iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Nathaniel Comfort @nccomfort.bsky.social · 12h

hmm… i once would have said the same about inciting an attack on the Capitol, and yet, here we are… ***solidarity w/ Rep. Omar***

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Nathaniel Comfort @nccomfort.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

when everyone in my class started calling me that. 3rd grade.

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Nathaniel Comfort @nccomfort.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

i know! interesting thought about genetic assimilation

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Nathaniel Comfort @nccomfort.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

i’m so glad that @philipcball.bsky.social wrote about Conrad Waddington. Like Lamarck, he has been accused of believing evolution is purposive. Lately, ppl are finding that there can be direction in evolution w/o anything supernatural about it. Good to see Wad getting better press

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Nathaniel Comfort @nccomfort.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

i’m so glad we that @philipcball.bsky.social wrote about Conrad Waddington.,-

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Matthew Cobb @matthewcobb.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I wrote up that thread on the new paper on Rosalind Franklin as a Substack post. matthewcobb2.substack.com/p/how-our-vi...

A DNA image with the title of the post on it.

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Nathaniel Comfort @nccomfort.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

thanks for posting this—i meant to do it myself but kept forgetting! (also i’ve had no internet for 5 days)

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Matthew Cobb @matthewcobb.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

10. If you want to know more about this, a) read the Sponsell and Sutton paper linked at the top, b) read this article, which I wrote with @nccomfort.bsky.social in 2023 and c) read the relevant parts of my 2025 biography, CRICK.

nature.com

What Rosalind Franklin truly contributed to the discovery of DNA’s structure

Franklin was no victim in how the DNA double helix was solved. An overlooked letter and an unpublished news article, both written in 1953, reveal that she was an equal player.

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Nathaniel Comfort @nccomfort.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

ICYI Tim Appenzeller’s coverage of the article, featuring comments from several historians of science (including y.t.) will still be freely available for a few more days www.science.org/content/arti...

science.org

How did Rosalind Franklin miss the helix in her iconic DNA image? She didn’t

New analysis refutes James Watson’s claim he was first to recognize significance of famed photograph 51

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Nathaniel Comfort @nccomfort.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

one advantage of being late on one’s book ;)

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Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

“The fact that it was a demonstration image, for publication, should put to rest claims that photo 51 held the magic data unknown, unseen, undreamed-of before,” Comfort says.

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Nathaniel Comfort @nccomfort.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Reposting for the morning crowd my mini-thread from yesterday on the new Sponsel & Sutton paper on Rosalind Franklin's work. tl;dr: Why didn't Franklin find the double helix? Because she wasn't looking for it! She had her own DNA project that had nothing to do w/ the gene.

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Stephen Curry @scurry.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Great thread explaining the significance of a new finding about Franklin’s (and Gosling’s) work on DNA.

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Nathaniel Comfort @nccomfort.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

People tell me that if you look at it very strongly it gets scared and goes away #healthpolicyflyby

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Nathaniel Comfort @nccomfort.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Just want to emphasize here that Franklin *wasn't looking for the double helix." She was studying both the A and B forms b/c she was interested in the reversible transition between them. Quite a novel, interesting project. But she thought W&C bonkers w/ all their "secret of life!" stuff

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Nathaniel Comfort @nccomfort.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Most histories take the double helix as the obvious goal of xrc on DNA fibers. If we want to honor Franklin, we need to stop trying to explain her work as almost getting the double helix. We need to understand her on her own terms. The Sponsel and Sutton paper takes us a good step in that direction

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Nathaniel Comfort @nccomfort.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

She thought all W & C's fancy talk about the gene and the secret of life was a lot of romantic hooey. She was interested in the reversible *transition* from of A <–> B. But she was not searching for the gene (until the very end, when everyone was).

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Nathaniel Comfort @nccomfort.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

When Watson saw Ph51 in Feb '53, he learned nothing that Franklin hadn't known since May, '52. But he did learn more than "helix." So why didn't Franklin find the d.h. while Watson and Crick did? Simple: Franklin wasn't *looking* for the double helix

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Nathaniel Comfort @nccomfort.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

In ph49, the holder slipped while the beam was on—hence the spherical blob. She took Photo 51 as a re-do to take a publication-quality image of the fiber that's in both images. She even cropped it specially to make it pop. She was a perfectionist and had superb technique.

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Nathaniel Comfort @nccomfort.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

And ph49 is covered in pencil marks made with ruler, protractor, slide rule, I dunno. But Sutton knows and he affirms that they measure and calculate the key dimensions of the DNA B form. FRANKLIN KNEW WHAT PHOTO 49 TOLD HER ABOUT DNA STRUCTURE—BEFORE SHE TOOK PH51.

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Nathaniel Comfort @nccomfort.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

the same DNA fiber as is pictured in the famous photograph 51. Meet Photo 49. Never mind the spherical blob for now—that's an artifact. The center of the image has exactly the same cross pattern as ph51. Scientifically, it's equivalent to ph51.

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Nathaniel Comfort @nccomfort.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Exciting new historical work on Rosalind Franklin continues to appear. This is a neat bit of sleuthing by historian @alistairsponsel.bsky.social and crystallographer Brian Sutton. Here's the DOI to the actual article (it's OA): 10.1007/s10739-026-09866-7 The main finding is an x-ray image of exactly

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Nathaniel Comfort @nccomfort.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

alright then—i gotta be “REAL Nathaniel Comfort”

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Nathaniel Comfort @nccomfort.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

thanks, Stephen—and yes, I do address it!

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Nathaniel Comfort @nccomfort.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

probably right— it does make a funny pair of data points, though!

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Nathaniel Comfort @nccomfort.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Contrary opinion: universities are burning money on the wrong things 1) Use dumber tools—all that tech costs a fortune 2) Slash executive administration by 80% 3) Stockpile books, chalk, and nice smooth slate 4) Let faculty prioritize research and teaching

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Nathaniel Comfort @nccomfort.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Head injury is no joke, but I must say, I would not have expected cheerleading to outrank ice hockey

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Nathaniel Comfort @nccomfort.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

lol yikes, from sub-Arctic to sub-tropics!

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Nathaniel Comfort @nccomfort.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

It’s stinkbug season muthafukkas!!

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Nathaniel Comfort @nccomfort.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I really do wonder when, as a nation, we realize that these people running the federal government are enemies of the state.

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Nathaniel Comfort @nccomfort.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Does the Sun rotate around the Earth? It sure looks like it does.

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Nathaniel Comfort @nccomfort.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

[sotto voce: Also, Sarah Walker's book. Assembly theory has some cool features—I like that it includes history—but ultimately it falls in love w/ itself and just tries to turn life into algorithms. I just don't see it being helpful!]

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Nathaniel Comfort @nccomfort.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I'm addressing this directly for mol bio in my book. Basically, I find that theory is oversold in the histories.

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Nathaniel Comfort @nccomfort.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Ahh, the joys of losing my kid self in a dictionary for what seemed like hours, chasing Jabberwocks

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Nathaniel Comfort @nccomfort.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Annals of Illiteracy: Nature magazine has told me we cannot expect their readers to know who Gregor Mendel was. Who else don't they know? Einstein? Newton?? Aristotle???

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Nathaniel Comfort @nccomfort.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

From an environmental justice POV, it's just the opposite. Global avg carbon footprint/capita: ≈4 metric tons/yr Avg American: ≈17 tons Avg African: <1 ton If we're gonna prioritize lives for everyone's good, we should start by euthanizing billionaires climatecrisis247.com/news/this-is...

climatecrisis247.com

This is Donald Trump’s Carbon Footprint

At the most fundamental level, resource consumption drives carbon emissions – and it should come as no surprise that the wealthy tend to have a larger-than-av

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Nathaniel Comfort @nccomfort.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Strange questions --I'm a fan, in just about any situation.

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Nathaniel Comfort @nccomfort.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

now you see? this is what we need these days more books, fewer walls

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