Giorgio Gilestro

@giorgio.gilest.ro

Associate Professor at Imperial College London. https://lab.gilest.ro | lab website, science blog https://giorgio.gilest.ro | politics and science comms https://drosophila.social/@giorgiogilestro | mastodon

Very cool! Useful tool for #Drosophila folks. Would be great adopted by whole labs / institutions. Considering it's newness, add features? Tinkering & I don't yet see: 1) Retrospective dating / bulk stock flipping 2) Stock acquisition date 3) Column sort by chromosome 4) Reference usage citation

flyroom.net@flyroom.net · 5mo ago

We just launched flyRoom — modern web-based stock management for Drosophila labs. No more spreadsheets, no more messy labels, no more lost stocks. Free to start, built by researchers for researchers. www.flyroom.net

Happy to announce I've launched a new service for the fly community: flyRoom, a web-based comprehensive stock manager for all your fly pushing needs. Organise all your stocks, maps all your genotypes, plan your crosses, print and scan your labels. Give it a try and let your colleagues know!

flyroom.net@flyroom.net · 5mo ago

We just launched flyRoom — modern web-based stock management for Drosophila labs. No more spreadsheets, no more messy labels, no more lost stocks. Free to start, built by researchers for researchers. www.flyroom.net

An example of how useless X has become. 2020 Twitter would have been the place to go to get real time news on the war. Now it's 100% noise. Just old clips repackaged as new and an ocean of conspirationists talking to a crowd of blue checked clueless idiots. Incredible.

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Someone has sure already made this observation but the fact they can convert all those empty warehouses into prison camps means they could have converted them into housing, community centers, job training centers or, hell, libraries or schools all along. It’s always a matter of will not resources.

A Reuters photographer captured this image of a page from Pam Bondi's "burn book," which she used to counter any questions from Democratic lawmakers during an unhinged hearing today. It looks like the DOJ monitored members of Congress’s searches of the unredacted Epstein files. Just wow.

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So now we have it- not only the reduction from 12-13 to 3 grants from each board recommended for funding but the budget for applicant-led research to be reduced from £200 million to £113 million per year. This is appalling, Especially given all that is happening with medical research in the US.

Research Professional News@resprofnews.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Medical Research Council ‘will fund fewer applicant-led grants’. Confirmation from deputy leader comes as council restructures investments, with calls on hold until summer. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

Paywalled but visible to many uni-based people Apparently... Much reduced MRC success rate for grants now in pipeline Reduced MRC future funding for 'applicant-led' research But 'life sciences remain a priority'.... Lot of room for more clarity (and recognition of effects on ECRs)

Robin Bisson@robinbisson.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Four senior UKRI leaders appeared at a press briefing this morning in the wake of RPN stories over the last week about a shake-up to research council funding Our story that the MRC is expecting to fund fewer grants through applicant-led calls that closed in September last year was confirmed ...

Interesting discussions on this topic (here and on other socials) made me realise that English provides an interesting peculiarity that other languages do not have. A distinction between intelligent and smart. Q. for skeptics and everyone: would you say that LLMs are smart but not intelligent?

Giorgio Gilestro@giorgio.gilest.ro · 6mo ago

🧵 Why do we keep moving the goalposts on intelligence? When GPT-4 passed the bar exam, critics didn't dispute the score—they disputed whether it was "real" reasoning. When AI solved olympiad math problems, they questioned "genuine" understanding. This pattern has a history. (1/5)

🧵 Why do we keep moving the goalposts on intelligence? When GPT-4 passed the bar exam, critics didn't dispute the score—they disputed whether it was "real" reasoning. When AI solved olympiad math problems, they questioned "genuine" understanding. This pattern has a history. (1/5)

PhilSci-Archive@philsci-archive.bsky.social · 6mo ago

New on the Archive: Gilestro, Giorgio F. (2026) The Mimicry Trap How We Define Intelligence to Exclude Inconvenient Minds. [Preprint] https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/28098/

Pleased to see the jury make this decision. We need to have eyes wide open this is exactly why the Government wants to abolish juries. People protesting against a genocide are not the criminals here - it's the politicians who continue to provide cover. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Palestine Action protesters not guilty of defence firm burglary

The group are cleared of aggravated burglary over the alleged raid at an Elbit Systems warehouse.

bbc.co.uk

every epstein file drop underscores how elite power operates through shared socio-economic networks, regardless of people's ideological differences, populist posturing, or public feuds

1 budget for 26-30 is rising 🎉 2 quota for basic research stable 🙂 BUT 3 we're slashing success rate for currently assessed grants 🫠 4 next call hopefully in Apri 2027 (with £s for lucky few going out months later, suppose) 💀 How does this make us more competitive? www.ukri.org/news/open-le...

Open letter from Ian Chapman to research and innovation community

UKRI Chief Executive outlines changes to UKRI investment approach, addressing concerns about research funding and the financial position of STFC.

ukri.org

Leaks everywhere and finally we get an official statement, one that somehow manages to say a lot while; No timelines. No clarity. No acknowledgement of impact on ECRs whose careers depend UKRI funding. “Later this year” isn’t a plan. And the sector deserves better than reassurance without detail.

UK Research and Innovation@ukri.org · 6mo ago

Today, we're sharing an open letter from our Chief Executive, Professor Sir Ian Chapman, outlining changes to UKRI investment approach, and addressing concerns about research funding and the financial position of STFC. Read his letter here: www.ukri.org/news/open-le...