iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Marko Hyvönen

Sholto David @sholtodavid.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Today I'm posting a blog about another ridiculous antibody blunder. Dozens of papers in the senescence and ageing field have mistakenly used an antibody for E. coli β-galactosidase when trying to stain for the human protein with the same name. forbetterscience.com/2026/07/21/d...

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Crystal Fleming クリスタル @alwaystheself.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

I'm attending a digital humanities event in Montreal. There was a keynote on AI and something about the talk made me wonder if it had been written by Claude. I said as much in the Q&A. As I posed the question, the speaker shifted, looking slightly uncomfortable. What he said next shocked the room +

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Marko Hyvönen @markohyvonen.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Just out is a little cautionary tale by @emmabelcher96.bsky.social Turns out StrepTactin pulls down biotinylated proteins from mammalian cells and anti-FLAG antibody likes its own specific contaminants. Both of which can end up dominating your precious cryo-EM images. You've been warned!

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Marko Hyvönen @markohyvonen.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Ok, time to get back on this platform with some science, as exciting things are coming out. Well, I think they are exciting. Let's start with cool FBDD story.Together with Spring group we have come up with a covalent inhibitors for PH domain. Activated lysine in PIP3 binding site, it seems.

Schematic model how a covalent Btk PH domain-binding fragment can inhibit membrane association and, presumably, kinase activation

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Reese Richardson @reeserichardson.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

The Thermo Fisher situation keeps getting worse. We've now collected 450+ problematic images presented as verification data in TF's antibody catalog. This includes: 🖌️ Dozens more images with duplications or painting 🖨️ Hundreds of blots that all share the same background (behold slideshow below)

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Cambridge Biochemistry @cambiochem.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Congratulations to the @markohyvonen.bsky.social Group on its celebration of 25 years this week by 40 alumni! Since 2001, it has welcomed 21 Postdocs, 8 RAs, 15 PhDs, 6 Visiting PhDs, 9 MScs and 46 Undergrads and contributed over 90 publications. 🎂🎉👏 Read more: www.bioc.cam.ac.uk/news/hyvonen...

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Kresten Lindorff-Larsen @lindorfflarsen.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Run an MD simulation of any protein in the AlphaFold Protein Structure Database using AF-CALVADOS Thanks to @sobuelow.bsky.social AF-CALVADOS is now on Colab colab.research.google.com/github/KULL-...

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Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

Chemistry in current events: the connections between fertilizer, the Haber-Bosch process, and the Persian Gulf. Read this and your knowledge will exceed that of most of our current political leadership after only a few minutes of light work:

science.org

Nitrogen, Ammonia, and the Strait of Hormuz

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Guilherme M. Arantes @garantes.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

Interested in a 12-month postdoc in Brazil? 🇧🇷 Join us in vibrant São Paulo for cutting-edge research in biomolecular simulation and design. 🤓 Check out the details here: fulbright.org.br/awards-for-u...

fulbright.org.br

Fulbright Postdoc in Brazil in partnership with FAPESP

The Fulbright Postdoc program in Brazil opens in February 2026 U.S. scholars in all disciplines can apply to the fellowships in partnership with FAPESP

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Christian Frezza @frezzalab.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

Papers are increasingly challenging to navigate, not only because of the sheer volume of data they contain but also because of their structure. This is a delicate point of discussion that we, as a community, should address. I would love hearing your views on this. network.febs.org/posts/thinki...

network.febs.org

Thinking Like a Scientist, Part Three: Hypothesis Retrofitting

Scientific papers are more complex than ever, but are we gaining deeper understanding or losing sight of the hypothesis? In this third part of Thinking like a scientist, I reflect on data-driven scien...

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Stephen Curry @scurry.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

FOR THE RECORD: one year on, I lay out clearly how Elon Musk FRS has breached the @royalsociety.org’s code of conduct, why the Society’s failure to defend its values has been so damaging, & what they need do to recover their standing in the scientific community. occamstypewriter.org/scurry/2026/...

Colourful image from the webpage of the Royal Society. Background is a mix of images of electronic circuits and silicon wafers. Text reads: "Welcome to the Royal Society. We are the independent scientific academy of the UK, dedicated to promoting excellence in science for the benefit of humanity."

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Stephan Hacker @stephanhacker2.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

I am very happy that we again managed to invite two world-leading scientists as keynotes for the 6th Virtual @chembiotalks.bsky.social. We are working on an exciting additional program. Stay tuned! Mailing list: fd24.formdesk.com/universiteit... #ChemSky #ChemBio #ChemBioTalks

fd24.formdesk.com

Sign-up form for the Virtual ChemBioTalks mailing list

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Eugene Valkov @eugenevalkov.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

We are looking for a postdoc to work on mechanisms of #RNA decay in cancer using #cryoEM with #nanobodies and #minibinders! Please RT

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Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

"Migrants who came to the UK on skilled work visas in 2022-23 will make a net contribution of £47bn to the public finances over their lifetime, according to new estimates from the government’s Migration Advisory Committee." Not surprising, but some observations (1/n) www.ft.com/content/10da...

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Department of Pharmacology | University of Cambridge @phar.cam.ac.uk · 26/11/2025

We are advertising for a Technician in Mammalian Cell Culture (Pharma collaboration) with the Merkle Group, to help generate and characterise human cellular models of obesity💊 Apply here: phar.cam.ac.uk/jobs

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Camcycle @camcycle.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

We agree, this is horrible - we need a holistic look at the whole city centre (not just the 'Civic Quarter') to better design routes for all modes of transport, beginning with walking, wheeling and cycling.

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Marko Hyvönen @markohyvonen.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

A sure sign of Christmas coming to Cambridge when shoppers queue on Tennis Court Rd and some impatient drivers race against the oncoming traffic, usually cyclists, turning around a blind corner. Every year the same, a serious accident waiting to happen. Cc. @camcycle.bsky.social

Car being driven on the wrong side of the road, overtaking standing queue.

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Marko Hyvönen @markohyvonen.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

Congrats @emmabelcher96.bsky.social for a job superbly done! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Challenging and exciting project, tackled with skill and determination. What more can one hope for? 🙏🏻👍🏻

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Dr Yvonne Couch @dryvonnecouch.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

👇👇👇👇👇

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Mark A. Hanson @hansonmark.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing: a 🧵 1/n Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820 Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/... Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...

A table showing profit margins of major publishers. A snippet of text related to this table is below.

1. The four-fold drain
1.1 Money
Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for
whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who
created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis,
which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024
alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit
margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher
(Elsevier) always over 37%.
Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most
consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial
difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor &
Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American
researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The
Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3
billion in that year.

A figure detailing the drain on researcher time.

1. The four-fold drain

1.2 Time
The number of papers published each year is growing faster than the scientific workforce,
with the number of papers per researcher almost doubling between 1996 and 2022 (Figure
1A). This reflects the fact that publishers’ commercial desire to publish (sell) more material
has aligned well with the competitive prestige culture in which publications help secure jobs,
grants, promotions, and awards. To the extent that this growth is driven by a pressure for
profit, rather than scholarly imperatives, it distorts the way researchers spend their time.
The publishing system depends on unpaid reviewer labour, estimated to be over 130 million
unpaid hours annually in 2020 alone (9). Researchers have complained about the demands of
peer-review for decades, but the scale of the problem is now worse, with editors reporting
widespread difficulties recruiting reviewers. The growth in publications involves not only the
authors’ time, but that of academic editors and reviewers who are dealing with so many
review demands.
Even more seriously, the imperative to produce ever more articles reshapes the nature of
scientific inquiry. Evidence across multiple fields shows that more papers result in
‘ossification’, not new ideas (10). It may seem paradoxical that more papers can slow
progress until one considers how it affects researchers’ time. While rewards remain tied to
volume, prestige, and impact of publications, researchers will be nudged away from riskier,
local, interdisciplinary, and long-term work. The result is a treadmill of constant activity with
limited progress whereas core scholarly practices – such as reading, reflecting and engaging
with others’ contributions – is de-prioritized. What looks like productivity often masks
intellectual exhaustion built on a demoralizing, narrowing scientific vision.

A table of profit margins across industries. The section of text related to this table is below:

1. The four-fold drain
1.1 Money
Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for
whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who
created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis,
which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024
alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit
margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher
(Elsevier) always over 37%.
Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most
consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial
difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor &
Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American
researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The
Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3
billion in that year.

The costs of inaction are plain: wasted public funds, lost researcher time, compromised
scientific integrity and eroded public trust. Today, the system rewards commercial publishers
first, and science second. Without bold action from the funders we risk continuing to pour
resources into a system that prioritizes profit over the advancement of scientific knowledge.

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Paolo Crosetto @paolocrosetto.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

What is the most profitable industry in the world, this side of the law? Not oil, not IT, not pharma. It's *scientific publishing*. We call this the Drain of Scientific Publishing. Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820 Background: doi.org/10.1162/qss_... Thread @markhanson.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy 👇

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Marko Hyvönen @markohyvonen.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

Cambridge Amgen Scholars Programme 2026 is now open. Great opportunity for undergrad students from UK and Europe to join Cambridge labs. Happy hear from anyone interested in joining our group at @cambiochem.bsky.social amgenscholars.bio.cam.ac.uk

amgenscholars.bio.cam.ac.uk

Home | Amgen Scholars Programme

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John Burn-Murdoch @jburnmurdoch.ft.com · 31/10/2025

NEW from me: Political hostility, high visa fees and (in the case of the UK) stagnant incomes are making the UK and US less attractive destinations for top international talent. That steep decline in the appeal of moving to the US after 2016 is 👀

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Toril Holien @torilhol.bsky.social · 23/08/2025

📣 Save the date 📣 The next FASEB Science Research Conference on TGF-β Family in Development and Disease will take place: July 26-30, 2026 in Porto, Portugal! @faseborg.bsky.social With Mythreye Karthikeyan @mythreye.bsky.social, Rosemary Akhurst and Andrew Hinck web.cvent.com/event/af5f6d...

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Sophien Kamoun @kamounlab.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

We just published: Why you should sequence your plasmids (and how to do it for free) Through @GetGenome scientists in 100 countries can access free whole-plasmid sequencing —giving researchers the confidence to move their experiments forward. medium.com/p/why-you-sh...

medium.com

Why you should sequence your plasmids (and how to do it for free)

Through GetGenome, scientists in 100 countries can access free whole-plasmid sequencing — removing barriers, improving quality control…

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Mark A. Hanson @hansonmark.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

The "reproducibility crisis" in science constantly makes headlines. Repro efforts are often limited. What if you could assess reproducibility of an entire field? That's what @brunolemaitre.bsky.social et al. have done. Fly immunity is highly replicable & offers lessons for #metascience A 🧵 1/n

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Cambridge Biochemistry @cambiochem.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

The Bornelöv Group is seeking a Research Assistant to work on gene regulation using deep learning. This is an exciting opportunity to use AI-based methods to uncover the molecular mechanisms behind mRNA processing and fate. Apply here by 8 July 2025: www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/51812/

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FBLDConference @fbldconference.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

FBLD 2025 | Final Call for Abstract Submissions! Abstract submissions close this Friday, 27 June 2025. Don't miss your chance to share your research with global experts at FBLD 2025. For more information go to: fbldconference.org/2025-abstrac...

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Prof. Ian Walker @ianwalker.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

I'm on BBC World Service later discussing how we're not going to get people cycling more just by encouraging them. I've not heard the edit, but hopefully they've used lots of the footage of me slagging off Swansea's car-first infrastructure as we cycled through the city www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w...

bbc.co.uk

BBC World Service - CrowdScience, How can we persuade more people to cycle?

Can behavioural science help listener Hans with his aim to get more people on bikes?

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Thiago Carvalho @cyrilpedia.bsky.social · 12/05/2025

“The visa fees are so exceedingly high that it makes coming here very difficult for some people. We are fishing for the best scientists in the world. They want to come and work here because we are such an effective country at science, but if we have these high costs, they can and will go elsewhere.”

observer.co.uk

Is the UK paying the price for world’s most expensive visas? | The Observer

Competing political and economic goals on immigration are resulting in the loss of valuable skills and talent in the UK

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Marko Hyvönen @markohyvonen.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

This 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻 is so frustrating. Write to your MPs and make them listen. Object to these ridiculous costs. Object to the language they use on immigrants. Promote the value we bring as fully fledged members of the society. Island of strangers, my arse.

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Tanja Bueltmann @tanjabueltmann.net · 12/05/2025

My letter to the Prime Minister. #immigration

Slightly amended so I can fit this here:

I am writing to you as an immigrant who chose to make the UK my home. As someone who is now also a British citizen. And as a German-born historian who understands where the complete normalisation of the far right can end. I write to say: For shame!

I first came to the UK in the 1990s for a visit with my grandmother. Objectively, much was backwards here. No mixer taps in the bathroom; awful ‘bread’; and strings had to be pulled to switch on lights. But however I felt about this, my own string had been pulled: I loved this Cool Britannia. It was quite possibly then that I decided that the UK was to be my home. When I arrived to settle here permanently, I made a choice: to contribute my skills, my knowledge—all I have to offer—to this country rather than another one.

I am deeply disgusted by your comment today that immigration has done ‘incalculable damage’ to the country.

This is the language of the far right. It is insulting, hateful & will fuel xenophobia. And it is just wrong.

Migration is a normal part of the human existence. None of us would be where we are without it. Open your fridge and you will see migration. Immigrants help make the UK tick every single day, whether we clean toilets in our hospitals or provide care for the elderly; whether we empty our bins or carry out cancer research. We are mothers, sons-in-law, aunts and uncles, friends, neighbours and colleagues.

I ask you not tell me that you do not mean me. I know that you do not—at least not primarily—mean a white woman from Europe who has a PhD. But who do you mean? And, much more importantly, who do you think those racists who were engaged in riots on our streets last summer think you mean?

Anti-immigration narratives have defined UK policymaking for the best part of two decades. And fundamentally so. They were the key driver in delivering Brexit, for example, and, as such, have directly limited the rights and opportunities of British citizens.

This obsessive focus on immigration as the ‘problem’—that is the real problem. And it is consistently delivering poor outcomes for the UK. Instead of tackling this, you are choosing to consolidate it, sowing divisions along the way.

You may point me to polling and tell me that this is what voters want. Do they? I am not surprised at all that over 50% of voters might say they want to see immigration reduced if that is the question they are being asked. What we need to know is what they would answer to the question: “Would you like to see immigration reduced? What this would mean for you and your local community is XYZ.” That is not how surveys can ask questions, but governments absolutely can choose to make policy using such a more informed position.

Prime Minister, you continue to talk a lot about making the tough choices. But let’s be clear: setting immigrants up as the ‘other’, as a scapegoat—describing us as a threat ‘pulling the country apart’, a ‘squalid chapter’, a risk that might make the UK an ‘island of strangers’—these are not tough choices at all. These are the easy choices. They are the choices that populists make who have no solutions to the real problems a country faces.

What I would like to know, Prime Minister, is what you will do when your policies lead to the implosion of the UK’s Higher Education sector. What you will tell communities when they can no longer provide any care for the elderly.

The policies you announced today will not solve anything at all. They will have exclusively negative impacts. For those immediately affected; for our communities; and for our economy.

Being pro-immigration—it is progressive, yes, but the much more crucial point is that it is also the most pro-UK policy approach that any politician in the country can pursue. And you are choosing to do the opposite. This, Prime Minister, is the real damage—and it will be very calculable indeed.

Tanja Bueltmann

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Marko Hyvönen @markohyvonen.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

@biorxivpreprint.bsky.social is bioRxiv search down? Don't seem to get hits with any searches, incl in advanced mode.

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Sebastian S. Cocioba @atinygreencell.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

I got hit by some rather sudden and extreme financial hardship so if anyone is in need of remote wetlab contract research, strictly BSL1, do let me know. Currently scrambling for gigs. Plant, Bacterial, Archaeal Non-model Bioeng Custom Lab Hardware Turn Key Genetic Design Please repost for reach 💚

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Marko Hyvönen @markohyvonen.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

Join us in Cambridge in September for the latest in fragment-based lead discovery 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻 #FBLD2025

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Surfin' NuRD @surfinnurd.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

Pedestrians killed by car drivers in UK annually: >400 Cyclists killed by car drivers in UK annually: >100 Pedestrians killed by cyclists in UK annually: <3 So which of these is the most scary and worthy of more laws? www.theguardian.com/news/2025/ap...

theguardian.com

Cyclists who kill pedestrians could be jailed for life under new law in England and Wales

Reckless cycling is currently prosecuted under legislation from the 1860s, with a maximum two-year jail sentence

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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

Another report on how our high visa costs deter top R&D talent www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

"The UK's upfront immigration costs now vastly exceed other leading research nations, so the UK is struggling to compete.
EU countries can more easily attract talent from the EU due to free movement, and from non-EU countries due to their relatively low visa costs.
"Non-EU countries are also attractive to global research talent due to lower comparative immigration costs than the
UK."
British scientific institutions are having to spend huge sums on visa costs for cancer professionals they wish to attract and recruit.
The Francis Crick Institute, one of the world's leading biomedical research centres, is now spending more than £500,000 a year on visas for cancer scientists. Cancer Research UK institutes are spending almost £690,000 a year, up 44% from £470,000 in 2022-23.

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Frederico Gueiros Filho @fredy-gueiros.bsky.social · 14/04/2025

My lab and Chuck Farah's at the University of São Paulo (USP) are seeking a postdoc to join an exciting project focused on applying structural biology to novel and unexplored targets in antibiotic discovery.

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Steve Bullock @guitarmoog.bsky.social · 13/04/2025

Honestly, UK, do it or fuck off. The world’s in flames, and you’re pissing about over the name of the most basic and uncontroversial form of cooperation imaginable. If you can’t even manage this, go away and come back when you’ve grown the fuck up. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

independent.co.uk

Post-Brexit youth mobility scheme with EU on the table under a different name

Exclusive: There is growing optimism that a fresh proposal for youth mobility across the UK and EU will be accepted by the government

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Marko Hyvönen @markohyvonen.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

Has left-handed DNA Hulk migrated from the other platform to BlueSky? Wanted to ask what they think of this beauty. 🤔

Nonsensical illustration of DNA double helical structure.

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Aylwyn Scally @aylwyn-scally.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

We are excited to announce a new faculty position here in Cambridge, for researchers in computational and/or theoretical biology, based jointly in Genetics and Mathematics. Come and join us! Happy to answer questions about research, teaching and working here. www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/50414/

jobs.cam.ac.uk

Assistant/Associate Professor in Computational Biology - Job Opportunities - University of Cambridge

Assistant/Associate Professor in Computational Biology in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge.

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EMBL @embl.org · 20/02/2025

EMBL International PhD Programme - summer recruitment 2025! 👀 Research groups across EMBL are recruiting now! www.embl.org/about/info/e... Don’t miss this opportunity to receive dedicated mentoring while doing interdisciplinary research. 🧪#AcademicSky #MolBiol #PhDSky #careers @ebi.embl.org

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Mike Galsworthy @mikegalsworthy.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

Scrap austerity – tax the super-rich instead. Britain can’t rebuild with more cuts – a wealth tax on the richest is the fair alternative to funding public services and growth.

yorkshirebylines.co.uk

Scrap austerity – tax the super-rich instead

Britain can’t rebuild with more cuts – a wealth tax on the richest is the fair alternative to funding public services and growth

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Sophien Kamoun @kamounlab.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

I just published: 12 tips for effective leadership I spent three days at a leadership course. These are the most helpful takeaways. link.medium.com/KGHiePpEGQb

link.medium.com

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Hope Jahren @realhopejahren.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

I just found out that my first book 📗, LAB GIRL 🌱🌿🌳, was challenged by a parent and subsequently removed from the shelves of the library at Walworth High School in Elkhorn, Wisconsin. So I decided to write a 🧵 on book 📚 #censorship 🚫 in American 🇺🇸 schools 🚸 1/n

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