Delighted to see our paper studying the evolution of plasmids over the last 100 years, now out! Years of work by Adrian Cazares, also Nick Thomson @sangerinstitute.bsky.social - this version much improved over the preprint. Final version should be open access, apols. Thread 1/n

this exists it is called thinking

Delighted to share our recently published work! Ever wondered how Klebsiella (and others) deals with capsule production’s costs ? The paper: journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... Thread👇

Dr @lewysj.bsky.social from @tcddublin.bsky.social discusses his research on advancements in microscopy, and how his @royalsociety.org - Research Ireland University Research Fellowship award has supported this work. For more info visit: www.researchireland.ie/funding/royal-society-university/

The 2024 rankings of bacterial threats

Vaccines do not cause autism.

Monbiot’s Law of Leaving the House: T = 2(A² + 3C²) Where T is time taken to get out the door in minutes, A is adults and C is children. TLDR: if you’re herding more than five children, you'll never get out.

Truth Art! #arresttrump #art

Good ideas come from having lots of experience. And experience comes from having lots of bad ideas.

With #eseb2025 coming to a close, it is time to start making plans for 2026. Interested in the interface of evolution 🧬 and ecology 🌳? Come to our #ExE conference hosted by @uniexecec.bsky.social in beautiful #Cornwall. Leave your email address at tinyurl.com/EvolxEcol to join our mailing list!

Getting out of this moment won't happen all at once. There is real damage to projects and institutions already. Experts have been threatened. Expertise has been squandered. Rebuilding will happen step by step. But the longer we wait to speak up the longer the darkness will remain. /🧵

For others, they might choose to write an OpEd sciencehomecoming.com or take place in a @standupforscience.bsky.social action: www.standupforscience.net or call their representative and ask them to support free inquiry & the base of our innovation-driven economy.

Our #SCIMaP team, a group of interdisciplinary scientists and coders, have built a county, house district, and state level analysis tool that assesses the local, economic impacts of NIH funding. I don't recall you having reached out to learn more. Who exactly is trapped here? scienceimpacts.org 🧵

Great to cochair a session on bacteria-phage interactions with @frimanscience.bsky.social at #eseb2025 @eseb2025.bsky.social @uccmicrobiology.bsky.social Thanks again to our excellent speakers @fredoleroux.bsky.social @olayarendueles.bsky.social @clara-inrae.bsky.social for their inspiring talks!

Want to name a real virus? I have recently discovered 9 new phages which now need names! To enter, you simply need to donate to the Cystic Fibrosis Trust on my JustGiving page (£2 = 1 entry) and share your email with me on donation (see link info). Please share 💚 www.justgiving.com/page/meaghan-c-1

mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are very, very safe, as studies from multiple countries show. Internet stories are not really a good answer to these large, careful studies. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

How likely are SNP-based phenotypic reversions during human infection/coloniziation? Our latest paper on the rare CF pathogen B. dolosa -- a great collaboration with folks I've worked with since my PhD and led by Alex Poret -- adds to the evidence that reversions are likely in large populations.

How may theoretical ecology & evolutionary theory push microbiology forward? At Environmental Microbiology, I am commissioning a series of Perspectives exploring that question. Excited to share them in the 🧵 below The series is open, so do get in touch if you'd like to propose a new contribution!

One week left to submit your abstract to @microbiologysociety.org meeting on “Understanding and Predicting Microbial Evolutionary Dynamics” at Liverpool 26-27 November Lots of spaces for ECR talks and posters! microbiologysociety.org/event/societ...

Delighted to give a "state-of-the-art" lecture on #bacteria-phage interactions in the #gutmicrobiome at #ASV2025 #Montreal @uccmicrobiology.bsky.social @uccresearch.bsky.social @apcmicrobiomeirel.bsky.social

thank you @royalsociety.org for a great #summerexhibition and #summersoiree

Schrier to RFK Jr: You gave Cassidy the answer he needed to hear in order to get his confirmation vote, then as soon as you were secretary you turned around & fired all 17 members. You lied. I also want to be clear that I will lay all responsibility for every vaccine-preventable death at your feet.

Sometimes, the headlines just write themselves!

This is the last thing the BBC needs

He's right. "Nothing short of devastating" By @holdenthorp.bsky.social @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

In @nytopinion.nytimes.com Three Yale professors who have written extensively on authoritarianism are leaving the U.S. “We’re like people on the Titanic saying our ship can’t sink,” Marci Shore said. “And what you know as a historian is that there is no such thing as a ship that can’t sink.”

The Human Genome Project cost taxpayers $3 Billion. Two decades on, it has generated a staggering return on investment of $1 Trillion, with benefits in medicine, agriculture, energy, the environment, & more. If you want to boost the economy, funding science is one of the best things you could do.

I’m proud to join the great Cyndi Lauper in the fight for women’s rights & healthcare. Go to www.bonfire.com/girlswantrights2025 to get a shirt and learn more about the #GirlsJustWantToHaveFundamentalRights Fund. @tidescommunity.bsky.social

“And I’m like, what do you mean, you ‘do your own research’? You running a double-blind study in your living room, dawg?” - A guy walking ahead of me with his friends on a NYC sidewalk in 2021, also my favorite overheard dialogue of the entire pandemic

Sen. Ossoff: Who out there in the American public is sitting at home demanding that we shut down cancer research and Alzheimer's research?

Marriott’s CEO said it straight: “We welcome all… we create opportunities for all… that’s who we are as a company.” He went back to his hotel to find 40K emails from Marriott associates worldwide saying “thank you.” Plenty of CEOs talk. Capuano showed up. Marriott still has my business.

Interested in #Blastocystis... visit booth J21 @escmid.bsky.social to talk to our CostAction experts!

War hero schools a chickenhawk.

Delighted to share that @asm.org has met its goal for all of its 'legacy' journals (ie favorites like J. Bact, I&I, AEM) so ALL 2025 articles will be published open access. Thanks to all institutional subscribers, this is the S2O way. Please submit to these great journals! asm.org/Press-Releas...

Cory Booker is doing something incredible on the Senate floor. If you're not watching, you need to watch: www.youtube.com/live/Ej6locU...

Removing the top leadership at NIAID, NIH and other health agencies, including the CDC and FDA, will damage America’s position as a leader in groundbreaking research in disease prevention and treatment. That puts us all at risk. Read our statement: asm.org/Press-Releas...

So glad to be here at #microbio25 ! Very important opening words: “publishing 1 paper with us allows 4 students to attend this AC for free” #publishforthecommunity

YouTube’s play button doing the lord’s work

I remember how the Romanian dictator Ceaușescu liked to go bear-hunting. So in the days before the hunting trip, lots of bears would be shot and hidden in the forest. Whenever the old idiot fired his rifle, they'd bring out a dead bear and tell him he killed it. His people ended up executing him.

When people talk about "American Exceptionalism" they now usually mean that Americans are exceptionally bad a running a country.

Adding this to my talking points (see earlier post). Now let’s make this hyper-local 📣

Join us in at #ESEB2025 Barcelona for our symposium on microbial adaptation to changing conditions. Organised by @mtoll8.bsky.social @javierdelafuente.bsky.social and me. Amazing invited speakers @saramitri.bsky.social and Itzik Mizrahi!! @eseb2025.bsky.social

A new combination of microscopy methods has revealed exquisite detail of the virus assembly process used by herpes simplex virus during replication. buff.ly/aO8W9BJ

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Congratulations to all women and girls on #InternationalWomensDay. The UN urges leaders, organizations, and individuals to take action for Rights, Equality, and Empowerment, celebrating 30 years of progress since the Beijing Declaration. #ForAllWomenAndGirls www.un.org/en/observanc...

I don’t feel like *celebrating* Women’s Day. Make every day women’s Day where ALL women are given equal rights, agency,, choices, safety, respect, recognition. Do not tick boxes on one day. Do not use it to sell things. Do not pretend to be an ally but stay silent. Do it all EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Do you work on Blastocystis? Want to improve your writing skills? Come join us this September in Porto for a fully funded writing workshop @blastocystiscost.bsky.social #Blastocystis #Phdlife

Elon Musk is a proven danger to good science, but the Royal Society won’t say so. That’s why I resigned | Kit Yates www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...