iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Laura Bacete @laurabacete.eurosky.social · 06/10/2026

As the #STSforum in Kyoto comes to an end, I took a dusk walk through the bamboo forest to reflect on these days as a Young Leader. Deeply grateful to the organisers for this opportunity. Some reflections follow: 🧵👇

A scenic view along the famous Arashiyama Bamboo Forest in Kyoto, Japan. A gently curving paved path winds through a dense grove of tall, slender bamboo, whose green stalks rise high overhead and form a natural canopy. Sunlight filters through the leaves, creating warm, dappled light and bright patches of green along the path. Traditional bamboo railings line the walkway, with rustic stone edging and a low stone wall covered in moss and vegetation adding to the natural setting. Mature broadleaf trees frame the bamboo grove on the right, while the tightly packed bamboo creates a striking vertical pattern on the left and in the distance. A few visitors can be seen walking further along the path, giving a sense of scale without dominating the scene. The peaceful, winding pathway and towering bamboo capture the characteristic atmosphere of Arashiyama.

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Mary Williams @PlantTeaching @plantteaching.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Good grief. What a depressing article. Plants mentioned briefly once, about their interactions with animals. How can the New York Times pretend to have captured "the biggest question in science" without reference to the most important kingdom, which sustains us? 😤 www.nytimes.com/2026/10/05/s...

nytimes.com

What Are the Biggest Questions in Science Today? 100 Scientists Weigh In. (Gift Article)

We asked 100 scientists about unsolved problems in their fields. They sent back provocations — on the origins of life, the possibilities for human progress and much more.

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Laura Bacete @laurabacete.eurosky.social · 27/09/2026

How scientific misconduct looks in practise:

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Laura Bacete @laurabacete.eurosky.social · 08/09/2026

Jag röstar! – My first time voting in the Swedish elections (local and regional for now).

Selfie of a smiling woman with long curly brown hair, wearing glasses, a beige coat, and a light patterned scarf, holding two Swedish election ballot envelopes ("VALKUVERT") printed with voting instructions in Swedish, with a dark computer monitor and an office ceiling visible in the background.

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Mariana Schuster @marischuster.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

I'm excited to share that my newly funded #ERCStG FRONTERA is recruiting two postdoctoral researchers at @ipbhalle.bsky.social 🌱🔬 If you are passionate about plant immunity, proteolysis, membrane proteins, or proteomics, I'd love to hear from you. 🧵 Please RT/share!

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eLife @elife.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

In this ecrLife blog two Research Development Strategists tell us about a book that transformed how they advise grant writers, and how you can learn how to centre creativity in your research ecrlife.org/transformati...

ecrlife.org

A Book That Transformed How We Advise Grant Writers

A must-read to learn how to center creativity in your research

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IceLab @icelabumu.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Congratulations @laurabacete.bsky.social on your early career award! If you are interested in a #postdoc in #plantscience using #modelling to uncover cell wall dynamics in algae working with Laura & others, apply here: www.umu.se/en/work-with...

umu.se

Three multidisciplinary postdoctoral scholarships (2 years)

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Laura Bacete @laurabacete.eurosky.social · 25/08/2026

Noting which brands to avoid from now on. But this is bigger than that. The antibodies with fake images still work fine, at least the ones I’ve used. It’s all about having the *perfect* western blot. But nothing is perfect, not blots, not science, not life!! And that’s fine!

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Laura Bacete @laurabacete.eurosky.social · 20/08/2026

Thrilled to receive the Scandinavian Plant Physiology Society (@plantspps.bsky.social) Early Career Award 2026 at #SPPS2026! Deeply grateful to the Society and to everyone who has supported my research on plant cell wall integrity signalling along the way 🌱🏆

Photo of a woman with long dark wavy hair, smiling at the camera and holding an award certificate titled “SPPS Early Career Award 2026.” She wears a lavender suit and stands in a tall wall alcove above a dark green leather sofa, in a room with beige walls and two vertical wall sconces.

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Laura Bacete @laurabacete.eurosky.social · 11/08/2026

It’s hiring season in my lab, and I’m always impressed by how many young, ambitious scientists are out there, just needing a chance to shine. Too often, though, that chance gets obscured by avoidable mistakes. Here are 5 common mistakes, and also some things that work 🧵👇

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Laura Bacete @laurabacete.eurosky.social · 01/08/2026

Interesting. So the time saved does not come back as thinking time, it comes back as pressure to start the next paper. More, faster, worse. Worth asking which incentive structure ever made that look like a solution.

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COST Action PlantWallK @plantwallk.org · 21/07/2026

🔬 Postdoc opportunity: how do plant cells sense and respond to changes in their cell walls? Join the @cellwalldynamics.com lab @umeaplantsciencecentre.se, integrating Brillouin, O-PTIR & spatial transcriptomics on the Arabidopsis root. Deadline 31 Aug 2026 🔗 buff.ly/cPFemXd #PlantScience #Postdoc

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Izzy Jayasinghe @ijayas.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Hey Siri, show me a system that looks to filter out the scientific discoveries of women with seniority. The paper confirms the hostility many of us feel is baked into the editorial & peer review community (sitting behind a veil of anonymity) that prefer to see papers led by women thrown out.

Excerpt from the paper:

Gendered effects in peer review
At Science and Science Advances, manuscripts with women corresponding authors make up a gradually declining share from submission to review to acceptance (20.9% → 20.8% → 19.7% → 17.9% and 22.3% → 21.4% → 21.3% → 20.1%, respective-ly; Fig. 2B). Accounting for available covari-ates via multiple logistic regression reveals a small but statistically significant association with corresponding author gender in being sent to review or accepted after review (B =
-0.08, P < 0.001 for sent to review; B = -0.13, P
= 0.011 for accepted; tables S8 and S11).

% plot of women’s representation among first authors (solid symbols), corresponding authors (open symbols), and among first-round peer reviewers (crossed symbols) over the evaluation process. Red line and symbols indicate the journal Science, blue indicating Sci Adv. all lines generally trending down from Submission stage, through editorial and peer review stages to acceptance stages.

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FocalPlane @focalplane.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

See you at 15:00 BST today for our quantitative plant imaging webinar with @laurabacete.bsky.social and @sventruckenbrodt.bsky.social.

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FocalPlane @focalplane.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Less than one week to go! We're excited to hear talks from @laurabacete.bsky.social and @sventruckenbrodt.bsky.social. Join us online on Thursday 16 July at 15:00 BST.

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Magnus Palmblad @magnuspalmblad.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Tired of AI-generated figures? I asked our talented scientific illustrator Manon Zuurmond to draw some of the instruments and lab equipment we missed in NIH's otherwise fantastic BioArt resource. First batch now available as CC BY. Free for everyone to use in publications: github.com/Center-for-P...

Drawings of various laboratory equipment (liquid chromatography system, mass spectrometers and a centrifuge).

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Laura Bacete @laurabacete.eurosky.social · 03/07/2026

It was a pleasure to be a small part of this story!

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Umeå Plant Science Centre @umeaplantsciencecentre.se · 03/07/2026

🧪A fantastic opportunity to join an interdisciplinary research environment! Interested in combining mathematical modelling with cell wall biology? Take a closer look at the first project, led by @laurabacete.bsky.social, Christiane Funk and Yanjun Zan, and 📅 Apply by 17 September

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Laura Bacete @laurabacete.eurosky.social · 30/06/2026

Join the team for this very cool project! Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions. And since it’s a very interdisciplinary project, reposts to reach the right person (not necessarily with a plant background) are appreciated 😁

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Laura Bacete @laurabacete.eurosky.social · 25/06/2026

We are hiring! Come and join the team reach out here, by email, or find me in person at #ICAR2026 if you happen to be in Singapore this week 🌱🧱🚨

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Laura Bacete @laurabacete.eurosky.social · 24/06/2026

Just presented at #ICAR2026 in Singapore: What if plants use nanoscale vibrations to communicate cell wall states? Exciting to share our latest thinking and hear what the community makes of it 🌱. Thanks to the organisers for the opportunity!

Laura Bacete presenting at ICAR 2026, Singapore. She is holding a microphone and smiling, wearing a floral skirt. Behind her, the slide shows a schematic titled “Towards a 4D map of wall mechanochemical states”, combining Brillouin microscopy (stiffness), OPTIR (composition), and RNAseq to build a spatially resolved picture of cell wall states in Arabidopsis roots.

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Plant Cell Wall Dynamics Lab @cellwalldynamics.com · 23/06/2026

Heading to the #ICAR2026 poster session today 18:00–19:00? Make sure to visit @manju-mhj.bsky.social at #A095! Find out how we are using cutting-edge tools like Brillouin microscopy and O-PTIR to capture the earliest stages of plant cell wall integrity 🌿🔬 (Catch her Thursday at the same time too!)

Manju Maharjan, with long dark hair and glasses, smiles warmly while gesturing toward her scientific poster at the ICAR 2026 conference. The poster is titled "Watchers on the Wall: Decoding the Early Stages of Plant Cell Wall Integrity" and displays research from Umeå University and UPSC, showcasing methods like Brillouin Microscopy and Optical Photothermal InfraRed Spectroscopy to study plant cell wall mechanics.

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COST Action PlantWallK @plantwallk.org · 18/06/2026

🌿 A slice of the PlantWallK delegation at #CellWall2026 in Porto! If you want to know more about COST Action and how to get involved, come find us, we are happy to chat! 😊 #PlantWallK #COST

Four PlantWallK COST Action members posing in front of the XVII Plant Cell Wall Meeting welcome banner at Fundação Cupertino de Miranda, Porto.

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Plant Cell Wall Dynamics Lab @cellwalldynamics.com · 18/06/2026

Poster session today 15:45–16:15 at #CellWall2026. come find our very own Klaudia Ordyniak at PO9_11! Mild stress or real damage? Find out how ZAT11 and ZAT18 help plants tell the difference 🌿

Klaudia Ordyniak standing beside poster PO9_11 at the XVII Plant Cell Wall Meeting, Porto. The poster is titled “Mild Stress or Real Damage? The Role of ZAT11 and ZAT18 in Cell Wall Defense” and presents data on transcription factor responses to cell wall integrity signalling, including Brillouin microscopy and THE1 expression analyses. Klaudia is smiling and pointing to the poster.

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Laura Bacete @laurabacete.eurosky.social · 16/06/2026

Thrilled to be at #CellWall2026 in Porto! Yesterday I presented our lab’s latest work, with a focus on our Chlorella research. Fantastic discussions and great connections so far! Want to know more? Find me around or catch Klaudia at poster PO9_11, we’re happy to discuss cell wall signalling! 🌱🧱🚨

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COST Action PlantWallK @plantwallk.org · 28/05/2026

The 1st #PlantWallK meeting brought together 80+ researchers. Cell biologists, physicists, biochemists, modellers, all converging on 1 structure: the plant cell wall. Two days of talks, posters, and cross-disciplinary debate later, the collaborations are set. The work begins! #PlantBiology #CellWall

A large group of approximately 80 researchers posing for a group photograph on the grand staircase of the Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague. The group spans six rows, with participants standing on the steps to give height to the back rows. People are dressed in smart-casual summer attire and most wear conference lanyards in red or blue with name badges. The crowd is diverse in age, gender, and background, ranging from early-career researchers to senior scientists. Two large white neoclassical columns frame the staircase on either side. To the upper left, a dark commemorative wall plaque bearing Czech text notes that Albert Einstein held a professorship in the building between 1911 and 1912. A clock is partially visible high on the back wall. The overall atmosphere is warm and collegial.

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FocalPlane @focalplane.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Register now for the 2nd webinar in our new series on quantitative plant imaging, hosted by @ajcellbio.bsky.social & @joemckenna.bsky.social. In this webinar we’ll hear from @laurabacete.bsky.social on Brillouin microscopy & @sventruckenbrodt.bsky.social on expansion microscopy. 🗓️16 July, 15:00 BST

focalplane.biologists.com

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Laura Bacete @laurabacete.eurosky.social · 26/05/2026

"If 100 people apply for one job, 99 will fail" –and it's not random who those 99 are. Great interview on women, failure, and who academia sometimes feels built for 👇

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COST Action PlantWallK @plantwallk.org · 25/05/2026

🧵 It’s happening! The #PlantWallK kick-off meeting is officially underway in sunny Prague 🇨🇿 Over the next 2 days, researchers from across Europe (and beyond!) will come together to push the frontiers of plant cell wall science. Stay tuned for live updates! #PlantWallK26 #COSTAction

Panoramic view of Prague from Letná park on a sunny day. The Vltava river winds through the city with several bridges visible, framed by lush green trees in the foreground and a light blue sky above. Some birds fly in the middle distance above the historic rooftops.

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Umeå Plant Science Centre @umeaplantsciencecentre.se · 21/05/2026

🧪🌾NEWS - @laurabacete.bsky.social receives an Emerging Investigator Grant from the @novo-nordisk.bsky.social🔬 The project DYNAMO explores how chemical and mechanical changes in the plant cell wall help coordinate growth and stability. Read more: www.upsc.se/about-upsc/n...

A woman with medium-length brown hair sits in front of a computer screen connected to an advanced microscope.

A group of people is sitting at a long table. They all look towards the photographer.

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Laura Bacete @laurabacete.eurosky.social · 21/05/2026

Watching your 1st PhD student reach their half-time seminar is something else🥹Klaudia is an excellent scientist and a reminder that progress is a steady, purposeful process: one step after another, until you stand up and tell your story with real care and enthusiasm. So proud of how far you’ve come🌱

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Laura Bacete @laurabacete.eurosky.social · 20/05/2026

And they won!! Congrats team Umeå and particularly congrats to @manju-mhj.bsky.social!!! 🎉🎉🎉🎉 It was like watching the Eurovision Song Contest but much better!!

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Plant Cell Wall Dynamics Lab @cellwalldynamics.com · 20/05/2026

Want to support Manju and the Umeå delegation or just enjoy a fantastic science contest? 🎙️🔬 Tune in to the EC2U Science Contest live from Turku right here: 🎥 www.youtube.com/live/l7NNk-3...

youtube.com

EC2U Science Contest - 2026

YouTube video by EC2U Alliance

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Plant Cell Wall Dynamics Lab @cellwalldynamics.com · 20/05/2026

And to close the day, we’re watching live the EC2U Science Contest from Turku, with our PhD student Manju representing the Umeå delegation on stage! Go Manju! 🏆🔬 (3/3)

A TV screen displays a live broadcast of the EC2U Science Contest from Turku. Manju in a pink Umeå University t-shirt holds a microphone and a bottle on stage. A countdown timer shows 0:27 alongside the question “The extinction of which animal would have the most severe consequences for current human life?” Of course bees, otherwise we wouldn’t have orange juice (and many other things!). Let it bee! 🐝

UPSC members sit in the fika room watching the EC2U Science Contest live broadcast on a wall-mounted screen. The screen shows multiple contestants in coloured t-shirts on a stage, with a question about the ideal city for mental and physical well-being displayed alongside a countdown timer reading 0:38.

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Plant Cell Wall Dynamics Lab @cellwalldynamics.com · 20/05/2026

Then we had the pleasure of hosting an excellent invited seminar by Prof. Yoselin Benitez-Alfonso @yoselin.bsky.social from the University of Leeds. A fantastic talk on cell walls, plasmodesmata and callose. So great to have you in Umeå! 🌱 (2/3)

Prof. Yoselin Benitez-Alfonso stands at the front of a lecture hall beside a projected introductory slide for the Benitez-Alfonso Lab (University of Leeds), describing research on cell wall and plasmodesmata regulation for sustainable biotechnology.

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Plant Cell Wall Dynamics Lab @cellwalldynamics.com · 20/05/2026

Very busy day in the Cell Wall Dynamics lab today! We started with our master’s student Sehyeon Kim defending a brilliant Master’s thesis at @umeaplantsciencecentre.se. Congratulations Sehyeon! 🎉

Sehyeon Kim stands beside a projected “Thank you all!” slide showing group photos of the lab team, with the Umeå Plant Science Centre and SLU logos visible. He is smiling, hands clasped, in a light denim jacket.

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Tami Gjorgjieva @tamigj.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Hi Genetics/Comp-Bio community 👋 Interested in mentoring a comp-bio research student in East Africa over the summer? Do you have any experience in bioinformatics, biostats, genome/RNA-seq analyses, ML, or metagenomics? We'd love to have you as a mentor in our new program! 🧵 (1/n)

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Patrick Dunleavy @patrickdunleavy.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Gita Gopinath writes “A painting of the end of meritocracy: A meeting of the two largest economies and not one woman at the table.”

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Plant Cell Wall Dynamics Lab @cellwalldynamics.com · 06/05/2026

🌱 Big news! We received a Novo Nordisk Fonden Emerging Investigator Grant (DKK 12.5M – around €1.7M) for project DYNAMO. 5 years to understand how plant cell walls signal the growth to strength switch. So proud of the whole team. Let's go! 🧱⚡ Read more: www.cellwalldynamics.com/time-to-cele...

cellwalldynamics.com

Time to celebrate: The Cell Wall Dynamics group gets major grant! | Green cell wall dynamics lab

The Novo Nordisk Foundation invests DKK 12.5 million in five years of research on plant cell wall signals at Umeå University

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Laura Bacete @laurabacete.eurosky.social · 28/04/2026

For the 4th time in a row, we organise the UPSC (@umeaplantsciencecentre.se) Symposium for Early Career Plant Scientists! 🌱 We invite talented young scientists to present their research, meet our group leaders, explore collaborations, and tour our facilities. Let the day begin! 🧵👇 #PlantScience

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Laura Bacete @laurabacete.eurosky.social · 23/04/2026

Seeking a collaborator to apply for a grant on cotton fibre research! We need expertise in single-fibre analysis mechanical properties working with minimal material. EU member state or associated country required. DM if interested! #Academicsky #PlantScience #Biomaterials

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Laura Bacete @laurabacete.eurosky.social · 21/04/2026

Very cool to attend today to the Ig Nobel European tour in their Lund stop. Science that first makes you laugh and then makes you think! And the value of doing the curiosity driven research that we love, not the one we’re supposed to.

Marc Abrahams, founder of the Ig Nobel Prize, stands at a podium on stage during the Ig Nobel euro tour in Lund, speaking to an audience. Behind him, a projection screen displays “Quick Glimpses at some past Ig Nobel Prize winners” with an illustrated octopus. Seated on stage are various audience members and participants. The theatrical setting features ornate architectural details and set pieces in the background.

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Laura Bacete @laurabacete.eurosky.social · 17/04/2026

Wrong fix. Score distributions show the pool isn't dominated by immature proposals, the real bottleneck is *underfunding*. There are other levers to pull, like simplifying the B1+B2 process, that would reduce burden on everyone without restricting who can apply. Hope the community weighs in on this.

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COST Action PlantWallK @plantwallk.org · 01/04/2026

Two more weeks until the deadline for abstracts for our first PlantWallK meeting! 📝 Register: plantwallk.org/prague-regis...

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COST Action PlantWallK @plantwallk.org · 01/04/2026

Microtubules in a growing root tip. A dynamic internal scaffold that reorganises as cells divide and expand. Their orientation helps shape growth patterns across the tissue. #PlantWallK #COSTAction #PlantScience

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Adam Frew @frewecologist.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Postdoc (2 years) in mycorrhizal fungal biogeography & species distribution modelling @umeaplantsciencecentre.se Work with large-scale metabarcoding data and modelling. Deadline is 30th April www.umu.se/en/work-with...

umu.se

Postdoctoral scholarship (2 years) in mycorrhizal biogeography and species distribution modelling

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Laura Bacete @laurabacete.eurosky.social · 06/03/2026

Diving into my old hard drive, I found this English homework from when I was 17. Village girl from Spain writing about her dream job. A few thoughts.🧵👇

MY DREAM JOB
I am going to talk about my dream job. When I was a child I wanted to be a journalist but I changed my mind and now I would like to work as a scientist, but it is very difficult.
Firstly, I have to study a lot because I must have very good marks for study at iversity Biotechnology, because there are not many seats in Spain. Even if I could study it, it would be difficult to work as a scientist because it is not a common job.
In conclusion, I will try to get my dream job, but I know it will be difficult.

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Laura Bacete @laurabacete.eurosky.social · 03/03/2026

Enjoying the sunset of a sunny day in Brussels at the Palace of the Academies after a very interesting day with the Young Academy of Sweden 🇸🇪🇧🇪 — grateful to the Young Academy of Belgium – Flanders for the invitation and inspiring discussions on academic freedom and critical voices in research.

The Royal Palace of Brussels at sunset, a grand neoclassical façade with tall windows and ornate stone details, seen through bare tree branches. The sky fades from pale blue to warm orange above a quiet cobblestone square with a few distant figures walking.

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COST Action PlantWallK @plantwallk.org · 02/03/2026

🌱 Exciting news for plant #CellWall researchers! The First PlantWallK Meeting is happening in Prague, May 25–26, 2026 — bringing together members of COST Action CA24116 for the first time. 📝 Abstract submission is open! Deadline: April 15 Register: plantwallk.org/prague-regis... #PlantScience

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Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · 13/02/2026

Bluesky is the new science Twitter, new study by @whysharksmatter.bsky.social and Julia Wester concludes! "Results show that for every reported professional benefit that scientists once gained from Twitter, scientists can now gain that benefit more effectively on Bluesky than on Twitter."

academic.oup.com

Scientists no Longer Find Twitter Professionally Useful, and have Switched to Bluesky

Synopsis. Social media has become widely used by the scientific community for a variety of professional uses, including networking and public outreach. For

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