Top all-time · #5468
Elliot Hershberg
Personal blog · centuryofbio.comsciencestartups
Elliot Hershberg writes The Century of Biology, a personal blog at centuryofbio.com about science and startups. Since 2023, 15 different Hacker News readers have linked it 15 times, most often “Going Founder Mode on Cancer (2026)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-06-21, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (4) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Elliot Hershberg's posts on biology, DNA, biotech and health, such as the Sid Sijbrandij cancer story. The comments link to the posts without judging the writing itself.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 4 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Data, companies, and ideas from the frontier of biology.
Most-linked posts?
- Going Founder Mode on Cancer (2026)10 people · 10 mentions · first linked 2026-01-18
What Hacker News says?
Reading life science textbooks and substacks is a great way to get started (see [1], [2]). Also, there is a major deficit of software engineering talent in biology research (probably because pro SWEs are too expensive for academic labs, and those labs are where much of the foundational research is done). If you have the bandwidth, part time / volunteer work with an academic lab in your area could be a great way in t…
Comment linking /
on “Does DNA have the equivalent of IF-statements, WHILE loops, or function calls?”Submitted Colonizing Mars isn't a rocket problem as a story · 4 points
HN discussionIt is worth mentioning that China is heavily investing in biotechnology and they are getting genuinely good at the more commodified parts of the industry. This blog post [1] is long and aimed at a biotech expert audience, but one summary line that stands out is that "the drug industry is having its own DeepSeek Moment" [2]. To that end, I believe that this is the time to invest in the US biotechnology ecosystem so t…
Comment linking /p/commoditization
on “The Continuing Crisis, Part IX: Inside the NIH Now”Submitted Going Founder Mode on Cancer (2026) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionWhen you are taking care of your health, and need to learn more about your built-in limitations is it still narcissistic? At the bottom of the page there is a link to Sid Sijbrandij's cancer journey. He is one of the cofounders of GitLab. This is one of the coverages of his story: https://centuryofbio.com/p/sid
Comment linking /p/sid
on “How to sequence your own DNA at home”Submitted Illumina: The Measurement Monopoly as a story · 2 points
HN discussionCounterpoint 1: the gitlab founder going "founder mode" on his cancer: https://centuryofbio.com/p/sid Counterpoint 2: the findings that happiness doesn't really level off in an S-curve shape (i.e., fewer diminishing marginal returns than expected to wealth) https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2020-43605-001 . "Is there a growing class divide in happiness? Among U.S. adults ages 30 and over in the nationally representativ…
Comment linking /p/sid
on “Pity the Rich”Submitted Going Founder Mode on Cancer – By Elliot Hershberg as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Going Founder Mode on Cancer as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Going Founder Mode on Cancer as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Going Founder Mode on Cancer as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Going Founder Mode on Cancer as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Going Founder Mode on Cancer as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Going Founder Mode on Cancer as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted New Tools for Programming Biology as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
