iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Daniel Frankel @cyberplasm.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Darwin has been lurking in the Cotswolds. No sign of the ginger Prince

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Reposted by Daniel Frankel

Steve Portugal @sjportugal.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

New paper coming out soon on these toothy sausages

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Daniel Frankel @cyberplasm.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Fortunately my work is near Queens College, so occasionally I find time to chill

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Ben Steventon @bensteventon.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Excited to announce Physics of Living Matter 19! To be held in Cambridge 24-25th September 2026: www.plm-symposium.org

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Kelly @broadwaybabyto.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

I lost my Mom to pancreatic cancer when she was 48. She lost her Mom (my grandmother) at 53. It’s a devastating disease that’s almost always diagnosed too late. Screening tools are woefully inadequate, so I can’t even go for regular testing to rule it out. This news gives me so much hope.

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Chris Toseland @christoseland.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

Two weeks to go! Please donate! Over 100 people will be walking the 9 Edges Challenge. Please donate so we can raise vital money for Oscar’s Pediatric Brain Tumour Charity.

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Daniel Frankel @cyberplasm.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

No problem, I’ll email tomorrow

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Daniel Frankel @cyberplasm.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

Would be on an individual basis , also can show evolution of the one that got no response from employers to one that had better success

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Daniel Frankel @cyberplasm.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

True, but usually people end up leaving after a year or 2 and getting a job in another start up /company. In academia you are likely to put up with the toxic environment for the whole of your career

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Daniel Frankel @cyberplasm.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

Sure , I miss the teaching , the students , and the research, but the environment in academia is 🤢

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Daniel Frankel @cyberplasm.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

Well , I got that off my chest didn’t I

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Daniel Frankel @cyberplasm.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

Overall I wish I left university 15 years earlier. When you are inside you think everything is about success in university, absolutely everything. But when you are out it’s like getting out of a cult . There’s so much more to life than listening to a salesman scientist boasting about his H factor

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Daniel Frankel @cyberplasm.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

Job hunting in middle age is scary but it’s possible to make all of that experience work for you

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Daniel Frankel @cyberplasm.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

Older people can get jobs in a tech startup. I was 48 when I got my job in my first start up and 51 when I got my job in my 2nd . Academics have a huge amount of transferable skills , it’s all about how you present them in both your CVs and at interview

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Daniel Frankel @cyberplasm.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

7) Both academia and startups can be stressful. However academia can be very bad for your mental health

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Daniel Frankel @cyberplasm.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

6) People - academia is the most toxic environment I have ever encountered . Competition for money , space , students and promotion bring out a child like behaviour in some academics . Some very unpleasant people , usually in positions of power , as the system promotes such people

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Daniel Frankel @cyberplasm.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

5) Excitement- working in a start up is exciting. University, exciting for the first few years until it grinds you down

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Daniel Frankel @cyberplasm.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

4) Free time . Much more free time and better quality of life in startups . Ironically I only started having time to read scientific papers when I left academia . Quality of life has shot up since leaving academia

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Daniel Frankel @cyberplasm.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

3) only having left academia after so many years do I realise how institutionalised I was. The job and university take over your life in every aspect and form part of your identity. Not healthy Startups , not the case at all

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Daniel Frankel @cyberplasm.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

1) Job security- a big plus as a UK academic in a tenured position in an engineering department.. spent 18 years in same job , could have spent another 18 years there. Tech startups , change jobs every 1-3 years, v lucky if you get 4/5 years. Length of tenure dependent on runway

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Daniel Frankel @cyberplasm.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

(1) Well, it’s been almost 3 years since I left my tenured position at Newcastle Uni for life in sustainable tech start ups and I have a few plusses and minuses for both academia and industry (obv n=1!) Anyone wanna hear whether I regret leaving academia after 20 years?

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Dr. Todd Ewing PhD. @ewingt-phd.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

Our brains make new neurons from stem cells ... even when we're really really old! www.nature.com/articles/d41... Researchers @uicbios.bsky.social discovered lifelong #neurogenesis in human post-mortem hippocampi — young adults — aged adults — SuperAgers! #aging #health #science #longevity 🧪

nature.com

Brains of ‘super agers’ are strong producers of new neurons

Older people with exceptional memory have a surprisingly high number of young neurons, study finds.

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Oxford Mathematics @oxfordmathematics.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

When it comes to the brain's conservation of energy, practice makes perfect. Watch Dani Bassett's lecture on our brain's neural system function and its implications for health, disease and neural computation. Online now: youtu.be/7uGxRE7kmHI

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Daniel Frankel @cyberplasm.bsky.social · 24/12/2025

This is my 2nd start up job, working on completely different systems in each company. All those skills I developed in academia have been very useful indeed.

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Daniel Frankel @cyberplasm.bsky.social · 24/12/2025

I haven’t abandoned biology , soft matter , ageing , cancer research , and thermodynamics. I’m just keeping those on the down low while I navigate the excitement that is start up life.

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Daniel Frankel @cyberplasm.bsky.social · 24/12/2025

New year new Job!!! Based in the heart of Cambridge (next to Parker’s Piece) I’m now a materials and process development manager at sustainable tech startup , Fab Materials.

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Daniel Frankel @cyberplasm.bsky.social · 18/10/2025

Working through 3 months of gardening leave. It’s such a weird place of limbo. It gives me time to find a job or setup my company. It’s such a strange feeling having no job to go into in the morning.

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Steve Portugal @sjportugal.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

We're looking for a new postdoc on our new BBSCR grant (Graham Taylor/Tim Guilford/Cait Newport). See link below! my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

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Daniel Frankel @cyberplasm.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

Well here’s a life update !! I’ve resigned from my job in the sustainable tech startup . It was a good 2.5 years but time to move on. The question is what to do next . I mist likely will be starting up my own company!!

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Daniel Frankel @cyberplasm.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

Well it's been 2 years and 2 months since I left academia (after being in academia for 25 years!!). Start up life is pretty crazy but still infinitely less stressful than academia. I should have made the transition 15 years earlier!!

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Daniel Frankel @cyberplasm.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

Home electronics projects are fun..next up a radio controlled car

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Daniel Frankel @cyberplasm.bsky.social · 07/06/2025

I must be bored, I just typed in to Google “Karoline Leavitt, what does she do all day?”

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Daniel Frankel @cyberplasm.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

I’ve just discovered Toast of London

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Daniel Frankel @cyberplasm.bsky.social · 10/05/2025

A cheeky question to anyone working on photovoltaics out there. Is is relatively straightforward to build an Arduino based device for measuring the efficiency (I-V curves) of a dye sensitised solar cell?

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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

The UK’s Advanced Research and Innovation Agency (ARIA) is funding Solar Radiation Modification (SRM) projects including thickening Arctic sea ice to make it more reflective, Marine Cloud Brightening (MCB) and Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI).

bbc.com

Experiments to 'dim the Sun' one step closer in the UK

Geo-engineering experiments such as Solar Radiation Modificaton could be happening in the UK after major government funding

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Daniel Frankel @cyberplasm.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

Returned to Newcastle last week for some business meetings. It was so strange being back after 2 years away. The new Engineering building looks quite fancy…

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