iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

In the wise words of Packer, Karlsson, and Nietzsche "There Are No Facts, Only Interpretations" pubs.acs.org/jprobs/artic...

Friedrich Nietzsche did not coin the phrase "There are no facts, only interpretations" to refer to the analysis of the mass spectra obtained from the analysis of carbohydrates (!), but the quote does encapsulate a point that we would like to make.

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

It's not too late for Brisbane to pull out of hosting the Olympics (and we should) www.jonathansri.com/canceltheoly... Very sensible thoughts as always from @js.jonathansri.com.ap.brid.gy

QLD Premier David Crisafulli standing in front of a CGI stadium in Barrambin, proudly saying "What if, instead of houses for the homeless, domestic violence shelters, hospital upgrades, and new public transport services, I cut down hundreds of trees to build this giant stadium over 1 km from the nearest train station?"

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

China showing how clear vision and long term investment by government can make amazing things reality. Their complete dominance in EV technology and infrastructure is not an accident.

The grand EV plan

China's government decided to prioritise EVs in 2001 and developed a long-term plan that would eventually catapult the country to the forefront of the future automotive industry.

The government focused on bankrolling new EV companies, giving loans to and partnering with existing companies, funding research and development programs, providing buyer rebates and tax exemptions, and building the infrastructure needed to support an electric revolution.

More than $US230 billion ($328 billion) of state capital was invested into the emerging sector over a 15-year period to establish China's lead, and in the process transform China into an electric society.

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

That title has things a little bit the wrong way around

But industry argues the task has been made more urgent as the Trump administration tries to bring medicine prices down in the US with a “most favoured nation” policy, which pushes drug companies to sell to the US at the lowest prices they sell at overseas. The risk is that manufacturers then avoid launching their products in smaller and lower-priced markets, such as Australia, so that they do not set a lower global baseline price.

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

700g sports drink powder, 500g sugar for gels, honey and Vegemite sandwiches, plus bananas and crisps at aid stations. Hopefully enough fuel to get me through tomorrow's Guzzler 105 km ultra trail!

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Now I'm curious about the etymology. Gemini's answer is just wrong, but maybe it is because erythrulose is common in red fruits 🤔

Gemini boldly and incorrectly claiming erythrulose is red

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Excellent critique of the dismantling of genuine peer review of health and medical grants in Australia in the name of efficiency www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

These problems are best highlighted by detailing the farcical process through which the NHMRC has eroded the pillars that should support every credible peer review process. This includes the involvement of qualified experts. Previous grant review panels were carefully considered and assembled. Typically, about 80% of the panel (usually 12 members) were independent laboratory heads with prior grant panel experience. Remaining members were either new laboratory heads or, rarely, senior postdoctoral fellows. For training purposes, some senior postdocs were invited to serve as confidential observers, preparing them for future panels. This formative educational process for emerging leaders has now been scrapped and replaced with a YouTube-style video for junior scientists to educate themselves on peer review. In this new system, each grant is assigned to four or five anonymous reviewers whose qualifications are unknown.

Also gone is a stringent process that ensured fairness and accountability. Bias and conflicts of interest were frequently laid bare in prior grant review panels. Furthermore, to account for variation in raw scores, benchmarking and normalization was performed to guarantee that only the top grants from each panel were prioritized for funding. All of these measures have now been abandoned for a process that favors convenience over diligence. Reviewers do not interact, remain anonymous, and are not accountable. Consequently, variations in opinions and scores are simply mathematically averaged rather than scientifically debated, resulting in a 10% increase in funding cut-off scores and a decline of funding from 17.3% (2018) for grants reviewed at panel to 8.1% (2025).

The previous NHMRC mechanism also provided applicants with detailed reviewer comments and the opportunity to submit a two-page response before adjudication. This process has been replaced by one that provides applicants with little feedback—initially with just raw scores, and more recently with an assessment summary of as few as 100 characters. Because there are often no distinguishing features to the reviews, it is often unclear whether a grant has even been read. When scientists receive these reviews, there is no pride or sense of meritocratic achievement for a successful grant and no solace or guidance for improvement if an application was unsuccessful. On the annual occasion when NHMRC grant outcomes are released, there is only one unifying sensation felt: Australian scientists are left with the stain of embarrassment of belonging to a system that lacks the credibility of rigorous scholarly review.

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Paddington, Brisbane is not a Crisafulli fan

QLD premier David Crisafulli is a baby in police dress up, proud of his badges for Hate Speech Laws, Police Anywhere Anytime, and Adult Crime Adult Time, messily eating a birthday cake decorated with Number 1 Cop Stan. A sticker on a traffic pole in Paddington, Brisbane.

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Mayor Mamdani is proof that if your political representatives don't fix stuff, strengthen your community and make people's lives better it is simply and only because THEY DO NOT WANT TO www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... @firstdogonthemoon.bsky.social

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

Loud and proud in agreeing with @hugepossum.bsky.social, I'll take “natural stupidity” any day 😎 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

For Crowley, the choice is clear. AI might make her work more efficient, but she would rather take the time to understand what she is doing. “I’m here to learn how to do things,” she adds. “I don’t think outsourcing it to a large language model is the goal of a PhD for me.”

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Intriguing report claiming N-glycosylation of nuclear proteins www.nature.com/articles/s41... I would personally be nervous doing follow-up experiments based on glycopeptide-spectral matches like this.

MS/MS reporting indentification of a glycopeptide, with many non-assigned peaks

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

Australians describe themselves as centrists, even when they are economically extremely progressive. This self-described centrism is not an accurate ideological descriptor. It is a social positioning device: a way of signalling reasonableness. redbridgeintel.substack.com/p/polarisati...

Overwhelmingly, our participants describe themselves as centrists, even when their substantive positions are economically extremely progressive. And, particularly in urban areas and among younger regional Australians, they are socially progressive as well.

This self-described centrism is not an accurate ideological descriptor. It is a social positioning device: a way of signalling reasonableness in a political environment experienced as tribal and extreme - something most people hate almost more than they can articulate.

Australians will argue passionately for radically progressive policies, but they want those policies explained in calm, moderate language. They reject what they perceive as activist posturing with a visceral intensity because they see it as divisive. And what they crave is community connection and a sense that they and their neighbours can just get along.

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

Mount Roland, northern Tasmania

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

The USA exports plasma "sold" by people under financial stress, including to Australia www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

Countries that don’t allow payment for plasma, such as Australia and the U.K., don’t have enough plasma-based therapies available to treat patients, making them dependent on plasma from the U.S., he said.

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

Fantastic University of Queensland Biochemistry Alumni Lecture from @martinsteinegger.bsky.social on how new amazing structural bioinformatic tools are built on and can inform experimental biochemistry

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

Fabulous morning for a Southbank Parkrun with guest star @elisafadda.bsky.social!

Elisa bravely supporting the All Blacks and Ben all fresh and happy before running

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

Exquisite editing by the Australian Financial Review. Journalism so good it is art. vt.tiktok.com/ZSmFwUeYt/

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

Fabulous talk by @fabianruperti.bsky.social in the #LorneProteomics2026 #glycotime session on the evolution and diversity of N-glycosylation in animals

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

Amazing #LorneProteomics2026 Australasian Proteomics Society Career Development Award seminar by @benparkerlab.bsky.social on Spatial- and proximity-based proteomics of the neuromuscular junction. Very cool techniques to explore some fascinating biology.

A/Prof Ben Parker on stage at Lorne Proteomics 2026

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

Sensational afternoon for a cheeky #LorneProteomics2026 pre-conference run and swim

Waves look small but surf is perfect 🏄‍♀️

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

Hudson Freeze #glycotime www.theguardian.com/us-news/vide...

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

I'm normally all for kids wearing Nirvana t-shirts but this is too much

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

Not bad, Pottsville beach, not bad

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

Happy New Year Parkrun! 🌈🥳

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 30/11/2025

Mint Brisbane summer morning

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences Xmas party time 🎄💃🍻🌈😎 @chancx.bsky.social @fabianruperti.bsky.social

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

I may have been at a small advantage, but I had a great time racing in the Australian Orienteering Sprint Championships at The University of Queensland on the weekend 🏃‍♀️🌳

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

I was part of the organising team for the Australian Orienteering Long Distance Championships over the weekend overlooking Wivenhoe Dam west of Brisbane🏃‍♀️🌳 Hot, steep, speedy running, fun, and very successful!

Orienteering control between two very nice conglomerate boulders

Orienteering control on a small cliff in open runnable forest

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

This deserves an award for creative synthetic glycobiology 🤦‍♀️

Site Directed Mutagenesis
To mimic the negative charge of the Sia modification on ACO2, we changed the amino acid Asparagine (N) 612 to Aspartic acid (D) using site directed mutagenesis.

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

All in all some of the most exciting #glycotime discovery research I’ve ever been involved with, and with a super fun team of collaborators ☺️

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

To confirm that’s what these Pockets were doing, Marium did Ala-scanning mutagenesis through all of Pocket 1 and confirmed this didn’t stop glycosylation, but instead interfered with substrate binding and reduced glycosylation at a mixture of different sites, exactly as predicted.

g) Log-fold change of glycosylation site occupancy in cells expressing variant Stt3 with Ala scanning mutations across residues comprising Pocket 1 and 2, compared to wild type Stt3. Tm, tunicamycin; red, significantly underglycosylated compared to wild type Stt3 (p <0.05). For
full details see Supplementary Material. (h) Structure of the Stt3/Ost3 complex rendered with cartoons (Stt3 white; Ost3 gold) with the residues in Pocket 1 targeted by Ala scanning shown as surface in magenta. Residues not labelled are not visible. Rendering with Visual Molecular Dynamics21 (VMD) (https://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/).(i) Glycosylation occupancy at Asn45 of wild type (WT) and Asp44Val variant (D44V) Cwp1. *, P<0.05. Aligned sequences of Cwp1_WT and Cwp1_D44V.

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

Marium Khaleque took over the project for her PhD, and we realised we could use yeast genetics and glycoproteomics to identify which sites OST *really wanted* to glycosylate. After much toil and replication, this worked! But we had no idea how to explain why OST liked those sites.

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 29/08/2025

Pretty stoked to see Gout Gout at a school athletics carnival 😎

Gout Gout winning the 200m, no other athletes in frame

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 29/08/2025

QSAC, the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre at Nathan is such a spectacular location for athletics! Brisbane is really perfectly set up should we have the chance to host any major sport events in the coming years!

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

Corey Bellemore is the undisputed king of the Beer Mile 🍺🏃‍♀️ www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/a...

At the Beer Mile World Classic in Portugal, in late July, Bellemore broke his own world record for the beer mile, setting a time of four minutes 27.1 seconds. For reference, the fastest ever mile time is 3:43.13, set by Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco in 1999. El Guerrouj did not drink four beers during his run.

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

Why would the Queensland Sport and Athletic Centre be embarrassing? Surely a new stadium there, only 10 km from the city centre, would be just as shiny and new? Ah, but that wouldn't give developers access to prime, irreplaceable public land in central Brisbane, would it.

Crisafulli stated the choice to host the games in the park was clear: “It became a choice between the embarrassment of hosting the Games at QSAC (Queensland Sport and Athletic Centre) or a new stadium at Victoria Park.

“The Games must be held at a new stadium at Victoria Park.

“Any other choice would have meant placing the government’s interests ahead of the interests of Queensland.”

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

60% is a fraction I guess

$Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner had sought to ease concerns about green space loss after Crisafulli’s announcement in March. “The construction elements that are proposed, including the stadium and the swimming complex, will only take up a fraction of the green space,” Schrinner said.$

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

tbf he couldn't consider the devastating impact this extension will have on Australia's contribution to climate change, since his hands are tied by the relevant act. If only as Minister of a government with a clear majority one were in a position to change the laws 🤷‍♀️

However the act which governs environmental approvals does not include provisions to consider the climate change impact of a project, and so projects cannot be approved or rejected on that basis.

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

Muffin or chihuahua? Lactosamine or alpha-gal? You really want to choose correctly if you want to eat one! @cashwood.proteaglyco.com doing some exciting development of #glycotime AI tools for structural glycoproteomics #ausomics

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 18/05/2025

Cairns Esplanade looking lovely for the second day of #AUSomics2025

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 18/05/2025

Very deserving winner of the Australian Glycoscience Society Mid-Career Researcher Award @nickescott.bsky.social giving the opening talk at #AUSoMicS2025

Prof Nicki Packer presenting A/Prof Nick Scott with the AGS MCR award

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 17/05/2025

Great day for Cairns Parkrun! Sweaty but speccy 🥵😎

You know you're in northern Australia when the signs warn about crocs

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

Does this include bringing back measles?

IMPROVING THE SAFETY AND SECURITY OF BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH
Executive Orders
May 5, 2025

Sec. 8. Definitions. For the purposes of this order,
“dangerous gain-of-function research” means scientific research on an infectious agent or toxin with the potential to cause disease by enhancing its pathogenicity or increasing its transmissibility. Covered research activities are those that could result in significant societal consequences and that seek or achieve one or more of the following outcomes:
(a) enhancing the harmful consequences of the agent or toxin;
(b) disrupting beneficial immunological response or the effectiveness of an immunization against the agent or toxin;
(c) conferring to the agent or toxin resistance to clinically or agriculturally useful prophylactic or therapeutic interventions against that agent or toxin or facilitating their ability to evade detection methodologies;
(d) increasing the stability, transmissibility, or the ability to disseminate the agent or toxin;
(e) altering the host range or tropism of the agent or toxin;
(f) enhancing the susceptibility of a human host population to the agent or toxin; or
(g) generating or reconstituting an eradicated or extinct agent or toxin.

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

Absolutely disgraceful behaviour from the Crisafulli QLD government www.sunshinecoastnews.com.au/2025/05/06/o... "Olympic Games sites will be exempt from planning laws as officials race against time to get the 2032 venues built."

"A bill will be introduced to state parliament, giving the Games infrastructure authority power to override 15 planning laws, including the Environmental Protection, Queensland Heritage and Nature Conservation Acts."

"A major construction body has backed the bill, indicating the legislation is necessary to deliver venues on time."

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