Christian Meesters

Computational Scientist (Life Science Support) HPC (NHR, University of Mainz (on leave), University of Frankfurt (current), Germany), Open Science and Science Communication Enthusiast (with little time)

Board member of FediScience e.V.
Snakemake Co-Developer

Personal account. All posts CC BY-NC. There is a less science oriented account by me, too: https://mastodon.m1234.de/@rupdecat

May post in German, English, Dutch.

Coding: https://github.com/cmeesters
Orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2408-7588
Blog: https://blogs.fediscience.org/rupture-de-catenaire/
Maintainer: https://github.com/snakemake/snakemake-executor-plugin-slurm/

Last Notes

2026-10-31 19:10:32 UTC

It's dark outside, foggy and ... #Halloween. Time for #ScaryScience!
The University of Mainz used to be a barracks. During the Nazi era, there was an anti-aircraft gun on the roof.
There’s a small building on the edge of the site. These days, it houses the university’s post office. It’s where the former Institute of Biophysics kept its pets: 100–200 tarantulas.
It was everyone's duty to feed and water them. And we used to stab them in their hearts to extract their blood.
No joke - arthropods have their hearts on their backs, and that’s the only place where you can get a reasonable amount. And fear not, all those spiders lived happily for years under this post office.
To get there, you had to go down a flight of stairs. And then you found yourself in a filthy room with a deep hole - a cistern without a lid. Behind this room, were the spiders. Each in a plastic box with a lid (!) and a clay flowerpot with a piece knocked out of it - that hole served as a door.
One day, one of the tarantulas had got stuck in the small drainage hole of its flowerpot. There was no way in and no way out. My milking partner and I carefully removed the pot, held it at a distance with a pair of tweezers, and smashed it.
The spider? Was it grateful? In any case, it didn’t attack us, but let us put it back without a fuss.
https://fediscience.org/system/media_attachments/files/117/537/094/334/131/515/original/c4f537ad52cbdfb4.jpg

2026-08-22 21:48:52 UTC

- reply

https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/1848 - a long year in a very long century.
@npub1s9r…mgl3 @npub1w20…9zwx

2025-09-07 08:45:09 UTC

I didn't know about Framasoft's crowdfunding campaign for Peertube. Or if I did, I probably didn't notice because the milestones were too convoluted to matter to me in my stress.
However, that changed by an article from @npub19cr…3v2p about @npub12k0…e2sz and its pursuits!
Many in my bubble are all for #FOSS. And still all too often resort to Google docs and Co.
Did you know Framasoft provides alternatives?
1/n

2025-06-11 04:40:33 UTC

- reply

used to be the same for me. Yet, when travelling to conferences with work to be done in my mental backpack ...

2025-06-10 15:12:54 UTC

The Wi-Fi at #DeutscheBahn certainly improved: Have been able to do two (mini) PRs to software projects during my ride to #isc25 , already.
I remember the days when I was stuck with a `git clone` with 2 bytes / sec somewhere at the Dutch border (still in Germany). 😲
#AcademicChatter #Travelling

2025-04-30 17:23:46 UTC

My neighbour just complained about all the trees we planted. None will even cast a shadow on their ground. Not because the garden is so big: I always compare it to a towel. It's a terraced house, for god's sake!
But "the shadow" and "all those roots!".
All I want is a tempered summer heat and some green instead of the grey, which surrounds us. Apparently - my conclusion from looking around me in my neighbourhood - this is too much for most.
BTW our region has hardly any woods. But we are on about 20% of the usual precipitation for last winter. My 5 trees will not change the microclimate. And yet: when will we learn that only plenty of trees will give us bearable summers?
#climatecrisis #gardening

2025-02-03 18:38:07 UTC

Woaa. Time to wake up, Chris!
I started with #FediScience to do more #scicomm, particularly internal Scicomm on various topics.
And now, more and more governments in the West fall victim to right-wing populist or outright fascist parties. In turn, scientists and funding of our work falls victim to budget cuts.
I feel humbled that so many people (well, my account is still small, compared to "real" political ones) follow my posts. Really. I hope I will not disappoint.
And yet, these times call for being "more political".
Forgive me. Science and technical posts will be written again. Promised. But totally without politics? That's something I cannot do. Not in the upcoming months.
PS Translation: That will mean a number of German- or Dutch-only posts and boosts, too. Like in the not so distant past, when our Dutch fellows needed support against their "lovely" government. A chapter, which is not closed. The least I can do is to boost the occasional call for action or offer signing an endorsement, as I am neither based in the Netherlands nor the US for that matter. Not any more.
Yet, perhaps the German community might need all the support from abroad, very soon?! I sure hope, that this will not be the case ...

2024-09-28 17:09:35 UTC

- reply

See? That is the difference you and me and many more are aware of. Yet, no one wants to be gullible. Spreading the word, that there is a risk involved if you give your DNA to corporations (however trustworthy), that is what I do as a side-quest to #OpenScience. And I appreciate every source, I can quote. 😉

2024-09-28 16:42:06 UTC

- reply

Thank you for broadcasting this info.
@npub1c2w…ugye
I will take this and your rephrased sentence, Fifi, into account for my courses.

2024-05-01 13:23:03 UTC

Time for a re-#introduction !
I'm a #scicomm enthusiast and board member of #Fediscience. My background is in #Biophysics, done a Postdoc in #GeneticEpidemiology, industry detour, now working in #HPC for some years.
Interested in #HPC, #bioinformatics, #OpenScience, #workflows (#snakemake), #RDM, #scientificsoftware and #sciencecommunication
My blog can be found here: blogs.fediscience.org and my more political me can be found at @npub13z2…v0y2.