reason 47 why government funding for fundamental research is the only stable route to scientific progress

Hetan Shah@hetanshah.bsky.social · 2d ago

Google can’t see what commercial return they are getting on AlphaFold

Speaker refused to divulge the name of compound X in Q&A after his ASCB talk. Questioner [who will be known to many cell biologists] blew a raspberry into the mic and gave the speaker the finger.

Artologica aka Michele Banks @artologica.net · 2w ago

Hey 🧪! I was just reminiscing with a friend about the time a very senior academic called a mid-career guy's work "completely meaningless" at a meeting and now I want to hear your best (public, academic) disses

A post about how to make microscopy images as accessible as possible. quantixed.org/2026/07/21/c...

Don't use slop. Someone's trying to make money out of you and your colleagues and your friends. Do yourself a favor and read 100% human-crated content in @prelights.bsky.social Upload preprints. Read preprints. Cite preprints. Fuck AI 🧪

Homepage - preLights

Welcome to preLights, the preprint highlights service run by the biological community and supported by The Company of Biologists. Here, a team of scientists regularly review, highlight and comment on ...

prelights.biologists.com

And in general, if you ARE going to use IF, at least also consider it alongside our Impact Inflation (ImpInf) metric from the Strain on scientific publishing. Golf rules: low ImpInf is good. Society and non-profit journals consistently have lower ImpInf. That tells you it's earned.

The strain on scientific publishing

Abstract. Scientists are increasingly overwhelmed by the volume of articles being published. The total number of articles indexed in Scopus and Web of Science has grown exponentially in recent years; ...

direct.mit.edu

This is the kind of things PhD student Louis can do with @ekatrukha.bsky.social's CurveMorph: following protein movement whithin growing axons in his stunning 80-hour movies

Christophe 🔬 Leterrier@christlet.bsky.social · 2mo ago

We were struggling with wiggling neurites on our long term imaging data and the poor existing plugins to deal with them, until I thought "let's ask Eugene about it". Lo and behold, he just made the perfect plugin for dynamic kymograph generation!

Wu and Hegde annotate and analyze the topology of 4,863 human endoplasmic reticulum–inserted membrane proteins and their 20,546 transmembrane domains, showing that transmembrane domains inserted by different pathways can tolerate different biophysical properties. rupress.org/jcb/article/...

Why can't we explain enhancer action despite 2 decades of chromosome conformation technologies? 😬 Our new study spearheaded by Leonid Mirny's group points to a flaw in our assumptions, and to a solution from physical principles By @timothyfoldes.bsky.social 💻& @karissalhansen.bsky.social 🧪 🧵👇

This is an important point and I'd argue there's further complexity. A paper is a narrative that essentially says "We have a scientific claim/idea about the world and here is a series of connected data to support our claim". The data =/ the paper. The paper > the data. The data > the paper. 1/n

Alejandro Montenegro@aemonten.bsky.social · 3mo ago

A paper is not just its underlying data but also the narrative the authors have decided to use. How authors interpret and explain their results is important. Different readers can then read and interpret differently, but that initial narrative is relevant.

Doing the periodic cleaning of used plasmid miniprep columns and realized in honor of Earth Day it may be worth reminding you molecular biologists: Plasmid miniprep columns can be cleaned and reused essentially indefinitely! Just add 1 M HCl, soak overnight and wash 3x w/ water. Save $ and plastic

The #spotLight episode for this #preLight is out. Recorded with the @prelights.bsky.social I chatted with @kawillis.bsky.social about the #preprints covered in the preLight. The spotLight episode is available to listen to here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-X3... (1/2)

spotLights Ep 19: preLights in conversation with Kristine Willis

YouTube video by The Company of Biologists

youtube.com

Jonathan Townson@jontytownson.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Happy to have written a piece with @prelights.bsky.social covering two preprints looking at funding and publications! A data science approach to analysing #funding decisions and #publications in #biosciences. (1/3) prelights.biologists.com/highlights/t...

Check out our new release on BioRxiv co-lead by @pm-mueller.bsky.social 👉 rb.gy/lnrizk special🙏 to Severine Kunz #MDC @leventallab.bsky.social @andimicroscopy.bsky.social @ewerslab.bsky.social and Kedar Narayan @NCI CCR VolumeEM Are the days of discovering new cellular structures over?? /1

Really cool to see this beautiful work from @storerlab.bsky.social is now published! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Hyaluronic acid and tissue mechanics orchestrate mammalian digit tip regeneration

Tissue regeneration is rare in mammals, but the digit tip can regrow after amputation, whereas injuries beyond the nail do not. How the microenvironment drives divergent outcomes remains unclear. In t...

science.org

Jonathan Townson@jontytownson.bsky.social · last yr.

My next @prelights.bsky.social post is out. I saw this first preprint from @storerlab.bsky.social a while back and took some time over writing it but I think it was worth it! (1/2) #preprint #regeneration #mechanosensing #ECM

“Hallucinated references are an interaction design failure, there will be a fix soon.” The fact that this is about integrity, responsibility, trust – decidedly non-technical values – gets ignored. Moral questions are reframed as technical problems.' dorotheabaur.ch/en/texts-and...

Hallucinated References: Five Excuses for Academic Misconduct

When I proposed rejecting papers with hallucinated references, the support was overwhelming. But the critical voices revealed five argument patterns: from AI hype through TINA rhetoric to nihilism.

dorotheabaur.ch

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

Mirror mirror on the wall, what is the fairest funding call? @jontytownson.bsky.social covers two #preprints (@kristine-willis.mstdn.science.ap.brid.gy & team) using data & social science to analyse how significant biological discoveries are made #preLight⬇️ prelights.biologists.com/highlights/t...

A thirty-year trend of increasing clinical orientation at the National Institutes of Health; Prediction of transformative breakthroughs in biomedical research - preLights

Mirror mirror on the wall, what is the fairest funding call?

prelights.biologists.com

Happy to have written a piece with @prelights.bsky.social covering two preprints looking at funding and publications! A data science approach to analysing #funding decisions and #publications in #biosciences. (1/3) prelights.biologists.com/highlights/t...

A thirty-year trend of increasing clinical orientation at the National Institutes of Health; Prediction of transformative breakthroughs in biomedical research - preLights

Mirror mirror on the wall, what is the fairest funding call?

prelights.biologists.com

Today I gave a short talk at the @embo.org workshop on Intracellular and organelle mechanobiology. I’m grateful to have been able to share my postdoc project and for the questions/comments! (1/3)

Excited to share our Review on human PGC development covering the latest in vivo observations & in vitro developments, esp. in the last 5 years. Have a read! journals.biologists.com/dev/article/... From: @astar-gis.bsky.social @ki.se Warwick University, @gurdoninstitute.bsky.social

Emerging principles and models of human primordial germ cell development

Summary: This Review examines recent insights into early human germ cell development and how these regulatory principles guide stem cell-derived models aiming to reconstitute human gametogenesis in vi...

journals.biologists.com

🚨 New call for preLighters!🚨 Help us highlight the most exciting biological #preprints. Share your insights, build your profile, and be part of a supportive community! 🌍 Interested? Apply today & help shape the future of science publishing! 📢 More info: prelights.biologists.com/news/join-th...

Something SPARC’d between us and left me Breathless: Haemolymph cells turn on repair in the Drosophila tracheal system An exciting #preLight by @jontytownson.bsky.social talks about the work of Nourhene Ammar, Hadi Boukhatmi and the team.

Immune–tracheal intercellular signalling coordinates the muscle injury response in Drosophila - preLights

Something SPARC’d between us and left me Breathless: Haemolymph cells turn on repair in the Drosophila tracheal system

prelights.biologists.com

Our preprint has been highlighted by @prelights.bsky.social and @jontytownson.bsky.social ! 🙏 Huge thanks for helping us share our work with this wonderful community

Jonathan Townson@jontytownson.bsky.social · 12mo ago

I have written another #preLight post, featuring the first work from the Boukhatmi lab. Always fun to read a #fly paper, especially with #microscopy too! Check it out if you like injury repair and tissue/ECM remodeling. prelights.biologists.com/highlights/i... #Repair #ImmuneCells #preprint #ECM

I have written another #preLight post, featuring the first work from the Boukhatmi lab. Always fun to read a #fly paper, especially with #microscopy too! Check it out if you like injury repair and tissue/ECM remodeling. prelights.biologists.com/highlights/i... #Repair #ImmuneCells #preprint #ECM

Immune–tracheal intercellular signalling coordinates the muscle injury response in Drosophila - preLights

Something SPARC’d between us and left me Breathless: Haemolymph cells turn on repair in the Drosophila tracheal system

prelights.biologists.com

FOMO no more: NOMO and Calmin extend #mechanobiology to the ER. Julie Heffler and Jan Lammerding @LammerdingLab.bsky.social discuss recent studies from the @schliekerlab.bsky.social (doi.org/10.1083/jcb....) & @hennelab.bsky.social (doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...), in Spotlight: rupress.org/jcb/article/...

#FocalPlaneFeatures meets @prelights.bsky.social @fadelvalle.bsky.social & Vibha Singh have picked 2 fantastic #cellbio preprints & will be presenting their preLights alongside research talks from @probablycarmen.bsky.social & Eva Mejia-Ramirez. Register: focalplane.biologists.com/2025/08/20/f...

📢Call for speakers We are looking for ECRs to speak in our mini-symposium run together with the popular membrane trafficking webinar series organised by ‪@franbottanelli.bsky.social @felixmendu.bsky.social & @ishier.bsky.social. focalplane.biologists.com/2025/07/14/f... Apply by 24 August

FocalPlane features... membrane trafficking - apply to give a talk - FocalPlane

FocalPlane features... membrane trafficking - apply to give a talk - News

focalplane.biologists.com

Better late than never, I am sharing the last #spotlight interviews I did with @prelights.bsky.social at #biologists100 in Liverpool. It was fantastic to get different perspectives on preprints and the publishing world, as well as to hear a bit about the cutting-edge research being presented. (1/5)

We currently have a call for support that has gone out to European labs, to support FlyBase-UK. We are asking our colleagues from labs in the US and other countries to wait for a similar call to them that will go out in the near future, to support the US sites. We thank you for your patience.

Mark A. Hanson@hansonmark.bsky.social · last yr.

URGENT: FlyBase has lost practically all its funding overnight; even user fees are tied up in denied grant funding. 🤬🤯 Any lab using @flybase.bsky.social please donate using the link in post below. This incredible community, on whose backs our #Drosophila labs depend, can't be left out to dry.

It was great talking to @giuliapaci.bsky.social about her work and #preprints at #biologists100 earlier this year. And exciting that she is again talking (more science and less preprints) today for the Development presents… seminar thenode.biologists.com/development-...

Development presents... BSDB postdoc poster prize winners - the Node

Talks from the winners of the BSDB postdoc poster prize.

thenode.biologists.com

preLights@prelights.bsky.social · last yr.

spotLights episode with @giuliapaci.bsky.social ⭐ We discuss her recent preprint on 3D single-cell imaging in live tissues, what it took to get there, and how preprinting supports #OpenScience & #ECRs. Catch her at #DevPres tomorrow! @dev-journal.bsky.social #spotLight ⬇️ 🎧 youtu.be/0JQMPq0hSEY

While I applaud Europe taking a step to fund bringing scientific excellence to Europe, the ERC’s current success rates at 10% for Europe based scientists is statistically at lottery levels. The total ERC budget should double across the board aiming at doubling funding rates.