Jonathan Chiche
@jonathanchiche.bsky.social
French antiquarian bookseller living in Taiwan.
Reposted by Jonathan Chiche
OK, I have set up a Substack and posted an article there going into much more detail about Francis Crick and the poet Michael McClure. If the link between science and art is your thing, or you just like psychedelic poetry, have a read:
The Powerful Knowledge: How the Poetry of Michael McClure Influenced the Scientist Francis Crick
In July 1959, the co-discoverer of the DNA double helix, Francis Crick, took a psychedelic trip on peyote through the power of poetry.
open.substack.com
November 10, 2025 at 2:34 PM
OK, I have set up a Substack and posted an article there going into much more detail about Francis Crick and the poet Michael McClure. If the link between science and art is your thing, or you just like psychedelic poetry, have a read:
Reposted by Jonathan Chiche
If you believe either that Franklin discovered the double helix, and / or Watson and Crick stole her data, ask yourself how you know this. Then take a read of this article.
If I see one more stupid Rosalind Franklin take I'm going to lose my mind. Thank god for @matthewcobb.bsky.social and @nccomfort.bsky.social. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
What Rosalind Franklin truly contributed to the discovery of DNA’s structure
Franklin was no victim in how the DNA double helix was solved. An overlooked letter and an unpublished news article, both written in 1953, reveal that she was an equal player.
www.nature.com
November 8, 2025 at 7:32 AM
If you believe either that Franklin discovered the double helix, and / or Watson and Crick stole her data, ask yourself how you know this. Then take a read of this article.
Reposted by Jonathan Chiche
What a wonderful visit to the @college-de-france.fr! Thank you Denis Duboule and the faculty of the Collège.
A fabulous month of science, ideas, conversation and, of course, Paris. Catch my four lectures here: www.college-de-france.fr/fr/agenda/co...
🧪
A fabulous month of science, ideas, conversation and, of course, Paris. Catch my four lectures here: www.college-de-france.fr/fr/agenda/co...
🧪
November 7, 2025 at 10:59 PM
What a wonderful visit to the @college-de-france.fr! Thank you Denis Duboule and the faculty of the Collège.
A fabulous month of science, ideas, conversation and, of course, Paris. Catch my four lectures here: www.college-de-france.fr/fr/agenda/co...
🧪
A fabulous month of science, ideas, conversation and, of course, Paris. Catch my four lectures here: www.college-de-france.fr/fr/agenda/co...
🧪
Reposted by Jonathan Chiche
On the event of James Watson's death, I highly recommend this 2023 commentary from @matthewcobb.bsky.social and Nathaniel Comfort with crucial new insights into the discovery of the double helix. (And also check out Cobb's brand new biography of Francis Crick) www.nature.com/articles/d41...
What Rosalind Franklin truly contributed to the discovery of DNA’s structure
Franklin was no victim in how the DNA double helix was solved. An overlooked letter and an unpublished news article, both written in 1953, reveal that she was an equal player.
www.nature.com
November 7, 2025 at 9:25 PM
On the event of James Watson's death, I highly recommend this 2023 commentary from @matthewcobb.bsky.social and Nathaniel Comfort with crucial new insights into the discovery of the double helix. (And also check out Cobb's brand new biography of Francis Crick) www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Reposted by Jonathan Chiche
James D. Watson is dead. Stay tuned for some thoughts, based on my research on his biography, to be published soon.
While I write that up, y'all can throw tomatoes at this if you like. But I will offer a more nuanced take.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/s...
While I write that up, y'all can throw tomatoes at this if you like. But I will offer a more nuanced take.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/s...
James Watson, Co-Discoverer of the Structure of DNA, Is Dead at 97
www.nytimes.com
November 7, 2025 at 8:39 PM
James D. Watson is dead. Stay tuned for some thoughts, based on my research on his biography, to be published soon.
While I write that up, y'all can throw tomatoes at this if you like. But I will offer a more nuanced take.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/s...
While I write that up, y'all can throw tomatoes at this if you like. But I will offer a more nuanced take.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/s...
Reposted by Jonathan Chiche
Very sad to hear about Jim Watson’s death. If you think he was always a racist you are wrong. He refused to support genes/IQ research in the 70s. He boycotted Greece because of the military coup in 1967 and he called for a boycott of meetings in Chicago after the police riot of 1968. 1/2
November 7, 2025 at 7:57 PM
Very sad to hear about Jim Watson’s death. If you think he was always a racist you are wrong. He refused to support genes/IQ research in the 70s. He boycotted Greece because of the military coup in 1967 and he called for a boycott of meetings in Chicago after the police riot of 1968. 1/2
Reposted by Jonathan Chiche
Dès le 7 novembre at 5.30pm, 4 courses on the biology of hematopoietic stem cells from Dr #EmanuellePassague @columbiauniversity.bsky.social, guest Professor @college-de-france.fr. How to produce and rejuvenate your blood cells? Free attendance, no registration, no compulsory blood test🤘
October 26, 2025 at 8:29 AM
Dès le 7 novembre at 5.30pm, 4 courses on the biology of hematopoietic stem cells from Dr #EmanuellePassague @columbiauniversity.bsky.social, guest Professor @college-de-france.fr. How to produce and rejuvenate your blood cells? Free attendance, no registration, no compulsory blood test🤘
Reposted by Jonathan Chiche
One of the plates that appears in the UK edition of CRICK, but sadly not the US edition. A sketch of Francis by Odile, drawn in 1948-9 in the tiny Green Door flat they lived in on Thompsons Lane.
November 4, 2025 at 9:51 AM
One of the plates that appears in the UK edition of CRICK, but sadly not the US edition. A sketch of Francis by Odile, drawn in 1948-9 in the tiny Green Door flat they lived in on Thompsons Lane.
Reposted by Jonathan Chiche
The things you find in your photo roll #2. For some reason, in August 2013 I took a picture of this charming letter from Max Perutz to Jim Watson, written shortly before Max died.
November 4, 2025 at 9:17 AM
The things you find in your photo roll #2. For some reason, in August 2013 I took a picture of this charming letter from Max Perutz to Jim Watson, written shortly before Max died.
Reposted by Jonathan Chiche
Tomorrow Wedn 5th, lesson #4 of @neilshubin.bsky.social , guest Professor @college-de-france.fr ‘How do new biological inventions arise in evolution?’ ⚠️ Final seminar on his Paris tour 2025 😲 Dont’ miss this last opportunity to meet him and his inner fish. 11am, aquarium Guillaume Budé 🐠Free swim.
November 4, 2025 at 7:55 AM
Tomorrow Wedn 5th, lesson #4 of @neilshubin.bsky.social , guest Professor @college-de-france.fr ‘How do new biological inventions arise in evolution?’ ⚠️ Final seminar on his Paris tour 2025 😲 Dont’ miss this last opportunity to meet him and his inner fish. 11am, aquarium Guillaume Budé 🐠Free swim.
Reposted by Jonathan Chiche
Contact prints from photos by Frederick J. Foley 傅良圃. These photos were taken in Taiwan; we're guessing in the 1960s. The Ricci Institute has around 85,000 of Foley's photographic negatives that await digitization. They were given to us in 1985.
October 31, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Contact prints from photos by Frederick J. Foley 傅良圃. These photos were taken in Taiwan; we're guessing in the 1960s. The Ricci Institute has around 85,000 of Foley's photographic negatives that await digitization. They were given to us in 1985.
Reposted by Jonathan Chiche
Join us for an extraordinary evening with Nobel Laureate Svante Pääbo!
Prof Pääbo will present a FREE public talk titled “Of Neanderthals and Denisovans, and how they live on in many of us” at the @crick.ac.uk.
Register here: genetics.org.uk/events/of-ne...
Prof Pääbo will present a FREE public talk titled “Of Neanderthals and Denisovans, and how they live on in many of us” at the @crick.ac.uk.
Register here: genetics.org.uk/events/of-ne...
October 27, 2025 at 2:14 PM
Join us for an extraordinary evening with Nobel Laureate Svante Pääbo!
Prof Pääbo will present a FREE public talk titled “Of Neanderthals and Denisovans, and how they live on in many of us” at the @crick.ac.uk.
Register here: genetics.org.uk/events/of-ne...
Prof Pääbo will present a FREE public talk titled “Of Neanderthals and Denisovans, and how they live on in many of us” at the @crick.ac.uk.
Register here: genetics.org.uk/events/of-ne...
Reposted by Jonathan Chiche
Si vous êtes en région parisienne, il y a encore deux cours, l'accès est libre et gratuit, et @neilshubin.bsky.social est un fantastique orateur, passionné et passionnant !
www.college-de-france.fr/en/agenda/gu...
www.college-de-france.fr/en/agenda/gu...
October 24, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Si vous êtes en région parisienne, il y a encore deux cours, l'accès est libre et gratuit, et @neilshubin.bsky.social est un fantastique orateur, passionné et passionnant !
www.college-de-france.fr/en/agenda/gu...
www.college-de-france.fr/en/agenda/gu...
I feel silly for having forgotten about it, but I could not have gone anyway. Hopefully I shall be able to attend at least one of the next lectures.
My first lecture at the Collège de France @cdf1530 is up! In English... Three more to follow in the coming weeks.
With thanks to @denisduboule.bsky.social for the invitation! 🙏🇫🇷 🐠
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B6y...
With thanks to @denisduboule.bsky.social for the invitation! 🙏🇫🇷 🐠
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B6y...
Neil Shubin (1) - Denis Duboule (2025-2026)
YouTube video by Sciences de la vie - Collège de France
www.youtube.com
October 18, 2025 at 10:12 AM
I feel silly for having forgotten about it, but I could not have gone anyway. Hopefully I shall be able to attend at least one of the next lectures.
Excellent thread.
News in the history of molecular biology. The Science History Institute in Philadelphia has acquired a huge archive of correspondence and other scientific material from the pioneers of molecular biology (Franklin, Klug, Perutz, Delbrück etc, with items from Crick and Watson, too). 1/n
History of Molecular Biology Collection
This unparalleled collection includes Rosalind Franklin's historic 'Photo 51,' which revealed the double-helix structure of DNA.
www.sciencehistory.org
September 8, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Excellent thread.
Reposted by Jonathan Chiche
My first year as co-EIC of Vaccine also means my first year co-chairing the #19VaccineCongress with Florian Krammer & Ivan Hung, w/ local chair Ken Ishii.
Vaccination has saved hundreds of millions of lives worldwide, but it now faces a grave threat from my home country.
Vaccination has saved hundreds of millions of lives worldwide, but it now faces a grave threat from my home country.
September 6, 2025 at 1:05 PM
My first year as co-EIC of Vaccine also means my first year co-chairing the #19VaccineCongress with Florian Krammer & Ivan Hung, w/ local chair Ken Ishii.
Vaccination has saved hundreds of millions of lives worldwide, but it now faces a grave threat from my home country.
Vaccination has saved hundreds of millions of lives worldwide, but it now faces a grave threat from my home country.
Reposted by Jonathan Chiche
Excited to be giving 4 lectures in Paris in October at the Collège de France. Free and open to the public!
‘Our Ancestors the Fish’, a course by Prof. @neilshubin.bsky.social, Univ of Chicago, invited Prof @college-de-france.fr. in Paris @psl-univ.bsky.social. Four conferences, free access, open to everyone, with Tiktaalik as a guest star. Friends, colleagues and fossils in Paris and around, please RT🥁
September 4, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Excited to be giving 4 lectures in Paris in October at the Collège de France. Free and open to the public!
Reposted by Jonathan Chiche
This is really reporting 'inside' the response to the devastating Mpox outbreak in Sierra Leone.
Critical reading, as we are facing a future in which we will increasingly be confronted with emerging diseases, even preventable ones.
www.telegraph.co.uk/global-healt...
Critical reading, as we are facing a future in which we will increasingly be confronted with emerging diseases, even preventable ones.
www.telegraph.co.uk/global-healt...
August 13, 2025 at 11:07 PM
This is really reporting 'inside' the response to the devastating Mpox outbreak in Sierra Leone.
Critical reading, as we are facing a future in which we will increasingly be confronted with emerging diseases, even preventable ones.
www.telegraph.co.uk/global-healt...
Critical reading, as we are facing a future in which we will increasingly be confronted with emerging diseases, even preventable ones.
www.telegraph.co.uk/global-healt...
Reposted by Jonathan Chiche
Odile Crick’s famous drawing of the DNA double helix was added very late in the writing process, at Bragg’s suggestion. I have just unearthed these notes (photocopies - the location of the originals is unknown, tho I have a good idea) in the Wellcome - too late for my book, which has gone to press!
August 5, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Odile Crick’s famous drawing of the DNA double helix was added very late in the writing process, at Bragg’s suggestion. I have just unearthed these notes (photocopies - the location of the originals is unknown, tho I have a good idea) in the Wellcome - too late for my book, which has gone to press!
Reposted by Jonathan Chiche
In the fullest description of the double helix, incl a clear account of their debts to Wilkins and Franklin - the Crick and Watson paper no one ever reads - they describe their approach, which Watson liked to call “model building”. In this edit, Crick gave an earthier and more accurate description:
August 5, 2025 at 8:00 PM
In the fullest description of the double helix, incl a clear account of their debts to Wilkins and Franklin - the Crick and Watson paper no one ever reads - they describe their approach, which Watson liked to call “model building”. In this edit, Crick gave an earthier and more accurate description:
Reposted by Jonathan Chiche
Herewith, a short thread on what I learned from this book, Yóuzhèngzhì Luómǎ Pīnyīn 郵政制羅馬拼音 (Postal Romanization), published in 1961 by the Directorate General of Posts in Taiwan.
(Check out the prices in NT$, US$, and HK$. Books were cheap then.)
(Check out the prices in NT$, US$, and HK$. Books were cheap then.)
July 24, 2025 at 5:21 AM
Herewith, a short thread on what I learned from this book, Yóuzhèngzhì Luómǎ Pīnyīn 郵政制羅馬拼音 (Postal Romanization), published in 1961 by the Directorate General of Posts in Taiwan.
(Check out the prices in NT$, US$, and HK$. Books were cheap then.)
(Check out the prices in NT$, US$, and HK$. Books were cheap then.)
Reposted by Jonathan Chiche
Rétrospective Edward Yang au festival La Rochelle Cinéma / Fema
Rétrospective Edward Yang au festival La Rochelle Cinéma, Taiwan Info
Avec le soutien du Centre culturel de Taiwan à Paris (CCTP), la 53e édition du festival La Rochelle Cinéma (Fema) présente du 27 juin au 6 juillet une rétrospective ...
taiwaninfo.nat.gov.tw
June 30, 2025 at 8:39 AM
Rétrospective Edward Yang au festival La Rochelle Cinéma / Fema
Reposted by Jonathan Chiche
It's always a good day when you see Liu Bannong's name pop up in the old Sorbonne PhD register ✨
There were a lot of Chinese students in France back then, but he was the first one among them to go for the full doctorate in Letters at the Sorbonne that required *two* theses
There were a lot of Chinese students in France back then, but he was the first one among them to go for the full doctorate in Letters at the Sorbonne that required *two* theses
June 26, 2025 at 1:13 PM
It's always a good day when you see Liu Bannong's name pop up in the old Sorbonne PhD register ✨
There were a lot of Chinese students in France back then, but he was the first one among them to go for the full doctorate in Letters at the Sorbonne that required *two* theses
There were a lot of Chinese students in France back then, but he was the first one among them to go for the full doctorate in Letters at the Sorbonne that required *two* theses
Henry Laurens, 15 décembre 2021, dans son cours au Collège de France "Colonial/post colonial, du bon usage des concepts" : "Didier Raoult se posait dès 2013 comme le tenant d’une science postmoderne… donc ça pouvait nous prévenir pour plus tard". (www.college-de-france.fr/fr/agenda/co..., 1:35:47.)
www.college-de-france.fr
June 25, 2025 at 7:02 AM
Henry Laurens, 15 décembre 2021, dans son cours au Collège de France "Colonial/post colonial, du bon usage des concepts" : "Didier Raoult se posait dès 2013 comme le tenant d’une science postmoderne… donc ça pouvait nous prévenir pour plus tard". (www.college-de-france.fr/fr/agenda/co..., 1:35:47.)