iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Andrew D Hanson

edmar-oliveira.bsky.social @edmar-oliveira.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

Excited to share the Hanson Lab’s @adhansonlab.bsky.social new preprint! We used OrthoRep to evolve Arabidopsis HDH, a short-lived enzyme, selecting variants with up to 20× higher abundance. Mutations boosted lifespan, catalytic efficiency, or inhibitor resistance. 🔗 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

012

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

Well, the forceful, ongoing anti-GMO backlash set off by Monsanto’s messaging style (which in hindsight seems almost milquetoast compared to Palantir’s) doesn’t augur well…

120

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

This is seriously mistaken as @Ignatzz.bsky.social says. Western science was basically born in the late medieval church (see e.g. the works of St. Albert the Great) & largely nourished by the church thereafter. And note that the Church of England honored Darwin’s work by burial in Westminster Abbey.

ignatzzbsky.social

070

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

Or any of these & more: Rev. Lt. Capt. Maj. Col. Gen. All of which could be scientists or physicians in this day & age - & hence ordering mol biol reagents!

010

Reposted by Andrew D Hanson

Victor de Lorenzo (CNB, Madrid) @vdlorenzo.bsky.social · 01/06/2025

Can biofuels replace fossil energy sources? A few calculations indicate otherwise 👉🏻 e360.yale.edu/features/cor.... Running numbers academic.oup.com/plphys/advan...) is the way to go. Things get worse with jet fuel (source @adhansonlab.bsky.social) 👇

153

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

“And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is (w)hol(l)y ground(less) (speculation)”

020

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 24/05/2025

Journals are just part of a system that incentivizes overselling end-to-end. But, as gatekeepers on the final products, they have agency. An editorial policy of “It’s complicated” falls short. Journals can ask for field trials to be done right & interpreted prudently.

020

Reposted by Andrew D Hanson

Mary Williams @PlantTeaching @plantteaching.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

Food Rx: Integrating horticulture research to improve nutrition and health. A compelling perspective - the chronic health problems facing Americans require better access to affordable, nutritious fruits & vegetables! Yet the US greatly underproduces these healthy foods. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Left. Percentage of fruit and vegetable supply that is imported into the US. The trends for both fruit and veg show a steeply increasing curve, leading to 60% of fruit imported and 40% of veg. Right. Percentage of US cropland devoted to corn (30) soybean (30) wheat (15) and other (15), with fruits and vegetables being grown in only 10% of current cropland.

042

Reposted by Andrew D Hanson

Victor de Lorenzo (CNB, Madrid) @vdlorenzo.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

Traditional wisdom tells us that healthy food, in particular fruits & veggies, is the best medicine. Here @adhansonlab.bsky.social elaborates an straightforward 1-stop resource for decision-makers & concerned citizens 👉🏻 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

pnas.org

Food Rx: Integrating horticulture research to improve nutrition and health | PNAS

It is clear that the escalating epidemic of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes has reached a crisis level in the United States, that overweight...

023

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 18/05/2025

Excellent reflection on #SynBio in a company context, and on the future of engineering biology.

021

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

Perhaps it fires the therapeutic ‘silver bullet’?

000

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 11/05/2025

It’s at least equally useful to know that around 1/2 the nitrogen in our DNA comes from the Haber-Bosch process & that 🇨🇳 is the world’s largest🍏 producer.

040

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

OrthoRep as a lab-scale sandbox to study molecular evolution ⬇️ Great to see directed evolution being connected with the vast field of evolutionary theory! Up to now, there’s been surprisingly little crossover between #SynBio and #Evolution.

030

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

I witnessed Margaret Thatcher’s downsizing of the world-class 🇬🇧 network of government ag research institutions in the 1980s. What were some of the best jobs for plant scientists just vanished. Since then I’ve always cautioned people against thinking that government science jobs are totally secure.

010

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 19/04/2025

For an informative case of analysis (read: take-down) of a (biomedical) paper in real-time in social media, head over to X and search for LMHR. This case could stand as an example for teaching & I think it will likely be used this way in future.

010

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

#SyntheticBiology postdoctoral position in our group in University of Florida's Horticultural Sciences department. Work is directed evolution to improve enzymes that underlie important crop traits ⬇️

054

Reposted by Andrew D Hanson

Plant Physiology @plantphys.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

Vertical farming limitations and potential demonstrated by back-of-the-envelope calculations (Samuel J Lovat, Εlad Noor, Ron Milo) doi.org/10.1093/plph... #PlantScience

0154

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

I 💯 endorse the CSPB/SCBV Annual Meetings as first-class science in a congenial & collegial environment!

010

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

Amen on both counts! Thank you Quentin & Kelly!

000

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

This is analogous to 1930s German work to bring aurochs back from extinction by selectively breeding modern cattle that had some traits of the aurochs. The result was cattle that look like, but genetically are not, aurochs. theconversation.com/the-quest-to... time.com/7274542/colo...

time.com

The Return of the Dire Wolf

Colossal Biosciences has genetically engineered the first dire wolf to live in over 10,000 years. Here's what that means for other extinct species.

000

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

It’s precisely the elegant simplicity of this piece that’s so compelling. Of course it doesn’t capture all the factors. But it transmits a scientifically defensible message that anyone can understand. We need more messaging like this if science is to be seen as serving everyone not just scientists.

100

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

On a per-cup basis, coffee requires almost 7.5 x the land area that tea does. doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

212

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

Not German, but may be relevant: “Queen siembra vientos, recoge tempestades”

010

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

Yes, the planting density seemed OK but there was not enough information in the Methods or Fig. S12 to tell plot size, or whether guard rows were used.

010

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 06/04/2025

The village of Brockley Green (Suffolk - not so far from Cambs.) is famous for its cowslips (P. veris). They feature in the village sign.

010

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 06/04/2025

The yield data are all in units of weight of tubers *per plant*, not *per unit land area* (which is more agriculturally relevant).

100

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 06/04/2025

And I would think you have better disease control options in tunnels than in vertical farms, where diseases can run rampant via the hydroponics and force shutdown to decontaminate (before it happens again). This has been another of the problems, also cost of skilled labor to run the hi-tech systems.

110

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 06/04/2025

Excellent substrate for fermentation to SAF, tho.

010

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 06/04/2025

🙏 ! An independent way to estimate this would be from dietary survey data. This might even capture the variation. I’ll keep this in mind for future classes on #FermiCalculations (which you clearly value too). See our ‘how-to’ article: doi.org/10.1093/plph...

doi.org

Running Fermi calculations as a superpower to gauge reality

Making Fermi calculations is a way to estimate rough but reliable numbers that enable right reasoning in science and engineering—and a skill that all scien

110

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 06/04/2025

Pls could you give a citation for the interesting 65% figure? Is it an average for 🇺🇸? It presumably refers to dietary C (corn is a trivial source of fuel C) & the dominance of maize in animal & to some extent human diets. Surely there’s huge variation, tho. Think vegan or rice- & fish-rich diets.

100

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 05/04/2025

Sam Lovat, Elad Noor, Ron Milo run the numbers on #VerticalFarming to get ⚡️ cost ≈$10/kg dry plant matter. Which explains why it's viable only for high-value 🥬 ('fru-fru baby lettuce') Vertical farming limitations & potential demonstrated by back-of-the-envelope calculations doi.org/10.1093/plph...

1167

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

“It ain’t necessarily so The things that you’re liable to read in the (metabolic) bible It ain't necessarily so”

020

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

Granted there may be something of a (reverse) brain drain to Europe. But isn’t there a hard upper limit on its extent? European countries’ research budgets can’t expand much & higher defense spending is likely to actually shrink them, surely?

100

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

I think the authors are pitching this as an intermediate step towards organellar localization. Leaving everything in the cytosol makes it impossible to get [O2] low enough unless in anoxic roots, in which case there’s an ATP shortage & v. high glucose cost to make it. Overall leaves many questions.

010

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

But, unlike engineering, too often bootless** **See Shakespeare

010

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 30/03/2025

So potential victims of said creature can inexpensively warn📱 each other of its presence?

010

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 30/03/2025

Well, in horticulture, transplanting flowering plants is generally considered inadvisable. Flowering requires significant energy and so less is available to deal with transplant stress.

100

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 30/03/2025

Yes, indeed - modeling the effects of CO2 increases would make little sense without temperature rises as well. But since it looks more and more likely that we’re headed for a lot of both it would be even more worthwhile to run the modeling, I think.

010

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

Thx for thoroughly analyzing pros/cons of various AP pathways. Is it feasible to run sensitivity analyses to compare pathways' projected net benefits over wildtype as atmospheric CO2 rises to e.g. 550 ppm? As it could take decades to get APs into crops the atmosphere they are to work in is relevant.

110

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

Congratulations to 2 outstanding @ufhorticulture @UF_IFAS colleagues on their 2024 election to AAAS! 🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽 www.aaas.org/programs/fel...

000

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 22/03/2025

Los Niños Héroes - bastante actual, de hecho.

010

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

13N is a 🐻 You have to work super-fast. I have stories from the MSU cyclotron… doi.org/10.1104/pp.6...

doi.org

010

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

A noble aspiration that, if realized, might indeed increase the host country’s prosperity. But right now, how can such initiatives be funded, given: -slowing growth -rising budget deficits -rising, demographically-driven health & pension costs -the need to increase defense spending?

101

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

“LA is a great big freeway Put a hundred down and buy a car…” youtu.be/FZLa-1q-lkw?...

youtu.be

Do You Know the Way to San Jose

YouTube video by Dionne Warwick - Topic

020

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

I’ve wondered for yrs: How did policies that any reasonable person, using Googled numbers, a calculator, & everyday logic can show in minutes are impossible on the time-scale envisioned ever get so much traction? I’m really interested to hear answers. Mine would be: An innumerate political class.

000

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

Part of which is that new sources of energy (oil, gas) have taken ~50 yrs to reach their max. Which on its own makes transitioning to all ⚡️ by 2050 unthinkable. As do many other factors, e.g. metal needs, requirement for fossil fuels to produce NH3, steel, plastics, concrete at scale.

110

Andrew D Hanson @adhansonlab.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

Skewers the issue in 2 words. A social media masterpiece.

110