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Dave Baltrus 🦦

@surtlab.bsky.social
8.1K followers 3.2K following 2.4K posts

Professor at UArizona interested in genome rummaging, microbial evolution, and occasional tales about having backyard farm animals. “I’m something of a scientist myself” Baltrus(at)Arizona.edu

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Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 9h
NEW: In March the White House released an FY27 budget request that zeroed out the National Science Foundation's directorate of Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE). For months it was unclear what would happen. Now, with FY26 over, the damage to SBE is coming to light. My reporting:
science.org
‘Complete devastation’: How NSF gutted its social sciences research
Agency body that funds sociology, linguistics, and archaeology studies in U.S. gave 90% fewer new grants this year
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Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 10h
Calling it now, this one’s gonna ultimately get voted first ballot Bluesky post hall of fame
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Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
If only there were some very popular recent song about this very thing….
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Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
Solomon @solomonrmissouri.com · 06/10/2026
This!!!!
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Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
So let me get this right….Congress allocated 2 billion $ to improve Medicare and the President is just taking all that money and bribing people
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Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Maybe this time is different than every other time!
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Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Nope, don’t like
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Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
In case you hadn’t heard, the lab acquired case is an incredible and sad story The researcher working w/ attenuated strain at BSL2. Strain attenuated by disabling ability to acquire sufficient iron in hosts The researcher unknowingly had rare genetic disorder where their body had >iron levels
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Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
Kristian G. Andersen @kgandersen.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Just a friendly reminder that plague is prevalent, including in the western United States (see, prairie dogs), with multiple cases annually. It is also highly treatable and, yes, lab acquired infections (incl. fatal cases) have happened over the years, including e.g., UChicago.
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Saria McKeithen-Mead, PhD @sciria.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Pleased to share my first preprint from my postdoc, where I ask what drives mobile DNA movement between bacterial cells in complex communities like the gut microbiome. To answer this, we built a way to capture mobile DNA in the act of moving between cells, using short-read metagenomics. 🧵
doi.org
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Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Snake oil drops that “cleanse your lymphatic system”
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Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Chat, guess what this ad that popped up on the algorithms is trying to sell me? Answer in reply, but if you know you know
Two Caucasian people holding a baby that they both cannot be parents of genetically with the caption “my wife tried to convince me her baby was mine”
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Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
Feena van @feenavan2099.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
"Before Stonehenge was raised, before Egypts first pyramid broke ground,before the Nazca people drew their famous lines across the Peruvian desert,someone in what is now southern Arizona shaped a 272-foot fish into the earth On April 23,2026,"a border-wall contractor drove heavy equipment across it"
gadgetreview.com
Trump's Border Wall Construction Destroys 6,500-Year-Old Arizona Geoglyph – Older Than Stonehenge
Arizona's 6,500-year-old Las Playas Intaglio, the oldest dated geoglyph in the Americas, was irreparably damaged by border wall construction in April 2026.
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Doctor Science ❌👑 @doctorscience.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
read this ONLY if you're in a place where you can choke up with happy emotions
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Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
<golf clap>
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Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
One silver lining, If he actually is drinking it…I hope he documents the inevitably horrible result
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Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Dear Dr. Baym,
Hello. I am dog. I would like to do a PhD in your lab. I was told I am already half Lab, so this seems efficient.
I have seen the video of your very big plate where the bacteria evolve across it. It is the best thing I have ever seen that is not a ball. I promise I will not lick it. I have thought hard about this promise and I am fairly sure I can keep it.
My qualifications:
	•	Excellent nose. Can probably sniff out resistance, and definitely sandwiches.
	•	Strong background in fetch, which I understand is most of grad school (papers, reagents, coffee).
	•	Highly motivated by treats, praise, and plasmids.
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Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
Michael Baym @baym.lol · 04/10/2026
If someone’s going to AI-email me I’d rather see the prompt than the output. Because that’s where they decided to end and let the machine finish the job
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Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Gonna have some hole-istic bones soon
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Jon Phillips @jowiph.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Honestly, some enterprising documentarian needs to figure out how to get in with this guy and document the next few months. Herzog probably isn't available, but really anyone even minimally competent should be able to put together an Oscar winner out of the story arc this dude is about to experience
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Michael Baym @baym.lol · 04/10/2026
The best cold emails I’ve gotten looked nothing like these AI ones all do. Not did they look anything like one another. What they all had in common was they were clearly a real person interested in the science first and a position as a means to that and not vice-versa
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Matt Negrin still host of Hardball on MSNBC @mattnegrin.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
republicans: we are nazis media: do democrats have a Hasan Piker Bin Laden problem?
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Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Home Depot invented the world’s most annoying Halloween decoration
Bearded millennial skeketon mixologist
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Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
The only explanation
The pope (right) holds a white Sox hat
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Baylink Lab @baylinklab.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Call for manuscripts on bacterial chemotaxis and swimming! I'm partnering with JoVE to assemble a new collection of method, reviews, and research. ➡️Abstracts due Nov. 23rd. I invite you to share your love (and knowledge) of swimming bacteria! www.jove.com/topical-coll... 🧪 🦠 🧫 #microsky
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Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
My. God.
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Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Good news everyone, it’s a two snake day!
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Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Catch and release down the road so they don’t get killed but don’t bite our animals.
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Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
There is a terrifying 5 minute span when, after catching a rattlesnake, you put it in your car and drive it down the road to be released and it’s rattling like crazy in your aluminum garbage that’s seatbelted in next to you in the passenger seat
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Hoong Chuin Lim @hclim.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... New preprint from my lab revealing molecular conflicts between host replication and antiviral defense. RecBCD prevents this conflict by clearing immunogenic DNA ends produced during normal replication termination. #MicroSky #PhageSky
biorxiv.org
RecBCD Prevents Bacterial Autoimmunity by Clearing Self-DNA Ends Produced During Replication Termination
Viral-induced DNA damage triggers both eukaryotic and prokaryotic innate immunity. Here, we report that self-DNA ends generated routinely during normal termination of bacterial replication suffice to ...
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depths of wikipedia @depthsofwikipedia.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The Phantom of Heilbronn, also referred to as the Woman Without a Face, was a presumed female serial killer whose existence was inferred from DNA evidence found at 40 crime scenes across Austria, France and Germany from 1993 to 2009.

In March 2009, investigators concluded that the supposed serial killer did not exist, and the DNA belonged to a woman who worked at a factory that made the cotton swabs used for collecting DNA samples
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Mark Bitter @markcbitter.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
New Perspective w/ @petrovadmitri.bsky.social and Paul Schmidt! We ask what evolution-in-action studies tell us about an old question: what genetic variation matters for fitness, and what maintains it? ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
ecoevorxiv.org
Common, consequential, and actively maintained: a neo-balance view of genetic variation
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Coach Finstock @coachfinstock.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I'm being silly here but the point still stands that every single person using AI is apparently oblivious to the fact that somewhere, someone has their thumb on the scale to feed you shit.
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Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I’m pretty sure I used this line as a trainee in response to a question from a mentor during lab meeting
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Benjamin @benjaminschneider.ch · 30/09/2026
Werner Herzog will be the last human being whose next word no language model can predict
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Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
They’re both bangers…but you gotta go with “I learned it by watching you”
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Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Man, what a great political ad
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Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 30/09/2026
GOAT OR BIRD????
This is even better than the
"what color is this dress" dress.
Goat?
or Bird?
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JD (by way of Blacksky) @jdot.blacksky.team · 30/09/2026
Boosting in light of the discourse surrounding Cornell University.
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Matt Olm @mattolm.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
This is an interesting paper! Starting with a really big screen to look for GPCR activation by microbes, and ending with a convincing story by which microbes make acetylcholine in the gut to promote IgA production, ultimately leading to better colonization. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Commensal-derived acetylcholine enhances mucosal immune education - Nature
A diet–microbiome–host axis strengthens mucosal immune defences and reinforces host–microbiota mutualism.
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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I feel like if AI wants to be in the business of offering medical opinions, then AI companies need to be in the "getting sued for medical malpractice" business too
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Vivek Mutalik @vivekmutalik.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
In our brand new 🥳 review, @hemaa-selvakumar.bsky.social & team pull a scattered literature in phage biology into a coherent framework for scaling up to engineering complex communities. We poured our hearts into this to share challenges & future opportunities for the nextGen!
Next generation application space with systematic characterization of phage-host interaction landscapes.
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Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Embarrassing ass President
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Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
The account doesn’t miss
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Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦
Will Ratcliff @wcratcliff.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
New paper out with @kaylastoy.bsky.social: academic.oup.com/evlett/advan...
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Dave Jorgenson @davejorgenson.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
🎃 Pumpkin Spice GLP-1 season 🍂
Smoothie King’s new pumpkin spice GLP-1 smoothie??
And
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Jesse Shapiro @bjesseshapiro.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Our latest, spearheaded by the truly indefatigable @emderrick.bsky.social in which we search for selective sweeps in nature and genetic targets of selection within a species in the context of a diverse background community @isme-microbes.bsky.social doi.org/10.1093/isme... 🧵 1/n
doi.org
Validate User
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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I'll save you the click-through: A lab at University of Copenhagen had been feeding draft manuscripts & data into "Claude Science" & then Anthropic announces a discovery that this lab made a year ago but hasn't published yet. It's plausible that Claude found the same signatures independently...
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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
What's a good way to visualize how the AI boom/bubble is propping up the economy? Ah, thanks.
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