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Jenny Koenig

@jennyakoenig.bsky.social
362 followers 389 following 87 posts

Associate Professor Pharmacology @ Nottingham Uni. Fellow of British Pharmacological Society. PhD, SFHEA, PGCE (secondary chemistry). Pharmacology education, maths education, curriculum, ethnicity.

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Reposted by Jenny Koenig
Julie S. Lalonde @julieslalonde.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Gloria Steinem died with fewer rights than she had during her lifetime. That fact needs to be front and centre of every media report, every dedication, every discussion of her death.
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Mark Peifer (He, him) @peiferlabunc.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
I just came across this remarkable recent interview with human geneticist David Reich. It covers many of the new insights from ancient DNA, right up to data published in the last few months. 1/n www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0uK...
youtube.com
Your ancestors aren't who you think they are | David Reich: Full Interview
YouTube video by The Well
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Graeme Gooday @graemegooday.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
ahc.leeds.ac.uk/news/article...
ahc.leeds.ac.uk
Leeds historian of science wins prestigious award from the Royal Society
Previous recipients of the award include broadcaster Melvyn Bragg and physicist Professor Jim Al-Khalili.
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Stephen Curry @scurry.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Deeply humane interview with Lord Simon Woolley on BBCR4 Broadcasting House this morning (at 33:25). He had met with Jason Arday last Monday to offer friendship and support. What a contrast with the callous honking of Reform’s Robert Jenrick about “suicidal empathy”. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
bbc.co.uk
Broadcasting House - 16/08/2026 - BBC Sounds
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell.
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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Carter G. Woodson's famous 1933 work The Mis-Education of the Negro includes a discussion of these kinds of cases. Medical textbooks of the era reminded students of the higher rates of diseases including STIs in Black populations. True, relevant information. But what effects did it have? 3/
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Yasmin Haddad @yashaddad.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
@celsoneto.bsky.social and I have a new paper out in @philscijournal.bsky.social 🥳 We discuss the role of values in scientific recommendations and expert committees. It was such a pleasure working on this together! #PhilSci #PhilBio doi.org/10.1017/psa....
doi.org
Navigating Values in Scientific Recommendations | Philosophy of Science | Cambridge Core
Navigating Values in Scientific Recommendations
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Michael Spicer @michaelspicer.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
Nigel Farage Listens to the News
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Dr. Mar @boldnewme.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Katalin Karikó is one of the most extraordinary scientific stories of this era. A girl from a modest Hungarian household helped develop technology that saved millions of lives worldwide. In 2023, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for discoveries that enabled effective mRNA vaccines.
SHE WAS DEMOTED, UNDERPAID, AND IGNORED FOR 40 YEARS. HER
UNIVERSITY TOLD HER MRNA RESEARCH WAS WORTHLESS. HER COLLEAGUES STOPPED TAKING HER SERIOUSLY. SHE EARNED $50,000 A YEAR FOR FOUR DECADES. THEN COVID ARRIVED - AND, SHE WON THE NOBEL PRIZE.
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Fabrizio Scarpa @fabrizioscarpa.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
🧪 #AcademicSky 🇬🇧 30% staff cut in Chemistry at Nottingham. Two years ago, the Department received the RSC Prize in Excellence for Higher Education. Resources and talent going to waste. UKG doing nothing to preserve strategic know-how for the country. www.chemistryworld.com/news/notting...
chemistryworld.com
Nottingham’s chemistry department faces loss of 30% of faculty amid university-wide staff cuts
The department's technicians and support staff are also at risk
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Jenny Koenig @jennyakoenig.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
Really pleased to be speaking about our work on teaching about ethnicity in pharmacology alongside a diverse range of talks. Online and free!
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Jenny Koenig @jennyakoenig.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
World Smart Medication Day focus on Race, Ethnicity and Socioeconomic Influences on Clinical Pharmacology. May 7, 2026 Webinar Register here www.iuphar.org/events/world...
iuphar.org
World Smart Medication Day 2026
World Smart Medication Day 2026
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Dr. Jess Hartnett @notawfuljess.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
New post! Are you following @sketchplanations.bsky.social ? He is great at explaining complex ideas via text and images, and some of those complex ideas are statistical.
An image by Sketchplanations, illustrating Geroge Box's quote, "All model are wrong, but some of useful"
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Jenny Koenig @jennyakoenig.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
www.nature.com/articles/d41... it's about time that we really recognise the teamwork inherent in good science and support these careers properly. Am thinking of so many friends and colleagues who left science when they got to the stage where they were supposed to be group leader.
nature.com
How hidden contributions power modern research
The people who work behind the scenes to keep research moving say that there should be more recognition for their roles.
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Trish Greenhalgh @trishgreenhalgh.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
AI scribes. Greta blog by @benngooch.bsky.social substack.com/home/post/p-...
substack.com
I Was an Enthusiastic Early Adopter of AI Scribes. Here’s Why I Stopped
A GP reflects on what eighteen months of ambient scribing taught them about the consultation they thought they already understood.
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Jenny Koenig @jennyakoenig.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
100%agree. Brian's work has helped to inspire a lot of people ( including me) to try to work out how best to do this. It's so important for medical students as how you conceptualise race can influence what you do with the information.
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Jenny Koenig @jennyakoenig.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
100% agree! His work had a big influence on my teaching in pharmacology.
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Shoumita Dasgupta, PhD @profdasgupta.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
"There are a lot of different ways that genetics has been used to justify prejudice and there are lots of ways that human-made social categories interface with biological categories." Yes! This is so much of the reason behind my book Where Biology Ends and Bias Begins www.ucpress.edu/books/where-...
ucpress.edu
Where Biology Ends and Bias Begins by Shoumita Dasgupta - Paper
Scholarship is a powerful tool for changing how people think, plan, and govern. By giving voice to bright minds and bold ideas, we seek to foster understanding and drive progressive change.
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Kostas Kampourakis @kampourakisk.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
A brilliant colleague who now has to leave science education research… www.statnews.com/2026/04/07/b...
statnews.com
A star scientist showed that better genetics lessons could reduce racism. It was the death knell for his career
Brian Donovan had persuaded high school teachers and education researchers that prejudice might be ended by changing how genetics is taught.
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louiseatkin.bsky.social @louiseatkin.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Been away from scientific research for over a year and want to get back to the bench? LMB's new Career Returner Fellowship bridges the gap for those who want to re-enter lab-based research. Applications open 13 April More info mrclmb.ac.uk/careers-and-... PLEASE SHARE THIS! @mrclmb.ac.uk
Women scientists look at sample
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Ewan St. John Smith @psalmotoxin.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
Do YOU live with joint pain? Do YOU experience poor pain management? Have you got 2-minutes to tell pain researchers about it? If yes 👉 forms.gle/7NTwma2gnVN1... We hope to gain insight into lived experience for those with joint pain & involve people in our #PainResearch 😃
Cartoon transparent human with skeleton showing, red glowing points on joints to indicate pain
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British Pharmacological Society @britpharmsoc.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
View our recently updated curriculum that supports the teaching of clinical pharmacology, therapeutics and prescribing in medical degrees: bpspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi…
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Christian Moore-Anderson @cmooreanderson.eurosky.social · 13/03/2026
Post: ● The pros of teaching without powerpoint If teaching is transmission, the presentation is a vital tool. If, we see it as conversing to coordinate the meaning of content, then PowerPoint sits in the way of interaction between teachers and students. christianmooreanderson.com/pros-of-teac...
christianmooreanderson.com
The pros of teaching without PowerPoint – Christian Moore Anderson
PowerPoint was a central tool in the community of teachers I was inducted into. Almost everyone I knew used it to develop their lessons, or at least obtain a pr
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Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
Some good news: the most effective drug ever found against sleeping sickness (curative in one oral dose!) is being rolled out:
science.org
The Best Weapon Yet Against Sleeping Sickness
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
My quote of the day Albert Camus
Le mal qui est dans le monde vient presque toujours de l'ignorance, et la bonne volonté peut faire autant de dégâts que la méchanceté, si elle n'est pas éclairée.

[The evil that is in the world almost always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding.]
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Pat Thomson @patthomson.bsky.social · 08/03/2026
Academic writers often feel uncomfortable but that’s often OK Here’s why patthomson.net/2026/03/08/g...
patthomson.net
getting comfortable with being uncomfortable
Good academic writing means sitting with a discomfort that never entirely goes away. It’s not a discomfort that comes from having nothing to say. Most of us have more than enough ideas crowding the…
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Dr. Kat Napaaqtuk❄️ @napaaqtuk.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
Met someone who spent their career building programs to support underrepresented scientists at all career stages. We asked what he wished he knew earlier. He said he wished he knew how to make these programs sustainable, so that his life work didn't crumble with a change in leadership.
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Celso Neto @celsoneto.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
🚨TALK 🚨 How is Racialization leveraged and reproduced in genomics labs? Register to Duana Fullwiley’s online talk (Tuesday Feb 3, 18:00 GMT) to figure it out. #philsci #philsky #STS #HPbio
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Robert "The Bobby Yaga" McNees @mcnees.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
Biochemist Gertrude B. Elion was born #OTD in 1918. Co-winner of the 1988 Nobel Prize in Medicine, she developed a remarkable array of important pharmaceuticals using “rational drug design” that focused on differences in the biochemistry of healthy cells and pathogens. 🧪 👩‍🔬 🦠
Black and white photo of Gertrude B. Elion. She is wearing a long white lab coat, with her hands in the coat's pockets, and standing in front of a wall of lab equipment. Her hair is short and wave. Her focus is on something off to the right of the photographer.
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Prof Rachel Oliver @profrachelgan.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
Following coverage over the weekend of Sir Paul Nurse's comments that suggested that the only reason that a Fellow should be expelled from @royalsociety.org is scientific misconduct, I have written to him to explain the risks such an attitude poses of increasing sexual harassment in STEM.
Dear Sir Paul,

Re: Royal Society Code of Conduct

I am sure that many scientists have written to you about the specific question of Elon Musk’s Fellowship and whether, under the Royal Society’s Code of Conduct, his retaining that Fellowship is appropriate. I will not rehash these issues.  Instead, as a female scientist with extensive experience of activities aiming to increase equality, diversity and inclusion in the engineering and physical sciences sector, I am writing to you (in a personal capacity) to ask you to reconsider the statements you have recently made in this context to the UK press about the Royal Society’s Code of Conduct and how it is applied.  

A 2018 report  from the joint National Academies of the United States of America, concluded that “sexual harassment is common in academic science, engineering, and medicine” and that “greater than 50 percent of women faculty and staff and 20–50 percent of women students encounter or experience sexually harassing conduct in academia”.  This report described codes of conduct that make clear that sexual harassment is unethical and will not be tolerated as a “powerful incentive for change”. The authors also noted that sexual harassment can have significant and damaging effects on the integrity of research.  In my own praxis, I have found that clear and consistently-implemented codes of conduct that address these issues make female scientists and engineers safer, and allow them to focus more effectively on their research.  For codes of conduct to have such a positive effect, it is vital that sanctions for actions which transgress the code are meaningful and substantial.

I was hence aghast to realise that in an interview with the Financial Times  published on 9/1/26, you appear to have suggested that the Royal Society “should only expel fellows if their science proved “faulty or fraudulent or highly defective””.  Moreover, in a further interview with the Guardian  on 11/1/26 you suggested that the code “may need to be looked at again”, with the implication that your aim would be to remove the option of sanctions on Fellows for reasons not strictly related to faults or defects in their research. 

I suggest that changing the Royal Society’s code of conduct so that the likelihood of serious sanctions for sexual harassment is reduced, would directly endanger women who interact with the Royal Society at events or otherwise, and would provide a licence to harass to the already powerful people on whom the Society bestows fellowship.  The implications of your words - that under your leadership the only infringements of the code which are likely to receive the sanction of the Fellowship being removed are those related to research misconduct - already risk empowering harassers.  You stated, in the Financial Times interview, that “there’s many bad people around, but they have made scientific advances”.  Given this awareness of the possibility of bad actors in our scientific community, it is wholly irresponsible to suggest that the Royal Society would not act to sanction these people if they harass more vulnerable scientists.

I am hence writing to request that you retract any suggestion that the Society’s Code of Conduct should be changed so that the only reason a Fellow might be sanctioned by the removal of their Fellowship is “faulty or fraudulent or highly defective” research.  This action is necessary to safeguard female scientists, a requirement placed on the Society by safeguarding legislation and UK statutory guidance. 

Yours sincerely,

Professor Rachel A. Oliver.
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Dorothy Bishop @deevybee.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
It seems bookdown is shutting down, and so I've migrated the free online version of Evaluating What Works here: dorothybishop-evaluating-what-works.share.connect.posit.cloud Hard copy also available here: www.routledge.com/Evaluating-W...
routledge.com
Evaluating What Works: An Intuitive Guide to Intervention Research for Practitioners
Those who work in allied health professions and education aim to make people’s lives better. Often, however, it is hard to know how effective this work has been: would change have occurred if there wa...
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Jenny Koenig @jennyakoenig.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
I sometimes wonder if I'm a little pedantic but this figure just published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology is just wrong. It's a mash-up of other diagrams which makes me think it's GenAI-created. But then who knows... #pharmacology #neuroscience
diagram showing 5 circles around a central hole - circles are labelled alpha (x2), beta (x2) and gamma. 3 crescent shapes are arranged outside the circles. Other circles nearby are connected with arrows - these circles are labelled Cl- and GABA.
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Kostas Kampourakis @kampourakisk.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
Is having an Irish parent the same with having Irish DNA? open.substack.com/pub/kostaska...
open.substack.com
Is having an Irish parent the same with having Irish DNA?
NO!!!! Establishing paternity through DNA does not entail anything about one's ethnicity
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 14/11/2025
For the Aussies, the zoologists and the architects out there. 💩🧊🧪 By @chazhutton.com
Wombat architecture critics.
Two wombats see a cube-shaped house and one comments: Well that looks like shit.
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Matthew Cobb @matthewcobb.bsky.social · 08/11/2025
If you believe either that Franklin discovered the double helix, and / or Watson and Crick stole her data, ask yourself how you know this. Then take a read of this article.
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Roisin @roisinlaubs.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
Here is our latest pharmacology education paper: Deciphering the Language of Assessment in Pharmacology Summative Written Assessments - Pharmacology Research & Perspectives - Wiley Online Library bpspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
bpspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
BPS Publications
Research study workflow.
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Jenny Koenig @jennyakoenig.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
The Place of Pharmacology in an Integrated Curriculum – Workshop 2. IUPHAR-Education Online Meetings We have a number of short talks lined up... REGISTER NOW (Scroll down to the 18 Nov meeting iuphar.org/sections-sub...) Date: 18 Nov 2025 Time: 1-2.30pm New York; 6-7.30pm London via Zoom
us02web.zoom.us
Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: The Place of Pharmacology in an Integrated Curriculum – Workshop 2. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.
Workshop 2 will follow up from the first workshop and here we will address further the challenges and opportunities through a series of lightning (5 min) presentations. We invite expressions of intere...
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HUGERA @hugeraproject.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
Prof. Sarah Abel (Instituto de Investigaciones Filosóficas, UNAM) continues our online speaker series with the talk "Should genomic knowledge change our personal conceptions of race? (And, if so, how?)" on November 4th. You can Register to attend via zoom: hugera.org/lecture-seri...
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Jenny Koenig @jennyakoenig.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
Blast from the past! @profmarciniak.bsky.social
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Sara Hastings-Simon 🇨🇦 @shastingssimon.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
My number one tip for researchers that do a significant amount of non peer reviewed paper publication/outreach: Create an excel table, every time you give an interview, talk, write an oped or white paper, etc. take 5 seconds to immediately note it in the excel.
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Current Biology @currentbiology.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
“For Gurdon to continue in biology would be a complete waste of time both for him and for those who would have to teach him” He proved them wrong! RIP John Gurdon www.cell.com/current-biol...
cell.com
John Gurdon
John Gurdon is at the Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Institute of Cancer and Developmental Biology in Cambridge. Educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, he changed from classics to zoology. Dur...
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British Pharmacological Society @britpharmsoc.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
📢 Calling all pharmacology educators and academics! Our Education Grant could fund your next project! We're awarding up to £2,500 to help develop educational tools/ resources to support pharmacology teaching. ✅ Eligible:BPS member 12+ months 📅 5 November 2025 👉Apply: www.bps.ac.uk/membership-a...
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Kevin Bird @stairwaytokevin.bsky.social · 27/09/2025
Like, sorry guys, welcome to the problem of existence. Find your purpose without a system that privileges you at the cost of everyone around you. It’s genuinely liberating
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Helen Czerski @helenczerski.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
In discussion with a computer scientist from the University of Cambridge last night: Me: "you've described some of the things that AI is good at. How would you describe the category of things it's not good at? **pause** Him: "Anything where it has to be right".
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Ewan Birney @ewanbirney.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
Thoughtful piece by Abdel on social science genetics - I am definitely taken by “one person’s confounder is another person’s signal”. Also humble about dark histories here and his own perspective
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Jenny Koenig @jennyakoenig.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
As is the case for many aspects of inclusive research and education - social justice for individuals and the business case for improved working practices are two sides of the same coin.
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Mark Rubin @markrubin.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
"Hostility, exclusion and academic bullying should be formally recognised as research integrity issues because they directly impact who gets to succeed and whose voices are silenced." By @maddipow.bsky.social
timeshighereducation.com
Research integrity needs a kindness agenda or we will lose ECRs
Responding to early-career researchers’ honest questions with accusations of misconduct is a travesty of open science, says Madeleine Pownall
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Yeet Kune Do @yeetkunedo.bsky.social · 06/07/2025
re: generative AI I have finally fully and accurately explained my problem with how it’s marketed and used. And now, you can use it, too.
Generative Al is being marketed as a tool designed to reduce or eliminate the need for developed, cognitive skillsets. It uses the work of others to simulate human output, except that it lacks grasp of nuance, contains grievous errors, and ultimately serves the goal of human beings being neurologically weaker due to the promise of the machine being better equipped than the humans using it would ever exert the effort to be.

The people that use generative Al for art have no interest in being an artist; they simply want product to consume and forget about when the next piece of product goes by their eyes. The people that use generative Al to make music have no interest in being a musician; they simply want a machine to make them something to listen to until they get bored and want the machine to make some other disposable slop for them to pass the time with.

The people that use generative Al to write things for them have no interest in writing. The people that use generative Al to find factoids have no interest in actual facts. The people that use generative Al to socialize have no interest in actual socialization.

In every case, they've handed over the cognitive load of developing a necessary, creative human skillset to a machine that promises to ease the sweat equity cost of struggle. Using generative Al is like asking a machine to lift weights on your behalf and then calling yourself a bodybuilder when it's done with the reps. You build nothing in terms of muscle, you are not stronger, you are not faster, you are not in better shape. 

You're just deluding yourself while experiencing a slow decline due to self-inflicted atrophy.
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Mike Inouye @mikeinouye.bsky.social · 13/08/2025
'Language imposes structure on our thinking and forces us to project a tangled network of thoughts into a linear, logical string of words and ideas. We often do not even know what we are thinking until we express it, either in writing or in speech.' www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
It takes two to think - Nature Biotechnology
Nature Biotechnology - It takes two to think
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Flint Dibble @flintdibble.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
The First Peoples in the Americas. Ancient DNA with Dr Jennifer Raff @jenniferraff.bsky.social is now ported to Spotify See it on YouTube here: youtu.be/TcWPRdtT2B8 Spotify here: open.spotify.com/episode/0F9V...
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Brigitte Nerlich @bnerlich.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
Making Science Public in a chaotic world As you know, I am now gradually moving from my old ‘Making Science Public’ blog home at the University of Nottingham to my new personal blog home here. This wasn’t easy and lots of people supported me directly or indirectly in this move (by listening to my…
makingsciencepublic.com
Making Science Public in a chaotic world
As you know, I am now gradually moving from my old ‘Making Science Public’ blog home at the University of Nottingham to my new personal blog home here. This wasn’t easy and lots of people supported me directly or indirectly in this move (by listening to my whining). You know who you are, and I thank you all! This new incarnation of the ‘Making Science Public’ blog has been born into a world full of conflicts, controversies, confusion and chaos.
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