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Markus Deserno

@markusdeserno.bsky.social
1.5K followers 181 following 1.6K posts

Theoretical and computational biophysicist at Carnegie Mellon University. Loves lipid membranes, music, and art. (he/him) 🇩🇪🇺🇸

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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 22h
Second, it's so much easier to poop in the pool than to clean the water afterwards. False narratives take forever to counter, and at Trump's rate, nobody can keep up with this Augean task. This is why the press should ostracize habitual corrosive liars. It is shameful they hardly ever do this.
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 22h
This works for two reasons: first, most people don't have ready access to actual statistical data. One must know where to look, and have the itch to do so. If a claim supports a prior narrative, that's compelling enough for most of us—irrespective of political persuasion.
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Neutrinos (and a few other high energy shenanigans) are perfect proof that, if we really live in a simulation, it was frantically coded up by undergrads the night before the assignment was due.
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Eve Kendall, looking at his business card. “‘Roger O. Thornhill’. What does he ‘O’ stand for?” “Nothing.”
static.klipy.com
Cary Grant as Roger Thornhill in North by Northwest (1959)
ALT: Cary Grant as Roger Thornhill in North by Northwest (1959)
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Definitely not written by ChatGPT 👍
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
A maybe more interesting question: is this limit informative about the shape? Say, we look at other convex shapes, and their limits, how does the circle compare? My guess is: the circle limit is a lower bound.
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Is the entire pdf analytically expressible in closed form? Or only the κ → 0 limit?
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
The real-world kitchen answer is typically to lift the lid. 😉
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Reposted by Markus Deserno
Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 03/10/2026
Killed. NSF’s SBE was killed, in violation of law. The President does not have the power to choose to kill programs at a whim by defunding them. The imperial presidency was a mistake and we are in a separation of powers constitutional crisis.
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Since this administration was unsuccessful cutting the NSF budget, they instead withhold congressionally appropriated funds by simply not making awards. I want to see every one of these criminally destructive gang members held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
No. You very much on purpose baked flat bread.
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
And can we cite it correctly?
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Celebrate vesiculously! 🎊🍾🎉🙌
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Aww 🥹 Thank you!
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
New achievement unlocked 😳 This was about to happen this year, but it still feels unreal to actually see it. If even a small fraction of these citations came from people whose work benefitted from our discussion of such super technical details, then I am proud and happy!
I cracked the "1000 citations bar" on Google Scholar for this paper:

https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=1J28ExgAAAAJ&citation_for_view=1J28ExgAAAAJ:u5HHmVD_uO8C
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
It’s the haircut of someone haplessly trying to extort some money.
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Awesome! Congrats, Rumy! This is so very well deserved!!! 🎉🍾🎊🙌
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Reposted by Markus Deserno
@KayTrue (Sarah L. Keller) @kaytrue.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Very excited to share that my department at @uwchemistry.bsky.social will be hiring an Assistant Professor of Chemistry! Come be my colleague at the University of Washington in Seattle! It is a wonderful city filled with wonderful scientists. Details in the link: ap.washington.edu/ahr/academic...
ap.washington.edu
Academic Jobs - Academic Personnel & Faculty
Find current openings and apply for academic jobs at the University of Washington.
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Tens of grams??? That strikes me as A LOT…
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
That trilby looks ridiculous on him.
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
You surely have a way of taking the joy out of reading… 😑
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I present to you six musical geniuses.
m.youtube.com
I've Got Life
YouTube video by Take 6 - Topic
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Well, he was never the sharpest spoon in the drawer.
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Especially in those cars where you have to temporarily remove the engine to switch the light bulb.
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
PANTHEON What an absolute masterpiece. Just truly blown away.
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
So . . . . you’re clearly behind?
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
To me, “eclectic” means more than “broad.” It additionally means the selection is somewhat haphazard, which suggests a lack of intentionality. That’s not necessarily a good thing.
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Reposted by Markus Deserno
Michelle says: Be kind. Always. ❤️ @snarkysillysad.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Good advice for athletes and life in general: #AGoodPlace Source: www.reddit.com/r/MadeMeSmil...
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
True fans know him as Ninnian Joseph Yule Jr.
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Let’s find out. 🤷🏼‍♂️
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Thanks! I’m sure I had read his post by this random guy quite a while ago. Some of these things I knew before, including the beautiful convolution argument about the “sine product integrals”.
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Why is it called a bluebird?
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
So they suggest Republicans are like Superman? 🤔
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Cardinal mistake: your tree doesn’t have a happy little friend.
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Such a rare name to encounter in the Pittsburgh graffiti scene… 😅
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
I simply cannot watch this without constantly cringing about the abominable fashion sense of the 70s.
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Ugh. That’s considerably easier than what I did! 😅
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
I think the technical term is “abomination” 😉
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Yes, I saw that! It reminded me of the famous problem whether an integer can be written as the sum of three cubes of whole numbers. Removing those integers for which you can prove it doesn’t work leaves usually easy answers, but for a few (e.g. 42) the solution involves ridiculously large numbers.
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
If the president can decide what journalist is or isn’t operating in good faith, we don’t have a first amendment. Mike Waltz knows this, but he prefers to pretend we’re all idiots. The defense that “the White House is a government facility” does not hold up under established constitutional law.
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
You can bet anything that CNN general counsel was on it hours after the tweet happened. But lawyers don’t operate via social media.
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
I find theorems of this type fascinating. “There are only finitely many examples for XYZ, and the largest case is this ridiculously small number.” Come on, integers! You are an infinite set, after all! Come up with some upper bounds that are a wee bit larger!
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
This on was cute—could just barely do it in my head. I think the right angle indicator was superfluous, besides anyways being irrelevant to how I solved it.
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Well, *neither* is good.
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Who says he believes it? He’s paid million of dollar for spouting this dreck. I suspect it’s all a show.
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Depends on the penguin.
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
I don’t know even… The video is so much worse than the text summary.
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
A fantastic summary of the inanity of longtermism.
nitter.app
banteg (@banteg)
>be me >discover effective altruism >apparently normal charity is inefficient >why donate to random sad thing when spreadsheet can tell you optimal sad thing >fair enough >buy mosquito nets >save live...
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
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Markus Deserno @markusdeserno.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I remember reading posts by Yudkowsky maybe 15 years ago. After the initial sparkle of edgy intellectualism wore off, and it wore off quickly, all that was left was a guy who was insufferably full of himself. Sadly, it seems some people are easy prey for this infinitely confident bullshittery.
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