Kevin Pels
Kevin Pels
@kcpels.bsky.social
Runner. Will probably use this more when the other thing totally breaks.
Cool to see a follow-up study in humans on some research I covered nearly 7 years ago, back when Massive Sci was a thing: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40674481/
Controlled colonization of the human gut with a genetically engineered microbial therapeutic - PubMed
Precision microbiome programming for therapeutic applications is limited by challenges in achieving reproducible colonic colonization. Previously, we created an exclusive niche that we used to engraft...
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
July 18, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Reposted by Kevin Pels
A few additional interesting points about Jordan Lasker. One, he appled to work as a graduate student in my lab years ago:

bsky.app/profile/ent3...
The saga of the NYT's anti-Mamdani story taken from notorious white supremacist Jordan Lasker (they call him an "academic") gets even more amazing: Lasker's only impactful paper, which claimed white people are smarter, is infamous: it misused data so badly it got his tenured co-author fired. 2/
July 4, 2025 at 12:33 PM
Reposted by Kevin Pels
I'm hearing a lot of "Jews in New York are scared" today. So, a couple of thoughts: 1) Jews should be angry, not scared. We were targeted with a relentless, heavily funded barrage of lies playing off of real fears of antisemitism by a man who came within 7 points of winning. That reeks of contempt.>
June 25, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Reposted by Kevin Pels
What is happening at the CDC, NIH, NSF, and the federal government writ large is very familiar. It's a book burning. A late night post from me for @sequencermag.bsky.social.

www.sequencermag.com/this-is-a-bo...
This is a book burning
The Trump administration's actions at the CDC, NIH, and NSF are the familiar tactics of fascists and dictators
www.sequencermag.com
February 2, 2025 at 12:50 AM
Reposted by Kevin Pels
Dollar stores are kind of dying.
The claim in the story is that they're not focused on the web, but from context it just sounds like they have nothing to offer but garbage and shoppers aren't buying it

www.nbcnews.com/business/bus...
Dollar stores are struggling to win over bargain hunters — here's why
Those results are a sharp turnabout for the dollar stores, which were once Wall Street darlings.
www.nbcnews.com
December 3, 2024 at 9:54 PM
Reposted by Kevin Pels
In one of the strangest chapters of my life, I spent several months in the trenches of Big Headlight, looking to understand just how and why headlights became brighter than the sun. Answers, graphs, penis sketches—it's all here, on the brand new Ringer site:
www.theringer.com/2024/12/03/t...
Asleep at the Wheel in the Headlight Brightness Wars
The crusade against bright headlights has picked up speed in recent years, in large part due to a couple of Reddit nerds. Could they know what’s best for the auto industry better than the auto industr...
www.theringer.com
December 3, 2024 at 6:37 PM
@michaelhobbes.bsky.social which collection of Kelly Link short stories did you reference in the episode on 48 Laws of Power? Referring to the quote "our love will build a paradise" - thanks
March 18, 2024 at 1:16 PM
Reposted by Kevin Pels
Reading an ad-stuffed website with my Apple Vision goggles on. Smiling faintly as a State Farm ad begins auto-playing somewhere on the page, causing the goggles to grow hotter and hotter, poaching my eyeballs like eggs.
February 1, 2024 at 8:47 PM