Links for you. Science:
Did NASA’s Perseverance rover find evidence of ancient life on Mars? The plot thickens
The macroecology of viral coinfection
“Renowned scientists and scholars” who deserve shaming
Broad-spectrum synthetic carbohydrate receptors (SCRs) inhibit viral entry across multiple virus families
Struggling on in the US federal research system
Beyond tellurite: the multifunctional roles of genes annotated as tellurium resistance determinants in bacteria
Other:
ICE is Eating the Soul of America
The national gaslighting about Charlie Kirk
Was Bluesky Actually Celebrating the Death of Charlie Kirk? Despite what right-wing influencers want you to believe, liberals actually hate political violence. (“…people on Bluesky fight all the time, about everything, in exhausting fashion. On almost every day, groupthink on the site is harder to find than you’ve been led to believe. But on Wednesday, a consensus did emerge. It was the belief that the murder of a person most people on that site didn’t like was nonetheless very bad.”)
Trump Is a Weak and Failing President, and It’s Time to Say So
Don’t Forget Who Is Most to Blame For These Violent Times. It’s like climate change: Trump may not be solely responsible for any one act of violence, but he’s the reason things have gotten so bad.
How RFK Jr. Is Pushing the CDC to the Brink
Do we have to recover from anti-vaccine misinformation the hard way, with suffering and death?
ICE detentions roil D.C.’s already struggling restaurant scene
Racism, Rhetoric, and Charlie Kirk: A Reality We Can’t Ignore
Florida Reporter Suspended After Texting MAGA Congressman to Ask If He Still Supports Campus Carry After Kirk Shooting
The whitewashing of Charlie Kirk’s toxic legacy is underway
American taxpayers are still footing the bill for DOGE disaster
Google Is Telling People DOGE Never Existed
They watched ICE detain their dad. Now D.C. neighbors escort them to school.
Republicans aren’t done trying to punish DC
Policy Can’t Solve a Propaganda Problem. On immigration and everything else, pundits are missing the point
Bad Bunny Says He Didn’t Include U.S. in Tour Dates Due to Fear of ICE Raids
El Paso family claims Border Patrol killed their dog during search, CBP reviewing incident
Antisemitic Slurs Disrupt Queens College Zoom Lecture About Israel
The whitewashing of Charlie Kirk’s toxic legacy is underway
UC Berkeley gives Trump administration 160 names in antisemitism probe
Comcast Executives Warn Workers To Not Say The Wrong Thing About Charlie Kirk
“Tactic”
Peak bubble
Trump’s emergency order for DC is set to expire, but House moves to place new limits on the city (wrote about this here)
What, Like, You Expect Me To Work?
When Corporate America Set America Down a Dark Path
Every Shooting Is a Tragedy—and a Chance for the Right to Play Bully
California Finds Exciting New Way To Mess With Texas, Abortion Edition!
Norton Says Little as Bills to Clamp Down on D.C. Advance: At a heated committee session on bills exerting more federal control of Washington, the 88-year-old delegate sat quietly, reading with difficulty from a script.
mikethemadbiologist
One problem I have with the search for life on Mars is that on Earth there are all sorts of metal catalyzed reactions that are exploited by a variety of organisms that either capture or hang out with the appropriate metal. Was there life on Mars or was there something sub-biotic that performed similar reactions but only while the conditions were right. The reaction site could grow, but the configuration couldn’t be maintained or transplanted.