Robert Insall
@robinsall.bsky.social
Chemotaxis. Math. Computers. Cells. Machine learning.
UCL's Cell and Developmental Biology are hiring! Come and join us if you're interested in AI, computation and how they can lead to new biological discovery. www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...
UCL – University College London
UCL is consistently ranked as one of the top ten universities in the world (QS World University Rankings 2010-2022) and is No.2 in the UK for research power (Research Excellence Framework 2021).
ucl.ac.uk
In other news: Pope found to be practising Catholic shock horror... www.timeshighereducation.com/news/majorit...
Majority of students deny using AI when forbidden, study finds
Almost one-third of students report not using AI at all in their studies, while non-native English speakers at UK universities are among those relying on the technology regularly
timeshighereducation.com
Please come and join us! Jobs for machine learning and mathy types!
UCL Research Department of Cell & Developmental Biology@ucl-cdb.bsky.social · 4w ago📢 We're hiring! The Cell & Developmental Biology department (CDB) and other departments in Bioscience @ UCL are delighted to be recruiting for several Lecturer / Associate Professor positions. 👉 View full details and apply here: www.ucl.ac.uk/life-science...
Dear fellow researchers. I think we need to discuss this: www.newscientist.com/article/2532... While peer review is flawed, and while preprints are a great way to share data before publication, as a community we mustn’t trade rigour for hype. This paper was peer reviewed and rejected.
What is 'SpudCell'? Arguably the greatest bioengineering feat yet
A prototype cell partly capable of replicating itself has been created using 36 existing bacterial genes, but it's not really a living organism – yet
newscientist.com
How do you track thousands of cells in complex systems, in 3D & over time? We are launching a Kaggle challenge to push the frontier of AI-powered cell tracking, building on advances like Ultrack & the DaXi lightsheet microscope from the @loicaroyer.bsky.social lab. bit.ly/4bfdzWE
This, emphatically, shouldn't have been done, and shouldn't be used. You'd think we'd have learned that someone else's contextless algorithmic division of science outputs into "the best" and "not the best" is a disaster. Doesn't matter whether AI or Elsevier does it. the-one-percent.qedscience.com
QED — The most compelling preprints of 2025
the-one-percent.qedscience.com
My nine year old asked for a Rosetta Stone cake for his birthday
It appears my countrymen have arrived in the Americas and culturally appropriated a statue of George Washington.
As usual, Current Biology is by some way the most interesting table of contents to read among general biology journals. Chapeau.
Current Biology@currentbiology.bsky.social · 2mo agoOur latest issue just dropped! It's green & special! And super meaty, even though it is about #plants #evolution! 🌵🌿🫛🍃🌱 This is all you need to read this week! www.cell.com/issue/S0960-...
Didn't you listen to the man? He told you! "adjustment to clarify for presentation purposes"...
Sholto David@sholtodavid.bsky.social · 2mo agoReluctant to post too much about this but I did want to share my favourite finding from the dozens of manipulated or duplicated ThermoFisher verification blots. This one has a giant square. Enjoy!
Reluctant to post too much about this but I did want to share my favourite finding from the dozens of manipulated or duplicated ThermoFisher verification blots. This one has a giant square. Enjoy!
Reese Richardson@reeserichardson.bsky.social · 2mo agoTL;DR: We've identified more than 100 cases of apparent manipulation in Thermo Fisher Scientific's antibody verification data. @sholtodavid.bsky.social @johanduchene.bsky.social reeserichardson.blog/2026/05/28/h...
PhD opportunity at UCL! Computational modelling of tumours, in medical physics. www.ucl.ac.uk/engineering/...
Computational Modelling of Tumour–Microenvironment Dynamics (25008)
Find out more about this four-year funded PhD studentship
ucl.ac.uk
"Please provide a justification for the foreign collaboration." Science.
Roland Dunbrack 🏳️🌈@rolanddunbrack.bsky.social · 2mo agoMy PO said I had to fill out this form for 3 of my papers for the RPPR of my NIGMS MIRA grant in February, or I could not include them in my progress report. It looks like things have gotten even worse since then.
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.
Slightly unfortunate dedication in this book (at first glance) 😬
The @anthropic opus science skills in Claude are rendered, basically, completely useless by the overzealous guardrails. For a system that wants to persuade people it's smart, it's staggeringly dumb.
this is what some of you look like in short sleeve button-up shirts
And article of great insight, using data remarkably well. Why are we not having babies? www.ft.com/content/fba3...
Why birth rates are falling everywhere all at once
Homes and phones are part of the reason for the demographic shift changing our world
ft.com
What happens when you put a snake in shag carpeting with some little soft, bendable posts in the way (and also it can't see the posts). If you answered: "It behaves like a light particle moving through a diffraction grating" then congratulations! You win! Let's talk about SNAKE DIFFRACTION.
Our postdoc ad is live! 🔥 We're seeking a researcher to lead computational work on mitochondrial heteroplasmy in bees. You'll analyse single-cell datasets exploring heterplasmy dynamics. PhD + NGS/bioinformatics expertise required. 🔥 www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...
UCL – University College London
UCL is consistently ranked as one of the top ten universities in the world (QS World University Rankings 2010-2022) and is No.2 in the UK for research power (Research Excellence Framework 2021).
ucl.ac.uk
This mesmerizing timelapse captures the nonstop motion inside an animal cell. Red/orange streaks are the growing ends of microtubules, tiny “highways” that can rapidly assemble and disassemble to move proteins & other molecules within the cell. 📸: Andy Moore, HHMI’s Janelia Research Campus
I hope this doesn't cause people to question the provenance of the Nobble Prize I was deservedly awarded last year... www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...
French professor accused of ‘gigantic hoax’ after inventing Nobel-style prize
Authorities investigate Florent Montaclair over award given to himself and others including Noam Chomsky
theguardian.com
If this is true (I doubt, but possible) it is a catastrophe for science funding process. Last nail in the coffin level. Why? Because funding will remain at 10%. Nobody's going to pull a load of new cash out of the hat. So. At first - grants that use an online tool will have an advantage over ../
Oded Rechavi@odedrechavi.bsky.social · 3mo agoImportant announcement!!! 💫 Would you have a tooth pulled if it helped your chances to get an important grant funded? Absurd question, but the funding situation is so bad, that I bet some of you actually considered it for a second… keep your teeth! we created something that might help! 👇 (1/16)
Tring to work out how Arp2/3 complex fits together with monther and daughter actin filaments, with Laura Machesky and her 3D printer
Good article, but describes only a fraction of the harm caused by an exceptionally ill-considered decision. Finding reviewers and panellists is a problem. How does alienating half the European science community, by locking them out of all participation, help? www.science.org/content/arti...
Abrupt change to European funder’s rules leaves researchers shut out
Flood of proposals to European Research Council—perhaps unleashed by AI—means unsuccessful applicants must wait longer to reapply
science.org
