Ok, time to feel old – for a good cause 😃 I was in the middle of my PhD when our journal was launched. An online-only journal at a time when most others were not. This is by definition a VERY special issue. Have a look at what papers we're looking for and be a part of the future of the journal!

Structural Biology Communications@actacrystf.iucr.org · last wk.

We're celebrating 20 years of Acta Crystallographica Section F!🎉🥳 Join us by contributing to our celebratory collection of articles, which is now open for submissions! Find out more at journals.iucr.org/special_issu...

According to the parliamentary annual report & accounts for the 2025/26 financial year, the cost of subsidising the bars in the House of Commons alone was around £5.8 million. Meanwhile, to save £3 million less than that, Jodrell Bank is being defunded and shut down. share.google/MRHIvCsCsKoc...

Jodrell Bank's Lovell telescope faces axe in science cuts, BBC understands

Astronomers warn it would tear the heart out of UK science, and leave a generation untrained.

share.google

Earlier this year UKRI launched a funding call to invest £40M in ONE AI lab. www.ukri.org/opportunity/... For some unknown reason they decided to fund TWO AI labs at the cost of £60M. An extra £20M. Just found. That's the equivalent of 7 more years of Jodrell Bank. www.ukri.org/news/ukri-la...

UKRI launches two AI research labs to stay ahead in global race

Two new labs will back British researchers to develop next generation artificial intelligence (AI) systems, helping secure the UK’s position as a global leader.

ukri.org

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot.bsky.social · last wk.

I'm absolutely devastated for colleagues at Jodrell Bank who found out this morning that funding for the UK's e-MERLIN radio telescope array will be terminated. This is a short-sighted move, to save a tiny fraction of the overall UK science budget. #SaveJodrellBank 🔭🧪 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

📢To every #STFC project or facility facing cuts: get in touch. 📊We need numbers, evidence and stories showing what the UK is losing: people, skills, innovation and partnerships. ✏️Write to MPs, brief journalists, speak publicly. Don’t wait for others. Every voice counts.🧪🔭 #UKRI #PPAN

An almost unbelieveable predicament. A country in retreat?

Nature@nature.com · last wk.

Can commercial funding fill a hole of £42 million a year in the finances of some of the United Kingdom’s flagship science laboratories and facilities? go.nature.com/4bcxRjL

The latest from us as part of a special issue on S-layers organised by @tbharat-lab.bsky.social S-layers make ideal phage receptors but present another barrier that must be overcome to deliver the genome into the cytoplasm. We know very little about phage that can do this!

@perbullough.bsky.social · last wk.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Our latest paper on C. difficile phage/S-layer interactions with thanks to @robfagan.bsky.social @jasonwils.bsky.social for all their hard work on this.

Congrats to MRes student Eva Curto Gablis, she persevered through the setbacks of making S-layer mutants in #Cdiff, never giving up! Well done to Ellie Rockliff for brilliant supervision! #ProudPI

I signed an Open Letter to @ukri.org in defense of @diamondlightsource.bsky.social funding. It's an internationally leading facility, any cuts to its funding, from operations to staff will have disastrous consequences to #UKscience. Pls sign & share! openletter.earth/open-letter-...

The Diamond Light Source is one of the UK's most productive scientific faclities. Just signed an open letter urging the STFC to ensure decisions about its future are "transparent, evidence-led, and made in meaningful consultation with its […] user communities." openletter.earth/open-letter-...

Plenty of alternatives exist. bsky.app/profile/did:...

Stephen Turner@stephenturner.us · 3mo ago

Free and open-source images, icons, and tools for creating scientific illustrations doi.org/10.59350/5zt... 🧪

Maybe don't? www.nature.com/articles/d41...

How to use AI to make a graphical abstract in minutes

Artificial intelligence is a democratizing force for those without graphic-design experience, as long as it is used conscientiously.

nature.com

“Queen Camilla’s book initiative is well-intentioned but completely misses the mark” The brilliant @clairelinney.bsky.social addresses the many ways in which this effort to give all Year 6 students a copy of the same (already best-selling) book is ill-conceived

A problematic gift

Queen Camilla’s book initiative is well-intentioned but completely misses the mark

thebookseller.com

@wheelerlab.org is talking about his effort to build a resource for protein dynamics (PDB for MD). MDRepo is a repository to store simulation data. This is really needed to push the needle in design, function and more. Please help make it successful by sharing your MD data. #ismb2026 🌐 mdrepo.org

Look what arrived in the mail! @springernature.com

For all teachers looking for new content to spice up their science classes after the summer break. 👇🏼

Teacher's Corner — Superbugs - The microbial world in, on and around us

superbugs.online

Full article: Genomic evolution and re-emergence of a multidrug-resistant Clostridioides difficile RT027 clone with reduced vancomycin susceptibility driving a prolonged hospital outbreak www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/...

Genomic evolution and re-emergence of a multidrug-resistant Clostridioides difficile RT027 clone with reduced vancomycin susceptibility driving a prolonged hospital outbreak

Following an extended period of declining prevalence of the epidemic Clostridioides difficile ribotype 027 (RT027) in Portugal, a genetically distinct, multidrug-resistant (MDR) RT027 strain with r...

tandfonline.com

[🚨] Publication alert! Years of hard work is now published in @pnas.org - www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.... It's not everyday that a novel biosynthetic intermediate is identified in bacteria, so this warrants a short summary below [👇] 1/7

We often talk about complex protein folds but what does that really mean? Turns out we don't have a good metric for it. So we made a game to make one! Head over to our website to vote on which fold you think is more complex and why! pacesalab.com/foldcomplexi...

For 6 months the line from DSIT & UKRI on STFC cuts has been that no final decisions have been taken That is no longer the case, after DSIT approved UKRI's proposal for how to save £162m British research at Cern will be hit, along with UK science facilities Scoop by me & @francesjones.bsky.social

UK research at Cern to shrink as government approves STFC cuts - Research Professional News

Exclusive: Science department approves UKRI’s cost-saving proposal, with major UK facilities also facing cutbacks

researchprofessionalnews.com

Carboxypeptidase activity drives L,D-transpeptidase essentiality during vegetative growth and sporulation in Clostridioides difficile https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.30.735746v1

Just discovered @microbecharmer.bsky.social's work - lovely charms, magnets and other items for #microbiologists! Would love to see #Cdiff amongst them ;) www.etsy.com/shop/microbe... #Microsky

Very cool work, congratulations to all involved!

SCELSE - a biofilm & microbiome research centre in NTU & NUS@scelse.bsky.social · last mo.

Scientists from SCELSE, NTU Singapore and Imperial College London have uncovered a previously unknown step in how Pseudomonas aeruginosa loads toxins into its microscopic T6SS weapon before attack. Watch the video below on this research published in Nature Microbiology. @fillouxlab.bsky.social

Another place where reporting that mattered was going on is closing down. www.sciencemediacentre.org/in-praise-of...

“Don't it always seem to go That you don't know what you've got till it's gone?” A major loss to the UK HE and R&D media landscape. Hope the talented staff quickly find new berths.

Fiona McIntyre@fionamcintyre.bsky.social · last mo.

Very sad news today: Research Professional News to discontinue publication at end of 2026. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-o...

📢NEW RESOURCE: A new web resource and accompanying report to explore the vulnerabilities to political interference of 33 key UK scientific public bodies & 11 scientific advisory committees! unchecked.uk/public_body_... 1/7

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

bioRxiv Microbiology@biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social · last mo.

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

Latest from our lab in special issue "CryoEM in the Fast Lane of Structural Biology". Review on CISs in #C.difficile & new results on phage contraction & receptor binding @jasonwils.bsky.social @robfagan.bsky.social @molmicrosheffield.bsky.social #SLayers #CryoEM #Phages doi.org/10.1107/S205...

How cryoEM has advanced our understanding of bacteriophages and bacteriocins targeting Clostridioides difficile

Two recent cryogenic electron microscopy (cryoEM) structures provide a unique opportunity to compare a bacteriophage and a bacteriocin targeted at the same host. CryoEM reveals the most detailed view ...

doi.org

Great treat to hear about @cbcb-newcastle.bsky.social history and great science from Jeff Errington #microsky

Letter in today's Times by climate scientist Sir Brian Hoskins: "The discourse around net-zero is increasingly decoupled from…science and our changing weather. "Net-zero is not an arbitrary slogan, rather it is dictated by the laws of physics."

24 June 2016. The day after when EU citizens across the UK were told to ‘go home’; when the then PM said he would not protect our rights. Stories largely forgotten. BLEA - Brexit Lived Experience Archive - which I am launching today, is here to preserve this history. #Brexit brexit.migravox.org

Home - BLEA

BLEA. Brexit Lived Experience Archive Documenting experiences. Personal experiences provide valuable insights into how Brexit is lived and understood by those directly affected. Recording these accoun...

brexit.migravox.org