Such a good analogy for genAI in teaching.

Sarah O'Connor@sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 1h ago

As I said at an event at King's recently, it's a bit like having a personal trainer in the gym who keeps telling you how hot you are already, & offering to lift the next weight for you.

Elon Musk FRS directly supporting an enemy of the UK in the largest European war since 1945? Its just an opinion, though, isn't it, RS?

Josh Marshall@joshtpm.bsky.social · 4d ago

B/C grade source in terms of reliability but likely accurate www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/7a210b0...

As both a certified CAR GUY and an economist-ish, I cannot imagine a headline more designed to drive me, personally, insane. This "flying car" technology is neither new nor novel. It is not practical and would not sell. Let me tell a story of actually useful car tech that never made it to market.

Euronews@euronews.com · 4d ago

Could Tesla’s flying car send sales and shares soaring?

University academics are a loss leader to localise students on campus to spend money at profit-making catering outlets.

Drug Monkey@drugmonkey.bsky.social · 5d ago

Every part of a modern University loses money. -administration

📣 Attention all educators! The latest Primers published in #GENETICS in 2026 cover mitochondrial protein cleanup, epigenetic inheritance, neuronal lipids, and QTL mapping. Explore these resources for bringing genetics concepts into the classroom: buff.ly/UKcDiR4

Version 1.3.2 of PearTree released: github.com/artic-networ... Fixes many of the remaining niggling bugs. WebApp updated at peartree.live

BBSRC-funded studentship, supervised by me (with help from @serenat82.bsky.social and Richard Badge) on evolution human structural variation at the MGAM gene! UK and international students are eligible. Happy to discuss, please repost.

Global variation in maltase-glucoamylase copy number and starch digestion in humans at University of Leicester on FindAPhD.com

PhD Project - Global variation in maltase-glucoamylase copy number and starch digestion in humans at University of Leicester, listed on FindAPhD.com

findaphd.com

Reminded of this paper from @profsimonfisher.bsky.social though a discussion with @genotripe.bsky.social a couple of weeks ago. Great one for teaching. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Ah well you’ve given me permission now… first up the “ orange/not orange” gene is in the X chromosome and cats like many other mammals display a fairly random x inactivation so if you are female and have one orange and one not orange gene you end up with patches of both ( tortoiseshell )

Makes absolute sense

worm@rfksbrainworm.bsky.social · 3w ago

If you ever wondered why visible light is those particular wavelengths, it's because life evolved to see in the narrow range where water is transparent

As well as recycling old tropes, stating the vaguely obvious as profound ("use smarter tools, universities!), this article seems to be in cloud cuckoo land about what universities can realistically afford.

Research Professional News@resprofnews.bsky.social · 3w ago

Opinion: Universities are failing at mission-led research—here’s how to fix it. Jonathan Breckon and Geoff Mulgan explain how institutions can tackle society's most urgent crises. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-v...

The full report is here. martingale.foundation/about-us/rep... chutzpah in the quote from Wellcome, the same Wellcome that cut all geographically-spread Doctoral Training Programmes a couple of years ago.

The Path to PhD - Martingale Foundation

report Socioeconomic Background and Barriers to STEM Postgraduate Study October 2026 SUPPORTED BY About the Report Martingale and partners have carried out the largest piece of research ever into the ...

martingale.foundation

Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 3w ago

'while more than £800 million is spent on attracting non-traditional students into undergraduate study, “efforts to widen participation in higher education meet a cliff-edge” at postgraduate level, where “access to postgraduate study has historically received far less attention”.'

This was entirely predictable yet swept under the carpet seven months ago bsky.app/profile/kirs...

Research Professional News@resprofnews.bsky.social · 3w ago

MRC success rates drop sharply after grants overhaul. Warnings of “catastrophic” impact on medical researchers as some rates fall below 5 per cent. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

HOLY SHIT I am watching Channel 5 again at my mums house and I just learned that Salvador Dali designed the Chupa Chups logo. Did you know this??

Happy to share results of the @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social phase 1, providing reference genomes covering 21 bat families. New insights into bat phylogeny, ancestral genome reconstruction, European origin & ancestral echolocation. Great work by a team of 100+ colleagues www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Reference genomes and fossils revise bat family phylogeny and biogeography - Nature

An updated phylogeny of bats is presented, based on new genome assemblies and many ancient fossils and including all known bat families.

nature.com

As they are not active here, I left a comment on the LinkedIn post from Nikon Small World about the concerns I think I share with many (first screenshot is their post, second screenshot is my comment) lnkd.in/p/ecdT6saZ

Christophe 🔬 Leterrier@christlet.bsky.social · 4w ago

From the new info my bet is fluo labeling inference pushed to 11. Hallucinating nonsensical DAPI nuclei, mitochondria stain, membrane labeling from a kind of phase contrast image: wrong localization, wrong scale, wrong movement. Keeping this movie as SWiM winner is a disgrace to the competition

The difference between the performance of immigrants in England and Western Europe is staggering. (20 pts equals a year of learning.) I looked at this in detail in the post - it can't be explained away by language or relative advantage of different immigrant communities. There is a policy factor.

Sam Freedman@samfr.bsky.social · 4w ago

New post out: England's schools are now the second highest performing in the world outside the far east, according to the OECD's PISA study. Is this because of policy? Attitude to technology? Cultural factors like immigration? And where can we still improve? samf.substack.com/p/why-englan...

Joy unconfined! @originstorypodcast.bsky.social - two blokes talking about John Rawls for an hour! Brilliant.

literally thousands of jobs in higher education were cut *last year alone* and there's been almost no media coverage and no government action

Willard Foxton@willardfoxton.bsky.social · 4w ago

I think it's absolutely mad that today there's a *national news story* about 400 oil platform workers losing their jobs, and the government being blamed. 25% of the UK TV industry lost their jobs in the last 4 years and we never hear a peep about it! Some jobs are 'real jobs' I guess.

"The sort of chap who was always doing someone else's crossword." 🤣🤣💀

Matthew Cobb@matthewcobb.bsky.social · 4w ago

Nice to see CRICK, published by @profilebooks.bsky.social, as one of The Guardian's best new paperbacks of the month (and yes I do know Watson & Crick used Franklin's data). www.theguardian.com/books/ng-int...

I missed this last month The University of Southampton 'will no longer use ubiquitous anti-cheating tools provided by Turnitin because of concerns that the company might use students’ work to train artificial intelligence.' www.timeshighereducation.com/news/southam...

Southampton dumps Turnitin over use of students’ work to train AI

Academic integrity giant denies accusations as university declines to renew contract in favour of ‘other options’

timeshighereducation.com

Sad news. Still going strong is Richard Wilson who was only 54 when he started playing legendary old grump Victor Meldrew (who in character was only 60 at the start...)

Plashing Vole@plashingvole.bsky.social · last mo.

What a good actor Stephanie Cole was. Odd to think that she was 48 when she started playing Diana Trent in Waiting for God - an old lady living in a retirement home. www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

Lads I think we've peaked

Interested in understanding how environmental light control #sleep in #Drosophila and other #Diptera species? Two potential #PhD opportunities to work in my lab from 2027 September, please see details in https://www.kofanchenlab.net/come-join-us and spread the words

Come Join US

Potential PhD project A

kofanchenlab.net

Oh the irony. I have consistently argued that although Willetts intended different universities to specialise in different things, the actual result is that they chase the same students by offering only popular subjects. The market doesn't care about UK linguistic capacity and intelligence.

Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · last mo.

continued: 'David Willetts, former universities and science minister and man with two brains, told a Lords debate in January that the UK’s dwindling linguistic pipeline severely undermines its capacity to manage global crises and conduct vital intelligence operations.'

Excellent article by RJ Mackenzie @rjmsci.bsky.social on the highly dubious claims of autism-microbiome links and the sociology of the science around them www.the-scientist.com/wellcome-s-5...

Wellcome’s $50M Microbiome-Autism Project Gets a Serious Gut Check | The Scientist

A massive research program investigating causal links between the gut microbiome and autism sparked fierce pushback from scientific critics and advocacy groups.

the-scientist.com

Telegraph is so out of touch with modern school meals/catering that it thinks the housemaster's wife should be cooking the boys a eggs benedict every suppertime.

Roland Smith@rolandmcs.bsky.social · last mo.

Morning.

In thisa piece for @thenewworldmag.bsky.social I express the wish for a better level of public discourse around AI that doesn't leave us hanging on every word of the alleged tech gurus. www.thenewworld.co.uk/philip-ball-...

Apocalyptic AI fantasies are a stupid, annoying distraction from its real problems

The people who work in AI are not gurus and most of their predictions have been wrong. Working in the industry makes them less reliable commentators, not more

thenewworld.co.uk

He hasn't been in post long, but McDonald is shaping up to be a catastrophic appointment.

Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · last mo.

'A “larger, fewer grants” model that concentrates research on established UK institutions would be a “huge mistake” and could risk hampering Andy Burnham’s ambition to drive prosperity across the nation, academics have warned.' Not to mention its impact of researchers who are female and/or black.