My second #ESCMIDGlobal2026 session today is the keynote session given by Eddie Holmes: On virus origin, evolution, and the next pandemic threat

Gosh

Glorious splash of colour from crab apple.

This is insane. Barely 6 years on from the irruption of a virus that claimed over 1M US lives, the plug is getting pulled on the kind of science that could prepare them better next time. Wrong lessons (deliberately) being learned.

(PS I didn't talk of "super bugs" anywhere in my recent series on antibiotic resistance, though the BBC did chuck the meaningless term into the series title.)

As I discussed with @ecmwf.int's Tim Stockdale on #BBCWS #Weekend last Saturday. So tedious to tag "super" on to every phenomenon just for attention.

As always with these buffoons, "as we all know" is doing an awful lot of work here. He doesn't 'know' any of this, he's just choosing to repeat one set of facts he's heard from scientists while choosing to reject others he finds inconvenient.

Mining on the Moon is closer than ever, but challenges remain A scientist, an engineer, an archaeologist and a lawyer break down some of the physical, environmental, ethical and legal challenges of mining on the Moon.

Could this be my finest moment?

'"Your average space billionaire probably doesn't give a rat's arse about future generations," she said'.

I'm not sure I was expecting this to be quoted!
🧪

As part of my efforts to combat the COVID Amnesia Project, let's accurately remember what 3 influential laptop class doctors from Stanford said 6 years ago as COVID overflowed hospitals and morgues.

They won't remind you.

I will.

My latest.

The health and economic repercussions of declining MMR coverage in the United States | PNAS The resurgence of measles in the United States, driven by declining childhood vaccination coverage, poses a substantial public health and economic ...

New paper in PNAS just out: Measles cases in the US in 2025 imposed a societal financial cost of $244.2 million.

A scenario where vaccination rates in young kids falls by 1% per year for 5 years would cost us all $7.77 billion over those years, while hospitalizing 4k+ people and killing dozens.

I think so - a communal effort at geoengineering.

Thanks Willem - and thanks for helping me make it.

I’m a Nobel Prize-winning immigrant. I can no longer recognize this country. Attacks on science and immigrants are destroying America.

Nobel Laureate Jack Szostak “This country has given me endless opportunities…: The America we inhabit today bears almost no resemblance to the country I chose all those years ago” newsletter.ofthebrave.org/p/im-a-nobel...

"Super" is a made-up journalist add on, as I explained on World Service Weekend this morning. But I fear it will stick.

Elderberry jelly, 2018, according to the label.

My 8-yr-old elderberry jelly seems to have preserved v well.

Did quantum sensors help find a U.S. pilot shot down in Iran? Experts doubt it The heart’s faint magnetic signals can’t be detected at large distances, researchers say

Scepticism about the hype that ‘ghost murmur’ quantum sensors can spot heartbeats from miles away.
www.science.org/content/arti...

I've updated my El Niño forecast plume with the latest April data (ECMWF, NMME, CFSv2, Canadian models). Its now looking like it might end up giving 2015/2016 a run for its money in terms of strength, with a peak of ~2.6C in the ENSO3.4 region by end of year: dashboard.theclimate...

Opinion | NASA Flew by the Moon, but Behind the Scenes, Its Science Is a Chaotic Mess

The images of Earth from Artemis are amazing. But if we destroy our ability to understand (and live on) our planet, all they are is pretty pictures

www.nytimes.com/2026/04/08/o...

Opinion | NASA Flew by the Moon, but Behind the Scenes, Its Science Is a Chaotic Mess Without science, the stunning images of Earth from space are only pretty pictures.

In Opinion

“Reasonable people can disagree on what should be done to limit the effects of climate change,” writes Kate Marvel, who last month quit her job at NASA researching the future of Earth’s climate. “But rather than debate policy, the administration has chosen to attack science itself.”

While digging around for background on El Ninos, I came across this rather fine data visualisation of the mechanisms and impacts in the Pacific. Only 6'30" long, and v instructive.

svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5213/

Who Decides What Science Gets Done? The History Behind the NIH Funding System the Trump Administration Is Dismantling

"The changes the Trump administration has made [..] are not a simplification or a streamlining [..]. They are a transfer of authority [..], moving decision-making power away from scientists and toward political appointees."

Required reading.

elizabethginexi.substack.com/p/who-decide...

Highly recommended rebuttal of Ridley's talking points. Thanks @flodebarre.eurosky.social

Bob Kadlec: "I call it virological Russian roulette" And if you believe that, he has a half-billion-dollar air conditioner to sell you

In 2022, @vanityfair.com and @propublica.org reported a "Complex and Grave Situation" in Wuhan.

Analysis by @katherineeban.bsky.social and @jeffykao.bsky.social was based on a farscical investigation led by Bob Kadlec.

This post shows how they were duped by a half-billion dollar air conditioner.

Reminds me I must renew my library card.

The students in the urban class, particularly the boys, looked v bored by the cartoons of tractors and verdant crops.

I think it's the same with Haber-Bosch: fertilisers but not explosives (as related by a chemistry teacher long ago).

thx

What a tragic and unnecessary loss brought on by cruel policies cruelly enforced.

The broader picture is that while some of the GOP's war on science will be reversible, some won't. Never again in my lifetime will the best and brightest from around the world want to study and work in the US.

These snaps are good too. Does a finger on the shutter make that much difference?

Seeing conflict destruction from space.