Dan Samorodnitsky
@dsamorod.bsky.social
i'm an editor and science writer. i cover biology, genetics, the environment, stuff like that. i live in Minneapolis. my pronouns are he/him. i am the news editor at biospace and am a cofounder at @sequencermag.bsky.social
dansamorodnitsky.com
dansamorodnitsky.com
The best books I read this year were:
The Organs of Sense - Adam Ehrlich Sachs
I Who Have Never Known Men - Jacqueline Harpman
The Founding Fish - John McPhee
The Loser - Thomas Bernhard
The Organs of Sense - Adam Ehrlich Sachs
I Who Have Never Known Men - Jacqueline Harpman
The Founding Fish - John McPhee
The Loser - Thomas Bernhard
December 31, 2025 at 6:02 PM
The best books I read this year were:
The Organs of Sense - Adam Ehrlich Sachs
I Who Have Never Known Men - Jacqueline Harpman
The Founding Fish - John McPhee
The Loser - Thomas Bernhard
The Organs of Sense - Adam Ehrlich Sachs
I Who Have Never Known Men - Jacqueline Harpman
The Founding Fish - John McPhee
The Loser - Thomas Bernhard
Extra idiotic because the NHL was fully ahead of the curve (by sports standards) with inclusivity initiatives like You Can Play and then decided to just can all that shit.
I still find it interesting that the NHL thinks it will just shoot its shot to get romance book/tv aficionados to convert into fans. We're not teenage swifties. We know that you banned pride tape 2 years ago and Canadian hockey did this:
www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...
www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...
How Hockey Canada used registration fees to build a fund to cover sexual-assault claims
Special multimillion-dollar fund financed by registration fees of players across the country used to settle abuse claims with minimal outside scrutiny
www.theglobeandmail.com
December 30, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Extra idiotic because the NHL was fully ahead of the curve (by sports standards) with inclusivity initiatives like You Can Play and then decided to just can all that shit.
Reposted by Dan Samorodnitsky
It bears emphasizing: The same admin that is attacking and defunding our universities, over what they call an antisemitism crisis, is now saying antisemitism isn't a problem at all.
December 23, 2025 at 2:52 AM
It bears emphasizing: The same admin that is attacking and defunding our universities, over what they call an antisemitism crisis, is now saying antisemitism isn't a problem at all.
Reposted by Dan Samorodnitsky
what does it mean to be thirsty?? @dsamorod.bsky.social reports: www.quantamagazine.org/what-does-it...
What Does It Mean To Be Thirsty? | Quanta Magazine
The effects of insufficient water are felt by every cell in the body, but it’s the brain that manifests our experience of thirst.
www.quantamagazine.org
December 18, 2025 at 5:36 PM
what does it mean to be thirsty?? @dsamorod.bsky.social reports: www.quantamagazine.org/what-does-it...
Reposted by Dan Samorodnitsky
Netanyahu's regime has spent years making it increasingly clear that they don't care in the slightest about the diaspora's safety or well-being.
Compare the statement about the antisemitic terror attack in Australia by the Israeli Prime Minister with the one by Zohran Mamdani, and ask yourself who more truly cares about condemning antisemitism, as opposed to using it to promote unrelated politics.
December 14, 2025 at 11:27 PM
Netanyahu's regime has spent years making it increasingly clear that they don't care in the slightest about the diaspora's safety or well-being.
This kind of Guy plays mandolin in a folk band with his buddies at the local VFW and hates ICE. He is an angel.
Idk if this translates outside of Minnesota, but why you see here is a fairly representative type of Twin Cities Guy™️ who is angrier than he has ever been in his life, and will spent the next 4 months driving around in sub-zero temperatures doing something about it.
This one isn’t downloadable but if you have TikTok go watch it. Well worth your time www.tiktok.com/t/ZTr4gRL7v/
December 13, 2025 at 9:38 PM
This kind of Guy plays mandolin in a folk band with his buddies at the local VFW and hates ICE. He is an angel.
Reposted by Dan Samorodnitsky
Very cool paper out today on ancient variants of genes that supposedly got an "update" shared by all modern humans — and the effects these variants *don't* have on the rare people who carry them.
If you needed more evidence that a single gene can't explain what makes us human, here it is! 🧪
If you needed more evidence that a single gene can't explain what makes us human, here it is! 🧪
Evaluating the effects of archaic protein-altering variants in living human adults
Promise and pitfalls of using large biobanks to study impacts of archaic protein-coding variants in living humans.
www.science.org
December 10, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Very cool paper out today on ancient variants of genes that supposedly got an "update" shared by all modern humans — and the effects these variants *don't* have on the rare people who carry them.
If you needed more evidence that a single gene can't explain what makes us human, here it is! 🧪
If you needed more evidence that a single gene can't explain what makes us human, here it is! 🧪
hopelessly naive about what? STEM degrees aren't any more useful for getting jobs than anything else
Yes we all agree that this is the reason colleges are in trouble
December 9, 2025 at 5:02 PM
hopelessly naive about what? STEM degrees aren't any more useful for getting jobs than anything else
Reposted by Dan Samorodnitsky
The work is slow and hard. An Intergovernmental Panel on Pandemics, for example, mustn't have an answer that boils down to "panic! but: science!" The problems are complex, and like with climate change, we're past the era of silver bullets and into Forever Solving Tiny Consequential Problems
December 8, 2025 at 12:12 AM
The work is slow and hard. An Intergovernmental Panel on Pandemics, for example, mustn't have an answer that boils down to "panic! but: science!" The problems are complex, and like with climate change, we're past the era of silver bullets and into Forever Solving Tiny Consequential Problems
Reposted by Dan Samorodnitsky
Worth noting that what Walsh is citing here isn't just the idea of IQ—it's the much more egregious "national IQ" data from Richard Lynn, something several colleagues and I wrote about last year for STAT News
December 7, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Worth noting that what Walsh is citing here isn't just the idea of IQ—it's the much more egregious "national IQ" data from Richard Lynn, something several colleagues and I wrote about last year for STAT News
Reposted by Dan Samorodnitsky
Experts Decry Prasad Memo’s Lack of Transparency as Vaccine Stocks Dip www.biospace.com/fda/experts-... via @biospace.bsky.social
Experts Decry Prasad Memo’s Lack of Transparency as Vaccine Stocks Dip
With no evidence to support the claim that 10 children died due to COVID-19 vaccines, experts unpack the impact of CBER chief Vinay Prasad's leaked vaccine memo.
www.biospace.com
December 6, 2025 at 3:35 AM
Experts Decry Prasad Memo’s Lack of Transparency as Vaccine Stocks Dip www.biospace.com/fda/experts-... via @biospace.bsky.social
Reposted by Dan Samorodnitsky
Thanks Dan, you freak. Sequencer's newsletter is available here, for free:
www.sequencermag.com/beautiful-se...
www.sequencermag.com/beautiful-se...
December 4, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Thanks Dan, you freak. Sequencer's newsletter is available here, for free:
www.sequencermag.com/beautiful-se...
www.sequencermag.com/beautiful-se...
In today's @sequencermag.bsky.social newsletter, I have a bit of writing about Stephen Jay Gould, and how his writing shaped my worldview. Particularly these two diagrams of hyena genitalia.
December 4, 2025 at 3:02 PM
In today's @sequencermag.bsky.social newsletter, I have a bit of writing about Stephen Jay Gould, and how his writing shaped my worldview. Particularly these two diagrams of hyena genitalia.
Reposted by Dan Samorodnitsky
Worth watching this whole clip. Indistinguishable from Nazi leaders talking about Jews in the 1930s.
TRUMP: If you look at Somalia, they are taking over Minnesota.
REPORTER: What do the Somalians have to do with this Afghan guy who shot the National Guard members?
TRUMP: Ah, nothing. But Somalians have caused a lot of trouble. They're ripping us off.
REPORTER: What do the Somalians have to do with this Afghan guy who shot the National Guard members?
TRUMP: Ah, nothing. But Somalians have caused a lot of trouble. They're ripping us off.
November 28, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Worth watching this whole clip. Indistinguishable from Nazi leaders talking about Jews in the 1930s.
Reposted by Dan Samorodnitsky
The Elsevier investigation mentioned was initiated after a STAT news piece on the problem, co-authored with Cathryn, @dsamorod.bsky.social, @stairwaytokevin.bsky.social, @jedidiahcarlson.com, @jameslingford.bsky.social and @jowiph.bsky.social
www.statnews.com/2024/06/20/r...
www.statnews.com/2024/06/20/r...
Journals that published Richard Lynn's racist 'research' articles should retract them
Richard Lynn's work has been repeatedly condemned for using flawed methodology and deceptively collated data to support racism. It's past time to retract the studies.
www.statnews.com
November 26, 2025 at 3:33 PM
The Elsevier investigation mentioned was initiated after a STAT news piece on the problem, co-authored with Cathryn, @dsamorod.bsky.social, @stairwaytokevin.bsky.social, @jedidiahcarlson.com, @jameslingford.bsky.social and @jowiph.bsky.social
www.statnews.com/2024/06/20/r...
www.statnews.com/2024/06/20/r...
MPR reported earlier today that the number of Somali people in the entire *country* with TPS is 705.
www.mprnews.org/story/2025/1...
www.mprnews.org/story/2025/1...
November 24, 2025 at 2:23 AM
MPR reported earlier today that the number of Somali people in the entire *country* with TPS is 705.
www.mprnews.org/story/2025/1...
www.mprnews.org/story/2025/1...
Reposted by Dan Samorodnitsky
I also collated some responses to my request for encounters with James Watson in the wild:
www.sequencermag.com/a-few-encoun...
www.sequencermag.com/a-few-encoun...
A few encounters with James Watson
We asked for stories about the famed biochemist James Watson.
www.sequencermag.com
November 21, 2025 at 5:28 PM
I also collated some responses to my request for encounters with James Watson in the wild:
www.sequencermag.com/a-few-encoun...
www.sequencermag.com/a-few-encoun...
In the wake of James Watson's death, I tried really, really hard to come up with something to say. And all I really had to say was: we really fucked up with treating this guy like a hero. Watson sold the world a bill of goods. For @sequencermag.bsky.social.
www.sequencermag.com/james-watson...
www.sequencermag.com/james-watson...
James Watson sold the idea of himself
How much could a man like Watson, an unrepentant racist, really understand about what DNA is?
www.sequencermag.com
November 21, 2025 at 5:14 PM
In the wake of James Watson's death, I tried really, really hard to come up with something to say. And all I really had to say was: we really fucked up with treating this guy like a hero. Watson sold the world a bill of goods. For @sequencermag.bsky.social.
www.sequencermag.com/james-watson...
www.sequencermag.com/james-watson...
The Making of the Atomic Bomb is one of the best books ever written.
Ok BlueSky: what are your favorite history books in terms of sheer page-turning, narrative propulsion? Thinking along the line of Killers of the Flower Moon, etc. Nonfiction chronicles that read like novels or movies.
November 19, 2025 at 11:20 PM
The Making of the Atomic Bomb is one of the best books ever written.
Reposted by Dan Samorodnitsky
Very rare to see someone lay out so explicitly that they do not consider "never again" to be a universalist creed. I don't know how people who talk like this can stand to look themselves in the mirror.
I'm struck by this clip of former Obama speechwriter Sarah Hurwitz saying Holocaust education has backfired in part because people Palestinians as victims: "They think the lesson of the Holocaust is…you fight the big powerful people hurting the weak people."
www.reddit.com/r/JewsOfCons...
www.reddit.com/r/JewsOfCons...
From the JewsOfConscience community on Reddit: Former Obama speechwriter Sarah Hurwitz speaking to the Jewish Federation and lamenting that young people are learning the wrong lessons from Holocaust e...
Explore this post and more from the JewsOfConscience community
www.reddit.com
November 18, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Very rare to see someone lay out so explicitly that they do not consider "never again" to be a universalist creed. I don't know how people who talk like this can stand to look themselves in the mirror.
this really irks me. she means "the bullet hypothetical."
they're calling it "some of the worst writing of the century"
November 17, 2025 at 8:05 PM
this really irks me. she means "the bullet hypothetical."
LOCAL ANGLE: we need to talk about how every physicist on planet earth was on Epstein island
November 12, 2025 at 11:18 PM
LOCAL ANGLE: we need to talk about how every physicist on planet earth was on Epstein island
The Central Dogma is really more of a guideline.
Despair seems like a reasonable course of action
'Some estimates are that up to 20% of the entire proteome can bind RNA and moreover that about 20% of all known protein complexes have an RNA component in them and you really have to think about how to deal with such large figures.'
'Some estimates are that up to 20% of the entire proteome can bind RNA and moreover that about 20% of all known protein complexes have an RNA component in them and you really have to think about how to deal with such large figures.'
RNA and Proteins: Who Bosses Whom?
www.science.org
November 12, 2025 at 3:28 PM
The Central Dogma is really more of a guideline.