Time Change xkcd.com/3272/

Pleased to share our paper on low cost amplicon methods, part of a collaboration between the Sanger Institute and researchers at BRTI in Zimbabwe and NICD in South Africa www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Phylo-Plex: a phylogenetically informed, low-cost amplicon sequencing platform for deployable high-resolution genomic epidemiology - Nature Communications

Whole genome sequencing of pathogens is costly to implement, and partial sequencing sacrifices information. Here, the authors present Phylo-Plex, a method for identifying information-rich genomic regi...

nature.com

Check out our latest T7SS toxin story. These reverse toxins aren’t as rare as we thought!

bioRxiv Microbiology@biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social · 4mo ago

A novel reverse lipase toxin substrate of the Staphylococcus aureus type VII secretion system https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.22.733114v1

I'm happy to share the first pre-print of out Lab! 🎉 Introducing ArchaeaHQ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... We curated 21,644 genomes across all 4 archaeal kingdoms to bridge the gap in public datasets for computational biology What is inside ArchaeaHQ... (1/2)

I’m a climate scientist. Let me fix this headline. “Nearly a century ago, scientists showed that burning fossil fuels warms the planet. Today, we know human emissions account for over 100% of the warming. Yet dark money and disinformation still work to keep Americans addicted to fossil fuels.”

Forbes@forbes.com · 5mo ago

Scientists have reached a consensus that human behavior is a big driver of climate change—but Americans aren't buying it.

A study of 750 Ebola survivors in the DRC found close to 90% had long-term symptoms despite receiving treatments such as monoclonal antibodies. Symptoms persisted for >3 years The public health response always seems to focus on death as the only bad outcome academic.oup.com/ofid/article...

Superparamagnetic macrophages and yet this is how they make a nest

Science Magazine@science.org · 5mo ago

Researchers have identified superparamagnetic macrophages in the livers of rock pigeons to be crucial for magnetic sensing. The finding uncovers an unexpected role for immune cells in sensory perception and may fundamentally change our understanding of animal navigation. https://scim.ag/4nTQ3nq

This is very cool: a simple statistical test of dysbiosis, or really any microbiome composition data relative to a reference. Outperforms Bray-Curtis and every other metric, while simultaneously being very simple to compute. Probably would work on RNAseq data too.

bioRxiv Microbiology@biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Ratio Percentile Deviation (RPD): A nonparametric, compositionally robust method for measuring the divergence of a microbial sample from a reference dataset https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.27.728224v1

🧵 New preprint out! We asked: what happens to gut bacteria when the intestine is under chronic inflammation (IBD)? Turns out, the host's inflammatory state reshapes how they evolve, and the results are pretty striking. A thread 👇

The fact that Blair thinks this is a genuine dichotomy, when in reality renewables have never been cheaper and fossil fuels are increasingly expensive, suggests he really isn't paying attention institute.global/insights/pol...

I know, you've always wanted to know...

Sometimes biologists will discover some remote mountain lake, fed by snowmelt & unconnected from any river system. And it will be teeming with fish. Of multiple species. The next question is, obviously: how did they GET there? And the answer, we think, is "duck poop."

Confused Duck Close-Up

Alt: A white duck appears from all angles in rapid succession, but always above the camera or observer, looking down at the viewer with quizzical looks. The rapid cuts between shots make the whole thing comical, like a curious and confused duck is spying on you.

static.klipy.com

Look, my experience was that in order to get tenure, people are told to pipe down and let it ride and the end result is that the process of getting yourself across the finish line selects for people averse to speaking up.

Jeremy Press@jeremypress.bsky.social · 5mo ago

One would think the security of tenure would give more law professors some taste for a worthwhile fight, but I suppose it’s easier to be quiet and rake in a disproportionately high (for academia, anyway) salary.

It continues to be hilarious that so many people consider "unfair biological advantages" in sports to be the most urgent social issue facing society, and literally none of them mean this guy.

Coach Finstock@coachfinstock.bsky.social · 5mo ago

We are still a month away from astrological summer 🫠

a cartoon dog is sitting at a table with a cup of coffee surrounded by fire .

ALT: a cartoon dog is sitting at a table with a cup of coffee surrounded by fire .

media.tenor.com

Met Office - weather and climate@metoffice.gov.uk · 5mo ago

Today has been the hottest day in May on record with Kew Gardens provisionally reaching 34.8°C - exceeding the previous highest May temperature in the UK by a full 2 degrees Celsius🌡️ This heat would be exceptional in the UK even in mid summer, let alone in May📈

This is awful to hear, describing how Sean Eddy (HMMER, infernal, pfam, rfam) has been defunded. The letter said his work "had been determined to be of absolutely no value to the US taxpayer, and therefore it was being specifically terminated," www.npr.org/2026/05/21/n...

Researchers say the Trump administration is finding new ways to punish science

Even with federal grants largely restored, scientists say the Trump administration is still preventing those funds from reaching them. The consequences, they say, are already becoming clear.

npr.org

Bank holiday and sun means a (very hot) walk 🌾🚶🏽‍♂️

Reptiles with longer Wikipedia pages tend to be bigger. The relationship is a power law with exponent = 0.85. I guess humans really like writing about big lizards? The longest article is the Komodo Dragon.

*strikes 'mutant super pig population' off the 2027 bingo card*

Andrew Mueller@andrewmueller.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Does anyone have an idea of numbers, like within a bracket of 20 or so. www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-n...

academics trying to normalize acceptance of AI hallucinated citations in their field: do you seriously expect me to show my work and check my work me, baffled, a naïf, a fool: yes that’s why it’s called *your* *work*

Updated to May 18th, 2026. It is interesting to see a potential pattern emerging. Too early to be sure and this can change, yet... Within the major virus season, when Influenza, RSV and coronaviruses are most prominent, SARS-CoV-2 seems to be pushed out. 1/4

"Africa CDC’s position is clear: generalised travel restrictions and border closures are not the solution to outbreaks. Such measures can create fear, damage economies, discourage transparency, complicate humanitarian and health operations, and divert movement toward informal and unmonitored routes"

Greg Folkers@gregfolkers.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Africa CDC: Statement on US Travel Restrictions Related to the Bundibugyo Ebola Outbreak bit.ly/4wCU3N3

I’m amazed anyone needs reminding of this, but local government spending power per person fell by 18% from 2010 to 2024 (would have been 26% but for increases in council tax). At the same time, social care pressures on local govt have grown a lot. The decay of the public realm is NOT a mystery

How have English councils’ funding and spending changed? 2010 to 2024 | Institute for Fiscal Studies

Increases in council funding over the last parliament have not reversed big cuts made during the 2010s, with spending on many services still down 40%.

ifs.org.uk

When your field is not particularly large...

Should we not be worrying more about the many DRC and Ugandan citizens who have been exposed? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

At least six Americans exposed to Ebola during DR Congo outbreak

One of the six Americans believed to have been exposed is experiencing symptoms, according to media reports.

bbc.co.uk

Surprised to discover that Thermo Fisher appears to show a fake western blot for the validation of one of their p53 antibodies. I've added a diagram to show the very similar bands. This does not appear to be one of the "published figures" but their own internal data.

Rapid release of multiplex PCR amplicon scheme for Andes hantavirus whole genome sequencing validated on control material: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... @scalene.bsky.social @stevepullan.bsky.social @ukhsa.bsky.social output from HPRU in Public Health Genomics