As I fly to the Microscopy and Microanalysis annual meeting, I thought I'd reflect on two issues I have faced in publishing microscopy related articles this year. 🧪🔬 bmatb.medium.com/editorial-po...

Editorial Power and Ethical Gaps: Notes from a Difficult Year in Publishing

I’m writing this enroute to the Microscopy and Microanalysis annual meeting, where — between talks, coffee, and the occasional beer — many…

bmatb.medium.com

As I fly to the Microscopy and Microanalysis annual meeting, I thought I'd reflect on two issues I have faced in publishing microscopy related articles this year. 🧪🔬 bmatb.medium.com/editorial-po...

Editorial Power and Ethical Gaps: Notes from a Difficult Year in Publishing

I’m writing this enroute to the Microscopy and Microanalysis annual meeting, where — between talks, coffee, and the occasional beer — many…

bmatb.medium.com

The NYC Gay Men's Chorus in 1993. The men in white were the only original chorus members to make it out of the AIDS crisis. We lost SO many young people.

ɪᴍᴍᴀɴᴜᴇʟ ᴋᴜɴᴛ@soberthots.blacksky.app · 4d ago

Hearing Jennifer Lewis talk about the losses she experienced during the AIDS crisis really contextualizes how bad it was. She said that every day she would get a phone call saying at least 3-5 people passed away, and this is just within her immediate circle - think about it nationally.

I have realised that I moved into my home 3 years ago, and what a difference that has made 🥰.

I wrote about science funding, science reform, and anti-science agendas. scatter.wordpress.com/2026/07/31/s...

science funding and the cherry picking problem

Science publishing–like all of science–requires money. There’s no getting around it, even with the open science movement. What appears free to many authors and readers still requires money and infr…

scatter.wordpress.com

So it turns out the canadian univerisities worked together on something 😬 breachmedia.ca/canadian-uni...

Canadian universities set up a secret network to crack down on student Palestine demonstrators ⋆ The Breach

Universities in Canada coordinated to spy on and violently clear student encampments. Then, they deleted the evidence

breachmedia.ca

So - one night of fireworks = the VOD cops & cops adjacent aren't well trained on how the traffic closures work… I had a 3 hr commute home 🫠. In no traffic, my commute is 17 mins. #VanPoli

Happy Friday - managed to submit my notification of intent - yay!

This is hilarious - the speech to text application censors me. I tried to write **** **** in a document, and it did this - the stars! (all I was writing was 'pissed off')

Lots of my correspondence at the moment is about a conference - "microscopy and microanalysis" aka M&M - amusingly my Speech to Text app translates this as "eminem"

Eminem's Surprised Reaction

Alt: Eminem's Surprised Reaction

static.klipy.com

Mayoral Vote intention for Vancouver

I have been given the ok to take my split off for short periods. The colour of bruised flesh is 😬. Also do much inflammation around the broken bone, yikes.

I sat at my desk to work on one problem early - I have a grant issue to resolve. I have solved five other tasks that I needed to do instead of the one problem.

So I've started dictating to my computer... Additionally I talk to my dog while I'm at my desk. This means that my emails have a risk of having dog chat inside a technical discussion. Oh well 🐕

To be clear, the UK is making significant investments in clean energy and building out the electricity grid. More will be needed to reach net-zero. But any time you hear about the “cost of net-zero”, ask: ⁉️⁉️Compared to what?⁉️⁉️ www.carbonbrief.org/...

I talked to Varsity (Cambridge student newspaper) about some of the issues facing women in STEM: www.varsity.co.uk/science/31882

‘Death by a thousand cuts’: Professor Rachel Oliver on why women in STEM suffer

Dhruv Shenai speaks to Professor Rachel Oliver about gender inequality in research grants and the biggest issues women in STEM face

varsity.co.uk

Tried to vibe code (Wordpress) - it hasn't ended well. Wasted time, wasted resource.

Years ago, I reviewed a paper that had interesting data but was not put well together at all. Badly organized figures, convoluted text. I was getting annoyed and then saw the asterisk in the (short) author list. The first author had written their first ever ms after their PI had suddenly died 🥺.

I just got my first "bigger" lens for my SLR (I have had the camera for 10 years). Going from a 15-55, to a 55-250mm is quite the mag change 👀

Andy Burnham MP, former Secretary of State for Health, former Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, BA English at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, literal fucking Prime Minister: "ey up lad tha're thirteen year old now, and that meks tha a man, time to get down t' gravy mine wi' tha"

Bela Lugosi's Dad 🏳️‍⚧️ 🇵🇸@belalugosisdad.bsky.social · last wk.

The thing is right, he's gonna do all this and be lauded by our credulous dipshit journalist class because he's managed to bamboozle them all into believing he's some horny-handed Connor toil and not a Cambridge English graduate turned career politician because they've never heard a Northern accent.

Among the worst ideas floating around is that "the free market" will naturally achieve desirable results for society. No, it won't, not even in theory, much less in practice. Markets don't optimize "good for society" unless you make them.

Jon of The North@krauza.bsky.social · last wk.

Turns out that food companies were only checking their food because the government told them to, which is exactly why we need government regulations.

Hello old 'friend' - the Canadian common cv (I have no objection to the ccv, but I hate the interface)

Getting hurt and having to reduce your work hours remind me how abelist our academic systems are. I just got a reminder on the NSERC Discovery Grant deadline. Grant deadlines don't tend to wait for you to get better.

Hurting yourself on the day before you come back from annual leave is "fun". How much pain do I think I will have today? Aka how much do I want to blow my cognition vs the benefits of taking the strong pain meds. (Don't worry - health first!)

UK science finding, and thus UK science, continues to be a major concern 😬. A large cut, a major rebalance, and these approaches not socialised with the community = very damaging. And to what end? AI and "utility geared" investments - I wonder who's been pushing this agenda…

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot.bsky.social · last wk.

I'm absolutely devastated for colleagues at Jodrell Bank who found out this morning that funding for the UK's e-MERLIN radio telescope array will be terminated. This is a short-sighted move, to save a tiny fraction of the overall UK science budget. #SaveJodrellBank 🔭🧪 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Had a day in the ER today (broke my elbow while dog walking). Free at point of access healthcare and equal access continues to be important. A timely reminder given some of Canadian politics right now.

Also there is currently a 4 hrs time difference (which is not the longest in Canada) between Halifax and Vancouver, just to add more to the sense of scale. In not so unrelated news, I am jet-lagged.

Prof Ben Britton@bmatb.expmicromech.com · 2w ago

It is a shorter duration direct flight to go from Halifax (Nova Scotia) to London-Heathrow, than Halifax to Vancouver... 🤯

I like to use this kind of example to explain to British people just how big Canada is. They have no point of reference

It is a shorter duration direct flight to go from Halifax (Nova Scotia) to London-Heathrow, than Halifax to Vancouver... 🤯

I think this is the closest we have to this for UBC - I can't recall if there is a formal policy, and certainly there is mixed guidance from searching the web… "10 things UBC students should know about classroom recordings | UBC Provost & VP Academic" academic.ubc.ca/teaching-lea...

Dr. Damien P. Williams has to go the way his blood beats@wolven.blacksky.app · 2w ago

Yeah this "pervert glasses in the classroom" thing is bothering me enough that I emailed both my departments asking if we can get practical guidance from the chancellor & IT. What I'm really, increasingly wanting is a Wi-Fi kill switch for each classroom, but i don't know that that's in the offing.