Ary Shalizi
@unsequenced.bsky.social
Biologist, book nerd, parent, hype skeptic in no particular order.
Phenotypic screening for cell and chemical biology.
Also, random book reviews at link.
unsequenced.life
Phenotypic screening for cell and chemical biology.
Also, random book reviews at link.
unsequenced.life
My father’s first visit to CA since the girls were born, showing his grandkids around the Berkeley campus.
“I think those are the same tables they had when I was studying architecture.”
“Yes, we ran down to that stream after Reagan ordered the soldiers to teargas the protestors.”
“I think those are the same tables they had when I was studying architecture.”
“Yes, we ran down to that stream after Reagan ordered the soldiers to teargas the protestors.”
December 28, 2025 at 9:02 PM
My father’s first visit to CA since the girls were born, showing his grandkids around the Berkeley campus.
“I think those are the same tables they had when I was studying architecture.”
“Yes, we ran down to that stream after Reagan ordered the soldiers to teargas the protestors.”
“I think those are the same tables they had when I was studying architecture.”
“Yes, we ran down to that stream after Reagan ordered the soldiers to teargas the protestors.”
So does “_____ is a Christmas movie” discourse end today, or does it continue through the feast of Epiphany?
December 25, 2025 at 5:22 PM
So does “_____ is a Christmas movie” discourse end today, or does it continue through the feast of Epiphany?
I feel like just the CAD files for . @cirquedusoleil.bsky.social must be incredible. The amount of technical effort necessary to pull off an effortless performance — breaking neither bones nor the illusion — is phenomenal. Kids should know that STEM skills are valuable for the arts, too.
December 22, 2025 at 2:37 AM
I feel like just the CAD files for . @cirquedusoleil.bsky.social must be incredible. The amount of technical effort necessary to pull off an effortless performance — breaking neither bones nor the illusion — is phenomenal. Kids should know that STEM skills are valuable for the arts, too.
![Excerpt from chapter 6 of Italo Calvino’s novel “If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler”, describing the work of the Organization for the Electronic Production of Homogenized Literary Works (OEPHLW), which produces books using “computers… capable of completing [an unfinished manuscript] easily, programmed as they are to develop all the elements of a text with perfect fidelity to the stylistic and contextual models of the author.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:qvcmzr3ttriadi27yamf6k5v/bafkreiabtraod7lozipvmltzn4lb2zst6qqwwv6cfnf27dy2xxqvlqt26q@jpeg)
Wife picked up an advent candle on a trip to Denmark, and we used it to light the shamash for the hanukkiah, with some friends from the neighborhood.
December 15, 2025 at 4:58 AM
Wife picked up an advent candle on a trip to Denmark, and we used it to light the shamash for the hanukkiah, with some friends from the neighborhood.
Hey, it's the silver anniversary of passing my quals! 3 cheers for off-topic learning about DNA repair that proved very career-relevant two decades later...
And gratitude for committee member Phil Leder, who provided a nice afternoon tea to the other examiners, after changing the room last minute.
And gratitude for committee member Phil Leder, who provided a nice afternoon tea to the other examiners, after changing the room last minute.
December 5, 2025 at 8:36 PM
Hey, it's the silver anniversary of passing my quals! 3 cheers for off-topic learning about DNA repair that proved very career-relevant two decades later...
And gratitude for committee member Phil Leder, who provided a nice afternoon tea to the other examiners, after changing the room last minute.
And gratitude for committee member Phil Leder, who provided a nice afternoon tea to the other examiners, after changing the room last minute.
Wait, Forrest Gump is named after Nathan Bedford Forrest? I learned about NBF from Shelby Foote and Ken Burns...
December 5, 2025 at 7:28 PM
Wait, Forrest Gump is named after Nathan Bedford Forrest? I learned about NBF from Shelby Foote and Ken Burns...
Ingrid Duner published some fresh research into Huxley and transhumanism, and found a note from Huxley pointing to a play by TS Eliot as his source for the term, replacing the “scientific humanism” and “evolutionary humanism” he had used for the same constellation of ideas since the 1920s.
December 4, 2025 at 2:12 AM
Ingrid Duner published some fresh research into Huxley and transhumanism, and found a note from Huxley pointing to a play by TS Eliot as his source for the term, replacing the “scientific humanism” and “evolutionary humanism” he had used for the same constellation of ideas since the 1920s.
“Jeffrey Epstein invited Deepak Chopra to lunch with George Church” is a sentence too wild to contemplate. Would they split one of those mammoth meatballs?
(Chopra had other plans that day.)
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_029203.txt.pdf
(Chopra had other plans that day.)
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_029203.txt.pdf
November 14, 2025 at 12:54 PM
“Jeffrey Epstein invited Deepak Chopra to lunch with George Church” is a sentence too wild to contemplate. Would they split one of those mammoth meatballs?
(Chopra had other plans that day.)
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_029203.txt.pdf
(Chopra had other plans that day.)
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_029203.txt.pdf
Text I received from a former labmate last night. Roughly sums up the vibe among molecular biologists I know.
November 8, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Text I received from a former labmate last night. Roughly sums up the vibe among molecular biologists I know.
What’s the connection between the Cuban revolution, the obesity epidemic, and GLP-1 agonists like Ozempic?
The history of #biotechnology is wild! Currently reading Robert Bud’s fascinating “The Uses of Life,” and came across the following passage:
1/n
The history of #biotechnology is wild! Currently reading Robert Bud’s fascinating “The Uses of Life,” and came across the following passage:
1/n
![Passage from “The Uses of Life”, by Robert Bud. Key section states
“With high sugar prices in the United States during the early 1960s, [Japanese] work [on glucose metabolic enzymes] came to the notice of the Clinton Corn Processing Company, which in 1967 launched a complex enzyme system. It was commercially viable, but it was only in 1974 that Novo, and Gist Brocades in the Netherlands, developed cheap and effective methods. In the United States, this led to the widespread replacement of sunrise in the soft drinks industry. The 1975 glucose isomerase sales of $15m had increased to $40m by 1977 and $50m in 1980.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:qvcmzr3ttriadi27yamf6k5v/bafkreigfuu5utq2s7levjktfvujhvg2dtvzisnkwmy6vdonfxt3v6bbv44@jpeg)
October 6, 2025 at 5:27 AM
What’s the connection between the Cuban revolution, the obesity epidemic, and GLP-1 agonists like Ozempic?
The history of #biotechnology is wild! Currently reading Robert Bud’s fascinating “The Uses of Life,” and came across the following passage:
1/n
The history of #biotechnology is wild! Currently reading Robert Bud’s fascinating “The Uses of Life,” and came across the following passage:
1/n
Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
“Don’t panic!” (h/t Douglas Adams)
“Don’t panic!” (h/t Douglas Adams)
September 26, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
“Don’t panic!” (h/t Douglas Adams)
“Don’t panic!” (h/t Douglas Adams)
Isaac Asimov, I, Robot and Foundation
“Logic is a wreath of pretty flowers that smells bad.” (h/t Spock)
“Logic is a wreath of pretty flowers that smells bad.” (h/t Spock)
September 26, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Isaac Asimov, I, Robot and Foundation
“Logic is a wreath of pretty flowers that smells bad.” (h/t Spock)
“Logic is a wreath of pretty flowers that smells bad.” (h/t Spock)
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion
“Elves being a bunch of petty bitches to one another over a handful of sparkly rocks.”
“Elves being a bunch of petty bitches to one another over a handful of sparkly rocks.”
September 26, 2025 at 7:53 PM
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion
“Elves being a bunch of petty bitches to one another over a handful of sparkly rocks.”
“Elves being a bunch of petty bitches to one another over a handful of sparkly rocks.”
Vernor Vinge, A Fire Upon the Deep
“An extended fan-fiction treatment of the closing chapter of Timothy Ferriss’ Coming of Age in the Milky Way.”
“An extended fan-fiction treatment of the closing chapter of Timothy Ferriss’ Coming of Age in the Milky Way.”
September 26, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Vernor Vinge, A Fire Upon the Deep
“An extended fan-fiction treatment of the closing chapter of Timothy Ferriss’ Coming of Age in the Milky Way.”
“An extended fan-fiction treatment of the closing chapter of Timothy Ferriss’ Coming of Age in the Milky Way.”
Twofer:
Dan Davies, The Unaccountability Machine
David Runciman, The Handover
“Modernity’s great trouble and advantage is that it works at scale.” (h/t Henry Farrell)
Dan Davies, The Unaccountability Machine
David Runciman, The Handover
“Modernity’s great trouble and advantage is that it works at scale.” (h/t Henry Farrell)
September 26, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Twofer:
Dan Davies, The Unaccountability Machine
David Runciman, The Handover
“Modernity’s great trouble and advantage is that it works at scale.” (h/t Henry Farrell)
Dan Davies, The Unaccountability Machine
David Runciman, The Handover
“Modernity’s great trouble and advantage is that it works at scale.” (h/t Henry Farrell)
Ursula K. LeGuin, The Wind’s Twelve Quarters.
“Though we cannot make our Sun Stand still, yet we will make him run.” (h/t Andrew Marvell)
“Though we cannot make our Sun Stand still, yet we will make him run.” (h/t Andrew Marvell)
September 26, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Ursula K. LeGuin, The Wind’s Twelve Quarters.
“Though we cannot make our Sun Stand still, yet we will make him run.” (h/t Andrew Marvell)
“Though we cannot make our Sun Stand still, yet we will make him run.” (h/t Andrew Marvell)
Elinor Ostrom, Governing The Commons.
“Every happy commons is alike, but every tragic commons is tragic in it’s own way.”
“Every happy commons is alike, but every tragic commons is tragic in it’s own way.”
September 26, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Elinor Ostrom, Governing The Commons.
“Every happy commons is alike, but every tragic commons is tragic in it’s own way.”
“Every happy commons is alike, but every tragic commons is tragic in it’s own way.”
If you’d asked me on this day in 2005, “what will you be doing in 20 years?”
“Filling out an online form to join a class action against an AI company that used my thesis publications without permission” would not have been on the bingo card.
www.lieffcabraser.com/anthropic-au...
“Filling out an online form to join a class action against an AI company that used my thesis publications without permission” would not have been on the bingo card.
www.lieffcabraser.com/anthropic-au...
August 29, 2025 at 3:02 PM
If you’d asked me on this day in 2005, “what will you be doing in 20 years?”
“Filling out an online form to join a class action against an AI company that used my thesis publications without permission” would not have been on the bingo card.
www.lieffcabraser.com/anthropic-au...
“Filling out an online form to join a class action against an AI company that used my thesis publications without permission” would not have been on the bingo card.
www.lieffcabraser.com/anthropic-au...
Haldane wrote something quite similar. It’s a good quip, and I could absolutely picture him using it in conversation.
August 1, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Haldane wrote something quite similar. It’s a good quip, and I could absolutely picture him using it in conversation.
The New Empire of AI, in 1 sentence:
“A hasty collage of other, better books.”
“A hasty collage of other, better books.”
August 1, 2025 at 4:06 PM
The New Empire of AI, in 1 sentence:
“A hasty collage of other, better books.”
“A hasty collage of other, better books.”
Doppegänger, in 1 sentence:
“We contain troubling multitudes.”
“We contain troubling multitudes.”
August 1, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Doppegänger, in 1 sentence:
“We contain troubling multitudes.”
“We contain troubling multitudes.”
Algorithms of Oppression, in 1 sentence:
“Racism: there’s an app for that!”
(Or possible “all apps are for that!”)
“Racism: there’s an app for that!”
(Or possible “all apps are for that!”)
August 1, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Algorithms of Oppression, in 1 sentence:
“Racism: there’s an app for that!”
(Or possible “all apps are for that!”)
“Racism: there’s an app for that!”
(Or possible “all apps are for that!”)
The Three-Body Problem, in 1 sentence:
“I know that you know, that you know that I know that you know that humanity must be destroyed.”
“I know that you know, that you know that I know that you know that humanity must be destroyed.”
August 1, 2025 at 4:06 PM
The Three-Body Problem, in 1 sentence:
“I know that you know, that you know that I know that you know that humanity must be destroyed.”
“I know that you know, that you know that I know that you know that humanity must be destroyed.”
Frankenstein, in 1 sentence:
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single monster, improperly made, must be in need of destroying its maker.”
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single monster, improperly made, must be in need of destroying its maker.”
August 1, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Frankenstein, in 1 sentence:
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single monster, improperly made, must be in need of destroying its maker.”
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single monster, improperly made, must be in need of destroying its maker.”