Jamie Cate
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jhdcate.bsky.social
Jamie Cate
@jhdcate.bsky.social
Ribosomes and RNA language models.
Professor at UC Berkeley.
https://sites.google.com/berkeley.edu/cate-lab/home
Pinned
"Use it or lose it." This is great advice for exercise, but when cells need to slow down or go dormant, they need to store ribosomes to recover growth in the future. They use hibernation factors to do this. Here is our latest story on how archaea hibernate ribosomes (1/7):
doi.org/10.64898/202...
doi.org
Reposted by Jamie Cate
We have to see the logic of the killings as well as the killings themselves. The horror is a truth in itself. But it is also a sign of a political logic, one known from the totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century.
snyder.substack.com/p/lies-and-l...
Lies and Lawlessness
The Camps, the Executions, and the Future
snyder.substack.com
January 25, 2026 at 7:26 PM
Reposted by Jamie Cate
Thank God there were people filming. This administration would have said Alex Pretti pulled a handgun, a package of fentanyl, and a signed copy of the Communist Manifesto if they could.
January 25, 2026 at 7:10 PM
Reposted by Jamie Cate
The Senate may choose to vote together on the DHS and LHHS bills. Thus, a filibuster on DHS may mean no funding for NIH. What my colleagues are saying:

“Shut it down, public health will understand. I’ll work without pay again.”
- anonymous NIHer
January 25, 2026 at 5:19 AM
Reposted by Jamie Cate
Bill Kristol sees this shit clearly. I don't know how so many elected Democrats don't.
Also, may I say that I don’t agree with people saying ICE and CBP need “more training.” They’re doing exactly what this administration has trained them to—impose a reign of fear in blue cities. They don’t need more training. They need to be ripped up root and branch.
January 25, 2026 at 5:08 AM
Reposted by Jamie Cate
The headlines in this article in the Economist (UK) are great—better than almost any newspaper in the US
January 25, 2026 at 12:27 PM
Reposted by Jamie Cate
Another ruling just yesterday in Minnesota: A federal judge calls it "particularly craven" that ICE transfered "a nursing refugee mother" out of state. Ta Eh Doh Lah was admitted as a refugee from Myanmar in 2024, has no criminal history and a 5-month-old. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
January 25, 2026 at 3:16 AM
Reposted by Jamie Cate
An insane, perfect encapsulation of it all:

The same day Trump’s agents kill a Veterans Affairs ICU nurse in broad daylight, the CEOs of Apple and Amazon join Trump to watch a private screening of a film about his wife directed by an alleged sexual abuser who was seen shirtless in the Epstein Files
January 25, 2026 at 3:28 AM
Reposted by Jamie Cate
tfw when the imperialism is boomeranging
January 25, 2026 at 1:42 PM
Reposted by Jamie Cate
It may actually be good for the republic to never have “the presumption of regularity” ever again.
Understand that 370 days ago even bringing a motion like this would probably have been treated as sanctionably frivolous

Today it was granted ex parte
A federal judge issues a restraining order against the feds, barring them from "destroying or altering evidence"

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
January 25, 2026 at 5:36 AM
Reposted by Jamie Cate
Nonviolence is, in fact, working. This administration is weaker than it was a year ago. More and more of the public is becoming galvanized against it; its agents are being impeded.
Do you honestly think people in the civil rights movement and other nonviolent movements faced no violence themselves? They practiced nonviolence because it works, because the oppressor wants a shooting war, which is the war it will win
How's your non-violent working Mr Gandhi stancil? They will kill each and everyone of you right if they had the chance and you will still be writing Kumbaya.
January 24, 2026 at 9:53 PM
Reposted by Jamie Cate
LA doesn’t miss 🔥

Freeway overpass just now (405)
January 25, 2026 at 12:03 AM
Reposted by Jamie Cate
Alex from our time working together, while he was in nursing school. Later, he moved to ICU, working as a nurse to support critically ill Veterans. He had such a great attitude. We’d chat between patients about trying to get in a mountain bike ride together. Will never happen now
January 24, 2026 at 7:39 PM
Reposted by Jamie Cate
Both of Arizona’s senators, @captmarkkelly.bsky.social and @gallego.senate.gov are a “no” on DHS funding.
January 25, 2026 at 1:12 AM
Reposted by Jamie Cate
Kare 11 local news just read, in full, this statement from Michael and Susan Pretti, the parents of Alex Pretti.

"Please get the truth out about our son."
January 25, 2026 at 12:43 AM
Reposted by Jamie Cate
In my ongoing attempts to give you a break from *gestures widely* THE HORRORS:

Let's talk about the utterly bizarre science of cats' purring.

Here's a weird starting point:
There are NO cats (Felidae) that can BOTH roar AND purr.

Cats that roar = genus Panthera
Cats that purr = genus Felis
January 24, 2026 at 11:12 PM
Reposted by Jamie Cate
An overhead view of protesters gathering at the scene of the shooting.

Live coverage: www.startribune.com/ice-raids-mi...

📽️ Aaron Lavinsky/The Minnesota Star Tribune
January 24, 2026 at 9:46 PM
Reposted by Jamie Cate
Alex Pretti was a colleague at the VA. We hired him to recruit for our trial. He became an ICU nurse- I lover working with him. He was a good kind person who lived to help and these fuckers executed him.

White. Hot. Rage.
January 24, 2026 at 7:31 PM
Reposted by Jamie Cate
I have spent my entire adult life being lectured by Republican politicians and conservative legal movement types about how important it is to preserve the sacred constitutional right to self-defense of *specifically this person* and then secret police murdered him in the street
Minneapolis police chief Brian O'Hara says that the victim was a 37-year-old white man and US citizen with no criminal record and that he was a legally permitted gun owner.
January 24, 2026 at 6:29 PM
Reposted by Jamie Cate
Alex Pretti, the man killed by federal agents today in Minneapolis, appears to have been a registered nurse, an athlete, a son and a brother, with ties to Colorado and Wisconsin.

Here is a photo he used for several accounts.
January 24, 2026 at 7:07 PM
Reposted by Jamie Cate
As we bear witness to what is happening in Minneapolis, remember that those who are documenting it -- citizens and journalists alike -- are showing true bravery and moral courage. This documentation will matter one day, mark my words. asharangappa.substack.com/p/the-power-...
The Power of Being Watched
Why hitting the "record" button is an act of moral courage.
asharangappa.substack.com
January 24, 2026 at 7:04 PM
Reposted by Jamie Cate
On the execution in Minnesota: Obviously, the individuals involved should be held accountable. But responsibility goes to the top of ICE and CBP, and DHS. Their appropriations come up next week in the senate. Not a cent for DHS without pulling ICE and CBP off the streets, in MN and everywhere else.
January 24, 2026 at 4:52 PM
Reposted by Jamie Cate
Reminder: DHS legislation that funds ICE at current levels without policy restrictions is in the Senate and needs 60 votes to pass. Deadline is next Friday.
January 24, 2026 at 4:47 PM
Reposted by Jamie Cate
ICE is now responsible for 66% of the homicides in Minneapolis this year.
January 24, 2026 at 4:51 PM
Reposted by Jamie Cate
The CDC's job is to monitor and prevent diseases. But now RFK Jr's handpicked deputy director says he "doesn't care" about whether or not measles is officially eliminated.

This is about KIDS getting sick and even DYING  from something WE CAN PREVENT. Beyond despicable.
Measles elimination status ‘not really’ a concern, CDC official says | CNN
Ongoing measles outbreaks in multiple parts of the country are threatening the United States’ status as a nation that has eliminated the virus’ spread, but a CDC leader said Tuesday that the potential...
www.cnn.com
January 23, 2026 at 6:30 PM
Reposted by Jamie Cate