Robert Howard @profrobhoward.bsky.social · 31/10/2025ECT really does save lives. Our new SR/MA shows reduced mortality in people receiving ECT versus a comparator treatment. We didn't show a reduction in suicides but you probably wouldn't expect to be able to. 2263
Reposted by Robert HowardHarry Costello @drharrycostello.bsky.social · 22/09/2025New paper out in @journal_ad (led by Guy Gitlin-Leigh). @profrobhoward.bsky.social We conducted the first systematic review + meta-analysis on whether monoclonal antibody therapies for #Alzheimer’s (AD) & #Parkinson’s (PD) affect risk of depression. Link: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...journals.sagepub.comSage Journals: Discover world-class researchSubscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher. 171
Robert Howard @profrobhoward.bsky.social · 21/09/2025BlueSky friends, forgive me for not posting much on here. I'm standing for President of the RCPsych in the elections next March. I'm still speaking and listening to friends and colleagues about what is important, but you can learn about what I would do if successful here: www.profrobhoward.comprofrobhoward.comProfRobHoward 11388
Robert Howard @profrobhoward.bsky.social · 18/09/2025“Starmer’s one historic role is to stave off the far right”. Absobloodylutely. 1110
Robert Howard @profrobhoward.bsky.social · 14/09/2025Beautiful autumn light on our morning walk with watchful roe deer. 1160
Reposted by Robert HowardHetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 12/09/2025Pet parrots which typically live alone (whilst those in the wild live in large flocks) were given the technology to call each other. They would use it for up to three hours a day, and developed favourite friends 💔 on.ft.com/3K05vhS 13066592101
Reposted by Robert HowardGregg Gonsalves @gregggonsalves.bsky.social · 12/09/2025What a beautiful tribute to love and the power of AIDS research from Faye Landsman. Come join us next week to hear about the miracles HIV research has given the world. #saveaidsresearch @saveaidsresearch.bsky.social 17728
Reposted by Robert HowardIan Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 12/09/2025This is how you protect your democracy. The US is a demonstration of what happens when you don't. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...theguardian.comBolsonaro sentenced to 27 years for plotting military coup in BrazilFormer president sought to ‘annihilate’ country’s democracy after losing 2022 election 7134881119
Robert Howard @profrobhoward.bsky.social · 12/09/2025Layla. Not really happy on trains, even when she can travel First Class. 090
Reposted by Robert HowardIan Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 11/09/2025The fall of Mandelson is first cross-party celebration since the vaccine. Remain, Leave, right, left: united at last. 2786175
Reposted by Robert HowardIan Denton @iand777.bsky.social · 11/09/2025 A very unenlightened attitude from a company marketing garden lighting.... #urbanfoxes @chrisgpackham.bsky.socialmylondon.newsEveryone with a garden urged to make change to keep foxes outAutumn is peak time for fox activity and if they establish territory now it can be hard to evict them 5183
Robert Howard @profrobhoward.bsky.social · 11/09/2025Twitter still has impressive potential for interaction. 190
Reposted by Robert HowardMeghan Bartels @meghanbartels.bsky.social · 09/09/2025Here's what you need to know about the new MAHA report: 🧪 www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-ma...scientificamerican.comA ‘Make America Healthy Again’ Report Goes Easy on the Food IndustryA childhood health report led by RFK, Jr., links poor diet, chemicals, inactivity and “overmedicalization” to worsening U.S. pediatric health 2128
Reposted by Robert HowardIan Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 01/09/2025BBC using the phrase 'approved asylum seekers' today. It's technically correct I suppose, but emotionally barren - taking a word that inspires sympathy and turning it into a dead administrative phrase. They are refugees. 24719121
Reposted by Robert HowardJenny (Kowalczuk) Sanders @jennysanders.bsky.social · 01/09/2025Aldwych is ALWAYS exactly like this, rain and waiting forever for the right bus... 051
Reposted by Robert HowardAtul Gawande @agawande.bsky.social · 01/09/20259 CDC Directors going back to 1977 speak out. What RFK Jr has done to our nation’s public health system "should alarm every American." It "is unlike anything we have ever seen at the agency, and unlike anything our country has ever experienced." www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/o...nytimes.comOpinion | We Ran the C.D.C.: Kennedy Is Endangering Every American’s Health 322118005124
Robert Howard @profrobhoward.bsky.social · 30/08/2025At Lord Leicester’s secret beach hut in Holkham Woods. Lots of squirrels and rabbits this afternoon. 1100
Robert Howard @profrobhoward.bsky.social · 30/08/2025FDA ask for additional safety monitoring MRI between second and third infusions of lecanemab. www.medpagetoday.com/neurology/al...medpagetoday.comAlzheimer's Deaths Prompt FDA to Tighten Lecanemab RulesAgency will require the drug's label to include earlier MRI to detect brain swelling 281
Robert Howard @profrobhoward.bsky.social · 29/08/2025Hedgerows already filled with autumn berries. Densest crop of sloes that I can remember. 2120
Robert Howard @profrobhoward.bsky.social · 29/08/2025Time to bring back abreaction as a treatment for functional neurological disorders? Great piece by Norman Poole in Brain. x.com/brain1878/st...x.comBrain on X: "Abreaction was once a common treatment for functional neurological disorder (FND) but has since fallen out of use. Norman Poole argues that abreaction is compatible with many findings from modern neuroscience, and should be tested as a treatment for FND. https://t.co/ziqNSx5WqL https://t.co/XehHuUA2YL" / XAbreaction was once a common treatment for functional neurological disorder (FND) but has since fallen out of use. Norman Poole argues that abreaction is compatible with many findings from modern neuroscience, and should be tested as a treatment for FND. https://t.co/ziqNSx5WqL https://t.co/XehHuUA2YL 040
Reposted by Robert HowardRian Nejar 🦋 @riannejar.bsky.social · 28/08/2025Spiders make #webs with their silk, and use trapped #fireflies as glowing #bait [via Brit Eco Soc] 🧪👩🔬🕷️🕸️🪰💡 " findings confirm that captured fireflies left as bait increase the hunting success rate of the #spiders." www.britishecologicalsociety.org/spider-uses-... #tools #hunting #intelligencebritishecologicalsociety.orgSpider uses trapped fireflies as glowing bait - BESSpider uses trapped fireflies as glowing bait - BES is the largest scientific society for ecologists in Europe. We're working towards a world in which nature and people thrive. 4157
Reposted by Robert HowardMike Greicius @mikegreicius.bsky.social · 28/08/2025🧪 #publichealth With all the stops/restarts, firings/rehirings, grant terminations/non-terminations, and funding delays--even ignoring its anti-science stance--this is not a Department of Health and Human Services that is going to make America the least bit healthy. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/h...nytimes.comWhite House Says New C.D.C. Director Is Fired, but She Refuses to Leave 093
Reposted by Robert HowardPrincess Vimentin PhD | Cancer Biologist @princess-vimentin.bsky.social · 28/08/2025A key sentence summarizes a very real outcome. 🧪“Their desire to please a political base will result in death and disability of vulnerable children and adults. Their base should be the people they serve not a political voting bloc." 0208
Reposted by Robert HowardNature Metabolism @natmetabolism.nature.com · 27/08/2025REVIEW | FREE TO READ THIS WEEK! 🧪 @clemmensenc.bsky.social et al Incretin-based therapeutics for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseasesbit.lyIncretin-based therapeutics for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases - Nature MetabolismThis Review summarizes preclinical and clinical evidence highlighting the potential of incretin-based drugs as treatments of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease or Parkinson’s disease. 092
Reposted by Robert HowardMU-Peter Shimon 🀄 @mu-peter.bsky.social · 26/08/2025Bonobos keep track of groupmates even when they can’t see them Mental representation of the locations and identities of multiple hidden agents or objects by a bonobo 🏺🧪 royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... Uncovers the rich representations of the social world shared by humans and other apes. 091
Reposted by Robert HowardWilliam C Phelps, PhD @wcphelps.bsky.social · 26/08/2025I applaud the Amer Acad of Pediatrics for clear guidelines on COVID vaccines for infants, in contrast to the current CDC leadership. This is an interview with Paul Offit, a courageous expert in pediatrics. 150 children died in the past year of COVID! Read that again. 🧪 www.pbs.org/newshour/sho...pbs.orgWhy the American Academy of Pediatrics is diverging from CDC vaccine guidelinesThe American Academy of Pediatrics released new COVID vaccination guidelines, and for the first time, they diverge significantly from the recommendations from the CDC. The changes leave parents with c... 1238
Reposted by Robert HowardKathryn Hulick @kathrynhulick.substack.com · 26/08/2025When tech reads your thoughts, hopefully it won't read out ALL of them! Researchers had subjects imagine the password "Chitty chitty bang bang” to activate a mental speech decoder. 🧪https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/08/an-inner-speech-decoder-reveals-some-mental-privacy-issues/arstechnica.comAn inner-speech decoder reveals some mental privacy issuesWords you’ll never speak still cause activity in the brain’s speech centers. 162
Robert Howard @profrobhoward.bsky.social · 26/08/2025It’s a Van Gogh kind of morning in Peckham. 0160
Reposted by Robert HowardEMBO @embo.org · 25/08/2025Tom Kern had doubts: Would he like journalism, or be any good? Did he even know how to become a journalist? After nine months as a #ScienceJournalism fellow with leading German news outlets those doubts are largely gone: www.embo.org/people/trans... #ScienceCommunication #funding #LifeSciences 🧪embo.orgTransitioning from academia to journalism – People – EMBOTom Kern had doubts: would he like journalism, or be any good? Did he even know how to become a journalist? After nine months as a science journalism fellow 185
Robert Howard @profrobhoward.bsky.social · 25/08/2025Yuto Satake returns to Japan today after a productive year at UCL. My son commissioned his artist friend to produce this to commemorate his visit and secret support for Layla to sit on forbidden sofas. 1101
Reposted by Robert HowardJo Wolfe, PhD @jopabinia.bsky.social · 25/08/2025My vague, unprepared #InverteFest idea was 2 never-posted crabs of the day so here is #1! Platychirograpsus spectabilis males grow huge "saber" claws on one (either left or right) hand. TONS more info here 🦀🦑🧪 invasions.si.edu/nemesis/species_summary/99076 share.google/Eu4ZhMo6baJo...inaturalist.orgSaber crab (Platychirograpsus spectabilis)Saber crab from Pánuco, Ver., México on July 21, 2019 at 06:32 AM by Guillermo H. Sosa-Tovar. Cangrejo martillo 68419
Reposted by Robert HowardRian Nejar 🦋 @riannejar.bsky.social · 25/08/2025All my relatives: Neanderthals, Denisovians, and the #Indigenous [via Brown Uni and Science.org] 🧪🧬🔬🚶♂️ "haplotype features multiple Denisovan variants, although it likely entered human populations through a Neanderthal intermediate" www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #genetics #human #evolution #treescience.orgThe MUC19 gene: An evolutionary history of recurrent introgression and natural selectionWe study the gene MUC19, for which some modern humans carry a Denisovan-like haplotype. MUC19 is a mucin, a glycoprotein that forms gels with various biological functions. We find diagnostic variants ... 1102
Reposted by Robert HowardCraig @drcjm.bsky.social · 25/08/2025🧪 My favourites are the singing dogs (very close relatives of dingoes) in Papua New Guinea. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Gui... 0297
Reposted by Robert HowardBryan White, MS Bio, MPH 🧬 @crvscience.com · 25/08/2025Early primates (50-60 mya) radiated into cold regions (northern latitudes) rather than the classical assumption of tropical/arid climates. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... 🧪🌎🌍🌏 #AnthroSky #BioSky #EvoSkypnas.orgThe radiation and geographic expansion of primates through diverse climates | PNASOne of the most influential hypotheses about primate evolution postulates that their origin, radiation, and major dispersals were associated with e... 23910
Reposted by Robert HowardIan Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 25/08/2025This is outstanding. God knows what Labour is doing: legitimising the racism that'll be its undoing, losing the coalition which put it in office, trying to secure voters who will never support it, digging its own moral grave. observer.co.uk/news/opinion...observer.co.ukPolitically acceptable UK racism is rising, even under La...As I wrote these words last autumn: “We have made progress... even though that progress remains fragile and insufficient”, little did I realise just how ... 1622242770
Robert Howard @profrobhoward.bsky.social · 25/08/2025Don’t recommend having one of these under an open bedroom window. Mrs H and myself exhausted after a night of vivid and weird dreams. 282
Robert Howard @profrobhoward.bsky.social · 25/08/2025The feeling that the cavalry we have been waiting for in the NHS for 15 years just isn’t coming, is somehow worse than having the Conservatives. At least we had hope for change. 281
Robert Howard @profrobhoward.bsky.social · 25/08/2025They could, of course, simply make better drugs and price them attractively, so that it would make sense for the NHS to use them. 050
Reposted by Robert HowardGregg Gonsalves @gregggonsalves.bsky.social · 24/08/2025The @NYTimes has done a fantastic job on explaining what the Trump administration’s savage cuts to biomedical research mean: cures that won’t happen. Please share this widely. This is a catastrophe. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/24/o...nytimes.comOpinion | America First? Not When It Comes to Your Health. 14395233
Reposted by Robert HowardNature Metabolism @natmetabolism.nature.com · 23/08/2025REVIEW | FREE TO READ THIS MONTH! 🧪 @clemmensenc.bsky.social et al Incretin-based therapeutics for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseasesbit.lyIncretin-based therapeutics for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases - Nature MetabolismThis Review summarizes preclinical and clinical evidence highlighting the potential of incretin-based drugs as treatments of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease or Parkinson’s disease. 0143
Reposted by Robert HowardProf Sam Illingworth @samillingworth.com · 24/08/2025🧠 LLMs in medicine: promise and pitfalls A new review of 761 studies shows explosive growth in LLM use for clinical tasks but finds uneven evaluations & underuse of domain-specific models. 🔗 bmcmedinformdecismak.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.... #SciComm #LLMs #HealthTech #AI 🧪bmcmedinformdecismak.biomedcentral.comA systematic review of large language model (LLM) evaluations in clinical medicine - BMC Medical Informatics and Decision MakingBackground Large Language Models (LLMs), advanced AI tools based on transformer architectures, demonstrate significant potential in clinical medicine by enhancing decision support, diagnostics, and me... 1185
Reposted by Robert HowardPatrick Lynch @patrlynch1.bsky.social · 24/08/2025And butterflies are just the bugs we notice. This is likely true for ALL kinds of insects and other invertebrates. The #InsectApocalyse marches on... www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025... 🧪🌿🌎🐡 #garden #bugsky #biodiversity #pollinators #insect #butterflies #macro #insects #flowers #InsectApocalysetheguardian.comMonarch butterflies’ mass die-off in 2024 caused by pesticide exposure – studyNew peer-reviewed research found an average of seven pesticides in each of 10 butterflies tested 26643