Noted racist and Nobel Laureate James Watson, who stole Rosalind Franklin's data to try to deduce the structure of DNA first, has died at 97 as an unrepentant eugenicist and misogynist.

A very nuanced account of the discovery, but cannot escape the air of misogyny in Watson & Crick diminishing the MRC report as a “preliminary report” in spite of the data being a key confirmation.

Zara Weinberg passed away earlier this week. She joined my lab earlier this year when her postdoc lab formally closed. She was a brilliant scientist, supportive mentor, dear friend, avid music fan, rabid believer in public transit, open science champion, and above all just an amazing human.

There are days in academic careers when hard earned wins are taken away by the lack of consideration by others who are meant to support you. Today has been one of those days for me. Here's to the hope that I can keep that from happening to others around me whether it is from my action or others'.

Resist the slop ✊🏾

FFS. Looks like someone has added me to another spam starter pack. SO many sock puppet accounts suddenly following me today. 🫨

In national news in New Zealand. 💍

In a strong field, this ranks as a particularly shitty metric. And my Norway-based peeps can correct me, but I *think* the Norwegian academic system/some institutions value people being higher-up the author list…[1/2]

Another new metric to measure something that yet again reduces the contribution of researchers to the arbitrary standards set by the armchair critics of academia. And wait for it: this one is called a Sh-index 💩

📣 We are hiring! An education-focused Lecturer or Senior Lecturer in Quantitative Biomedical or Biophysical sciences. It’s a chance to be a part of a team of single molecule /cellular biophysicists building a brand new undergraduate curriculum, here at UNSW in sunny Sydney. Happy to answer queries.

📣 We are hiring! An education-focused Lecturer or Senior Lecturer in Quantitative Biomedical or Biophysical sciences. It’s a chance to be a part of a team of single molecule /cellular biophysicists building a brand new undergraduate curriculum, here at UNSW in sunny Sydney. Happy to answer queries.

Ah, the need sometimes to speak up and be difficult! Some stories from my youth, when I was just practicing....Sunday morning reading: Mrs Handley and the Whippets occamstypewriter.org/athenedonald...

Sigh. Another day, and another peer-review written by Chatty-G. In my response letter, should I be thanking the reviewer AND/OR the LLMs for the helpful feedback? 🧪 #AcademicSky

🤖 If you use LinkedIn, please be aware that they automatically use your profile to train their GenAI. To turn off, go to Settings > Data Privacy > Data for Gen AI improvements.

There is still plenty of time to apply! Feel free to reach out to me with questions, and please mention our ad to your colleagues or trainees!

Ah, a classic moment of @nature.com recognizing the scientific contributions of both genders: man and machine.

🍿

Did anyone ever watch an Australian TV series in the early 90s called Beyond 2000? It was about the future and how cool future tech and science was going to be. I feel so let down.

“Since 2000, 65 of 557 new drug approvals (11.7%) are highly linked to at-risk research. This portfolio likewise contains several widely used therapies.” These include EGFR1 inhibitors for lung carcinoma & PrEP for HIV. 🇦🇺 really needs to do this analysis of the opportunities. being missed. already.

Superb interview by Jacinda. The statistics she gave that globally 60% of people don’t trust their leaders and that 4 in 10 are willing to resort to violent approaches in expressing their political beliefs was just 🤯.

Privileged to join the ranks of EMBL Australia’s partner laboratories steering committee, representing @singmolsci.bsky.social, the EMBL Aus node in Single Molecule Science. Lots of new developments around the corner for this wonderful Medical & Life Sciences community in Australia.

Privileged to join the ranks of EMBL Australia’s partner laboratories steering committee, representing @singmolsci.bsky.social, the EMBL Aus node in Single Molecule Science. Lots of new developments around the corner for this wonderful Medical & Life Sciences community in Australia.

Sometimes, just sometimes, you have to do something that makes you feel good…👇🏾 I recently chatted to someone about this; for me, during my time in academia, the people I met and what I learnt as we established @eartharxivbot.bsky.social was one of those things 😊

Fantastic piece in Nature Reviews Neuro by @nicolecrust.bsky.social on the importance of science communication. My take? Everything matters - just do something. It will make a difference for how science is valued and trusted, how community understands. Let's get out there and communicate! 👏

Does anyone have any info as to whether this affects *all* H-1Bs? Or just a subset?

This has to be the British politics equivalent of "Reject changes. Stop tracking" in academic writing. IYKYK. #AcademicSky

This has to be the British politics equivalent of "Reject changes. Stop tracking" in academic writing. IYKYK. #AcademicSky

Universities across Australia marking #RUOKDay this week. Bear in mind that it's not all OK, especially in institutions bearing down on mass job losses.

. #FreedomOfSpeech

"Structural inequality is so pernicious precisely because it is hidden behind a bland façade of emails left unanswered, ideas overlooked, invitations unextended or contributions in seminars or meetings shot down." wonkhe.com/blogs/we-all...

🤯 University pays $44m to consultants who advised laying off 400 staff in order to save $100m pa.

🤯 University pays $44m to consultants who advised laying off 400 staff in order to save $100m pa.

I would like to shout out the @rsc.org 'Horizon Prizes' here, which explicitly exist to recognise that hugely innovative work actually comes from the cumulative effort of teams - www.rsc.org/standards-an...

Happy to share a new preprint from the Clarke & Vallese (@fravallese.bsky.social) labs reporting #cryoem structures of two RBC stomatin complexes – with AQP1 & UT-B - continuing the SPFH theme from our recent vault preprint! This was a fun one and has been cooking for a while - read on for more! ⬇️

In the bookshop this morning: PARENTS: “Okay, we’re leaving now.” CHILD: *pulls another book from the shelf and sits down * CHILD: “Then I guess this is goodbye.”

You know sometimes people have regrets about choices they have made wrt careers? This year, I have felt that way.

Closing soon - an opportunity to come and work with me and my colleagues developing our new curriculum in cellular and molecular biophysics. 🧪 Applications close on the 24th of Aug, Aus EST.

Incredibly proud of this team of colleagues from my department, @singmolsci.bsky.social. Looks like it was so much fun on a sunny day in the park!

Incredibly proud of this team of colleagues from my department, @singmolsci.bsky.social. Looks like it was so much fun on a sunny day in the park!

Sobering article on the anti-immigration ideology driving layoffs of academic researchers & cutting off career pathways of ECRs. All because govts (even the so-called ‘progressive’ politicians) unashamedly scapegoating international students & university managers choosing profit over science. 🧪

UTS is going to axe 400 jobs. This is not solely the government’s fault, but it is yet another sign that the “Job-ready Graduates” package needs to be abolished. It punishes humanities students

This has made me think all day… no other industry does ‘cloak n’ dagger’ quite the way universities do redundancies. Some website ought to make a world ranking table for higher ed institutions for the million variations of theatrics and language used for gutting workplaces of talent.

Many of you in #AcademicBsky in the northern hemisphere might not know the dire state of Australian academia. This essay by Andrew Dean is a fair snapshot of the state of the sector. Thinking today especially of academics in some Aus unis facing mass job cuts ~ 3,000 jobs on the chopping block now.

Can’t feel prouder of people in this city on one of the worst weather days so far this year.

It's about time I announced a project that I've been working on in the last year... I wrote a book! 'Volcanoes: 10 things you should know' published by @orionbooks.bsky.social Seven Dials will be out in September. It's available to pre-order now. Links: linktr.ee/volcanologist

🚨Job Alert: My department in UNSW Sydney is recruiting a teaching-only Lecturer in Biophysics. The lecturer will play a key role in the pedagogical development and delivery of courses and practicals in the new undergraduate (BSc) major in #Biophysics that we are launching from 2026. #AcademicBsky 🧪

🚨Job Alert: My department in UNSW Sydney is recruiting a teaching-only Lecturer in Biophysics. The lecturer will play a key role in the pedagogical development and delivery of courses and practicals in the new undergraduate (BSc) major in #Biophysics that we are launching from 2026. #AcademicBsky 🧪

Essay mills shamelessly advertising on the academia feed. CC @keithwilson.eu

Congratulations to Tayla Shakespeare & Raj Seehra who passed their PhD defences over the past 2 weeks 👏 ! Both of them members of our lab in Sheffield, 2021-2025, developing & applying new methods in expansion microscopy 🔬. 📷 here together with postdoc Tom & technician Michael on the special day. 1/

Congratulations to Tayla Shakespeare & Raj Seehra who passed their PhD defences over the past 2 weeks 👏 ! Both of them members of our lab in Sheffield, 2021-2025, developing & applying new methods in expansion microscopy 🔬. 📷 here together with postdoc Tom & technician Michael on the special day. 1/