We are hiring! Are you a plant pathologist looking for a permanent academic research+teaching role in NZ? Read more here: www.seek.co.nz/job/89090337...

On NZ and Australia’s negotiations with Elsevier - Scientists & universities pay scientific journals for their work to be published. The journals can be very expensive (& hugely profitable). Here the universities are negotiating for a better deal for open-access publishing. It’s not going well 😔

First day done! Been fantastic so far catching up with old friends and making new ones!

So proud of the impact of our @ISSCR Education Committee course on Stem Cell Medicine! Look at what it has been used for! www.isscr.org/isscr-news/p.... Interested? it's free, why not upskill yourself :-)

Very sad news, John Gurdon has died. A developmental biologist's developmental biologist, Nobel prize winner His work is the foundation of much of today's dev & stem cell bio. An inspiration to many, including me. Always asking questions & wanting the answers www.magd.cam.ac.uk/news/profess...

Got interviewed by Harvard Medical School for an article on the free, open-access stem cell medicine course I was involved in. Read here: learn.hms.harvard.edu/insights/all...

New Zealand’s landmark university review has achieved its objectives by sparking “strategic thinking” in the sector, according to the chair of its panel, despite the government disagreeing with nearly a third of its recommendations #academicsky

A rare job opportunity for a biochemist who wants to work in beautiful Dunedin. Will suit someone who enjoys lab-based work. otago.taleo.net/careersectio...

Jennifer A. Doudna will receive the 2026 Priestley Medal, the highest honor given out by the American Chemical Society. She helped discover the gene editing technology CRISPR and has made many contributions to our knowledge of RNA chemistry. cen.acs.org/people/award...

Spare some time today to remember all those killed, injured and traumatised on this day twenty years ago in the London bombings, and recall the public service workers who responded to those horrific attacks with such bravery and dedication.

Here's the final episode of my podcast, the Future of Aging. I talk to a psychologist and an economist about how we, as a society, can we make the most of the extra decades of life we've ended up with. Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/g... Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/20Yb...

25 years after measles was officially declared eliminated from the U.S., a cluster of cases that began in West Texas expanded into one of the largest outbreaks in a generation, spreading through communities with declining vaccination rates as three people died and dozens were hospitalized.

NEW POST on AI, learning and why knowing stuff still matters. carlhendrick.substack.com/p/the-most-i...

#NZ science This is an iconic study in Dunedin. In some ways Dr. Silva’s, & earlier Prof. Poulton’s, deaths illustrate the longevity of the study: it’s outlived them—as it should. You can read more about the study here, including how it began: dunedinstudy.otago.ac.nz

Fabulous stem cell education meet up hub at #ISSCR2025 here in Hong Kong!

What a remarkable achievement--this atlas of zebrafish gill development will power new studies of branching morphogenesis at single cell resolution! 🧪

I'll also be presenting a poster on our course in Hong Kong at the @isscr.org annual meeting next week. Come chat! Friday 4pm

I am proud to have presented in the open-access ISSCR course, Stem Cell Medicine: From Research to Patient Care, jointly provided with Harvard Medical School! This resource is a major milestone for the field at such a pivotal time. Learn more: invt.io/1bxbesknhow

A growing body of evidence suggests infections are tied to dementia, and that vaccines may minimize the risk. What do we know about these emerging links, and what is still unclear? Read the article: asm.org/articles/202...

I feel like I barely made it to this #FluorescenceFriday

I am proud to be hosting the Global Insights into Stem Cell Education Meet-Up Hub, together with Megan Munsie and Rosa McCarty at the @isscr.org 2025 Annual Meeting in Hong Kong on 11-14 June. Register now to join us!

I'm heading to this in a few weeks, can't wait! Will you be there? let me know!

It's all go at Interplanetary Records this morning. If you're in #Edinburgh this weekend, pop along for a sci-music-art cosmic fusion. 🔭🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 👉 Sett Studios: 127 Leith Walk, 11-17 Sat, Sun & Mon

Exciting event for our school tonight, the Sabre Celebration for our Bioscience Enterprise Graduates at Science Uni Auckland, NZ. Thanks to BioPacific Partners! Bring on the guests and the champagne 🍾

The new Pope didn't tweet once in 2024. In 2025, he's posted 5 times, in which he: - Criticized JD Vance's views on Catholicism and Jesus - Posted an article opposing Trump's immigration policies - Retweeted twice about the Pope's health - Retweeted a criticism of Trump & Bukele's laughter at KAG.

It's new preprint day! We asked students to **draw** what they thought learning was like in a studio-format introductory physics for life science course. Then, we used network analysis to get a holistic view of what they depicted. 1/ arxiv.org/abs/2505.02681 🎢 #AcademicSky #EducationResearch

Abiotic origin of the citric acid cycle intermediates www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1... #jcampubs

Stunning work from Hideyuki Okano's group! www.nature.com/articles/d41...

If your brain’s super tired & you’re struggling to get going but you have stuff to do so don’t have the option to hibernate then hi, me too. This photo’s for your brain-if you pause on it for a few moments it’s likely to dial down your stress hormone & trigger dopamine release: a small mind hack 🐚

Gene editing technology began by people studying salt marshes. Ozempic began by folks studying the venom of Gila Monsters. Support for basic science has empowered us to understand our world. Tethering it to applications health has transformed and saved countless lives.

Complete madness

Since the USDA launched its Bird Flu milk testing strategy in December, 28 states have enrolled, representing nearly 65% of the nation’s milk production. And there's a dashboard. This was a long time coming but an impressive start. www.aphis.usda.gov/livestock-po...

Today is Monday here in NZ

These are a highlight of the year for me when they happen. Been a while ar my uni!

My favorite books, 2024

5️⃣8️⃣ Karolin Luger (1963- ) 🇦🇹🇺🇸 #womeninSTEM @nucleosomepolice.bsky.social Austrian biochemist & structural biologist. CU Boulder distinguished Professor & avid hiker. Internationally renowned for her work on chromatin and the resolution in 1997 of the 3D structure of the nucleosome. lugerlab.org

We're used to seeing holly leaves depicted as exclusively spiny, but most wild holly plants have spiny and smooth leaves Common holly (I. aquifolium) *changes its gene expression* to produce spines in response to damage by herbivores. Each pair here is from the same plant 📷 Herrera & Bazaga 2013

Excellent study by my Penn-CEIRR colleagues showing that a single HA substitution in H5 (at same exact residue that changed in the British Columbia case!) enables efficient H5N1 binding to receptors in the human upper airway. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

watch Hundreds of Beavers and you’ll believe in art again. it’s a deeply humanist film… even if most of the actors are people in mascot suits www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/sole...

#educators I'm looking for a good app or software to do curriculum mapping. Any recommendations?

Does this mean the price of olive oil will start to come back down? Haven't bought it in a year it got so pricey here in NZ

Phenomenally useful and interesting comparison of the timescale of different events inside cells! 🧪

While our bodies seem static, our cells are constantly changing shape or on the move during tissue homeostasis or wound repair & even more dramatically during embryonic development, during events like gastrulation. Defining how cellular machines mediate these events is a key task for our field 1/n

PIEZO ion channels are to human physiology as GLP-1 drugs are to treating many diseases science.org/doi/10.1126/... @science.org

Toured the new University of Auckland sports complex today. Wow! It has everything!! And an incredible view from the rooftop circuit too.

Great panel discussion for our last Bioscience Enterprise seminar of the year -the future of Biotech in NZ 2025- can we rise to be market ready with plant gene editing tech if the law is changed?

🎨 In case anyone need… The NIH BioArt Source is an awesome library of *free* professionally drawn illustrations for scientific presentations or figures. Downloadable in HD. Thank you NIH for this invaluable tool 🙏! Check it out 👇 bioart.niaid.nih.gov

I fully admit to being jealous of this cover. Though I stand by last year's muppet face as one of my all-time favourites from Development! (Credit to Nandor Nagy and colleagues: journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...)

Out today in Nature: "The Human Cell Atlas"! In my News and Views, I compare the cell atlas to early naturalists creating an atlas of South America. Researchers mining this cell atlas can now make big discoveries, just as the next naturalists then discovered evolution. www.nature.com/articles/d41...