And you know they were also scrolling in the back row - amusing pictorial thread for anyone who lectures! #academia

I’ve been working for four hours across UCL Microsoft systems and this is the *fifth* time I’ve had to enter details including 2-factor identification. 😠

Better living through VSMs (Very Strong Magnets) #Poppies

Peak Bluesky

The boy (13) is doing gothic literature in English and has to write a gothic story. This has several promising elements - burning abbey, nuns, senseless murder - "but," he says, "I keep worrying it's turning into a comedy." So begins the most important lesson of the gothic.

Like a time capsule: a #Roman tile marked with #finger lines, hobnail #shoe prints, #dog's paw prints, and a #stamp of the LEG(io) XIIII G(emina). Tiles with imprints are very common, since tiles were laid out to dry in the open air ahead of firing, where...🧵1/2 #TilesOnTuesday 🏺

Mood

OMG, this actively hurts

For #WildflowerHour this week, one I’m pretty sure about (left, Sphagneticola trilobata, Bay Biscayne creeping-oxeye), and one I’d appreciate help on (right) - some sort of willowherb / Epilobium? Both from estuary Kent. @bsbibotany.bsky.social

From the department of the bleeding obvious for the last decade…

Crispy duck pancake night, recipe by @nigelslater.bsky.social ♥️

Loving today's news that the mysterious "fedora man" outside the Louvre heist was actually a 15-year-old museum visitor who dresses like a 1940s French detective all the time, just because. apnews.com/article/louv...

Amusing that the two minutes of Remembrance Sunday silence in my hometown was about the loudest it was all morning – this is because of the gun salute at 11 am which, as it does every year, set off multiple car alarms, babies crying, a massive explosion of birds into flight and many dogs barking.

Proofing my second lab manuscript of the day. Question for #UTISky - feeling lazy and not wanting to change descriptions of complicated and uncomplicated UTI based on recent, unhelpfully divergent definitions in Europe and the USA…. Naughty? cc @anniejoseph.bsky.social @angelahuttner.bsky.social

Our “chilli jungle” in the big greenhouse is still going strong, with plenty of ripening fruit and flowers

A Tale of Two Acorns Two acorns grew in their cups at the end of the same twig. In time both ripened to a deep greenish brown. One, facing the Earth, fell to the moist ground and began the next stage of its life. The other, facing the Sun, was held captive by its own weight and shrivelled.

My Watson memory: wine & cheese party on his lawn at Cold Spring Harbor during the Retrovirus meeting, early ‘90s. He zeroed in solely on groups of young women (eventually the one I was standing in), saying inappropriate things about our summer attire. No filter whatsoever. Deeply uncomfortable.

Sometimes the story takes you somewhere so beautiful and terrifying that you ask yourself - do I want really want to go there and what will the readers think. So in about two years - don't say I didn't warn you 😝

Another beautiful morning. Our apricot tree keeps giving beauty long after the fruit has passed

Autumn raindrops

It was such a beautiful afternoon in the garden today

Our girls enjoying being fed the last of the garden grapes

Toms still coming!

Due to intense academic stress, I’m about a week and a half late forcing my Christmas paper-white narcissus bulbs this year. Banishing these guys to the dark garage and hoping for the best – otherwise they will be New Year’s blooms!

What Rosalind Franklin truly contributed to the discovery of DNA’s structure. A really informative article, perfect for a weekend coffee read. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Said "case series" out loud and woke up Siri

The rise of ‘nightmare bacteria’: antimicrobial resistance in five charts www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Beautiful Bloomsbury #London

I use a lot of voice dictation to write emails on my phone. Today’s gem was substituting “intimate and cat” for “intermittent catheter users”. It’s a good thing I checked it before hitting send!

Tag yourself: I’m the fat old lady with a dog, just north of a fuck load of gorse. (Which makes a lovely cocktail, by the way!)

This looks like a fantastic paper, duly added to my pile (of hundreds….🫠) #AMR #MicroSky

CDC Figures It Easier To Start Tracking People Without Measles

We're just 6 months away from @keystoneSymposia.bsky.social Beyond #Antibiotics : Emerging Strategies Combating #BacterialInfection, May 2026 in Breckenridge! 👉Scholarship and short talk abstract deadlines are Jan 7! 🧐 keysym.us/KSBeyondAntibiotics26 #KSBeyondAntibiotics26

Beautiful full moon tonight, complete with a rainbow ring – do go out and take a look.

This whole thread plus comments is comedy gold

It’s just too soon, St Pancras…

just this past week, ilku-duty and the corvée work kept me from my grant writing!

Interested in a PhD at the intersection of biophysics and microbiology? Apply for this MRC-funded opportunity at Newcastle University to do cutting-edge microscopy in Mycobacterium tuberculosis! 🔬🦠 Closing 4 Dec! www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Here’s Clematis vitalba (Old Man's Beard, Traveller's-joy), looking like ephemeral underwater sea creatures in the dusk #WildflowerHour @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Yeah, sure, they look all tough tonight, but wait til we feed them to the dinosaur hens tomorrow…

AI doing by exactly what human recruitment panels do

The first (1955) Danish edition of Ray Bradbury’s FAHRENHEIT 451. Later editions did not convert the title, so this is the only SI-compatible edition! 🎢

My son’s favorite phrase: “Best of three?”

Twice the good luck? Two double-yokers - common in newbie hens. Reminds me of various stages of mitosis. Perhaps a bit of aneuploidy going on in the right hand pair…

Your guide to the November night skies courtesy of @astronomyedinburgh.bsky.social. Wishing you all clear skies and lots of lovely #Leonid 'shooting stars' (meteor shower peaks on the 17th)! 🤞🧪🔭🤩

Good afternoon

We have progressed from data collection to data analysis.

The morning after the night before - various essential pumpkin-based culinary efforts

I think @rpgrant.bsky.social’s pumpkin is better appreciated in daylight 😭