New publication: A framework for assessing global health impacts of polar change: An urgent call for interdisciplinary research Open access link: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

We’re delighted that Aberystwyth has been named a UNESCO City of Literature – the first in Wales! More: tinyl.co/3u04 @librarywales.bsky.social @uwtsd.bsky.social @prifweinidog.gov.wales @unesco.org

The collateral benefits of the Covid pandemic response was a marked decrease in airborne and aerosol-transmitted infections via masking and non-pharmaceutical interventions @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Beautiful piece about microbes, buildings, and health 🤩 www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

Next time an institution tells you how seriously it takes research misconduct, ask them if it's *this* seriously. www.bmj.com/content/297/...

Excited to advertise a new interdisciplinary PhD opportunity at @geogdurham.bsky.social - "From ice to ecosystem: assessing the risk of glacier melt and legacy contamination for reindeer in Sápmi (Lapland)" ❄️ 🦌 To learn more about the project and how to apply visit: iapetus.ac.uk/studentships...

New article on equitable reuse of public sequencing data, published in @natmicrobiol.nature.com! Led by the Data reuse core team @lhug.bsky.social @environmicrobio.bsky.social Cristina Moraru, @geomicrosoares.bsky.social, @folker.bsky.social and with Anke Heyer and The Data Reuse Consotrium!

Just signed up to peer review an application for one of the largest science funders in the world. Asked to confirm I was at least 13 years old. Might explain a lot about the grant review process if it's secretly dominated by teenagers.

Long-buried layers of saline permafrost seem to be accelerating climate change’s transformation of the Arctic. https://scim.ag/46AxH2E

Our scientists are leading research into how a widely used vaccine can boost overall immunity in livestock 🐮 More: tinyl.co/3iC7 @aberdlsagb.bsky.social @ukri.org #AberTB#bovineTB#bTB#TB

2 Postdoc vacancies: Microbial dormancy in the cryosphere @erc.europa.eu #ERC_SIESTA 📢 PLEASE RT Experimental: 🧬 Single cell microbial activity measurements, flow cytometry, omics, biogeochem Modelling: 🖥️ Bioenergetics, thermodynamics, ecological, biogeochem ☀️ Marseille, France ‼️ Apply by 30 Sept

Real pleasure to be part of the Helminth Eco-Health Hub UK. A real opportunity for experts to forge new connections. Information on the network will follow. @aberdlsagb.bsky.social @aberuni.bsky.social www.cambrian-news.co.uk/news/univers...

Reminder that we are recruiting an Assistant Professor Bacterial Genomics @imibirmingham.bsky.social. www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOO184/a... Deadline 24 Sept.

Sad views from southern #Svalbard 30.8.25 - melt has reached high up the mountains. From Hornsund to Amundsenisen barely any snow left… how should glaciers build mass like this? Svalbard is heating fast. Only steep mountain walls seem to help accumulate a bit and catch blown snow 📸from✈️ #Glaciology

Met Office stats confirm summer 2025 is officially the warmest summer on record for the UK. The UK’s mean temp of 16.10°C surpasses the previous record of  15.76°C and pushes the summer of 1976 out of the top 5 warmest summers. www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/new...

Temporary lecturer in Microbiology post available at Bangor University. Apply by 15th September: jobs.bangor.ac.uk/details.php....

Thanks to @aberuni.bsky.social for highlighting the phenomenal hard work of Drs @geomicrosoares.bsky.social @sararassner.bsky.social and team in mapping the microbiota of the South Wales coalfield. Prospects for future energy emerges from the legacy of fossil energy. academic.oup.com/femsec/artic...

Happy to share our new paper in L&O about autotrophic biofilms in subarctic lakes and streams 🦠 🏔️ @aslo.org aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Not bad, but not as gripping as S4C

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a... Thought provoking article to share with your families and friends when they ask what you do, featuring the ever excellent @arwynedwards.bsky.social

A powerful piece by @mountainogre.bsky.social on #microbes and #Arctic change, featuring our work on glacier ecology @aberdlsagb.bsky.social and work on methane cyclers by colleagues at UNIS www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

A time for good decisions. Taking a moment upwind to first calmly think through our optimal escape route away from a polar bear and her cub raiding nests in the distance. #fieldphotofriday #fieldworkfriday

A new 4 year PostDoc position in our lab! Modeling + experiments to explore dynamics of carbon fixing hot-spring microbiomes. Part of an exciting multidisciplinary team with Sophie Nixon, @brockhurstlab.bsky.social & others Please share & get in touch if interested! tinyurl.com/e7j7bha3

When you see a paper in a top journal that claims to be doing a global map of richness of a taxonomic group yet there are huge lacunae in the global map of samples from which they have done some fancy interpolation you have to be just a little bit sceptical

Excited to share our new study exploring chemoautotrophy in subzero Arctic brines. We identified cold-adapted Rubisco enzymes in Thiomicrorhabdus species, suggesting unique adaptations for carbon fixation in extreme conditions. Read more: journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... #Microbiology #Astrobiology

Solid tally of beasts over the last few months in the field. Plus 3 Arctic foxes and too many reindeer & geese to count. Not all biodiversity is microbial, just most of it. @aberdlsagb.bsky.social

Melting over 80.6% of the area of the Greenland Ice Sheet. This is the highest value in our data set, which starts in 1981. @polarportal.bsky.social

This might transfer well to Svalbard. www.bbc.com/news/videos/...

Our article showing energy production from air alone is in PNAS today. This paper provides an ultimate biochemical proof that microbes can survive simply by 'making' energy from air (making two ATP per molecule atmospheric H2 consumed) and has biotech applications. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Last week to apply for TWO PhDs with me and amazing supervisors at University of Birmingham The Last Of Us - www.findaphd.com/phds/project... Understanding pathogen diversity in maternal and neonatal populations - www.findaphd.com/phds/project... I’m on holiday so can’t answer queries though

Meanwhile, climate is not the only thing heating up in Svalbard: www.spitsbergen-svalbard.com/2025/07/22/g...

A plangent comment by @drbradbrad.bsky.social & co on the impacts of a winter warmer. It can rain in any month in Svalbard, but these happen more and more, and as more start studying winter ecology, their impacts become more noticeable. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Coming to a coastline near you soon.

A pleasant 9*C at the office today.

two sentences from the abstract of a paper that resonate with us way more than you can imagine...

Microbiomes exist across aquatic environments, from frozen glaciers to flowing rivers & open oceans. This #WorldMicrobiomeDay, our new blog spotlights the importance of different aquatic microbiomes and why it’s time to recognize their invisible work. buff.ly/eFmmYXT

I, for one, welcome our methane-powered spider overlords.

Defining ultra-slow-growing extremophilic microorganisms as aeonophiles #USC_earth #USC_MEB #jcampubs www.nature.com/articles/s41...

➡️ Check out our new data paper in GEUS Bulletin.

The Station is now open for the summer season! Already busy supporting two great projects - #COLDSHOULDERS with @arwynedwards.bsky.social and #CLIMARCTIC with Bjorn Tytgat from U. of Ghent. Looking forward to a busy summer season ahead with lots going on!👍 #ArcticResearch 📷I. Rudkin

Today‘s #fieldphotofriday is freshly clicked @ukarcticstation.bsky.social

To be fair, archaea have long been trying their best to hurt humans. Very cleverly by turning their own labs against them. A great article and video by Prof James Chong and @microbiologysociety.org here microbiologysociety.org/publication/...

Congratulations to four of our Fellows - including @lynjoneschembio.bsky.social‬ & @arwynedwards.bsky.social - who were recently elected to the ‪‪@lswalescddcymru.bsky.social's Fellowship for their notable contributions to the #biosciences! Read the full story: www.rsb.org.uk/news/rsb-fel...

I’ve always loved digging, but these 3m deep, rock hard snow pits in Antarctica in 2020 tested that love. #fieldworkfriday #fieldphotofriday

Hello! 👋 We're thrilled to launch our new Bluesky account and can't wait to share all things Arctic with you! Watch this space for all our latest news, stories, opportunities and events!

From the small biased sample of my timeline here this afternoon, I conclude that using AI is more likely to be accepted so long as you are an established academic writing a paper and not a student submitting an assignment. Feels a bit questionable. (www.nature.com/articles/d41...)

Just your regular reminder that 'sterile' doesn't mean 'DNA-free'! (this rant brought to you by yet another published DNA-based study conducted in a low biomass system where appropriate controls do not appear to have been included)

Super happy to see this is now available.....I am hugely biased of course, but ⬇️ is highly pertinent for the discussions about rapidly thawing #Arctic inland permafrost systems

An analysis shows that large fractions of future generations will be exposed to extreme climate events that would occur only once every 10,000 years in the absence of global warming https://go.nature.com/43lhNbO