Kicking off the 2025 Mechanisms of Microbial Transcription GRS today with keynote speaker Maria Hadjifrangiskou!

The only question that remains is how many macrophages I need to put in my head to start growing antlers.

Coming back to this to say that, after a day spent troubleshooting things on R, the AI chatbot I used to try to expedite things could not have been *more wrong* about how to use the package I wanted. Like it had no clue what it was doing. Hilarious in a very painful way.

On the so-called “reproducibility crisis,” the chapter of this book on science is essential reading imo. Error is vital to scientific practice; in a significant sense it is the engine of discovery.

If you want to fix reproducibility in science, uncouple tenure/promotion from publication, prohibit predatory publishers (and ideally platform not-for-profit, open-source publication venues), and prioritize quality over quantity. It’s really not difficult.

Certainly some fields may suffer from higher rates of irreproducibility (likely reflecting increased rate of published results + predatory publication dynamics), but the notion that biology is irreproducible writ large is absolutely incorrect.

The funny part is that I am routinely surprised by the reproducibility of key findings across microbiology. To the extent that I have, on multiple occasions, reproduced findings that I thought contradicted the literature only to then learn it had been established decades ago!.