We’re back! @sykhalid.bsky.social and I kick off season 2 of @scienceofthetimes.bsky.social podcast discussing the human heart. We’ll be releasing new episodes monthly open.spotify.com/episode/2gE5...

History has hatched in London. For the first time in over 360 years, pelican chicks have successfully been born in St. James’s Park. These four new arrivals mark a monumental milestone for wildlife in the heart of our capital.

Elise Stringfellow has just completed her MSt in Classical Languages and Literature and is off to read for a Graduate Diploma in Law. Prof. Syma Khalid and Dr Francesca Beretta rock the dark glasses. Francesca leaves us after 2 wonderful years for a Fellowship at the Center for Hellenic Studies.

Glycoheterogeneity is an aspects of glycobiology that most would class into a category between difficult and intolerable, but @benschulz.bsky.social and us love it! So we wrote a whole review in Current Opinion in Structural Biology on it 🧵1/8 ⬇️ doi.org/10.1016/j.sb...

Roses are redde Noble are the manatees For a bettir future Teach artes and humanityes

Back from Japan! Absolutely loved it. Landed an hour ago - have to give a 2 hour lecture tomorrow morning :( #badplanning

And Simon Foster too! Whoop for microbiology. A bit congratulations to Simon

Well done @timcoulson.bsky.social - excellent scientist, writer and podcaster.

Congratulations to Colin and @robklose.bsky.social. Not only excellent scientists, but also good colleagues and friends. Delighted for both of them.

I appear to be in Japan.

Congratulations to Arsenal - thoroughly deserved (typed through gritted teeth)

Really fun multidisciplinary project with Enrique (Fadri) Martinez-Perez’s lab. Simulations by Punam Rattu, who did her PhD with me at @unisouthampton.bsky.social and is now in @philbiggin.bsky.social’s group here at @oxfordbiochemistry.bsky.social. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Check this out Oxford folk! Wholesome science & music family event.

OXFORDSHIRE PEOPLE! Come to our FREE family physics singalong workshops! Or get £5 tickets for our concert of @firebrigademusical.bsky.social at an ACTUAL FIRE STATION (bring picnics!) All at GAP Festival in Goring & Streatley on Saturday 20th June... pls share share share! thegapfestival.org

Now out: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Careful social media campaigns designed to cause divisions have helped Reform. It’s not ok to keep silent, folks. The louder voices are getting heard by idiots who can vote.

Congratulations to Bjarne Feddersen for his work on benchmarking umbrella sampling workflows for PMF calculations of membrane permeation! Systematic work that provides guidance on how to approach these to minimise compute resource. @oxfordbiochemistry.bsky.social. pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Anyone been to Japan? How easy is it for an English muppet like me, to get from the Haneda airport in Tokyo to Shinagawa station to get the Bullet train to Shin-Kobe station? I’d be grateful for any advice

Everybody gave this their all so thank you for all your dedication robbieclark.bsky.social , Louis Smith, Ryan Szukalo , @mleighton.bsky.social , @sykhalid.bsky.social , Pablo Debenedetti, @pilarcossio.bsky.social and @sonyahanson.bsky.social. This wouldn't have happened without any of you!

I suppose Cambridge is kinda nice

We’re delighted to share a ‘behind-the-scenes’ peek of SBS TV filming Matt Higgins @parasitematt.bsky.social and his group this week for a documentary on the Future of Medicine with AlphaFold. It will air in South Korea in early May 2026. Watch this space for more!

I wrote an essay. It’s about gain-of-function mutations. And penguins. Also ion channels, chihuahuas, the film Alien, recycled cardboard, and the Apollonian mind. Oh, and muffins. Thanks to the editors of #GENETICS @genetics-gsa.bsky.social for letting me take some stylistic liberties. 1/2

@stannescollege.bsky.social looks mighty fine today

Football really is a ridiculous sport.

In Basel. Nice view from the hotel. Giving a talk tomorrow: Molecular Choreography of Bacterial Membranes’

Thrilled to see my group’s work feature in this report on the returns on the UK’s investment in High Performance Computing

Investment in HPC makes scientific, societal and economic sense.

It’s been a week of alpacas and goats (donkeys and horses too, data not shown).

Idling about on the first day after the end of term. Just watched the set from Cat Stevens in Glastonbury from 2023 - damn it was good.

Happy pi (RNA) day everyone! And what better way to enjoy than to revisit the unusual features of nematode piRNAs: www.cell.com/developmenta...

Well done to Jude Tunyi from Simon Newstead’s group on a very successful DPhil viva. A pleasure to examine alongside @lizmillercu.bsky.social All the very best for the future Jude

Our latest paper in which we use multiple force fields to recover various conformations of the ribose transporter from E. coli. The work of DPhil student Nikolai Juraschko and postdoc Florencia Klein Rocha pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....

Go talk to your Iranian friends, students, postdocs, colleagues. Offer to take on their tasks at work. There is little contact with Iran right now from outside - most of us have no idea what it is like not to have contact with family members while they are being attacked.

Come work with Ben Berks FRS in Oxford 2 x PDRA posts: Molecular Analysis of Bacterial Outer Membrane Protein Biogenesis 2 complementary projects investigating bacterial outer membrane protein biogenesis. Building on our recent work (Nature (2015) 647: 479-487) my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

Last night brought our termly Lockdown Translations Unlocked evening of creative translations. Here are just some of those who featured. Many thanks to Dr Francesca Beretta for organising a great event and all those who contributed.

Check out our latest paper on the glycine receptor with @chakrapanilab.bsky.social where we show the interplay between the orthosteric and allosteric binding sites. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Check out our latest review of advanced sampling of membrane transporter dynamics - link.springer.com/chapter/10.1... Great work from Jon Colburn and @simonlichtinger.bsky.social !

View of the @britishlibrary.bsky.social from my hotel. A long day again, but a good day

Ancient wine-making tradition in Pakistan. An interesting read imho www.wineenthusiast.com/kalash-wine-...

Yesterday we came together to honour Professor Raymond Dwek through the naming of the Raymond Dwek Seminar Room. Raymond's family (pictured) joined the celebration and Raymond was visibly touched, saying: "Thank you for this amazing gesture. I'm humbled by it, but I will treasure it."

Andrew & Fergie hiding in the jungle to escape the Epstein allegations. Credit: Sahdia Khalid

In today's @scienceofthetimes.bsky.social @sykhalid.bsky.social ^& I talk with Adrian Wooflson about his new book "On the Future of Species". Where AI and genome editing meet, new species lie, and ethical questions emerge. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/s...

#OnThisDay in 1826, the first paper to be written by a woman was read at a Royal Society meeting. The paper, by noted polymath Mary Somerville, was read at the meeting by her husband, as she wasn't permitted to attend. https://bit.ly/2A3Cj2N

A gift of an article from the inimitable Colin Kleanthous as he says a moving farewell to his laboratory. A brave, unrepentant and scientifically brilliant journey is described - please have a read, friends. www.jbc.org/article/S002...

Scientists are concerned that curiosity-driven research is set to be further cut back after three research councils confirmed they have paused funding opportunities. @jgro-the.bsky.social reports #academicsky #researchfunding https://ow.ly/lpvO50Y67ku

Long day, finished with a really fun dinner at Merton college Oxford

Football has entered a dark era

We’re not winning the league this season, but at least we’ve not lost to utterly unlikeable Arteta.

Professor Raymond Dwek and colleagues @ox.ac.uk urge renewed investment in host-targeting broad-spectrum antivirals as a ‘global shield’ if vaccines falter. Read more ⬇️

December in Oxford