Reposted by Victor Maull MiquelVictor de Lorenzo (CNB, Madrid) @vdlorenzo.bsky.social · 10/09/20262/2 The second branch is *Relational SynBio*, which pursues functioning & nesting of Eng biologics in existing molecular & ecological networks. #1 is all about control & containment. #2 is about pursuing effective tradeoffs with the environment 🤔 042
Reposted by Victor Maull MiquelVictor de Lorenzo (CNB, Madrid) @vdlorenzo.bsky.social · 10/09/2026Curious about the origins and early days of Synthetic Biology in Spain? Or looking for a SynBio lab where you could pursue a PhD, do a postdoc or explore career opportunities in the country? Take a look at this historical account & snapshot of the field today! 👉🏻 dx.doi.org/10.1049/enb2...dx.doi.orgThe Landscape of Synthetic Biology and Bioengineering in SpainThis article reviews the emergence and current status of synthetic biology in Spain, tracing its evolution from pioneering contributions in gene regulation, systems biology and microbial engineering ... 0104
Reposted by Victor Maull MiquelRicard Solé @ricardsole.bsky.social · 04/09/2026Can AI spread like a virus and erode cognitive autonomy? Our new paper models how LLM adoption can cross tipping points, triggering runaway dependence and tech lock-in, suggesting routes to "cognitive immunization". arxiv.org/abs/2609.03344 @ruffini.bsky.social @francesca-castaldo.bsky.social 14716
Reposted by Victor Maull MiquelPatricia Fernández de Lis @pflis.bsky.social · 15/08/2026"Es quizá el hallazgo más hermoso de un eclipse total: que el conocimiento exacto de algo no agota, ni de lejos, la capacidad del cosmos para dejarnos sin palabras". Hoy escribo en @elpais.com elpais.com/opinion/2026...elpais.comLa capacidad de seguir asombrándonosAunque sepas perfectamente qué va a pasar, nada te prepara para la experiencia de vivir un eclipse total 05216
Victor Maull Miquel @vmaull.bsky.social · 13/08/2026He trobat aquesta cambra de boira a @au.dk (Steno Museum, Dinamarca). Permet observar partícules invisibles de la radiació de fons o de fonts radioactives properes. A més de ser preciosa, és sorprenentment fàcil de construir. En fem una, @museuciencies.cat? 👀 170
Victor Maull Miquel @vmaull.bsky.social · 15/07/2026A @elpuntavui.cat parlo sobre la “terraformació” o l'enginyeria d’ecosistemes: podem modificar-los per no perdre’ls? Quines eines tenim? I en quin punt estem? Aquí podeu llegir l’entrevista: www.elpuntavui.cat/societat/art...elpuntavui.cat"La modificació d'un ecosistema local pot canviar el clima local""La pèrdua de diversitat provoca la pèrdua de les funcions que fan forts els ecosistemes davant el canvi" "Si pressiones un ecosistema no transita a poc a poc fins a la pèrdua de vida sinó que aguant... 051
Reposted by Victor Maull MiquelPhilip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 18/06/2026Just how big a danger would "mirror life" really be? My latest column for @chemistryworld.com www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/woul...chemistryworld.comWould mirror life really threaten our own?New modelling suggests that even if we could create cells based on mirror-image biomolecules, their natural counterparts would outcompete them in the wild 3186
Reposted by Victor Maull MiquelRicard Solé @ricardsole.bsky.social · 03/06/2026Can we engineer ecosystems before they collapse? In our new perspective on "emergent bioengineering" we argue that the key challenge is not simply controlling living systems, but designing interventions that can adapt and sustain functional ecological networks. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 13416
Victor Maull Miquel @vmaull.bsky.social · 03/06/2026Complex Adaptive Systems, like ecosystems, challenge traditional engineering intuition. Synthetic Biology is a powerful tool but ecological principles must become a central part of the design language doi.org/10.1016/j.co... @lizashpilkina.bsky.social @vdlorenzo.bsky.social @ricardsole.bsky.social 072
Reposted by Victor Maull MiquelVictor de Lorenzo (CNB, Madrid) @vdlorenzo.bsky.social · 03/06/2026Leaving behind the myth of the lab-built heroic strain for bioremediation & environmental recovery. Forefront SynBio-based research in large-scale env biotech needs to refocus on engineering ecological interactions www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @ricardsole.bsky.social @vmaull.bsky.social 0125
Reposted by Victor Maull MiquelRicard Solé @ricardsole.bsky.social · 25/05/2026Can agriculture emerge in an artificial society of AI agents? Yes. In our new paper we show how they discover domestication, with social learning acting as a firewall against cheaters, allowing an effectively irreversible transition toward agriculture. arxiv.org/pdf/2605.22256 3366
Victor Maull Miquel @vmaull.bsky.social · 23/05/2026'It was a wonderful night, the sort of night that can only occur when we are young, dear reader' Running alone on Dew Pond trail, Ascension Island 040
Reposted by Victor Maull MiquelRicard Solé @ricardsole.bsky.social · 12/05/2026Can engineered mirror life become a threat to humans or the biosphere itself? Despite some recent claims, a life form created in the test tube may be doomed to fail when confronted with established ecosystems. Check our new paper where we do the maths. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 12913
Victor Maull Miquel @vmaull.bsky.social · 20/04/2026The Storm Glass says rain. Its chemicals crystallize differently with weather shifts. There was one aboard the Beagle when anchored in Ascension in 1836, no crystals then. The eco-climatic shift would take, at least, 50 more years. @nastassiakn.bsky.social @ricardsole.bsky.social @pflis.bsky.social 091
Victor Maull Miquel @vmaull.bsky.social · 15/04/2026In 1836, Darwin visited this crater in Ascension Island and wrote: “These saucer-shaped layers crop out on the margin, forming perfect rings of many different colours, giving to the summit a most fantastic appearance... hence the hill has been called the Devil’s Riding School.” 0101
Reposted by Victor Maull MiquelRicard Solé @ricardsole.bsky.social · 06/04/2026Can we terraform our own ecosystems, perhaps to rescue them from degradation and collapse? There is a Victorian story about this: Ascension Island, Darwin's synthetic ecosystem. Now in a film: www.europesays.com/uk/813985/ @vmaull.bsky.social @ftmaestre.bsky.social @vdlorenzo.bsky.social 1161
Reposted by Victor Maull MiquelNastassia Knödlseder @nastassiakn.bsky.social · 04/04/2026Very proud that our research was featured in @natbiotech.nature.com. Congratulations to all my co-authors and colleagues! 041
Victor Maull Miquel @vmaull.bsky.social · 27/03/2026A view of Green Mountain on Ascension Island, often described as the world’s first and only human-made cloud forest. More here: cadenaser.com/nacional/202... @avivirser.bsky.social @ricardsole.bsky.social 4174
Victor Maull Miquel @vmaull.bsky.social · 22/03/2026Hoy hablaré en el programa “A vivir que son dos días” en la cadena SER sobre la terraformación de la Isla de Ascensión. cadenaser.com/cadena-ser/a... 172
Victor Maull Miquel @vmaull.bsky.social · 17/03/2026Today I’ll board a plane to the remote island of Ascension. During the 19th century, it was the setting of an unprecedented experiment in ecosystem engineering that remains, to date, largely unexplored. 071
Victor Maull Miquel @vmaull.bsky.social · 14/02/2026Yesterday I defended my PhD thesis at the CSL, a unique library of questions and ideas. Thanks to @ricardsole.bsky.social I feel incredibly lucky to walk this path with you. To @vdlorenzo.bsky.social, @jgojalvo.bsky.social, Sonia Kéfi: amazing committee. To my family and friends, for lifting me up. 2121
Reposted by Victor Maull MiquelRicard Solé @ricardsole.bsky.social · 10/02/2026Can we engineer cognition in aneural systems? What are the challenges and implications? Can synthetic biology be used to interrogate basal cognition? Our new paper with @jordiplam.bsky.social explores these questions using models of minimal gene circuits. Available here pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1... 2276
Reposted by Victor Maull MiquelRicard Solé @ricardsole.bsky.social · 06/02/2026Excited to share a new PhD thesis from my student and soon Dr @vmaull.bsky.social on synthetic ecosystems, preventing tipping points, and a new concept: emergent bioengineering. Very proud of this achievement, and thankful to @sfiscience.bsky.social, where many of these ideas came to life. 2368
Reposted by Victor Maull MiquelRicard Solé @ricardsole.bsky.social · 19/12/2025Cooperation is a universal feature of complex systems, from the origins of life and microbiomes to societies. What universal patterns can be found in these systems? Here's our new @pnas.org paper. @jordipinero.bsky.social @artemyte.bsky.social @sfiscience.bsky.social www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.... 47630
Victor Maull Miquel @vmaull.bsky.social · 21/10/2025Today I will be giving a talk in the BioClub Tokio on synthetic ecosystems. Happy to share and discuss with this community again! You can follow on zoom if you are interested: bioclub.tokyo/en/events/sy... 1141
Reposted by Victor Maull MiquelAngel Goñi-Moreno @angelgm.eurosky.social · 11/10/2025Off to Madrid from an amazing #ALIFE2025 conference in beautiful Kyoto. Kudos to the organisers. 072
Reposted by Victor Maull MiquelRicard Solé @ricardsole.bsky.social · 09/10/2025Honored to receive the 2024 Outstanding Publication Award from the Intl Soc for Artificial Life @alife2025.bsky.social for our @royalsocietypublishing.org ublishing.org paper “Fundamental Constraints to the Logic of Living Systems” @sfiscience.bsky.social royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.... 5557
Reposted by Victor Maull MiquelRicard Solé @ricardsole.bsky.social · 08/10/2025Si trobem vida en un altre planeta, serà diferent de la que coneixem? Crear vida al laboratori seguirà les mateixes regles? Pot existir vida sense aigua o ADN? I les IAs del futur, poden aparèixer sense assemblar-se al cervell humà? Vine al @iec.cat i t’ho explico! @melisupf.bsky.social @prbb.org 0156
Reposted by Victor Maull MiquelEvolDir @evoldir.bsky.social · 04/10/2025UMass Boston seeks a tenure-track Assistant Professor in microbial ecology, starting September 1, 2026. Apply by December 1, 2025. Details: www.umb.edu/academics/csm/biology #jobumb.eduBiology - UMass BostonBiology - UMass Boston 01940
Reposted by Victor Maull MiquelRicard Solé @ricardsole.bsky.social · 24/09/2025Una exposició per pensar el Temps des de la ciència, la cultura i la condició humana museuciencies.cat/exposicio_te... 071
Reposted by Victor Maull MiquelCentro de Investigaciones Biológicas Margarita Salas (CSIC) @cib-csic.bsky.social · 26/09/2025#MISB (@csic.es-UIMP ) Design meets evolution: Theory and practice Víctor de Lorenzo (@vdlorenzo.bsky.social), @cnb-csic.bsky.social 📅Oct 3 ⏰11am The seminar will take place at CIB and additionally streamed online 🔗https://rediris.zoom.us/meeting/register/ZmrXKHmFSHqyxE65O3wvRQ#/registration 023
Reposted by Victor Maull MiquelRicard Solé @ricardsole.bsky.social · 24/09/2025Can synthetic biology help save endangered ecosystems? Our new paper with @vmaull.bsky.social explores how engineered genes can spread through soil microbes. We model how synthetic gene transfer can support biodiversity. @vdlorenzo.bsky.social @guimaguade.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 23110
Victor Maull Miquel @vmaull.bsky.social · 24/09/2025Can we leverage the mechanics of horizontal gene transfer to percolate genes of interest through bacterial communities? This paper takes the initial theoretical steps to explore its potential and implications, and to derive design principles. Inspiration: spj.science.org/doi/10.34133... 021
Reposted by Victor Maull MiquelRicard Solé @ricardsole.bsky.social · 10/09/2025Can a single cell learn? Even without a brain, some microbes show simple forms of cognition. Can this basal cognition be engineered? Check our new paper with @jordiplam.bsky.social on the minimal synthetic circuits & their cognitive limits. @drmichaellevin.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 510942
Reposted by Victor Maull MiquelQuanta Magazine @quantamagazine.org · 13/08/2025In Pan de Azúcar National Park in Chile’s Atacama Desert are pebbles known locally as “maicillo” and in English as “grit.” Rich colonies of hidden microbial life dwell in their crevices and bind them together into thin crusts. quantamagazine.org/in-a-fierce-... 1232
Reposted by Victor Maull MiquelRoyal Society Publishing @royalsocietypublishing.org · 09/08/2025A new theme issue of #PhilTransB focuses on the evolution of Earth’s biosphere: royalsocietypublishing.org/toc/rstb/202... 2144
Victor Maull Miquel @vmaull.bsky.social · 18/07/2025A yellow bloom spreads in the southeast. Mud collected from the rivers that frame Barcelona, Besòs and Llobregat. Month 7. 151
Reposted by Victor Maull MiquelFernando T. Maestre @ftmaestre.bsky.social · 24/06/2025#Biocrusts are vital to dryland health—but can they recover after being disturbed? 🤔A new review in @botsocamerica.bsky.social #AmJBot by @michalaphillips.bsky.social & al explores biocrust recovery timelines, climate impacts & restoration potential bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.comNavigating the possibilities and pitfalls of biocrust recovery in a changing climateBiological soil crusts are complex communities composed of lichens, mosses, bacteria, and cyanobacteria that create a living skin on the soil surface across drylands worldwide. Although small in size... 152
Reposted by Victor Maull MiquelVictor de Lorenzo (CNB, Madrid) @vdlorenzo.bsky.social · 19/06/2025This paper on massive genomic rearrangements at the basis of a major evolutionary event reminds me of Cortazar's novel Rayuela, in which the order you read the same text originate very different stories www.nature.com/articles/s41...nature.comAn episodic burst of massive genomic rearrangements and the origin of non-marine annelids - Nature Ecology & EvolutionAn analysis of annelid genomes reveals massive reshuffling of chromosomes in the ancestral lineage leading to clitellates, a clade composed of non-marine annelids, with potential implications for the ... 042
Reposted by Victor Maull MiquelRicard Solé @ricardsole.bsky.social · 12/06/2025How can we build a general theory of mutualistic communities? After five years, we finally completed a new Neutral Theory of Cooperation that is fully solved analytically and displays remarkable properties @jordipinero.bsky.social @artemyte.bsky.social @manlius.bsky.social arxiv.org/abs/2506.09737 26826
Reposted by Victor Maull Miquelmuseuciencies @museuciencies.cat · 12/06/2025Reobre el Terrat Viu del Museu amb una nova àrea experimental sobre el canvi climàtic: Mesocosmos ⌚Horari de visita: Dissabtes, d’ 11 a 15h. Diumenges i festius, d’ 11h a 15h. Diumenges tarda (portes obertes), de 16h a 20h. 🧪 Més informació: museuciencies.cat/reobre-el-te... 122
Reposted by Victor Maull MiquelVioleta Calleja Solanas @violetacalleja.bsky.social · 01/04/2025Registration for our workshop "An Introduction to Structural Stability in Ecology" is open! 📍 #AEETSIBECOL2025 meeting 📅 June 2 @eco-aeet.bsky.social @sibecol.bsky.social 0104
Reposted by Victor Maull MiquelVictor de Lorenzo (CNB, Madrid) @vdlorenzo.bsky.social · 19/05/2025Ricard Solé, biólogo y físico 👉🏻 elpais.com/tecnologia/2...elpais.comRicard Solé, biólogo y físico: “Tal vez haya que redefinir la soledad”El científico, comisario de la exposición ‘Cerebro(s)‘, revisa los efectos de la relación entre personas y máquinas y cuestiona el alcance de algunos desarrollos tecnológicos 041
Victor Maull Miquel @vmaull.bsky.social · 16/05/2025A green glowing spectre is haunting the waters again.. 1101
Reposted by Victor Maull MiquelRicard Solé @ricardsole.bsky.social · 08/05/2025How can we build or engineer synthetic ecosystems? What can they tell us about ecological rules? Can we model planetary-level regulation in the test tube? Glad to deliver my keynote tomorrow at the MPDEE'25 conference www.bcamath.org/events/mpdee... @vmaull.bsky.social @lizashpilkina.bsky.social 1244
Reposted by Victor Maull MiquelRicard Solé @ricardsole.bsky.social · 08/05/2025Two types of brains have emerged in nature: solid (ours) and liquid (ant colonies, immune system). What can be computed by liquid brains? How complex are they? Check our paper on the statistical physics of liquid brains @jordipinero.bsky.social royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.... 27718
Victor Maull Miquel @vmaull.bsky.social · 06/05/2025The ostracods grazed it all. Should we expect Lotka-Volterra dynamics? Mud collected from the rivers that frame Barcelona, Besòs and Llobregat. Month 5. 1121
Reposted by Victor Maull MiquelRicard Solé @ricardsole.bsky.social · 04/05/2025Is there a global pattern in our planet's chemistry consistent with life? Looking at our atmosphere, Mars, Venus, and interstellar space, we found that Earth follows the same architecture as a living cell, while the others do not. Would this be used as a biosignature? web.archive.org/web/20060113... 0323
Reposted by Victor Maull MiquelRicard Solé @ricardsole.bsky.social · 28/04/2025How can biological systems anticipate future events? In our new paper with @jordiplam.bsky.social, we show how a simple genetic circuit can predict future trends through a simple (and perhaps widespread) mechanism @drmichaellevin.bsky.social @koseskalab.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 59629
Reposted by Victor Maull MiquelMichael E. Mann @michaelemann.bsky.social · 26/04/2025Are you finding yourself inundated with claims that geoengineering, carbon capture, and nuclear are the solutions to the climate crisis? Read these white papers by our resident @penncssm.bsky.social climate solutions expert, Dr. Joe Romm: web.sas.upenn.edu/pcssm/public... 26304102
