Visuals That Work — Niko McCarty
A list of visuals that make science more legible and exciting — interactive essays, paintings, videos, and charts that do real explanatory work.
Niko McCarty
Writing on biology.
Latest posts
Underrated Ideas in Biotech (Part I)
Three half-baked ideas in biotechnology: hyperspectral biology, engineering beauty, and mapping the air and oceans.
PCR is a (Surprisingly) Near-Optimal Technology
Photonic PCR can run 40 cycles in six minutes. But there are several reasons why it's unlikely to catch on — and why PCR is already surprisingly close to optimal.
We Need Better "Cloning Design" Tools
Why do cloning tools still suck? This problem seems like a low-hanging fruit for AI to solve. I gave microgrants to two people working on it.
A $1,000 Microgrant for "Bubble Algae"
Valonia ventricosa, or bubble algae, is the largest single-celled organism on Earth. I gave a $1,000 microgrant to a team working on using it as a living bioreactor.
Failed Attempts to Make V. Natriegens Grow Faster
I claimed nobody had tried to evolve Vibrio natriegens to grow faster. I was wrong, and it warrants a correction.
Many Great Inventions Weren't Made by "Serendipity"
Important inventions in molecular biology are often framed as happening by serendipity. The more you read about these histories, the more you see that great inventors engineered their own luck.
Where is my Mother Machine?
A tiny microfluidic device lets you watch a single cell divide hundreds of times — and yet almost nobody uses it. Here's why that should change.
A Small Amount of Money Can Surface Many Good Ideas
The Fast Biology Bounties went surprisingly well. My goal was to spend $10,000, but so many good submissions came in that I ended up giving away $15,000 instead.
One Equation for Faster-Growing Cells
A single equation explains why Vibrio natriegens divides every 9.8 minutes — and points toward how to make cells grow faster.
eLife Fallout
When a prestigious journal scrapped accept-reject decisions on submitted papers, some scientists rebelled, and the editor-in-chief was fired.
Fast Biology Bounties — Niko McCarty
TL;DR: $10,000 in prizes for ideas on how to speed up wet-lab experiments. Prizes will be given for ideas that are highly original and technically tractable. A
What I Learned in 2024 — Niko McCarty
Asimov Press, the publishing company that I run with Xander Balwit, has only been around for about a year. I really love the job because it lets me work with al
30 Great Essays About Biology — Niko McCarty
The world needs more essays about biology. So last month, I tweeted a link to one of my favorite essays (#1 below) and promised that I would continue to share a
A Christmas Story — Niko McCarty
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Underrated Origins of the Protein Folding Problem
Christian Anfinsen shared the 1972 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for showing that a protein's structure is encoded by its amino acid sequence — a breakthrough that predated the genetic code.
The Art of Emails — Niko McCarty
Emails are underrated. Many people view them as purely functional — as just another part of the job. But they can be much more than that. Emails are a useful wa
How to Calculate BioNumbers — Niko McCarty
Arithmetic is a superpower. Or, as Dynomight has written, a “world-modeling technology.” It is one of the first things we learn in school, and yet few seem
Brick Technology Addictions
A YouTube channel about LEGO machines got me thinking about fast iterations and biology.
The Case for Bridge Editors — Niko McCarty
Arc Institute researchers recently published a preprint showing that their gene-editing technology, called Bridge recombinases, work in human cells. M
C57Bl6/J — Niko McCarty
The first mouse emulation appeared in 2032; a rodent’s entire anatomy, and all of its cells—including the brain—perfectly recapitulated using computer hardware.
How to Minimize Cell Burden — Niko McCarty
Biochemistry textbooks often depict cells as spacious places, where molecules float in secluded harmony. But cells are dense and crowded; a bit like molecu
Central Dogma in 7 Experiments — Niko McCarty
In the days before DNA sequencing, high-powered microscopes, and molecular biology textbooks, decoding the finer workings of a living cell often required arduou
Enzymes from Random Molecules
A new paper in Nature shows that enzymes can be made by mixing just four molecules together, none of which are amino acids.
How to Find Writing Ideas — Niko McCarty
Many writers have published advice about how to write better, myself included. But I recently went looking for advice about how to find writing ideas,
Biotech Needs a Hydrogen Atom — Niko McCarty
The hydrogen atom revolutionized physics.
Microbial Lenses — Niko McCarty
There’s a new paper out in PNAS that hints at some intriguing synthetic biology applications. Researchers at the University of Rochester introduced a
The Most Abundant Protein — Niko McCarty
One reason David Goodsell’s paintings attract biologists, I think, is because they are unapologetically realistic. His paintings depict seas of macromolecules s
Moving to the Bay
I moved to the Bay Area to join Astera Institute as an independent fellow.
This OpenAI Wet-Lab Blog is Pretty Good
OpenAI used GPT-5 to optimize Gibson Assembly. Here's what they actually did — and where I'd push back.
Estimating the Size of a Single Molecule — Niko McCarty
Many decades before the discovery of x-rays and the invention of powerful microscopes, Lord Rayleigh calculated the size of a single molecule. And he did it, re
Tardigrades Can Live for 30 Years — Niko McCarty
A few months ago, I saw some claims online that tardigrades—also called water bears—can survive for up to 30 years without food or water.
Think of the Eggs — Niko McCarty
When people think of “biotech” — myself included — they tend to picture GLP-1s and gene therapies. But biotech is much broader than just medicine; it’s also pus
Underrated Science Books — Niko McCarty
It’s generally a bad idea to write a book.
We Need Biotech Data — Niko McCarty
In 2011, while working in Brazil, Max Roser began formulating the idea for Our World in Data. He initially planned to publish “data and research on global
Why Engineer Biology? — Niko McCarty
This essay originally appeared on the Asimov blog.
Why I Write — Niko McCarty
In the summer of 1946, shortly after the close of World War II, George Orwell published a short essay entitled “Why I Write.” He had already released Comin
Why Vibrio Never Caught On
A microbe that divides every 10 minutes never displaced E. coli. Here's why — and why that might change.
Writing Moats — Niko McCarty
Good writers should not fear AI. Many types of writing that people enjoy reading cannot easily be replicated by machines. Also, writing is a good way to think a