iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Philipp Markolin

Andrea Is Sick of Long Covid @andreastudiescovid.bsky.social · 5h

Another reason not to go to Florida.

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Philipp Markolin @philippmarkolin.eurosky.social · 23h

🥊 Season 2 of #ScienceCounterpunch is here! We open with biosecurity expert Dr. Gigi Kwik Gronvall, who just testified before Congress on the abysmal state of US biopreparedness. All while H5N1 bird flu has hit US farmed mink for the first time recently. Are we ready? Short answer: fuck. 🧵👇

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Gregg Gonsalves @gregggonsalves.bsky.social · 13h

Yale’s trustees: Marta Tellado, Gina Rosselli Boswell, Derek Chang, Philippe Costeletos, Maryana Iskander, Fred Krupp, Felicia Norwood, Mariko Silver, Carter Brooks Simonds, David Sze, Jaime Teevan, David Thomas and Neal Wolin.

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Philipp Markolin @philippmarkolin.eurosky.social · 18h

Great to have you! Next time, snack reveal on secret pandemic planning events 😇

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Gigi Gronvall @ggronvall.bsky.social · 20h

I enjoyed joining Sam and Philipp for Science Counterpunch! We talked biosafety, biosecurity, and why real scientific progress is essential to preparedness. Protecting people requires investing in the science and capabilities that make us all safer. Thank you for having me on!

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LymeScience @lymescience.org · 21h

Looking forward to listening 👇

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Philipp Markolin @philippmarkolin.eurosky.social · 23h

In the media, apocalyptic visions of AI biorisk and books like Annie Jacobsen's Biological War shape discourse, while Washington is busy fighting boogeymen of the last pandemic’s origin story. "It's like… lab leak fanfic" all the way down. Not how biology works. www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqq5...

youtube.com

S2 Ep1: Gigi Gronvall: The Real Biosecurity Risk

YouTube video by Bad Boy of Science

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Reposted by Philipp Markolin

Sam Gregson @badboyofscience.bsky.social · 23h

The Science Counterpunch is back! 🥊 To kick off season 2, we're discuss biosecurity and biosafety with @ggronvall.bsky.social . She recently testified in congress regarding just how unprepared the US is! Check it out! @philippmarkolin.eurosky.social Link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqq5... ⚛️🧪

youtube.com

S2 Ep1: Gigi Gronvall: The Real Biosecurity Risk

YouTube video by Bad Boy of Science

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Philipp Markolin @philippmarkolin.eurosky.social · 23h

Check out the conversation, because we ask the hard questions: Did Gigi and Bill Gates plan the pandemic at Event 201 that simulated a CoV pandemic weeks before COVID broke out? "The snacks were really good." Is all she had to say to that... suspicious much? 😄 open.substack.com/pub/protagon...

open.substack.com

The real biosecurity threat /w Gigi Kwik Gronvall

Science Counterpunch S2 Ep1

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Philipp Markolin @philippmarkolin.eurosky.social · 23h

We also chat bioweapons quite a bit. Could an untrained person use a chatbot to make a weapon that kills everybody? "The answer to that is no. It's a lot harder than people think it is." (sorry, wannabe bioterrorists!) The real AI risks, she argues, are the near-term ones getting ignored today.

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Philipp Markolin @philippmarkolin.eurosky.social · 23h

"We basically are losing a whole generation of scientists.", she noted. That is not a scientist problem. That is a healthy society problem. "For public health to be there for you, it has to be there for everyone."

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Philipp Markolin @philippmarkolin.eurosky.social · 23h

"That will work until it doesn't… nature has a humongous GoF laboratory and we are not really aware of what's going on in that laboratory." Gigi says. Viruses don't care whether we look for them. They will keep spilling over, and the question is whether we are prepared or blindsided by them.

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Philipp Markolin @philippmarkolin.eurosky.social · 23h

We can do many things to prepare. But we need experts and science. Yet Washington's answer is to criminalize "gain-of-function" research and virology at large, kill public health capacity, vaccine trust, funding, and firing experts & gutting the CDC Now "We don't have the surveillance in place"

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Philipp Markolin @philippmarkolin.eurosky.social · 23h

youtube.com

S2 Ep1: Gigi Gronvall: The Real Biosecurity Risk

YouTube video by Bad Boy of Science

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Philipp Markolin @philippmarkolin.eurosky.social · 23h

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 03/10/2026

I have absolutely wondered about this. Amazing.

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Ryan Hisner @ryanhisner.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Phenomenal 🧵 (& paper) about why Omicron is less efficient at infecting the lung than previous variants. Initial ideas on this were proven wrong, & it's been an utter mystery since. Stuart, doing work on one else is doing, has largely explained it & revealed vital aspects of the SARS-2 life cycle.

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Kristian G. Andersen @kgandersen.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Norway has been an interesting case study in how far lab leak conspiracy theories can spread in the media because of just a few commentators - who are so far over their skis that they'd make Holmenkollbakken jumpy - dominating the discourse. It won't last. www.journalisten.no/nar-mainstre...

journalisten.no

Når mainstream media fremmer konspirasjonsteorier

Jeg har lenge irritert meg over hvordan den såkalte lab leak-teorien er blitt presentert i norske medier. Teorien dreier seg om at covidpandemien stammer fra et virus som lekket fra et laboratorium i ...

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Reposted by Philipp Markolin

Kristian G. Andersen @kgandersen.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

H/T to @runestava.bsky.social and @philippmarkolin.eurosky.social for noticing this excellent article. And, yes, go read @philippmarkolin.eurosky.social's book - it's excellent and exceptionally well researched.

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Reposted by Philipp Markolin

Ryan Hisner @ryanhisner.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Prediction market and sports gambling companies are the new tobacco companies. How long will we allow their depredations continue to destroy lives? Tobacco advertising was banned decades ago. Why are gambling ads permitted to stain every sports broadcast? It's sickening.

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Philipp Markolin @philippmarkolin.eurosky.social · 02/10/2026

Nice declaration and outline what to build next! Let's give it some momentum!

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Robin Berjon @robin.berjon.com · 02/10/2026

Friends: take a moment to sign european.social. There's strength in numbers and we can bring some game. This can become more than a letter.

european.social

The European Social Stack · An open declaration

An open declaration: The European Social Stack. Open Social Platforms and Private Messaging.

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Ira Hyman @irahyman.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

The preprint is a summary of a survey that my university faculty senate conducted. They looked at what forms of external harassment faculty have faced. The focus concerned their research and teaching. Identify also matters for who gets harassed. Two years ago. DOI.org/10.31219/osf.io/amr9j_v1

doi.org

OSF

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Reposted by Philipp Markolin

Ira Hyman @irahyman.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Faculty are already being attacked and harassed in a great variety of ways based on their work and their identities. These tools will likely make things worse. Universities need to do a better job of supporting and protecting faculty, students, and staff. osf.io/preprints/os...

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Philipp Markolin @philippmarkolin.eurosky.social · 02/10/2026

LLMs for DDoS attacks of inconvenient science and scientists is yet another factor why the power concentration around these systems and their infrastructure is hugely problematic. How can reality win against power in that future?

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Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Conspiracy Believers Are 91% Likely To Hold Incoherent Beliefs Can one believe Princess Di was murdered by and faked her own death? Both can’t be true. A new study N~9,000 finds that holding 2 incompatible ideas at once isn’t a quirk, it’s practically the rule. studyfinds.com/conspiracy-b...

studyfinds.com

Conspiracy Believers Are 91% Likely To Hold Incoherent Beliefs, Study Finds

A new study finds people at the extreme end of conspiracy thinking have a 91% predicted chance of holding incompatible beliefs.

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Amy Westervelt @amywestervelt.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I keep hearing from sources about these but had no idea it was THIS many. of course these are also the orgs that squawk about the importance of "academic freedom" www.politico.com/news/2026/09...

politico.com

Inside the anti-climate campaign against researchers

A POLITICO investigation reveals more than 100 open records requests demanding documents from climate scientists nationwide.

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Reposted by Philipp Markolin

Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

“She had bought raw goat milk from a farm recommended to her in a Facebook group run by her chiropractor”. “Marris believed she had done her due diligence. She had researched raw milk…” Her baby ended up in the ICU with a life-threatening E. coli infection.

propublica.org

A Girl Nearly Died After Drinking Raw Milk. The State Did Little to Punish the Unlicensed Farmer Who Sold It.

California is teeming with black-market dairies, propped up by consumer demand fueled by misinformation. With evidence against one raw goat milk farm, regulators could have sought punitive action. But...

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Reposted by Philipp Markolin

Max Kozlov @maxkozlov.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Kicking science journalists out of MAHA events? Seems to be a familiar playbook. I'm sorry this happened to you @sherylnyt.bsky.social bsky.app/profile/maxk...

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Mike Masnick @masnick.com · 29/09/2026

For years we've heard that Biden created a "Ministry of Truth," which didn't actually happen. But, I still hear people talking about it. But then Trump directed his FCC boss to be a literal Minister of Truth and the story disappeared within a day or two. What are we even doing here?

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Philipp Markolin @philippmarkolin.eurosky.social · 29/09/2026

Real life advise. Add some quirky neologism as well

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Philipp Markolin @philippmarkolin.eurosky.social · 29/09/2026

This essay is really good. ⬇️ I recommend people read it and also follow the substack, because it has some of the best analyses on information systems and democracy in the business.

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Philipp Markolin @philippmarkolin.eurosky.social · 29/09/2026

Did it identify itself and what its goals are? Is this part of a research agenda?

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Renee DiResta @noupside.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Michael Shellenberger remains obsessed with me but doesn’t want to say my name when he writes made up shit like this lol why is that

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Mike Masnick @masnick.com · 28/09/2026

This is huge news, especially for all the "Bluesky isn't really decentralized" folks. Having the PLC Org as wholly independent is a big, important step forward. And great to see that Filippo is part of it...

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Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

"I believe that science derives its authority from something more than mastering the pipeline from data generation to publication. Rather, it comes from interactions within a community of people trained to interrogate evidence and answer for the conclusions they draw from it." Brandon is spot on.

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Stuart Neil @tetherin.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

US Gov fuckwittery and incompetence has not gotten a handle on H5N1 spreading in a mink farm - an animal through which WE KNOW the virus can acquire respiratory transmissibility and human tropism. But no - you can’t study these viruses under MAGA b/c scientists can’t be trusted….🤦 Stupid fuckers

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Philipp Markolin @philippmarkolin.eurosky.social · 28/09/2026

... discovery and hypothesis creation becomes very fast or cheap. Humans and current AI systems have a different discovery approach and different bottlenecks. As we have seen with sequencing tech, when any new tool eases one route to discovery, the bottleneck keeps moving elsewhere.

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Philipp Markolin @philippmarkolin.eurosky.social · 28/09/2026

... the type of biology discovery we would usually treat with much reverence. Overall, as brute-forcing approaches with AI for discovery start bearing fruit [which I think it does and is useful], the research onus shifts to verification and interpretability and maybe that is more valuable when...

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Philipp Markolin @philippmarkolin.eurosky.social · 28/09/2026

Their blog figures describe at length mostly useless discovery CS stuff, benchmarks and statistics, while foregoing basic biology verification things like phage cleavage capabilities and programmatability / targeting. "We don't know if it works and what it does, but we claim dips" is not ...

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Philipp Markolin @philippmarkolin.eurosky.social · 28/09/2026

One more comment on the Anthropic marketing though; the idea of that discovery by analogy is somehow a big deal [it is not] without offering the painstaking molecular biology follow up usually required to make the study "complete" for biology insights is kind of useless.

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Philipp Markolin @philippmarkolin.eurosky.social · 28/09/2026

... if the biologists at Claude had already the idea to apply this approach to this problem. If not, then the question of Claude's "autonomous" discovery of that amendable problem - solution path is more dubious given the knowledge that most of this could have been taken from patents/resesarchers

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Philipp Markolin @philippmarkolin.eurosky.social · 28/09/2026

In fact, now that it comes to light that researchers had already found and further investigated this particular system is no surprise to me either, intellectually it was a low-hanging fruit, albeit a hard-to-harvest one. I think it is possible that AI could have found it by themselves, certainly..

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Philipp Markolin @philippmarkolin.eurosky.social · 28/09/2026

Now it seems to me that this particular pattern matching problem is especially well suited for brute-force AI search, so if anything, identifying the deployment for this on this problem deserves credit, maybe more than actually the discovery itself which was very much expected by people in the field

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Philipp Markolin @philippmarkolin.eurosky.social · 28/09/2026

... challenge is the computationally expensive charting the required search space [basically all microbial genomics data combined] to find those repetitive repeats and corresponding enzymes across taxa. But the path is straight-forward intellectually, it is copy-paste of previous discovery paths.

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Philipp Markolin @philippmarkolin.eurosky.social · 28/09/2026

Having some background in the CRISPR field from my PhD haydays, and seeing Fang Zhang on their review acknowledgement, I have a few thoughts. First, the idea for these alternative CRISPR RNA-repeat systems is more than 10 years old, with Zhang discovering other alternatives already. The main...

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Walker Bragman @walkerbragman.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

One of the doctors Children’s Health Defense has cited to blame child measles deaths on medical malpractice and hospital error recently escaped professional liability for the death of his patient. Ironically, Dr. Pierre Kory’s defense rested on a law anti-vaxxers, including CHD, have railed against

importantcontext.news

Children’s Health Defense ‘Expert’ Who Blamed Measles Deaths on Medical Malpractice Found to Have Caused Patient Death

A federal appeals court granted Dr. Pierre Kory immunity under a law anti-vaxxers have railed against.

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Joe Bak-Coleman @jbakcoleman.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

A rare example of using Betteridge's law of headlines well when reporting on AI. "really... on Its own?" 🤌

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