Soil isn't just "dirt." It is one of the most complex and essential living systems on Earth. To recognize #EarthDay2026, Ramos & Timmis explain why soil health is not just an environmental issue but a global priority tied to the future of our society in our #FEMSmicroBlog: buff.ly/MVTsa5y
Imagining a scenario where remote sensing infers potential tool use by groups of northern cod.
It'd be a really neat example of arctic fish shoal intelligence.
🥁
First rule of High Achiever Club: You must secretly doubt you belong in High Achiever Club.
I recently attended the 3rd meeting of the #Biofilm Regulatory Toolbox EU Cost Action & they let me ramble for 30 minutes about how we can use sandboxes to develop intuition to complement data driven decisions.
The idea has held me, ended up writing to think:
joeweaver.github.io/blog/play-as...
Hey! Sometimes it's 'apologising for not sending an email when you run into a colleague in the hallway'!
"Eating my frogs" LIKE A BOSS this morning.
I've had a build up of tasks I am tempted to continually put off in lieu of more attractive work. This has nearly lead to at least one issue, so taking Mark Twain's advice
"If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning."
Wrapping up a bit of analysis I don't want hanging over my head during the holidays.
I had to go back and verify that some data entry I did was correct.
Literally making my list and checking it twice!
Conveying research goals clearly is important; there are common writing 'moves', exemplified here by Girlfriend (Lavigne, 2007).
I don't like your girlfriend: clearly state the problem
I think you need a new one: propose solution
I could be your girlfriend: describe your specific contribution
@rorylcooper.bsky.social gave a very nice talk (with gorgeous art) on crocodilian head scale patterns. Fav finding was a potential simple explaination mechanisms driving scale diversity between species.
One sad consequence of mobile and cordless phones: much harder to explain DNA supercoiling these days.
Holy cow, a completely 3D printed microscope, including lenses! (and that nearly a ‘ oh, by the way’ part of @gailmcconnell.bsky.social‘s opening talk on all sorts of advances in microscopy)
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Settling into Durham University and attending the Biophysical Sciences Institute Winter ECR symposium. Had a peek at the posters, there is some amazing work going on at field intersections.
An ORCID battle I choose to fight. ORC-ID, not "Orchid"
Reading some old notes from a project report, "tools need X implemented to fix this problem. Probably about a half a day of coding".
Oh the lies we tell ourselves.
It's not *the* key to success, but on bit on that key is learning to consistently say to yourself "OK, I'll just work on <thing I've been avoiding but which should be my priority> for 5 minutes before I get tea."
2 hours later...
What if I told you you're allowed to place your figures inline in your preprints?
Question for the meta-analysis and systemic lit review colleagues out there. How do you handle bodies of work coming from problematic publishers - straight up exclusion, evidence weighting?
The 'oh my God Karen' meme from Mean Girls, except with the text 'Oh my God ScienceDirect. You can't just ask someone if they're a robot' underneath a screen capture of a science direct 'are you a robot?' captcha
A productive use of my time:
My test cases pass. Time for a coffee.
My test cases don't pass. Time for a coffee.
May the typographers who make fonts with I and 1 indistinguishable and the people who select those fonts as appropriate for a journal have an unpleasant night.
Those who make ρ and p too similar, consider yourself on notice.
I get to do the "I'm pleased to announce" thing!
Durham University has offered me the the position of Assistant Professor in Theoretical Biological (Microbiome) Modelling with the SMART soils lab to help create healthier soils across many environments and spanning multiple disciplines!
This is an indication of learning and progressing. You're doing great!
Even if your code is "messy". Even if it doesn't run fully. Making it easily available helps understanding the nitty gritty details that don't even get put into SI.
Gettin' REAL tired of bubble charts using diameter to indicate p-value when the chart ends up being panel Q of a 3x3 inch figure.
In my current project, I'm tracking my lower and upper task estimates and qualitative 'uncertainty'. I've been tackling the uncertain tasks as soon as possible and updating the upper/lower bounds. It's very fun watching the overall project upper/lower ETA converge.
Did I just become a Bayesian?
Me when one of 'my' proteins shows up in Thobela's keynote and #MEWE11:
Kind of blown away that *98%* of U.S. deaths from waterborne illness are specifically from biofilm associated pathogens. #MEWE11
