Daniel Brewer
@danbrewer.bsky.social
Cancer Bioinformatician, professor in medical bioinformatics and genomics @Norwich Medical School, UEA. Prostate Cancer focus.genomic.social/@danbrewer @danbrewer https://research-portal.uea.ac.uk/en/persons/daniel-brewer
Congratulations to Dr Anna Russell who successfully got through her viva today with a thesis titled "Investigating the molecular mechanisms of action of anaerobic bacteria on prostate cancer development and progression". Super quick time. Thanks to examiners Gwyn Williams and Ben Evans.
I really don't understand how Argentina gets away with pushing players in the back the whole time. And the gathering round the ref ...
Next we have Jade Manning, who won the runners-up prize for best talk at the Microbial Genomics ECR Symposium @Norwich. The talk was titled "Investigating the Mechanism of Action of Anaerobic Bacteria in the Pathogenesis of Aggressive Prostate Cancer". Congratulations.
Excellent day of prizes yesterday. First up, we have @abrahamgihawi.bsky.social who was awarded "Winner - Research and Impact" at the Norwich Medical School Staff Awards 2026.
At work, I purchased a 2TB Kingston SSD drive for £95.99. It's stopped working, and so I wanted to get a replacement under the 5-year warranty. Instead, the company wrote it off and will refund the full amount. No problem, I'll buy a new one. The cost for exactly the same model is £222.99!!
woof ≈80% of assignments this summer term have essentially been just raw chatgpt/claude output, including assignments that required designing stuff in illustrator/affinity/canva. The battle is lost for asynchronous online courses.
Amazing. Wait for the goalie surprise
Razzball@razzball.bsky.social · last mo.my kind of Jubilee, the Japanese national team vs. 100 kids
the FT has two pieces on the slow-motion collapse of UK higher ed. 4/5ths of unis are doing voluntary layoffs; 38% are doing compulsory. Meanwhile Britain and its flatlined productivity growth sleepwalks through its unprecedented loss of advanced capabilities www.ft.com/content/8097...
May the fourth be with you. Today I learnt about the surprising origins of the term.
Robert Saunders@robertsaunders.bsky.social · 3mo agoPainful but true. "May the Fourth Be With You" was originally a Tory campaign slogan, coined for Margaret Thatcher on election day in May 1979...
Portable R 4.6.0 is now live for Windows and macOS. No installer, no admin, no system changes. Just extract the archive and run. macOS (Apple Silicon + Intel): github.com/portable-r/p... Windows (x64 + ARM64): github.com/portable-r/p... #rstats #macos #windows
Release R 4.6.0 · portable-r/portable-r-macos
Portable R 4.6.0 for macOS Signed with a Developer ID Application certificate and notarized by Apple. These modified R binaries should not trigger Gatekeeper warnings. Downloads Architecture Fil...
github.com
Currently having fun at the Prostate Cancer UK from ideas to innovation conference.
I realise it costs Amazon money to support an old device but it is a tad frustrating that my perfectly functioning first edition Kindle paperwhite from 2012 has now been rendered obsolete. A replacement is over £150. I added a book to it just a few weeks ago!
The Verge@theverge.com · 4mo agoStarting May 20th, Kindle and Kindle Fire devices released in 2012 and earlier won’t have access to the Kindle Store.
I've released a new word game called Parseword, that tries to make cryptic crosswords more accessible. You can play it here: www.parseword.com
Parseword - A tricky wordplay game
Transform phrases through wordplay to solve cryptic crossword puzzles.
parseword.com
"I have given this a lot of thought, and: I really, really need Matt Goodwin to lose tomorrow’s Denton & Gorton by-election. For the good of us all, that man needs to be repudiated, and his ideas stomped into the dust." On one of the worst people in British politics.
Every Day He Eats the Book
This week: my god I want Matt Goodwin to lose. Also: a new way of seeing the world; and some very old work on a very old bus.
jonn.substack.com
This contains the quite remarkable fact that Russia has only double the population of the UK. I was convinced they were much bigger. So France + UK is the same population with a much higher GDP. www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...
The Russian economy is finally stagnating. What does it mean for the war – and for Putin?
A wartime boom in Russia has given way to sluggish growth, tax hikes and squeezed public services. Will it affect the conflict in Ukraine?
theguardian.com
We use 30 year averages to show climatology (average weather conditions). During the 20th century the UK climatology followed a path around a confined box. With #globalwarming and #climatechange they have escaped out the box. This #dataviz shows UK rainfall and temperature.
Spoiling a lot of takes but begging a large number of other questions... "Worsening graduate fortunes, it turns out, are a particularly British problem" www.ft.com/content/649d...
Ian Chapman: no move away from applicant-led funding at UKRI. BBSRC funding pause is a temporary - 'a matter of a few weeks' before they move to an always-open system (as at e.g. EPSRC, AHRC). MRC pause will extend to early summer, and then will open again.
Both MRC and BBSRC responsive modes now withdrawn until further notice. Existing applications unlikely to succeed (late 2025 round expecting 1-5% success rate). Listen, I get that UKRI wants to pivot. But killing both at once is devastating. Let's hope at least one opens by summer... #AcademicSky
MRC instructs grant review boards to slash funding rates - Research Professional News
Boards asked to recommend just three applications for funding, as BBSRC also suspends calls
researchprofessionalnews.com
NEWS - The John Innes Centre and Newcastle University to lead new STEM-EDI training project We are proud to announce a new collaboration which will deliver bespoke STEM-based EDI training, tailored for Higher Education and research institutions: www.jic.ac.uk/news/the-joh...
Simon Yates in surprise retirement www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/j...
Simon Yates announces surprise retirement with ‘deep pride and sense of peace’
Simon Yates, one of Britain’s most storied riders and the winner of last year’s Giro d’Italia champion, has stunned cycling by announcing his retirement at 33
theguardian.com
As I browse around, I keep an eye out for (what I think) are surprising facts. This 2021 paper estimated that the USA, China and the UK spend USD 2.5 billion on peer review, based on the contribution made by researchers. 🧵
🚨🚨Publication alert🚨🚨 First paper of 2026! We review recent developments in molecular & genetic biomarkers in prostate cancer active surveillance. NIHR Clinical fellow Stephanie Smith @drstephsmith.bsky.social leading the charge. Open access 🧬👇 doi.org/10.3390/gene...
doi.org
🎉 Happy New Year from UEA! ❄️ Norwich and our beautiful campus are looking magical in the snow today. Stay warm, everyone! Photo 2 credit - @thomasmock.bsky.social
It has become received wisdom in Brussels and Washington that there is a new “euro-sclerosis”: that the EU economy is lagging the US This view is wrong A little primer on the measurement of productivity – and why reports of the economic death of Europe are greatly exaggerated🧵
