# niko (blogs) — RSS Amplifier Recent posts from the 3 feeds in the RSS Amplifier directory that cover niko. Page: Feed: --- ## [Niko Partners observations at ChinaJoy 2026](https://substack.nikopartners.com/p/niko-partners-observations-at-chinajoy) _2026-08-13 · Jaqualine Lukman · Niko News by Niko Partners_ Read our writeup on what was different from this year's edition, which ran under the theme “Level Up with AI" ## [India’s Gaming Market Surpasses $1 Billion for the First Time, Driven by Mobile Growth and Changing Player Behavior](https://substack.nikopartners.com/p/indias-gaming-market-surpasses-1) _2026-08-11 · Jaqualine Lukman · Niko News by Niko Partners_ Highlights from Niko's new India Player Behavior and Market Insights Report ## [Garena will release Palworld Online in 2026](https://substack.nikopartners.com/p/garena-will-release-palworld-online) _2026-08-06 · Jaqualine Lukman · Niko News by Niko Partners_ The game recently surpassed the 40 million players milestone ahead of its full 1.0 release last month ## [$7 billion in 2030: Opportunities in Southeast Asia’s Video Game Markets](https://substack.nikopartners.com/p/7-billion-in-2030-opportunities-in) _2026-08-05 · Jaqualine Lukman · Niko News by Niko Partners_ SEA player numbers to surpass 300 million this year, underscoring its position as one of the world’s largest, and most important, gaming audience. ## [China approves 197 video games in July 2026](https://substack.nikopartners.com/p/china-approves-197-video-games-in) _2026-07-30 · Jaqualine Lukman · Niko News by Niko Partners_ Niko Partners forecasts over 2,000 domestic and import games to be approved this year. ## [Chinese publishers scale back presence at Tokyo Game Show 2026](https://substack.nikopartners.com/p/chinese-publishers-scale-back-presence) _2026-07-23 · Jaqualine Lukman · Niko News by Niko Partners_ A number of major Chinese publishers that maintained a strong presence in recent years are absent from the consumer exhibition area ## [India wants its Black Myth: Wukong moment with The Age of Bhaarat](https://substack.nikopartners.com/p/india-wants-its-black-myth-wukong) _2026-07-16 · Jaqualine Lukman · Niko News by Niko Partners_ The studio aims to achieve for India what Wukong accomplished for China through the locally developed, culturally rooted games with international audiences ## [Livestreaming Tracker June 2026 Highlights: Tencent’s Shooter Portfolio Leads China’s Livestreaming Rankings](https://substack.nikopartners.com/p/livestreaming-tracker-june-2026-highlights) _2026-07-13 · Jaqualine Lukman · Niko News by Niko Partners_ Shooter titles dominated China’s livestreaming landscape in June 2026, standing out as some of the month’s most-watched content. ## [miHoYo is the most valuable private gaming company](https://substack.nikopartners.com/p/mihoyo-is-the-most-valuable-private) _2026-07-09 · Jaqualine Lukman · Niko News by Niko Partners_ Most well-known for Genshin Impact, the company was valued at approximately $30 billion. ## [Papergames cancels release of new love interest in otome game Love & Deepspace](https://substack.nikopartners.com/p/papergames-cancels-release-of-new) _2026-07-02 · Jaqualine Lukman · Niko News by Niko Partners_ The decision follows significant backlash from the game’s community ## [Meet Claude, an AI assistant (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/sBSJ0uX84dmD) _2026-07-02 · **Sponsored**_ Chat with Claude at claude.ai — a conversational AI assistant. ## [Visuals That Work — Niko McCarty](https://nikomc.com/essays/visuals-that-work.html) _2026-05-16 · Niko McCarty_ A list of visuals that make science more legible and exciting — interactive essays, paintings, videos, and charts that do real explanatory work. ## [Underrated Ideas in Biotech (Part I)](https://nikomc.com/essays/underrated-ideas-01.html) _2026-05-12 · Niko McCarty_ Three half-baked ideas in biotechnology: hyperspectral biology, engineering beauty, and mapping the air and oceans. ## [PCR is a (Surprisingly) Near-Optimal Technology](https://nikomc.com/essays/pcr-near-optimal.html) _2026-04-22 · Niko McCarty_ 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](https://nikomc.com/essays/cloning-design.html) _2026-04-15 · Niko McCarty_ 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"](https://nikomc.com/essays/sea-grapes.html) _2026-04-13 · Niko McCarty_ 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](https://nikomc.com/essays/failed-fast.html) _2026-04-02 · Niko McCarty_ 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"](https://nikomc.com/essays/optogenetics-serendipity.html) _2026-04-01 · Niko McCarty_ 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?](https://nikomc.com/essays/mother-machine.html) _2026-03-31 · Niko McCarty_ 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](https://nikomc.com/essays/bounty-results.html) _2026-03-24 · Niko McCarty_ 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](https://nikomc.com/essays/growth-rate.html) _2026-03-15 · Niko McCarty_ A single equation explains why Vibrio natriegens divides every 9.8 minutes — and points toward how to make cells grow faster. ## [Marketplace for AI-Powered Professionals (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/AhaSj2HxrLDr) _2026-03-14 · **Sponsored**_ Find professionals who use ChatGPT, Copilot, and Claude to deliver work faster. ## [eLife Fallout](https://nikomc.com/essays/elife-fallout.html) _2026-03-05 · Niko McCarty_ 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](https://nikomc.com/essays/bounties.html) _2026-03-02 · 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](https://nikomc.com/essays/2024-lessons.html) _2026-02-23 · 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](https://nikomc.com/essays/30-great-essays.html) _2026-02-23 · 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](https://nikomc.com/essays/a-christmas-story.html) _2026-02-23 · Niko McCarty_ I. ## [Underrated Origins of the Protein Folding Problem](https://nikomc.com/essays/anfinsen.html) _2026-02-23 · Niko McCarty_ 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](https://nikomc.com/essays/art-of-emails.html) _2026-02-23 · 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](https://nikomc.com/essays/bionumbers.html) _2026-02-23 · 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](https://nikomc.com/essays/brick-technology.html) _2026-02-23 · Niko McCarty_ A YouTube channel about LEGO machines got me thinking about fast iterations and biology. ## [The Case for Bridge Editors — Niko McCarty](https://nikomc.com/essays/bridge-editors.html) _2026-02-23 · Niko McCarty_ Arc Institute researchers recently published a preprint showing that their gene-editing technology, called Bridge recombinases, work in human cells. M ## [Snapshot Showdown on Google Play (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/MQelM1mCHeIp) _2026-02-22 · **Sponsored**_ Available on Google Play for Android devices. ## [C57Bl6/J — Niko McCarty](https://nikomc.com/essays/c57bl6-j.html) _2026-02-23 · 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](https://nikomc.com/essays/cell-burden.html) _2026-02-23 · 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](https://nikomc.com/essays/central-dogma.html) _2026-02-23 · 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](https://nikomc.com/essays/enzymes-from-random-molecules.html) _2026-02-23 · Niko McCarty_ 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](https://nikomc.com/essays/how-to-find-writing-ideas.html) _2026-02-23 · 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](https://nikomc.com/essays/hydrogen-atom.html) _2026-02-23 · Niko McCarty_ The hydrogen atom revolutionized physics. ## [Microbial Lenses — Niko McCarty](https://nikomc.com/essays/microbial-lenses.html) _2026-02-23 · 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](https://nikomc.com/essays/most-abundant-protein.html) _2026-02-23 · 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](https://nikomc.com/essays/moving-to-the-bay.html) _2026-02-23 · Niko McCarty_ I moved to the Bay Area to join Astera Institute as an independent fellow. ## [This OpenAI Wet-Lab Blog is Pretty Good](https://nikomc.com/essays/openai-wet-lab.html) _2026-02-23 · Niko McCarty_ 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](https://nikomc.com/essays/single-molecule.html) _2026-02-23 · 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](https://nikomc.com/essays/tardigrades.html) _2026-02-23 · 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](https://nikomc.com/essays/think-of-the-eggs.html) _2026-02-23 · 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](https://nikomc.com/essays/underrated-science-books.html) _2026-02-23 · Niko McCarty_ It’s generally a bad idea to write a book. ## [We Need Biotech Data — Niko McCarty](https://nikomc.com/essays/we-need-biotech-data.html) _2026-02-23 · 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](https://nikomc.com/essays/why-engineer-biology.html) _2026-02-23 · Niko McCarty_ This essay originally appeared on the Asimov blog. ## [Why I Write — Niko McCarty](https://nikomc.com/essays/why-i-write.html) _2026-02-23 · 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](https://nikomc.com/essays/why-vibrio-never-caught-on.html) _2026-02-23 · Niko McCarty_ A microbe that divides every 10 minutes never displaced E. coli. Here's why — and why that might change. ## [Writing Moats — Niko McCarty](https://nikomc.com/essays/writing-moats.html) _2026-02-23 · 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 ## [Trusted by design: set up your research software for community adoption](https://www.nikosirmpilatze.com/) _2026-01-28 · Niko Sirmpilatze_ A 3-part blog series, written as a companion to my talk at the FOSDEM 2026 Open Research devroom.