Mukund Thattai
@thattai.bsky.social
Physicist fascinated by biology, trying to understand how cells work. Also: public engagement, science and culture, puzzles.
Pinned
Mukund Thattai
@thattai.bsky.social
· Nov 19
My most prized possession, and my deepest regret.
Carl Sagan is the reason I became a scientist, it was a dream come true to be accepted into his class.
But he was suffering from cancer, and unable to teach. I never met him. He died a year later, aged 62.
Sagan would have been 90 this November.
Carl Sagan is the reason I became a scientist, it was a dream come true to be accepted into his class.
But he was suffering from cancer, and unable to teach. I never met him. He died a year later, aged 62.
Sagan would have been 90 this November.
It was a pleasure talking to Prof. Mahesh Panchagnula of IITM for his podcast.
Our conversation went far beyond career advice, covering how living systems work, the role of math in the life sciences, and where groundbreaking discoveries in biology come from.
youtu.be/wZeUX3G13pk?...
Our conversation went far beyond career advice, covering how living systems work, the role of math in the life sciences, and where groundbreaking discoveries in biology come from.
youtu.be/wZeUX3G13pk?...
CRISPR, Vaccines & Biotech: Exploring Life Sciences with Prof. Mukund Thattai | Episode 22
YouTube video by Prof Mahesh Panchagnula
youtu.be
October 1, 2025 at 5:46 AM
It was a pleasure talking to Prof. Mahesh Panchagnula of IITM for his podcast.
Our conversation went far beyond career advice, covering how living systems work, the role of math in the life sciences, and where groundbreaking discoveries in biology come from.
youtu.be/wZeUX3G13pk?...
Our conversation went far beyond career advice, covering how living systems work, the role of math in the life sciences, and where groundbreaking discoveries in biology come from.
youtu.be/wZeUX3G13pk?...
Gutting the humanities will not save the sciences. This piece is worth reflecting on: "The broad liberal arts education Carl Sagan received at the University of Chicago played an important role in his development as a scientist and intellectual."
www.loc.gov/collections/...
www.loc.gov/collections/...
August 24, 2025 at 12:26 PM
Gutting the humanities will not save the sciences. This piece is worth reflecting on: "The broad liberal arts education Carl Sagan received at the University of Chicago played an important role in his development as a scientist and intellectual."
www.loc.gov/collections/...
www.loc.gov/collections/...
I set out to review the evolution of eukaryotic intracellular traffic, but along the way a new hypothesis came into focus: maybe the earliest membrane carriers were tubules, not coated vesicles!
New preprint: ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
Here’s the idea. 🧵
New preprint: ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
Here’s the idea. 🧵
August 4, 2025 at 8:34 PM
I set out to review the evolution of eukaryotic intracellular traffic, but along the way a new hypothesis came into focus: maybe the earliest membrane carriers were tubules, not coated vesicles!
New preprint: ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
Here’s the idea. 🧵
New preprint: ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
Here’s the idea. 🧵
I'll be in Kyoto all week, at the joint meeting of the Asian International Conference on Mathematical Biology & Japanese Society for Mathematical Biology.
It features a broad lineup of topics and interesting talks, with speakers from across Asia and the world. pub.confit.atlas.jp/en/event/acm...
It features a broad lineup of topics and interesting talks, with speakers from across Asia and the world. pub.confit.atlas.jp/en/event/acm...
pub.confit.atlas.jp
July 6, 2025 at 4:15 PM
I'll be in Kyoto all week, at the joint meeting of the Asian International Conference on Mathematical Biology & Japanese Society for Mathematical Biology.
It features a broad lineup of topics and interesting talks, with speakers from across Asia and the world. pub.confit.atlas.jp/en/event/acm...
It features a broad lineup of topics and interesting talks, with speakers from across Asia and the world. pub.confit.atlas.jp/en/event/acm...
New efforts in conservation and venom research are helping humans and snakes co-exist. So many interesting facts I did not know, in this great piece by Indulekha Aravind.
www.thehindu.com/society/indi...
www.thehindu.com/society/indi...
Snakebite capital | What India must get right
Discover how experts in India are revolutionizing snakebite treatment and research to save lives and protect communities.
www.thehindu.com
July 6, 2025 at 4:34 AM
New efforts in conservation and venom research are helping humans and snakes co-exist. So many interesting facts I did not know, in this great piece by Indulekha Aravind.
www.thehindu.com/society/indi...
www.thehindu.com/society/indi...
A truly unexpected discovery, and an important insight into how "life finds a way"!
We have a new paper out on an issue that has been discussed for more than a century -- how can fundamental biophysical constraints on nutrient transport be overcome to solve one of the most significant challenges associated with the evolution of multicellularity?
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
June 21, 2025 at 5:41 AM
A truly unexpected discovery, and an important insight into how "life finds a way"!
It was great to see the exhibit "South Asia and the Institute" at Science Gallery Bengaluru.
MIT played an outsized role in pre- and post-independence India, beginning with the first Indian student in 1882 (when MIT was barely two decades old!) digital-exhibits.libraries.mit.edu/s/south-asia...
MIT played an outsized role in pre- and post-independence India, beginning with the first Indian student in 1882 (when MIT was barely two decades old!) digital-exhibits.libraries.mit.edu/s/south-asia...
Timeline
digital-exhibits.libraries.mit.edu
January 19, 2025 at 4:20 PM
It was great to see the exhibit "South Asia and the Institute" at Science Gallery Bengaluru.
MIT played an outsized role in pre- and post-independence India, beginning with the first Indian student in 1882 (when MIT was barely two decades old!) digital-exhibits.libraries.mit.edu/s/south-asia...
MIT played an outsized role in pre- and post-independence India, beginning with the first Indian student in 1882 (when MIT was barely two decades old!) digital-exhibits.libraries.mit.edu/s/south-asia...
Raj Rewal, whose iconic brutalist Hall of Nations in New Delhi was demolished by the government in 2017, is also the architect of the National Centre for Biological Sciences campus. The nonagenarian recently shared his striking sketches from the 1960s: www.architecturaldigest.in/story/master....
January 2, 2025 at 6:37 AM
Raj Rewal, whose iconic brutalist Hall of Nations in New Delhi was demolished by the government in 2017, is also the architect of the National Centre for Biological Sciences campus. The nonagenarian recently shared his striking sketches from the 1960s: www.architecturaldigest.in/story/master....
Map of Asia, Africa and Europe, in the little-known Mollusc projection.
December 24, 2024 at 2:00 PM
Map of Asia, Africa and Europe, in the little-known Mollusc projection.
Reposted by Mukund Thattai
Lots of excitement at the #MCBM workshop as participants image #UExM gels! NCBS pond is packed with biodiversity! Thanks @thattai.bsky.social, Sonia Sen & Anshika Singh for putting together a fantastic workshop. It has been a blast interacting with all the fantastic participants & TAs!
December 9, 2024 at 1:11 PM
Lots of excitement at the #MCBM workshop as participants image #UExM gels! NCBS pond is packed with biodiversity! Thanks @thattai.bsky.social, Sonia Sen & Anshika Singh for putting together a fantastic workshop. It has been a blast interacting with all the fantastic participants & TAs!
#blrlitfest on Dec 15th: I'll anchor a panel on
"How Science Speaks" with science writers @anilananth.bsky.social and @simonsinghnerd.bsky.social, astrophysicist Annapurni Subramaniam, and structural biologist Venki Ramakrishnan.
It's free, do attend!
bangaloreliteraturefestival.org/year-2024/sc...
"How Science Speaks" with science writers @anilananth.bsky.social and @simonsinghnerd.bsky.social, astrophysicist Annapurni Subramaniam, and structural biologist Venki Ramakrishnan.
It's free, do attend!
bangaloreliteraturefestival.org/year-2024/sc...
Schedule 2024 - Bangalore Literature Festival 2024
Schedule for Bangalore Literature Festival 2024.
bangaloreliteraturefestival.org
December 7, 2024 at 4:10 AM
#blrlitfest on Dec 15th: I'll anchor a panel on
"How Science Speaks" with science writers @anilananth.bsky.social and @simonsinghnerd.bsky.social, astrophysicist Annapurni Subramaniam, and structural biologist Venki Ramakrishnan.
It's free, do attend!
bangaloreliteraturefestival.org/year-2024/sc...
"How Science Speaks" with science writers @anilananth.bsky.social and @simonsinghnerd.bsky.social, astrophysicist Annapurni Subramaniam, and structural biologist Venki Ramakrishnan.
It's free, do attend!
bangaloreliteraturefestival.org/year-2024/sc...
Our workshop has kicked off! Amazing instructors Aditya Nayak, @hiralshah.bsky.social and @stpalli.bsky.social will teach participants from all over India how to use expansion microscopy, holography and a flatbed scanner to study the shapes and structures of protists! www.ncbs.res.in/events/marin...
December 4, 2024 at 12:21 AM
Our workshop has kicked off! Amazing instructors Aditya Nayak, @hiralshah.bsky.social and @stpalli.bsky.social will teach participants from all over India how to use expansion microscopy, holography and a flatbed scanner to study the shapes and structures of protists! www.ncbs.res.in/events/marin...
The Indian muntjac (commonly known as the barking deer) has the lowest known chromosome number of any mammal - just three pairs of chromosomes!
The closely related Chinese muntjac has 23 pairs of chromosomes, just like humans.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Souther...
The closely related Chinese muntjac has 23 pairs of chromosomes, just like humans.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Souther...
November 26, 2024 at 4:12 AM
The Indian muntjac (commonly known as the barking deer) has the lowest known chromosome number of any mammal - just three pairs of chromosomes!
The closely related Chinese muntjac has 23 pairs of chromosomes, just like humans.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Souther...
The closely related Chinese muntjac has 23 pairs of chromosomes, just like humans.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Souther...
I first visited KITP-UCSB as a grad student in 2003, and immediately fell in love with it. Here is the story of how my notebook from a 2010 KITP program I co-ran, on evolutionary cell biology, became the source of research questions that keep me busy to this day! www.kitp.ucsb.edu/sites/defaul...
November 24, 2024 at 2:11 AM
I first visited KITP-UCSB as a grad student in 2003, and immediately fell in love with it. Here is the story of how my notebook from a 2010 KITP program I co-ran, on evolutionary cell biology, became the source of research questions that keep me busy to this day! www.kitp.ucsb.edu/sites/defaul...
Proteins fold in bits and pieces, first forming small structures that eventually coalesce into the native state. But the path is fraught with local traps: the protein must escape these to find the global minimum.
If you want a feel for this search process, you should play Quintimble.
quintumble.com
If you want a feel for this search process, you should play Quintimble.
quintumble.com
Quintumble
The simple and intriguing 5-word puzzle
quintumble.com
November 21, 2024 at 3:54 PM
Proteins fold in bits and pieces, first forming small structures that eventually coalesce into the native state. But the path is fraught with local traps: the protein must escape these to find the global minimum.
If you want a feel for this search process, you should play Quintimble.
quintumble.com
If you want a feel for this search process, you should play Quintimble.
quintumble.com
I got to know the extraordinary Prof. Devy during his year as the Obaid Siddiqi Chair at NCBS. His push to survey India's myriad languages counters the growing linguistic and cultural homogenization of the country.
In this week's New Yorker: My profile of Ganesh Devy, who assembled the first Indian survey of languages in a century, and who now lives in Dharwad as a protest against forces who will kill writers and impose religions and languages [1]
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Should a Country Speak a Single Language?
In India, one of the world’s most polyglot countries, the government wants more than a billion people to embrace Hindi. One scholar thinks that would be a loss.
www.newyorker.com
November 20, 2024 at 10:10 PM
I got to know the extraordinary Prof. Devy during his year as the Obaid Siddiqi Chair at NCBS. His push to survey India's myriad languages counters the growing linguistic and cultural homogenization of the country.
Hunting for neutrinos in one of the world's deepest mines: @sandygrains.bsky.social tells the story of the the Kolar Gold Fields.
If you visit Science Gallery Bengaluru's Sci560 exhibit, you can see original artefacts from those historic experiments.
theprint.in/science/how-...
If you visit Science Gallery Bengaluru's Sci560 exhibit, you can see original artefacts from those historic experiments.
theprint.in/science/how-...
How experiments at Karnataka's Kolar Gold Fields are last remaining piece of India’s neutrino legacy
The first groundbreaking finding was in 1965, with the world’s first atmospheric neutrino detection. Since the labs began closing in 1993, efforts to advance research have failed.
theprint.in
November 20, 2024 at 3:49 PM
Hunting for neutrinos in one of the world's deepest mines: @sandygrains.bsky.social tells the story of the the Kolar Gold Fields.
If you visit Science Gallery Bengaluru's Sci560 exhibit, you can see original artefacts from those historic experiments.
theprint.in/science/how-...
If you visit Science Gallery Bengaluru's Sci560 exhibit, you can see original artefacts from those historic experiments.
theprint.in/science/how-...
My most prized possession, and my deepest regret.
Carl Sagan is the reason I became a scientist, it was a dream come true to be accepted into his class.
But he was suffering from cancer, and unable to teach. I never met him. He died a year later, aged 62.
Sagan would have been 90 this November.
Carl Sagan is the reason I became a scientist, it was a dream come true to be accepted into his class.
But he was suffering from cancer, and unable to teach. I never met him. He died a year later, aged 62.
Sagan would have been 90 this November.
November 19, 2024 at 4:17 AM
My most prized possession, and my deepest regret.
Carl Sagan is the reason I became a scientist, it was a dream come true to be accepted into his class.
But he was suffering from cancer, and unable to teach. I never met him. He died a year later, aged 62.
Sagan would have been 90 this November.
Carl Sagan is the reason I became a scientist, it was a dream come true to be accepted into his class.
But he was suffering from cancer, and unable to teach. I never met him. He died a year later, aged 62.
Sagan would have been 90 this November.