A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms just finished its first season. It was a great run and a solid adaptation of the first of George R.R. Martin’s Hedge Knight novellas.
Earlier this year, I wrote about how they fit into Martin’s fantasy world and how that story came to take over pop culture:
#TrilobiteTuesday
Here is part of the body of quite a large trilobite known as Paradoxides spinosus. This specimen comes from the Middle Cambrian (Drumian) Jince Formation from the Czech Republic. Paradoxides is one of the largest trilobites known from the Cambrian period.
What Topher didn't say was that he wanted to have more options for grant funding. With the NIH out of the picture, he needed to submit something to the National Science Foundation. Unfortunately, the NSF wasn’t keen on human genomics. They liked non-model organisms, big interdisciplinary studies, and fundamental questions in biology. Right now, as much as he hated to admit it, he desperately needed more money. "The Rosenthal Lab," he continued, "Will be doing the paleontological analysis. They want us to do the sequencing and phylogenomic analysis of some mollusk, worm, and sponge genomes. Why might this research be interesting?” Again, he paused, waiting to see if anyone in his lab group knew what he was talking about. Sara raised her hand. “Yes, Sara?” “I think it is still unclear whether sponges or ctenophores evolved first, and many of the relationships of the Spiralia are disputed.”
Novel's not out yet. This spring, hopefully.
Here's the bit about sponges and comb jellies! They use UCEs in their analysis, so it's not totally scooped. ;)
And, congrats on the Science pub!!!
(This is a reference to my forthcoming novel)
Oh no! Sara and Topher have been scooped!
Trackways and prints at WHSA. (A and B) Unexcavated sloth track. The track outlines are only visible during specific moisture conditions. (C) Flailing circle made by a sloth reaching forward with its forelimbs and leaving knuckle and claw impressions. (D) Human unshod right foot, unexcavated, and 30 mm below current surface. (E) Superimposed human and sloth track. (F to H) Unshod human feet. (I) Sloth pes track. (J and K) Human tracks superimposed in sloth tracks, indicating contemporaneity. (L and M) Manus claw impression of a sloth.
Ancient human playground found inside sloth footprints?
Fossilized tracks of a giant ground sloth are stamped with tiny human feet
Footprints preserve terminal Pleistocene hunt?
Human-sloth interactions in North America 🏺🧪
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Jane Goodall, ethologist and conservationist, has died. She was 91
Wow!
As always, Courtney Milan provides excellent legal insight.
A laptop on a table next to a house plant
“The creative power which bubbles so pleasantly in beginning a new book quiets down after a time, and one goes on more steadily. Doubts creep in. Then one becomes resigned. Determination not to give in, and the sense of an impending shape keep one at it more than anything.”
- Virginia Woolf
Oh wow. This is gross. But also, I think I need to put it in a book. 😅
Don't forget program
I had an anxiety dream last night where someone asked me, “Which bioinformatics algorithm should I use with these sequences?” and I said, “ClustalW,” then realized I meant “UClust,” but by that point, it was too late.
You can leave academia, but it never leaves you…
Finally got this beautiful drawing of a Pachycephalosaurus by @serpenillus.bsky.social framed.
I remember learning about this skull back when I was a postdoc. At the time, scientists believed it would remain forever enigmatic because it was too old to harbor ancient DNA. Now we know it's a Denisovan. It's nice to finally put a face to a name.
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/18/s...
Getting stuck while we're writing is a feature, not a bug. It's the point of the exercise. It's what happens when we are trying to express something we have not expressed before. That friction forces us to make the tools we need to understand and express it. Getting stuck is how we make meaning.
You should definitely do this. It’s how my wife and I started writing. Now we’re full-time authors!
Did these end up shipping?
Woo hoo!
I’m excited!!!
I had the same question.
Romulus, Remus, and Khaleesi? I would have gone with Nymeria, Lady, and Ghost. time.com/7274542/colo...
The problem with the 23andMe data, or one problem, is that even if you didn’t contribute your DNA, if a family member did, you’re interpolated into their network.
Could you break it into two books?
I saw them perform at Coachella back in the early 2000s. Easily one of the best concerts I ever attended.
Same.
Abstract Anal. Chem. 2025, 97, 5, 2618-2628
Organic Molecules Found in 66-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Bones
Unambiguously identified, and for the first time quantified, hydroxyproline, a unique collagen-indicator amino acid, in acid-digested samples.
Evidence for Endogenous Collagen in Edmontosaurus Fossil Bone 🧪
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
mythology professor: so you think it's cool to make comedy about half-man/half-goats huh?
me: it's called "satyr"
Relevant to my current book.
The orange man has broken BLAST
