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Tristan Caro

@tacaro.bsky.social
2.7K followers 757 following 247 posts

Microbiologist and geochemist | Postdoc @ Caltech | Formerly @ CU Boulder, NASA, Berkeley | Enjoys isotopes, dataviz, ceramics

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Reposted by Tristan Caro
Roland Hatzenpichler @environmicrobio.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
One of the most neglected, least understood, and willingly ignored concepts in microbiology is how fast cells grown in their native habitat. We just extrapolate from cultures, which is unrealistic. I wish I could get funds to measure growth in a bunch of habitats and do some foundational work ;(
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Eos @eos.org · 29/09/2026
NASA has ignored recommended funding levels for planetary research & analysis for 15 years, according to a new investigative report by Mark Sykes (@coop.planetary-research.org). And for FY2025, it hasn’t even spent 50% of what it budgeted for R&A. 🧪🪐🔭 eos.org/research-and...
eos.org
NASA has Underspent on Research and Analysis for 15 Years - Eos
Spending for NASA’s research and analysis programs has remained relatively flat for 15 years, ignoring recommendations from community-led decadal surveys and directives by Congress.
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JL Weissman @jlw-ecoevo.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Two weeks left to apply for these postoc positions! We seek two postdocs interested in 1) building trait prediction models capable of resolving complex microbial traits from genomes and metagenomes, and/or (2) building mathematical models of microbial community dynamics in the human microbiome.
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Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 26/09/2026
Personal essay, weekend edition. My relationship with AI is changing. 1.8k words, 8 min reading time. doi.org/10.59350/bh7...
doi.org
My relationship with AI is changing
When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?
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Jess Niblo @jessniblo.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Excited to share our manuscript “A geothermal amoeba sets a new upper temperature limit for eukaryotes” is out in Cell! This work, led by @oliverio.bsky.social & @hbrappap.bsky.social, introduces I. cascadensis, which divides at 63C, beating the prior eukaryotic limit of 60C. doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...
cell.com
A geothermal amoeba sets a new upper temperature limit for eukaryotes
The amoeba Incendiamoeba cascadensis demonstrates that eukaryotic life can withstand temperatures beyond what was thought possible and sheds light on molecular strategies for survival in extreme heat.
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Michael Hendricks 🇨🇦 @michaelhendricks.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
So sick of useless techbro scam artists sucking all the air out of every room and taking up all of the space we could be using for discussing things that matter.
AI is rapidly getting smarter. 

This has nothing to do with our product, but it's a good hook for the kind of person we’re marketing to. 

Anyone who actually cared about general increases in human capacities would put all of their effort into childhood nutrition and public education. But fuck that. 

Today we're announcing Vitruvian, a new set of polygenic scores. We're calling them "genetic optimization models" because "polygenic scores" tested poorly.

Our whitepaper says the expected gap between the highest- and lowest-scoring of five embryos (many IVF patients have 1-3) is ~10.8 IQ points. The gain over transferring a random one is ~half that. So like 5, but let’s call it 14, a number that tested well. 
Best case for P(we pick an embryo with higher IQ than random pick) = 0.63 for a difference that has no demonstrated effect on any outcome a parent would care about. Meanwhile 1/3 of our customers will get a worse-than-chance pick on this metric. The good news is it is impossible to know, and we are selling a value system. 

The models were trained on 1,000,000+ people, mostly of European ancestry, so if you aren't, the numbers above get substantially worse. We validated on 40,000+ siblings, many of whom took a short, noisy cognitive test in UK Biobank, which risks inflation based on relatedness, stratification, overlap between training/test.

Is our model overfitted? Does it suffer from common issues with UK Biobank data? No one has checked but us.  

NICK BOSTROM. (VCs in the Valley like it when you say that.)

Genetic optimization has followed a scaling law all the way up to the hard, low ceiling set by how much your embryos differ from each other. Forget I said that.

In fact, nothing is being optimized in the sense you understand that word, which is the sense in which I want you to misunderstand it. 

Parents across the world now have the choice to pay us for possibly altering a complex and contested metric that is strongly shaped by nutrition, education…
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Tristan Caro @tacaro.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Incredible paper!! www.nature.com/articles/s44...
nature.com
Stop messing with rumen microbes and focus on reducing ruminant populations for environmental and human health - npj Sustainable Agriculture
npj Sustainable Agriculture - Stop messing with rumen microbes and focus on reducing ruminant populations for environmental and human health
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PLOS @plos.org · 16/09/2026
We continue #OpenScienceWeek by highlighting the second output of our Redefining Publishing report on the future of the publishing business model. PLOS commits to develop a sustainable, non-APC model for research outputs and broaden participation in open science. 🔗 Read the report: buff.ly/hN8ycqN
plos.io
Redefining Publishing: Practical pathways to open science
PLOS explores innovative publishing models to enhance open science, focusing on broader recognition of diverse research outputs and sustainable participation beyond traditional article-centric…
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Dr. Jennifer Wade @volcanojw.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Do you like maps?? I’m in a briefing where the USGS shared these amazing 3D Elevation images that are just so cool. Find your state/district, and behold this example of DC! www.usgs.gov/3d-elevation...
A 3D Elevation Program image from the USGS of the District of Columbia, depicting (in their words) “the ‘bare earth’ surface, stripping away vegetation and structures, revealing ground surface.
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Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 14/09/2026
Talk about a title that'll make me click papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... 🤔 "Universities are multi-sided markets whose strategic asset is a credible warrant of quality over a credence good and AI is the first technology to disrupt this core function."
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Ted Pavlic (he/him/his) @tedpavlic.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Another Monte Carlo methods explorer for my simulating stochastic systems course. Demos 6 applications of Monte Carlo methods for estimating output distributions from stochastic models (queueing, inventory, reliability, and more -- 3 dynamic + 3 static). tpavlic.github.io/asu-simulati...
tpavlic.github.io
Monte Carlo Simulation Examples — interactive explainer
Six classic Monte Carlo experiments, each a short simulation per replication: a queueing node with one or two servers, an order-up-to inventory policy, a bearing-replacement policy, a newsvendor, aid ...
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
A group of 25 Fields Medalists, including myself, have made a joint declaration on Math and AI: mathandai.org . We welcome additional signatories. See also this article in the Economist announcing the declaration: www.economist.com/science-and-...
mathandai.org
Declaration — Math and AI
Read the declaration and add your name.
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Matthias C. Rillig @mrillig.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
New paper out in @pnas.org : Extreme climatic events drive consistent and predictable shifts in soil antibiotic resistance genes Led by Guanghui Xu, postdoc in our lab; a collaboration with @frantecol.bsky.social www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
pnas.org
Extreme climatic events drive consistent and predictable shifts in soil antibiotic resistance genes | PNAS
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing One Health challenge, and as climate warming intensifies extreme events, it remains unclear how these d...
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Mongabay @mongabay.com · 03/09/2026
[Commentary] Deep in the Gulf of Mexico, the unique and unstudied Orca Basin is threatened by corporate plans to dump organic waste for carbon storage. In this op-ed, deep-sea biologist @drcraigmc.bsky.social warns that this ancient deep-sea ecosystem is a living system, not a waste repository.
mongabay.cc
Gulf of Mexico’s unique Orca Basin shouldn’t become a carbon dump (commentary)
It’s 3 a.m. and I am standing on the deck of a research vessel, staring into water so dark it looks solid. I feel what I felt standing at the rim of the Grand Canyon, watching the sun set: there are…
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Ákos T Kovács @evolvedbiofilm.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Limits and frontiers of microbial phenotype measurements Current Opinion in Microbiology by @tacaro.bsky.social, @quantaofgeorge.bsky.social, Jonas Cremer, Shin Haruta, and @shougroup.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
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George Schaible @quantaofgeorge.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Our new opinion piece is out! @tacaro.bsky.social How you measure a microbe shapes what you learn about it. We make the case for a microbial observer effect, and what it means for experimental design: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
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Jeffrey Mervis @policyhound.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
An existing NSF program allows graduate students to work for industry while earning their degree. So why does NSF think that a $47-million award to do the same thing--but on a smaller scale-- is a new idea? www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
NSF’s new plan to fund graduate students to work in industry covers familiar ground
Agency gives university-industry consortium $47 million to reinvent existing internship program
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Alex Bisson @archaeon-alex.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Yet another myth collapses and joins Ethidium Bromide. Next one will be "having dedicated RNA bench and pipettes" journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
journals.asm.org
As a component of aseptic technique, Bunsen burners do not universally decrease deposition of microbe-containing particles | Microbiology Spectrum
The ability to manipulate and control microbial presence in built environments is imperative to research and medicine. The lack of documented evidence relating Bunsen burner use and airborne contamina...
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Homeworld Collective @homeworld.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Cave microbes are a substantial methane sink. A @cp-trendsmicrobiol.bsky.social Opinion from Sean Bay, Bob Leung, Homeworld, and @sparkclimate.bsky.social proposes enhanced subterranean aerotrophy, a prospective atmospheric methane removal pathway in caves or mines. www.cell.com/trends/micro...
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Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Finally, this has gone a bit under the radar, so I want to highlight it: The social, behavioral and economic sciences directorate (SBE) has simply ceased to deliver grants to many of its subareas. Any topic not specifically OK'd by the Trump administration is receiving zero new awards.
All of the NSF’s directorates are awarding fewer new grants, but the hardest hit is the social, behavioural and economic sciences (SBE) directorate, which the White House proposed eliminating in its 2027 budget request to Congress. SBE has so far awarded 84 new grants this year, about 11% of its average, mainly in areas of artificial intelligence, cognitive neuroscience and decision-making. Much of its portfolio, such as sociology, archaeology, political science, economics and geography, has received zero new awards. “I don’t think they’ve realized yet that there’s no awards,” one NSF staff member says of researchers in those fields. “That’s going to be clear soon.”
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PeppyPanda 🐼 - Uplifting and good news @peppypanda.com · 20/08/2026
Emissions from land-use change – including deforestation, loss of peatland and forest degradation – have been falling significantly since the late 1990s. 🌳 The decline accelerated after 2015 thanks to lower deforestation and higher restoration, reforestation and afforestation.
carbonbrief.org
Emissions from land-use change – including deforestation, loss of peatland and forest degradation – have been falling significantly since the late 1990s. 🌳 The decline accelerated after 2015 thanks to lower deforestation and higher restoration, reforestation and afforestation.
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Cameron Thrash @jcamthrash.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Psychrophiles elude genomic prediction of optimal growth temperature journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... #jcampubs
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Mount St. Helens Archive @mountsthelens1980.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
August 17, 1982 Don Swanson and possibly Christina Heliker making deformation measurements on the north side of the Mount St. Helens lava dome. Photo: Lyn Topinka/USGS.
Two USGS geologists make deformation measurements on the rocky north side of Mount St. Helens' dome, August 17, 1982. Don Swanson sits in the foreground beside a red equipment case, while a second geologist, possibly Christina Heliker, stands at a survey instrument on a yellow tripod. The dome rises behind them with steam venting from its summit. Photo: Lyn Topinka/USGS.
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Richard Sedgley @richardsedgley.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Two-thirds of UK news articles about wildfires this summer haven’t mentioned climate change uk.themedialeader.com/two-thirds-o...
uk.themedialeader.com
Two-thirds of UK news articles about wildfires this summer haven't mentioned climate change
Analysis from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit adds to concerns that national newspapers are failing to link this summer's extreme weather to climate change and the net-zero policies necessary to mitigate its drastic effects.
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whet moser @whetmoser.com · 06/08/2026
about the angriest i’ve ever gotten about an editorial was someone being smirky and shitty about the phrase “tree equity”
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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Thousands of ocelots (Leopardus pardalis) once roamed Texas, but urban sprawl, the rise of ranching & the clearing of thornscrub forest biomes for cattle have depleted their numbers to ~100-150 left. This Texas research institute aims to change that, if Elon Musk doesn't stop them.
static.klipy.com
Baby Ocelot Yawns and Meows
Alt: Baby Ocelot Yawns and Meows. A pair of gloved hands holds an ocelot, a sort of kitten-sized cat with yellow and white fur with black stripes. It is ridiculously cute and I want to hug it so much it hurts.
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David Zipper @davidzipper.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Which vehicles most endanger the drivers of other cars? Giant pickup trucks — and the Dodge Charger Source: www.iihs.org/news/detail/...
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Leon Simons @leonsimons.com · 28/07/2026
This is such a great visualization of the carbon cycle and of how humanity has completely altered it within a geological instant. Visualization by @rarohde.bsky.social. 1/
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Zeke Hausfather @zekehausfather.com · 28/07/2026
Fires in France have now burned over 91,000 acres, by far the most of any year since the satellite record started in 2006. Current area burned is about 34x larger than this date in a typical (median) year:
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Daniel Swain @weatherwest.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
An intense and long-duration heatwave now appears likely by late Jul/early Aug for SW U.S., including California. Extreme heat is likely in hottest inland deserts, and a potentially dangerous combination of heat & elevated humidity may develop in SoCal. More to come. #CAwx #AZwx
Map of predicted 500mb GPH anomalies (normalized) from the ECMWF ensemble across the Western U.S. Extremely anomalous positive (warm) GPH is depicted across the Southwest, including California and Arizona.
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 21/07/2026
1. We—@eduede.bsky.social, @mjcrockett.bsky.social, Kevin Gross, and I—have a new preprint on the arXiv today, based on ideas that emerged during an @sfiscience.bsky.social workshop in November 2024: The unintended consequences of large language models as a labor-augmenting technology in science.
arxiv.org
The unintended consequences of large language models as a labor-augmenting technology in science
As a labor-augmenting technology, large language models (LLMs) have the potential to accelerate scientific activity across the research pipeline. But even if LLMs perform on par with human experts at ...
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Loukas Theodosiou @bioinformatician.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
After four years, several updates and a handful of CRAN releases, 𝗹𝘁𝗰 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗿 𝗽𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲 𝗥-𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗮𝗴𝗲, reached a version I feel genuinely good about sharing with the community. github.com/loukesio/ltc...
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Tristan Caro @tacaro.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Can't wait for my doctor to prescribe me treatment based on sports gambler sentiment
"Michael Selig, the chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission that regulates prediction markets, has also touted drug-trial contracts as a potential way for sick people in need of medicine to hedge their future treatment costs."
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CIRES @cires.colorado.edu · 16/07/2026
Smoke from Canadian wildfires is blanketing the Midwest and Northeast, creating hazardous air quality conditions. This experimental @noaa.gov GSL decision support tool forecast shows where the smoke will travel over the next few hours.
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CIRES @cires.colorado.edu · 14/07/2026
New blog by CIRES' Kyle Manley: "These [public] lands deliver an estimated $507 billion in benefits to the American public every year, from pollination that underpins our food systems, to water regulation supporting downstream populations..." and more. www.naturepeopleactioncolab.org/news/launch-...
naturepeopleactioncolab.org
Public Lands Are Worth Far More Than the Price Tag of a Sale — Nature & People Action CoLab
Public lands are already working for the American public, sustaining the food, water, air, biodiversity, and cultural connections that define daily life across the country.
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Kendall Powell @kendallsciwrite.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
This @nature.com Q&A with Ryan Rising covers his own journey – and his work to help others – to get a PhD after being incarcerated. So easy to take for granted the raw power of higher education. As told to @virginiagewin.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
I want to see a prison-to-PhD pipeline
Ryan Rising creates programmes that help people who have been incarcerated to access academic opportunities.
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Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
New: The National Science Foundation is preparing to claw back some $500 million in funds from some of its core science programs in physics, math, computer science, and engineering in order to fund a project from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
nature.com
NSF plans cuts to core science programmes to fund White House initiative
A proposed clawback of already distributed research funds comes as the US agency’s budget is already squeezed and it struggling to clear a backlog of grant applications.
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Rae Loverde @raeloverde.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
PSA to my fellow Zoom users -- it's automatically turned on a bunch of A.I. features without asking you✌️ to turn all 32 of them off, go to "Settings" --> "My Account" --> "View advanced features" it'll open up your browser and list a SHITTON of A.I. features, many of which will be on (scroll!)
a screenshot of zoom with an arrow pointing to "settings"a screenshot of zoom settings with "my account" highlighted and a circle around "view advanced features"zoom on a web browser, with an arrow pointing to "AI Companion" and the first 3 of many AI features listed
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Ryan Bartelme @microbialbart.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
@cbo.bsky.social doing the heavy lifting for biologists here 🏋️
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Science Magazine @science.org · 30/06/2026
Social media posts containing misinformation evoke more moral outrage than posts with trustworthy information, and that outrage facilitates the spread of misinformation, according to a 2024 study in Science. scim.ag/4wgXGHA #SocialMediaDay
scim.ag
Misinformation exploits outrage to spread online
We tested a hypothesis that misinformation exploits outrage to spread online, examining generalizability across multiple platforms, time periods, and classifications of misinformation. Outrage is high...
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Chuliang Song @clsong.com · 16/06/2026
Spent the last two years developing a new Intro to Physics course for undergrad biology majors. It features tons of examples from biology (especially Ecology & Evolution!) and requires only middle school-level math. Lecture note here shorturl.at/0PiVp Any comments or feedback are highly welcome!
drive.google.com
physics_for_biologists.pdf
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NPR @npr.org · 25/06/2026
Two researchers — one in Massachusetts and one in Shanghai — hoped for the same breakthrough: a gene therapy for deaf children. New Chinese investment in science propelled the one who got there first. n.pr/4weVi49
n.pr
How the U.S. is losing ground to China in university research
Two researchers — one in Massachusetts and one in Shanghai — hoped for the same breakthrough: a gene therapy for deaf children. New Chinese investment in science propelled the one who got there first.
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Tristan Caro @tacaro.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Absolutely, and it's surrendering *the point* of being a scientist. The point is that we, humans, evaluate science, because we, humans, live in the material world. AI cannot adequately evaluate science because it does not have a stake in the material world.
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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
This is more money than was spent on cancer research at the National Cancer Institute since 2014.
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Kevin M. Gill @kevinmgill.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Curiosity just pulled up to some wild terrain on its Sol 4928 drive this week. Check out all those polygonal fractures, linear features, and all the other stuff going on! flic.kr/p/2sjtA9y
A flat terrain. The entire area is covered with these polygonal fractures kinda (but not necessarily) like desiccation cracks in mud. Light and dark tones linear features trend in differing directions.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Kevin M. Gill
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Kevin Anchukaitis @thirstygecko.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Modifying Mountains in Models Reduces Wet Bias in Western North America journals.ametsoc.org/view/journal...
journals.ametsoc.org
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 12/06/2026
No one owns ProPublica. As a nonprofit newsroom, our journalism is free from corporate interests, free from political pressure and free to read. Join us. Become a member by midnight: propub.li/49vQRJ9
Who owns ProPublica? No one. ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom, powered by 90,000+ donors. Stand up for fearless, independent journalism that holds the powerful to account and donate today. Donate by June 12.
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences @pnas.org · 12/06/2026
As #ClimateChange intensifies, rapid swings between drought and deluge —#HydrologicWhiplash — are becoming more common. These back-to-back extremes can amplify impacts. Learn more in this PNAS Core Concept: ow.ly/R5Rx50Zb6kO #drought #flooding #GreenhouseGasEmissions
A flood over a road.
Image credit: Shutterstock/Brian Patrick Feulner.
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Scott Marek @smarek0502.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
What matters most for childhood brain organization? We analyzed 649 variables. The answer: Socioeconomics (SES); with brain patterns pointing at sleep & stress as drivers. Even brain-IQ associations were better explained by SES. In Science today: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
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Zeke Hausfather @zekehausfather.com · 09/06/2026
Global CO2 emissions have plateaued since 2013, leading to a slower growth in atmospheric CO2 than would have otherwise been the case. In a new analysis at The Climate Brink, I've taken look at what would have happened if emissions had continued to grow: www.theclimatebrink....
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