Reposted by Ed HolloxRTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 5hAh well you’ve given me permission now… first up the “ orange/not orange” gene is in the X chromosome and cats like many other mammals display a fairly random x inactivation so if you are female and have one orange and one not orange gene you end up with patches of both ( tortoiseshell ) 2154
Ed Hollox @edhollox.bsky.social · 02/10/2026As well as recycling old tropes, stating the vaguely obvious as profound ("use smarter tools, universities!), this article seems to be in cloud cuckoo land about what universities can realistically afford. 031
Ed Hollox @edhollox.bsky.social · 01/10/2026The full report is here. martingale.foundation/about-us/rep... chutzpah in the quote from Wellcome, the same Wellcome that cut all geographically-spread Doctoral Training Programmes a couple of years ago.martingale.foundationThe Path to PhD - Martingale Foundationreport Socioeconomic Background and Barriers to STEM Postgraduate Study October 2026 SUPPORTED BY About the Report Martingale and partners have carried out the largest piece of research ever into the ... 210
Reposted by Ed HolloxKirsty Grainger @kirstygrainger.bsky.social · 30/09/2026This was entirely predictable yet swept under the carpet seven months ago bsky.app/profile/kirs... 064
Reposted by Ed HolloxAthena Kugblenu @athenakugblenu.bsky.social · 29/09/2026HOLY SHIT I am watching Channel 5 again at my mums house and I just learned that Salvador Dali designed the Chupa Chups logo. Did you know this?? 1410819
Reposted by Ed HolloxMichael Hiller @hillermich.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Happy to share results of the @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social phase 1, providing reference genomes covering 21 bat families. New insights into bat phylogeny, ancestral genome reconstruction, European origin & ancestral echolocation. Great work by a team of 100+ colleagues www.nature.com/articles/s41...nature.comReference genomes and fossils revise bat family phylogeny and biogeography - NatureAn updated phylogeny of bats is presented, based on new genome assemblies and many ancient fossils and including all known bat families. 318583
Reposted by Ed HolloxChristophe 🔬 Leterrier @christlet.bsky.social · 23/09/2026As they are not active here, I left a comment on the LinkedIn post from Nikon Small World about the concerns I think I share with many (first screenshot is their post, second screenshot is my comment) lnkd.in/p/ecdT6saZ 78917
Reposted by Ed HolloxSam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 23/09/2026The difference between the performance of immigrants in England and Western Europe is staggering. (20 pts equals a year of learning.) I looked at this in detail in the post - it can't be explained away by language or relative advantage of different immigrant communities. There is a policy factor. 3529496
Ed Hollox @edhollox.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Joy unconfined! @originstorypodcast.bsky.social - two blokes talking about John Rawls for an hour! Brilliant. 020
Reposted by Ed HolloxCharlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 22/09/2026literally thousands of jobs in higher education were cut *last year alone* and there's been almost no media coverage and no government action 8698221
Ed Hollox @edhollox.bsky.social · 20/09/2026"The sort of chap who was always doing someone else's crossword." 🤣🤣💀 000
Reposted by Ed HolloxWillem van Schaik @wvschaik.bsky.social · 20/09/2026I missed this last month The University of Southampton 'will no longer use ubiquitous anti-cheating tools provided by Turnitin because of concerns that the company might use students’ work to train artificial intelligence.' www.timeshighereducation.com/news/southam...timeshighereducation.comSouthampton dumps Turnitin over use of students’ work to train AIAcademic integrity giant denies accusations as university declines to renew contract in favour of ‘other options’ 083
Ed Hollox @edhollox.bsky.social · 18/09/2026Sad news. Still going strong is Richard Wilson who was only 54 when he started playing legendary old grump Victor Meldrew (who in character was only 60 at the start...) 111
Reposted by Ed HolloxKo-Fan Chen 陳克帆 @kofanchen.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 18/09/2026Interested in understanding how environmental light control #sleep in #Drosophila and other #Diptera species? Two potential #PhD opportunities to work in my lab from 2027 September, please see details in www.kofanchenlab.net/come-join-us and spread the wordskofanchenlab.netCome Join USPotential PhD project A 047
Ed Hollox @edhollox.bsky.social · 17/09/2026Oh the irony. I have consistently argued that although Willetts intended different universities to specialise in different things, the actual result is that they chase the same students by offering only popular subjects. The market doesn't care about UK linguistic capacity and intelligence. 010
Reposted by Ed HolloxKevin Mitchell @wiringthebrain.bsky.social · 15/09/2026Excellent article by RJ Mackenzie @rjmsci.bsky.social on the highly dubious claims of autism-microbiome links and the sociology of the science around them www.the-scientist.com/wellcome-s-5...the-scientist.comWellcome’s $50M Microbiome-Autism Project Gets a Serious Gut Check | The ScientistA massive research program investigating causal links between the gut microbiome and autism sparked fierce pushback from scientific critics and advocacy groups. 0138
Ed Hollox @edhollox.bsky.social · 15/09/2026Telegraph is so out of touch with modern school meals/catering that it thinks the housemaster's wife should be cooking the boys a eggs benedict every suppertime. 000
Reposted by Ed HolloxPhilip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 15/09/2026In thisa piece for @thenewworldmag.bsky.social I express the wish for a better level of public discourse around AI that doesn't leave us hanging on every word of the alleged tech gurus. www.thenewworld.co.uk/philip-ball-...thenewworld.co.ukApocalyptic AI fantasies are a stupid, annoying distraction from its real problemsThe people who work in AI are not gurus and most of their predictions have been wrong. Working in the industry makes them less reliable commentators, not more 713060
Ed Hollox @edhollox.bsky.social · 15/09/2026He hasn't been in post long, but McDonald is shaping up to be a catastrophic appointment. 000
Ed Hollox @edhollox.bsky.social · 14/09/2026"A credible warrant of quality over a credence good" is the most accurate strapline that we will never see in university promotional material! 010
Reposted by Ed HolloxKirsty Grainger @kirstygrainger.bsky.social · 14/09/2026That anyone should be sacked via Teams in a UK University is utterly shocking. What is our sector if it is not the brilliant people that work in it. If you don't understand that, and don't treat people with a basic level of respect then you should not be in the sector. 23014
Reposted by Ed HolloxSam Adams @samadams.bsky.social · 13/09/2026I wrote about the four-hour documentary about the world’s most dangerous man. (Gift link) #TIFF26slate.comSome People Think Elon Musk Snapped. The Controversial Four-Hour Documentary About Him Suggests Something Else. (Gift Article)Alex Gibney’s movie has an unfortunate twist. 22755201
Reposted by Ed HolloxPhilip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 13/09/2026The "simple" argument is not that "if we create superintelligent AI, we face the problem of maintaining power, forever, over entities more powerful than ourselves." Stop this empty talk of "superintelligence" - the dangers are real, and are about human (and especially corporate) carelessness. /4 24010
Reposted by Ed HolloxMargot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 12/09/2026'In some respects, what we are seeing resembles a form of collective grief. Not only grief for colleagues who have left, but grief for ways of working, professional identities and communities that once gave meaning to academic life. This creates an important challenge for university leaders.'wonkhe.comThe loss of staff belonging in higher educationNick Hulbert-Williams argues that what looks like low morale and change fatigue in HE may really be a crisis of belonging 711949
Reposted by Ed HolloxKirsty Grainger @kirstygrainger.bsky.social · 10/09/2026New blog. Written before today's changes from UKRI. Full of lots of ideas (including an alternative to Distributed Peer Review). Publishing in a not quite finished form because I've sat on it too long - .I think it contains interesting thoughts anotherwayoflookingatit.substack.com/p/the-right-...anotherwayoflookingatit.substack.comThe Right To ApplyMany thoughts on rising application numbers and peer review 3114
Reposted by Ed HolloxGraham Coop @gcbias.bsky.social · 10/09/2026I’m looking to hire an NIH funded postdoc to join our lab here at Davis (please RT). Ongoing areas of interest include: 1) polygenic signals of selection from time series, ARGs, GWAS, etc 2) The interpretation of GWAS, polygenic scores, & sources of confounding 2120184
Reposted by Ed HolloxPhilip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 09/09/2026I'm sympathetic to the argument in this piece that we should seek to find good uses for AI in education and child-raising, and not just recoil in horror. BUT... 🧵 www.theguardian.com/technology/2...theguardian.comI’m a father of three who studies the impact of artificial intelligence: this is what parents need to know about AIA Dr Seuss-style story written in seconds alerted me to the power – and perils – of the technology. But how can children embrace it without forgetting core skills? 2199
Reposted by Ed HolloxMargot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 09/09/2026'Students are attending less, reading less, participating less, and often treating university as one commitment among many.'wonkhe.comStudents are not disengaged, they are adapting to a thinner universityFor Fredrick Agboma and Andrew Doyle, the question isn't whether students are less committed, but what culture they're asked to inhabit 38337
Reposted by Ed HolloxSam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 08/09/2026One reason England does so well is our second generation immigrants outperform their peers which is not true in most OECD countries. We are also very good at integration. And it's v sad that this is never acknowledge in debates on immigration. 602405852
Reposted by Ed HolloxWolfgang Huber @wkhuber.bsky.social · 08/09/2026Been reading biomedical study proposals. It is remarkable how much old-fashioned concepts such as study design, sample size, biostats, "is there a plausible path from the data we'll obtain to the question we state?", have given way to "we'll collect multiomics and AI will figure something out" 2347
Reposted by Ed HolloxKate Bevan @katebevan.com · 08/09/2026Two things: one, no, it won't, because cancer isn't one disease with a single cure that's just waiting to be found, and two, why is the economics editor writing about tech, and indeed health research, when he clearly knows fuck all about either subject? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...bbc.co.ukAI will cure cancer in our lifetime, claims boss of UK chip giantArm Holding's chief executive Rene Haas says artificial intelligence will find a solution to the disease. 36568126
Reposted by Ed HolloxInigo Martincorena @imartincorena.bsky.social · 03/09/2026Big paper alert! This project has been years in the making. A comprehensive description of somatic mutation rates and signatures across 53 tissues or cell types using NanoSeq. A large collective effort led by Mimy Pham, Mike Stratton and @r-rahbari.bsky.social. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...biorxiv.orgA comprehensive atlas of somatic mutation rates and mutational signatures in normal human cellsOver the course of a lifetime, somatic mutations accrue in normal human cells, causing variation in cell phenotype and engendering somatic evolution with outcomes ranging from the adaptive immune syst... 05027
Ed Hollox @edhollox.bsky.social · 04/09/2026Excellent response to the bizarre article in The Economist on polygenic selection in embryos. 000
Ed Hollox @edhollox.bsky.social · 04/09/2026Just had a v rare visit to the other site. First post I see, some bloke complaining about a question about sexuality when submitting a paper to Science. Being wilfully enraged for clicks obvs, he doesn't have to answer it if he doesn't want to. Reminds me why I avoid x. 000
Reposted by Ed HolloxHetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 02/09/2026Gosh when was the last time that a Prime Minister used the word ‘academia’? www.ft.com/content/2390... 54715
Ed Hollox @edhollox.bsky.social · 28/08/2026As well as sophisticated, beautiful objects, direct proof that infants were fed milk from domesticated mammals in the Iron Age. 031
Reposted by Ed HolloxCab Davidson @gnomeicide.bsky.social · 21/08/2026Tuna used to be plentiful in the north sea. But no, you're not misremembering, there are no traditional recipes on the east coast. We didn't used to eat it. We just killed it. Sad thread on why. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...bbc.co.ukFirst bluefin tuna caught and landed in Yorkshire since 1960sA crew from Whitby lands two of the migratory species weighing over 300kg each in as many days. 211749
Ed Hollox @edhollox.bsky.social · 14/08/2026A fantastic episode on a someone that I knew nothing about, and a nice change of time from @iandunt.bsky.social. Also, I too shared a moment reminiscing about Tricolore textbooks. Finalement, bring on @dorianlynskey.bsky.social 's idea about a special cut-price Lestah patreon subscription! 011
Reposted by Ed HolloxSimon Pegg @simonpegg.bsky.social · 14/08/2026We should get one of those National Alerts ahead of Whamageddon to be honest. 0363
Reposted by Ed Hollox21 Group @21group.bsky.social · 14/08/2026After multiple sex harassment scandals at King's College Cambridge, Gillian Tett delivers masterclass in how to handle a crisis She acknowledges institutional weaknesses have allowed misconduct to happen And she appoints an external barrister to lead investigation www.varsity.co.uk/news/31922varsity.co.ukKing’s announces externally led review following incidents of sexual misconductThe review of the College’s institutional practices and wider culture is expected to conclude by March next year 094
Reposted by Ed HolloxMark A. Hanson @hansonmark.bsky.social · 14/08/2026HIRING MICROBIOLOGIST: effective start asap! The PDRA/PDRF (per xp) will investigate the interactions of bumblebee antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) with the gut microbiota & more. Our work has shown AMPs have striking specificity for ecological microbes. careers.exeter.ac.uk/vacancies/13... 1/2careers.exeter.ac.ukPostdoctoral Researcher Associate or Fellow in Cornwall | University of ExeterView details and apply for this Postdoctoral Researcher Associate or Fellow vacancy in Cornwall. Postdoctoral Research Associate / Fellow This job is part of an Advanced Research + Inventio... 24360
Reposted by Ed HolloxMike Fainzilber @mfainzilber.bsky.social · 14/08/2026🧪 "The aim of science is not to open the door to infinite wisdom, but to set some limit on infinite error". — Bertolt Brecht Via @economist.com quote of the day 0144
Reposted by Ed HolloxBen Myring @benmyring.bsky.social · 14/08/2026This is wonderful - if you need cheering up then this is a real tonic. ordinaryabundance.comordinaryabundance.comOrdinary AbundanceA walk through a modern apartment, through the eyes of the people for whom everything in it was new. 3267118
Ed Hollox @edhollox.bsky.social · 12/08/2026I think it is a bit strange that fossil collections are somehow regarded as the property of a human construction - the nation state. It's good that it will be displayed in support of evolutionary understanding in the Middle East. 000
Reposted by Ed Holloxoneoneoneone @oneoneoneone.bsky.social · 10/08/2026Wild times on the UK MOTHS Facebook group. 21424120