Roland Hatzenpichler

Roland Hatzenpichler

@environmicrobio.bsky.social

archaea, methane, microbial ecophysiology, single cell activity, next generation physiology & boardgames / for evidence-based decision-making / I don’t mince words / posts reflect personal views / www.environmental-microbiology.com

1.5K followers89 following2K posts

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Roland Hatzenpichler
@environmicrobio.bsky.social

Physiology, the functioning of a cell at a given time and in a given set of physiochemical conditions, is an emergent property that cannot be reliably predicted from genomic data or metabolic reconstructions alone. #testthy(metagenomic)hypotheses

Roland Hatzenpichler reposted

Carl T. Bergstrom
@carlbergstrom.com

Your monthly reminder that if you're using ChatGPT to do your science, you're failing your colleagues, community, and all of us. Here, ChatGPT makes up data and presents it as the real thing — then apologizes when confronted.

Roland Hatzenpichler reposted

Stand Up for Science!
@standupforscience.net

Trump is bleeding science dry as the National Science Foundation closes it's fiscal year with over $1B left unspent. NSF says the money will be invested in Trump aligned initiatives.

Roland Hatzenpichler
@environmicrobio.bsky.social

Some similar xp. I refuse to answer any emails written by/with help of AI. They clearly are not interested enough. Neither am I. #saynotoAI

Pat Schloss@patschloss.bsky.social

I ran 8 of the most recent emails I've received from people wanting to work in my lab through pangram. 1 came out as written by a human, 2 mostly AI/some human, and 5 100% AI. I'd love to hire that 1 person just out of principle. Are any grad programs running application materials through pangram?

Roland Hatzenpichler
@environmicrobio.bsky.social

This course is still the best scientific xp I had. I met Carl Woese, Norm Pace, and many other founders of (environmental) microbiology. Orr Shapiro’s and my research in our summer project gave me a corresponding author paper. At least 1/3, maybe more, of folks in my class r now tenured professors.

George O'Toole (he/him/his)@geiselbiofilm.bsky.social

Applications for Microbial Diversity are now open! A once-in-a-lifetime experience is an application away! www.mbl.edu/education/ad... @mblscience.bsky.social #MicrobialDiversity

mbl.eduMicrobial Diversity | Marine Biological LaboratoryThe goal of the course is to teach professors, postdocs and advanced graduate students how to discover, cultivate, and isolate diverse microorganisms catalyzing a breadth of chemical transformations, ...
Roland Hatzenpichler
@environmicrobio.bsky.social

I met my future postdoc advisor at the course. Faculty/directors became letter writers when I applied for faculty positions. I am still in (irregular) contact with several of co-students. I have been going back to Woods Hole nearly every year and a study site on which i built 3 proposals is there.

Roland Hatzenpichler reposted

Jed Fuhrman
@jedfuhrman.bsky.social

Check out the new paper led by Qicheng Bei in my group, showing that internal standard corrected metagenomic abundances of single copy genes are in excellent agreement with SYBR Green epifluorescrnce counts of bacteria and archaea at our SPOT time series, 2 years monthly, surface to 890m.

Cameron Thrash@jcamthrash.bsky.social

Strong agreement in absolute marine prokaryote abundance from epifluorescence microscopy and internal-standard-corrected metagenomics #USC_MEB #jcampubs 🌊 academic.oup.com/ismecommun/a...

Roland Hatzenpichler
@environmicrobio.bsky.social

There are two type of articles on AI: the ones who read like an article by The Onion. And the ones that make Terminator sounds like a documentary. When asshats and idiots are running the show, I guess.

Carl T. Bergstrom@carlbergstrom.com

"AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect AI to cure cancer, says Palantir CTO"

businessinsider.comAI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect AI to cure cancer, says Palantir CTOSome AI believers expect the technology to make smoking-related health risks like cancer a thing of the past, Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar said.
Roland Hatzenpichler
@environmicrobio.bsky.social

Thanks to the Montana State library my Fermi problem teaching article is now available open access. journals.asm.org/doi/epub/10....

journals.asm.orgBetter roughly right than precisely wrong: Fermi problems in biology curriculaReader environment loaded
Roland Hatzenpichler@environmicrobio.bsky.social

I love me some Fermi problems! However, there are no good instructions on how to use them in classes. So I wrote it up! If you read this it, you will finally learn the answer to the question 'How much phosphorous is released each day by viruses lysing Prochlorococcus cells?' tinyurl.com/2njt9r8h

Roland Hatzenpichler
@environmicrobio.bsky.social

This geyser goes off over a course of 30-45 minutes. Note the waves rippling over the surface - that’s water from the previous eruption seconds earlier. Also note those gorgeous orange microbial mats.

Roland Hatzenpichler
@environmicrobio.bsky.social

Got my new paper for next year’s discussion of endosymbiosis. This year will be the nitroplast.

bioRxiv Microbiology@biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social

A bacterial endosymbiont with a highly reduced genome forms extensive membrane contact sites with host organelles https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.06.757092v1

Roland Hatzenpichler reposted

Joshua Weitz
@joshuasweitz.bsky.social

Arithmetic in the "New Golden Age of Science" at NSF: Reduce $600M in STEM funding between FY25 and FY26 grantwitness.org/nsf/analyses... Propose to reduce NSF GRFP fellowships by $180M in FY27 nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/FY-202... Declare "success" w/a $100M "push" for US scientists.

bloomberg.comWhite House Makes $100 Million Push to Train American ScientistsThe Trump administration is injecting more than $100 million into education programs for American researchers in STEM fields, as federal policies stanch the flow of foreign scientists to the US and po...

Roland Hatzenpichler reposted

Dan Garisto
@dangaristo.bsky.social

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 researchAgency body that funds sociology, linguistics, and archaeology studies in U.S. gave 90% fewer new grants this year
Roland Hatzenpichler
@environmicrobio.bsky.social

I also have been making a habit to ask every candidate what books they’ve been reading lately. And yes, I mean read. Listening to an audio book is not reading.

Roland Hatzenpichler@environmicrobio.bsky.social

Same here, with the difference that I am generally antiAI (as compared to the OP). If you don’t feel it’s worth your time to learn more about my lab and then contact me, I don’t see a need of wasting my time with you.

Roland Hatzenpichler
@environmicrobio.bsky.social

Same here, with the difference that I am generally antiAI (as compared to the OP). If you don’t feel it’s worth your time to learn more about my lab and then contact me, I don’t see a need of wasting my time with you.

Ran Blekhman@blekhman.bsky.social

My inbox is being flooded with fully AI-generated emails from prospective students. I tried to work out why I can't bring myself to read them, and ended up with some thoughts and advice for writing cold emails in the age of AI. My new post: blekhman.substack.com/p/why-i-am-n...

blekhman.substack.comWhy I am not reading your AI-generated emailI hope this email finds you well-aligned
Roland Hatzenpichler
@environmicrobio.bsky.social

And yes, you often can get a feeling of whether something is AI written. I had a suspicion about three emails last week, put all three into two different types of AI detector software and they all flagged them as 100% AI written

Roland Hatzenpichler reposted

Noah Fierer
@noahfierer.bsky.social

A plea: If you are leading a faculty search and you expect 100s of applications - please do not request letters up front! You are basically telling your colleagues that you do not value their time.

Roland Hatzenpichler
@environmicrobio.bsky.social

Just to be clear, it’s not only that I’m against the colloquial use of generative AI. It was also that the errors were so blatantly obvious that it immediately makes me doubt the intellectual standards/integrity of the authors and, in consequence, the study.

Roland Hatzenpichler reposted

Stand Up for Science!
@standupforscience.net

At an event held by the MAHA Institute, RFK Jr said he wanted the federal government to feed Americans' private health data to AI to find evidence to support his anti-science ideology. He also said AI can make “better-informed” decisions than doctors, despite AI’s reputation for hallucinations.

Roland Hatzenpichler reposted

FactPost
@factpostnews.bsky.social

The Trump administration blocked the Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium from reapplying for funding, terminating at least 2 clinical trials for children's brain cancer treatment.

Roland Hatzenpichler
@environmicrobio.bsky.social

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 ;(

Roland Hatzenpichler reposted

George O'Toole (he/him/his)
@geiselbiofilm.bsky.social

Pls share: Two tenure-track positions in Molecular Microbiology at Virginia Tech. I had a great visit there a couple of years ago! jobs.apply.vt.edu/jobs/assista...

jobs.apply.vt.eduAssistant/Associate Professor - Blacksburg, Virginia, United StatesJob Description The Department of Biological Sciences in the College of Science at Virginia Tech seeks applicants for two (2) tenure-track research and teaching positions at the Assistant/Associate ...
Roland Hatzenpichler
@environmicrobio.bsky.social

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 ;(

Roland Hatzenpichler
@environmicrobio.bsky.social

The exception to this can be counted on one or maybe two hands like the work by Tristan Caro, Jen Pett-Ridge, Victoria Orphan, Bruce Hungate, and others… but that’s like one or two or three studies on a particular sample type (soil, importantly). We need a baseline understanding of all habitat types

Roland Hatzenpichler reposted

H. B. Beryl Rappaport
@hbrappap.bsky.social

Our description of fire amoeba, 𝘐𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘢𝘮𝘰𝘦𝘣𝘢 𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘴, is now online at Cell! Thanks @oliverio.bsky.social and amazing team for questioning the limits of eukaryotes! 🔥 www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

cell.comA geothermal amoeba sets a new upper temperature limit for eukaryotesThe 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.