Vaughn Cooper
LightNews LightNews
banner
vscooper.micropopbio.org
Vaughn Cooper
@vscooper.micropopbio.org
7.7K followers 1.5K following 1.4K posts
Evangelist for the study of evolution in action by everyone.
Pitt Prof | EvolvingSTEM | biofilms | EvMed | genomics entrepreneur (@SeqCoast.bsky.social, @midauthorbio.bsky.social) | ASM President-Elect | exercise addict ~ swim bike run
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
vscooper.micropopbio.org
Vaughn Cooper @vscooper.micropopbio.org · Jan 21
I'm incredibly honored by this opportunity to serve as President-Elect of @asm.org starting this summer. Looking forward to working with the Board, ASM leadership ,and staff to help advance the microbial sciences. I'm also glad to share my Vision statement, please join us!
asm.org/Press-Releas...
Reposted by Vaughn Cooper
joshuasweitz.bsky.social
Macedo and Lee misrepresent what happened during the pandemic and are unable to confront Covid's actual toll, presumably because it undermines their premise.

Congratulations, I guess.

joshuasweitz.substack.com/p/revisionis...
December 24, 2025 at 1:22 PM
Reposted by Vaughn Cooper
joshuajfriedman.com
To get the full effect, you have to imagine the computer beeping on each syllable of "Jingle Bells"
December 23, 2025 at 7:45 PM
vscooper.micropopbio.org
This is totally worth 5 minutes of your time and probably should be in every biology class. Nature is awesome.
neal.fun/size-of-life/
Size of Life
From an amoeba to a blue whale
neal.fun
December 23, 2025 at 7:23 PM
Reposted by Vaughn Cooper
superelastic.bsky.social
and the winner of the "2025 best thing on Internet" has just arrived
neal.fun/size-of-life/

@carlbergstrom.com
Size of Life
From an amoeba to a blue whale
neal.fun
December 23, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Reposted by Vaughn Cooper
triggerloop.bsky.social
Helene was so giving to others about her battle, and went through to make it into maybe the top 1% of survivors of pancreatic cancer, before succumbing Dec 19, 2025 all while losing her father to it. She supported @letswinpc.org and the family asks for you to consider supporting them as well.💔
December 22, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Reposted by Vaughn Cooper
arvidagren.bsky.social
With the holiday season in full swing, this this how to cut your round Christmas cake on scientific principles.

Courtesy of Francis Galton, in Nature Dec 20, 1906.
Screenshot of the full article. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for this or any other part of NATURE. No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] Cutting a Round Cake on Scientific Principles. CHRISTMAS suggests cakes, and these the wish on my part to describe a method of cutting them that I have recently devised to my own amusement and satisfaction. The problem to be solved was, “given a round tea-cake of some 5 inches across, and two persons of moderate appetite to eat it, in what way should it be cut so as to leave a minimum of exposed surface to become dry?” The ordinary method of cutting out a wedge is very faulty in this respect. The results to be aimed at are so to cut the cake that the remaining portions shall fit together. Consequently the chords (or the arcs) of the circumferences of these portions must be equal. The direction of the first two vertical planes of section is unimportant; they may be parallel, as in the first figure, or they may enclose a wedge. The cuts shown on the figures represent those made with the intention of letting the cake last for three days, each successive operation having removed about one-third of the area of the original disc. A common india-rubber band embraces the whole and keeps its segments together. Broken straight lines show intended cuts. Ordinary straight lines show the cuts that have been made. The segments are kept in apposition by a common elastic band that encloses the whole. In the above figures about one-third of the area of the original disc is removed by each of the two successive operations. F. G.
December 22, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Reposted by Vaughn Cooper
nauerbach.com
oh my god

STOP KICKING
December 20, 2025 at 7:19 PM
Reposted by Vaughn Cooper
microgem.bsky.social
‘‘Tis the season!! Editors, rejoice.
a woman wearing a christmas wreath on her head with the words tis the season written above her
ALT: a woman wearing a christmas wreath on her head with the words tis the season written above her
media.tenor.com
December 20, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Reposted by Vaughn Cooper
molbioevol.bsky.social
@laasya2.bsky.social @deepaagashe.bsky.social et al. quantified the growth cost of mistranslation rates and exposure to antibiotics in E. coli, finding that altered translation accuracy can shape adaptive outcomes.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf312

🖌️ Nishant Asawadekar

#evobio #molbio
MBE | Cost of Altered Translation Accuracy Shapes Adaptation to Antibiotics in E. coli Bacteria with varying levels of accuracy in protein synthesis (blue cells, using tRNAs to produce amino acid chains) face antibiotics (purple demons). Mistranslation exacts a fitness cost, and as errors increase (red amino acids), so does the cost (the red rubbish heap under each cell). Wild type, mistranslating and hyper-accurate cells also experience different ancestral fitness costs from antibiotic exposure. Strains adapt to antibiotics with varying success, using distinct mutations (represented by the nucleotide sequences). Image credit: Nishant Asawadekar
December 19, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Reposted by Vaughn Cooper
needhibhalla.bsky.social
Hey all, I reached out to the PO of my NIGMS MIRA to ask if the gov't shut down, and rescheduling of study sections, might allow for some accommodation to the standard rule that PIs cannot resubmit a MIRA while their MIRA (or other RPG) is under review (waiting in scores or summary statements) 🧪
December 19, 2025 at 7:17 PM
vscooper.micropopbio.org
Realizing this is an evergreen 🎄 thread is helping me get into the holiday spirit. Thanks everyone for your replies, keep 'em coming 🥂
vscooper.micropopbio.org Vaughn Cooper @vscooper.micropopbio.org · 7d
For the life of me, why do people submit manuscripts now? My EIC inbox has rarely been fuller, and there's no way I'm sending these to Associate Editors until 2026.

Friends don't let friends submit in late December.
barack obama is sitting in a chair making a funny face and asking why tho ?
ALT: barack obama is sitting in a chair making a funny face and asking why tho ?
media.tenor.com
December 19, 2025 at 9:03 PM
vscooper.micropopbio.org
For the life of me, why do people submit manuscripts now? My EIC inbox has rarely been fuller, and there's no way I'm sending these to Associate Editors until 2026.

Friends don't let friends submit in late December.
barack obama is sitting in a chair making a funny face and asking why tho ?
ALT: barack obama is sitting in a chair making a funny face and asking why tho ?
media.tenor.com
December 19, 2025 at 7:57 PM
Reposted by Vaughn Cooper
surtlab.bsky.social
Live thread of the NSF biology virtual office hour:

🧵
December 18, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Reposted by Vaughn Cooper
gibbological.bsky.social
If you missed the 2025 @isbscience.org Virtual Microbiome Symposium (theme: how microbial metabolites influence the brain, the immune system, & metabolism), the videos of the talks and the panel discussion are now available here:

youtube.com/playlist?lis...

Thanks to all who helped make it happen!
2025 ISB Microbiome Symposium - YouTube
The 2025 ISB Microbiome Symposium was a virtual scientific event hosted by the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) on December 12, 2025. The symposium brough...
youtube.com
December 17, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Reposted by Vaughn Cooper
prsecor.bsky.social
Looking for a paid summer research experience? Apply to MSU’s Extreme Biofilms REU and work on cutting-edge biofilm science in extreme environments. No prior research experience needed.

#MicroSky
#PhageSky
December 16, 2025 at 10:05 PM
Reposted by Vaughn Cooper
sazimi.bsky.social
Recent work from the lab showing how presence of O-antigen deficient Pseudomonas variants change aggregate assembly and microbiogeography of infection

journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
Whole-tissue imaging reveals intrastrain diversity shapes the spatial organization of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in a murine infection model | mSphere
Intrastrain genetic and phenotypic diversity within Pseudomonas aeruginosa populations is common in chronic pulmonary infections. While this intrastrain heterogeneity is a hallmark of chronic infection, its consequences for the spatial organization of P. aeruginosa within the airways remain unclear. Here, we demonstrate that the loss of O-specific antigen in a subpopulation of P. aeruginosa significantly alters the spatial architecture of P. aeruginosa, without changing the total population size or composition. Using a combination of tissue clearing and hybridization chain reaction RNA-FISH in a murine lung infection model, we mapped the localization of genetically distinct P. aeruginosa variants in mixed populations in vivo. These findings reveal that genetic diversification within a strain can reshape the infection landscape at the micron scale, highlighting the overlooked role of intrastrain dynamics in shaping the microbiogeography of infections and influencing host-pathogen interactions.
journals.asm.org
December 16, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Reposted by Vaughn Cooper
josh-levy.bsky.social
Here's my thread on this preprint/project, in case you'd prefer a primer prior to digging into the whole thing! bsky.app/profile/josh...
December 16, 2025 at 4:04 PM
Reposted by Vaughn Cooper
surtlab.bsky.social
If you’ve ever been on an NSF panel, you know how damaging these “reforms” will be to research and science
December 16, 2025 at 12:01 AM
vscooper.micropopbio.org
This is a disaster. I would not be where I am today without the constructive (and yes, sometimes frustrating) reviews my NSF proposals received as a young investigator. This feedback didn't come from the POs but rather the peer reviewers and panelists who saw how I was trying to enter the field
hleisthen.bsky.social HL Eisthen, defective human product @hleisthen.bsky.social · 11d
NSF now planning to let POs largely decide what gets funded, and to send PIs reviews that are only 3-5 sentences long. They don't have to use outside reviewers (except maybe 1) and don't have to convene panels. (1/5)
NSF pares down grant-review process, reducing influence of outside scientists
Memo cites overburdened staff, but some say move also aims to elevate White House priorities
www.science.org
December 16, 2025 at 2:12 AM
Reposted by Vaughn Cooper
kheyduk.bsky.social
Dunno who needs to hear this, but before your start writing your reviewer comments, eat a cookie. Only you can prevent rude reviews.
December 15, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Reposted by Vaughn Cooper
hollybik.bsky.social
DNA is the best kind of time machine - really feels like we’re in a golden age of big data studies like this. Can’t wait to read!
sandinmm.bsky.social Miguel Méndez Sandín @sandinmm.bsky.social · 12d
New preprint out! Using ~75k environmental OTUs + 77 fossil calibrations, we reconstructed a Proterozoic timeline of eukaryote evolution. Our results show crown eukaryotes were already diversifying >1.6 Ga, long before the first undisputed fossils (~1.05 Ga).
🔗 DOI: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
December 15, 2025 at 12:39 PM
Reposted by Vaughn Cooper
vscooper.micropopbio.org
The 🐐 Katie Ledecky just became the first woman in history to break 15 minutes in the 1650yd freestyle.

She did it all alone at the hometown Maryland meet that bears her name.

What a legend, what a leader!
December 14, 2025 at 11:28 PM
Reposted by Vaughn Cooper
frogandtoadbot.bsky.social
Toad sipped his tea. “Frog,” he asked, “are you making this up?”

“Maybe yes and maybe no,” said Frog.
Toad leans forward in his chair, sipping tea, transfixed by Frog's ghost story. From "Shivers" In *Days with Frog and Toad*
December 14, 2025 at 11:37 PM
vscooper.micropopbio.org
The 🐐 Katie Ledecky just became the first woman in history to break 15 minutes in the 1650yd freestyle.

She did it all alone at the hometown Maryland meet that bears her name.

What a legend, what a leader!
December 14, 2025 at 11:28 PM
vscooper.micropopbio.org
Man, the new doc about Jeff Buckley is incredible. Impossible not to appreciate/ 💔 him more, even for stans like me.

Can’t wait to rewatch with my boys

youtu.be/DRrcgLRX8Qc?...
It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley - Official Trailer | Directed by Amy Berg
YouTube video by Magnolia Pictures & Magnet Releasing
youtu.be
December 14, 2025 at 11:13 PM