A colleague received proofs of an accepted manuscript, and the "proofing process" clearly involved running the text through ChatGPT. Their voice has been erased, and errors introduced. This is from a supposedly reputable publisher. Anyone else been put through this particular form of hell? #MicroSky

Bluesky question - there is a post in my timeline from someone I don’t follow. And nobody I follow has reposted it as far as I can see. How am I seeing this? (Having PTSD from the other place…)

It’s the #AutumnEquinox: the air is chill, London commuters have dug out their coats — and the strong smell of mothballs permeates the train carriage

The dark mullein, Verbascum nigrum, found blown off course in a vacant lot - complete with bee about to land #WildflowerHour @wildflowerhour.bsky.social

cc @rpgrant.bsky.social

This may seem cute but if you do this too much the cyclists may become reliant on cars feeding them, disrupting the delicate roadway ecosystem

From hedgerow to jar: jam-making is a bit magical. Here’s what we did with a small harvest of foraged crabapples.

Has the narrow host range of phages been over-estimated? 🤔#IDSky

Sobering...but not surprising.

Train home time

Culinary skyers - i’m trying to increase my intake of legumes and raw vegetables - tragically bored of salads, and crudités on their own. I’d love to hear about your great recipes for bean dips, bonus points for those that can be batch-made and frozen (or would be fine in the fridge for a few days)

Because we use our own compost in the garden, we are often blessed with the unexpected, growing stealthily in the planned vegetable plots. Here’s a delightful Turks turban squash we discovered today, and we also have rogue potatoes, tomatillos, tomatoes and melons.

Delighted to share that I’ve been awarded a Future Leaders Fellowship to investigate the impact of microbial interactions on antimicrobial resistance evolution 🎉 🧫 really grateful for this investment in my lab and excited to start my fellowship in Jan’26! www.ukri.org/news/ukri-an...

Massive train disruption due to… (checks notes) a bit of wind, I think. Best of luck to my fellow travelers trying to get home on Highspeed.

All of UCL academia must be frantically uploading their course Moodle pages right now because it is so slooooooow

Our tomatoes were very slow this year, but they are finally coming in. I am particularly excited by a new variety I tried this year, called Black Moon.

TIL that Koch produced the precursor of the Petri dish - the first solid culture medium technique - and Julius Petri was then his assistant.

The weather today was something. When I snapped this, there was torrential rain in the back garden, while it was totally dry in the front garden.

Here’s @rpgrant.bsky.social decanting the honey harvest

Tube strike making our live London underground map look very sad. Liz doing the heavy lifting here.

I feel seen!!!!!!

Hahahahaha. Who are these freakish people who already have??

Alas, no #LunarEclipse visible in Gravesend tonight due to overcast - but a lovely sunset nonetheless. Totality in 3 minutes! Go outside and look East.

Dreamy clouds this afternoon

Assistant Professor position in the Microbiome Engineering group (Prof Sahar El Aidy) at University of Amsterdam Assistant Professor in Microbiome Imaging and Functional Analysis werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies...

Honey, weve all been there.

UCL library website and all service down - it’s the end of days

We have a position for an Assist Prof in Microbial Genomics in our School of III. Hod Joan Geoghegan will be happy to field questions if you are interested. No specific area of microbial genomics preferred so please do consider it www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOO184/a...

Lovely graphic.

London between deluges. Stay dry, everybody!

Big congrats!! Very well deserved.

Back to school time!

Tip for authors! Did it work for @jennyrohn.bsky.social author of Cat Zero?

Yes, it was carefully hidden in the New England Journal of Medicine. Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine (www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1... ) 1/2

Super interesting historical #AMR forensics! #IDSKy

New academic year, new Highspeed meltdown. Haven’t missed this on my hols…

Great opportunity here

No surer sign of autumn: the blooming of snowdrop anemones (Anemone sylvestris)

📝 Like Wordle but wish it involved plagues? It's not quite the same -- there's no spelling just a series of clues in a similar feedback loop as Wordle -- but it's pretty cool! Complements of an anonymous med student on Reddit. #IDSky #MedSky www.plagdle.com

Johnagold apples ripening on the last day of August. Such a lovely autumnal morning here in Kent. Back to work tomorrow for me - and the first day of secondary school for my son 💔

Not personally but amplifying

Me, getting increasingly creative with my grant aims and objectives

More garden fruit and veg today

Excellent - NHS *finally* catches up with the rest of the world to offer varicella vax to children. I had my first jab in the 1970s in USA…a safe, highly effective jab for a nasty disease that can —> severe complications (to say nothing of shingles in later life) #IDSky www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I’ve just been on the Today programme talking about MHRA approval for gepotidacin, a first-in-class new antibiotic for uncomplicated UTI. Needs two separate mutations to become resistant, making it a useful addition to the arsenal #AMR #UTISky #IDSky

Many congratulations!

First sweep of the garden after a fortnight away…cucumbers doing a lot of the heavy lifting here.

Love locks in Levici, Liguria