Stephen Curry
@scurry.bsky.social
Proud Ballymena Professor. Senior Strategic Advisor at RoRI; Emeritus Prof at Imperial. Former DORA Chair. Husband, father, carer. Also cares about science & equity. Personal a/c. Writes occasionally at http://occamstypewriter.org/scurry/.
Pinned
Stephen Curry
@scurry.bsky.social
· Jan 14
Second of my #BooksOf2026 is Human Kind - A Hopeful History by Rutger Bergman. Leans on social psychology (a somewhat debased currency) as much as history, but not uncritically, and so mounts a spirited and thought-provoking case for human goodness. A very welcome antidote to the news cycle.
This won’t win U2 any plaudits from Trump.
music.apple.com/gb/album/ame...
music.apple.com/gb/album/ame...
American Obituary by U2 on Apple Music
music.apple.com
February 18, 2026 at 7:22 PM
This won’t win U2 any plaudits from Trump.
music.apple.com/gb/album/ame...
music.apple.com/gb/album/ame...
Reposted by Stephen Curry
I argued in a piece I wrote in 2013 called ‘the frustrated gene’ that caps are an antiviral defense. Hence some viruses steal caps, other have their own capping enzymes, while others evolved IRESs. Here’s a virus that captured the entire cap recognition machinery. Conflicts begets comlexity.
Max Fels @mfels.bsky.social from our lab discovers giant DNA viruses that infect amoeba encode eIF4E and the entire suite of 4F complex proteins to control mRNA translation, including beautiful crystal structures of viral 4E bound to modified mRNA 5' caps:
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
February 18, 2026 at 7:08 AM
I argued in a piece I wrote in 2013 called ‘the frustrated gene’ that caps are an antiviral defense. Hence some viruses steal caps, other have their own capping enzymes, while others evolved IRESs. Here’s a virus that captured the entire cap recognition machinery. Conflicts begets comlexity.
Good news - but let’s hope the professionals at the FDA will be allowed to do their work without interference.
Breaking News: The FDA reversed its decision on Moderna’s mRNA flu vaccine and agreed to review it for possible approval, Moderna said.
F.D.A. Reverses Decision and Agrees to Review Moderna’s Flu Vaccine
Moderna said it had held further discussions with regulators and announced that the agency would accept the company’s application for approval of its flu vaccine that uses mRNA technology.
nyti.ms
February 18, 2026 at 2:51 PM
Good news - but let’s hope the professionals at the FDA will be allowed to do their work without interference.
Needed a good news story this morning and this was it. www.theguardian.com/football/202...
‘Different but the same’: how Arsenal are keeping disabled fans in the game
In tandem with Game Day Vision, the Premier League club are improving the matchday experience for supporters with a variety of conditions
www.theguardian.com
February 18, 2026 at 8:34 AM
Needed a good news story this morning and this was it. www.theguardian.com/football/202...
Children in American concentration camps in the 21st century. The inhumanity of it.
“I don’t want to be in this place I want to go to my school.”
- 7 year old imprisoned by ICE for 70 days in a concentration camp in Texas.
Today, after @propublica.org published this story, the camp was raided to confiscate letters from the children.
www.propublica.org/article/ice-...
- 7 year old imprisoned by ICE for 70 days in a concentration camp in Texas.
Today, after @propublica.org published this story, the camp was raided to confiscate letters from the children.
www.propublica.org/article/ice-...
February 17, 2026 at 8:55 PM
Children in American concentration camps in the 21st century. The inhumanity of it.
Reposted by Stephen Curry
Great piece from @dsquareddigest.bsky.social, which touches on one of the big theories for why English-speaking countries do especially badly at housebuilding:
Adversarial and litigious common law systems (Anglo) vs judge-led civil law systems elsewhere.
samf.substack.com/p/build-the-...
Adversarial and litigious common law systems (Anglo) vs judge-led civil law systems elsewhere.
samf.substack.com/p/build-the-...
February 16, 2026 at 12:14 PM
Great piece from @dsquareddigest.bsky.social, which touches on one of the big theories for why English-speaking countries do especially badly at housebuilding:
Adversarial and litigious common law systems (Anglo) vs judge-led civil law systems elsewhere.
samf.substack.com/p/build-the-...
Adversarial and litigious common law systems (Anglo) vs judge-led civil law systems elsewhere.
samf.substack.com/p/build-the-...
Reposted by Stephen Curry
(outside of Nazism) the least good look on the internet is complaining about people expecting (or just attempting!) to be paid for their work.
if you can't afford it that is totally legit & disappointing. but complaining at the person who is attempting to get paid is just entitled baby stuff
if you can't afford it that is totally legit & disappointing. but complaining at the person who is attempting to get paid is just entitled baby stuff
February 16, 2026 at 8:08 AM
(outside of Nazism) the least good look on the internet is complaining about people expecting (or just attempting!) to be paid for their work.
if you can't afford it that is totally legit & disappointing. but complaining at the person who is attempting to get paid is just entitled baby stuff
if you can't afford it that is totally legit & disappointing. but complaining at the person who is attempting to get paid is just entitled baby stuff
Reposted by Stephen Curry
Do you realise who Musk is dismissing here (alongside millions of other people)?
Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla
We must speak plainly about the agenda Elon Musk & other MAGA leaders are pushing. It’s white nationalism.
There’s no room for Black, Hispanic/Latino, Asian, Native, Jewish or all other Americans in Musk’s monocultural vision.
Multiculturalism is superior. We can’t allow Musk & others to end it.
There’s no room for Black, Hispanic/Latino, Asian, Native, Jewish or all other Americans in Musk’s monocultural vision.
Multiculturalism is superior. We can’t allow Musk & others to end it.
February 16, 2026 at 1:25 AM
Do you realise who Musk is dismissing here (alongside millions of other people)?
Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla
Reposted by Stephen Curry
"The Crime of Witness" by Fintan O’Toole in @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social
"The videos that expose the administration’s mendacity about its own use of extreme violence against peaceful dissent are themselves products of the courage to show up [and] see for yourself."
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
"The videos that expose the administration’s mendacity about its own use of extreme violence against peaceful dissent are themselves products of the courage to show up [and] see for yourself."
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
February 16, 2026 at 12:05 AM
"The Crime of Witness" by Fintan O’Toole in @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social
"The videos that expose the administration’s mendacity about its own use of extreme violence against peaceful dissent are themselves products of the courage to show up [and] see for yourself."
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
"The videos that expose the administration’s mendacity about its own use of extreme violence against peaceful dissent are themselves products of the courage to show up [and] see for yourself."
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
Reposted by Stephen Curry
Please let this be true.
This might be of interest to the audiophiles.
www.tomshardware.com/speakers/in-...
www.tomshardware.com/speakers/in-...
In a blind test, audiophiles couldn't tell the difference between audio signals sent through copper wire, a banana, or wet mud — 'The mud should sound perfectly awful, but it doesn't,' notes the exper...
Who knew listening to a banana sounded so good?
www.tomshardware.com
February 15, 2026 at 10:49 PM
Please let this be true.
“We’re stupid and we’ll die.”
www.theguardian.com/fashion/2026...
www.theguardian.com/fashion/2026...
‘Nice shoes, mate’: we road test the brick-shaped £199 Lego Crocs
Lego and Crocs have joined forces to create oversized Lego-shaped shoes. Are they as ridiculous as they sound? We sent our most podophilic writer to find out
www.theguardian.com
February 15, 2026 at 7:50 PM
“We’re stupid and we’ll die.”
www.theguardian.com/fashion/2026...
www.theguardian.com/fashion/2026...
Free speech latest from the US
The New York Times reports that the Department of Homeland Security has sent Google, Meta, and other media corporations subpoenas for the names on accounts that criticize ICE enforcement. The department wants to identify Americans who oppose what it’s doing. I’ll save them time.
A short note to Kristi Noem
To a current Cabinet secretary from a former one
robertreich.substack.com
February 15, 2026 at 7:12 PM
Free speech latest from the US
Reposted by Stephen Curry
Can we start using “Epstein class” to describe scientists? 🤔
What I’m seeing in some of the Epstein revelations about well known scientists who maintained contact after his conviction, is folks who always thought they were the smartest person in any room, sure they could shrewdly navigate a route that gets them what they want without getting dirty themselves.
February 15, 2026 at 5:57 PM
Can we start using “Epstein class” to describe scientists? 🤔
Loved this wonderfully atmospheric essay by Jill Lepore on living in a shared house in Somerville just after Tracy Chapman had lived there. Resonated because we lived in Somerville a few years later. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Living in Tracy Chapman’s House
Fresh out of college, we were a bunch of misfits in a chaotic, run-down communal home, desperately trying to figure out who we were meant to be.
www.newyorker.com
February 15, 2026 at 6:18 PM
Loved this wonderfully atmospheric essay by Jill Lepore on living in a shared house in Somerville just after Tracy Chapman had lived there. Resonated because we lived in Somerville a few years later. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Eye-opening article on Russia’s low-level war on Europe by recruiting ‘single-use agents’. Inside Russia’s Secret Campaign of Sabotage in Europe www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Inside Russia’s Secret Campaign of Sabotage in Europe
How Russian military intelligence is recruiting young people online to carry out espionage, arson, and other attacks across the Continent.
www.newyorker.com
February 15, 2026 at 6:10 PM
Eye-opening article on Russia’s low-level war on Europe by recruiting ‘single-use agents’. Inside Russia’s Secret Campaign of Sabotage in Europe www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Display an album that was important to you when you were nineteen.
February 15, 2026 at 5:08 PM
Display an album that was important to you when you were nineteen.
Richly perceptive analysis of UKRI’s funding ‘strategy’ by @ersatzben.com raises 2 questions: why do we still not understand how best to manage the interfaces between research & societal needs? And why doesn’t UKRI give Ben a job? open.substack.com/pub/johnsonb...
The Bucket Stops Here
UKRI’s new funding framework takes a stab at classifying budgets – but doesn’t yet govern research
open.substack.com
February 15, 2026 at 2:30 PM
Richly perceptive analysis of UKRI’s funding ‘strategy’ by @ersatzben.com raises 2 questions: why do we still not understand how best to manage the interfaces between research & societal needs? And why doesn’t UKRI give Ben a job? open.substack.com/pub/johnsonb...
Navalny - Russia’s greatest son.
Putin - Russia’s greatest murderer.
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...
Putin - Russia’s greatest murderer.
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...
Russia killed Alexei Navalny with frog toxin, UK and four European allies say
Intelligence agencies say deadly toxin in skin of Ecuador dart frogs found in Navalny’s body and highly likely resulted in his death
www.theguardian.com
February 14, 2026 at 10:40 PM
Navalny - Russia’s greatest son.
Putin - Russia’s greatest murderer.
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...
Putin - Russia’s greatest murderer.
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...
Reposted by Stephen Curry
Update. @StephenCurry just wrote an excellent piece reminding the #royalsociety of the many ways that #elonmusk violated its code of ethics. Expelling him would not have to be based on political disagreements. Citing the principle that fellows should be free to disagree about politics willfully […]
Original post on fediscience.org
fediscience.org
February 14, 2026 at 5:15 PM
Update. @StephenCurry just wrote an excellent piece reminding the #royalsociety of the many ways that #elonmusk violated its code of ethics. Expelling him would not have to be based on political disagreements. Citing the principle that fellows should be free to disagree about politics willfully […]
Reposted by Stephen Curry
“We have known for years Epstein liked to surround himself with a certain type of male scientific “intellectual”: arrogant, entitled, “anti-woke” and often misogynist, typically late middle-aged and Ivy League and on the lookout for young women to impress and sleep with…”
whole thing worth reading
whole thing worth reading
Just added this to my WordPress site, so it's free to read.
homunculusmusic.wordpress.com/2026/02/14/e...
homunculusmusic.wordpress.com/2026/02/14/e...
Epstein’s ugly world of science
As with Peter Mandelson, so in the science world: the Epstein files are not telling us anything that most ordinary punters didn’t already know, but are revealing the full, rotten, appalling extent …
homunculusmusic.wordpress.com
February 14, 2026 at 5:53 PM
“We have known for years Epstein liked to surround himself with a certain type of male scientific “intellectual”: arrogant, entitled, “anti-woke” and often misogynist, typically late middle-aged and Ivy League and on the lookout for young women to impress and sleep with…”
whole thing worth reading
whole thing worth reading
Reposted by Stephen Curry
President Zelensky presented Heraskevytch with a civil honor this evening in Munich. Immediate national hero.
February 13, 2026 at 10:45 PM
President Zelensky presented Heraskevytch with a civil honor this evening in Munich. Immediate national hero.
Reposted by Stephen Curry
If you would like to help put pressure on the @royalsociety.org to finally take meaningful action on this issue, you can politely decline their requests for your labour (eg invitations to review or to sit on their editorial boards or grant panels), and refer to the arguments in this blogpost.
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/...
February 13, 2026 at 8:55 AM
If you would like to help put pressure on the @royalsociety.org to finally take meaningful action on this issue, you can politely decline their requests for your labour (eg invitations to review or to sit on their editorial boards or grant panels), and refer to the arguments in this blogpost.
If you would like to help put pressure on the @royalsociety.org to finally take meaningful action on this issue, you can politely decline their requests for your labour (eg invitations to review or to sit on their editorial boards or grant panels), and refer to the arguments in this blogpost.
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/...
February 13, 2026 at 8:55 AM
If you would like to help put pressure on the @royalsociety.org to finally take meaningful action on this issue, you can politely decline their requests for your labour (eg invitations to review or to sit on their editorial boards or grant panels), and refer to the arguments in this blogpost.