Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Andy Truman

Greg Jenner @gregjenner.bsky.social · Jul 22

People are starving to death, or being gunned down while desperately trying to access food at aid sites — even journalists are in grave danger. This abhorrent situation cannot be allowed to continue

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cv...

Gaza health ministry says 33 people dead from malnutrition in last 48 hours

New figures from the Hamas-run ministry include 12 children who have died, as the UN says Israel must allow aid into Gaza.

www.bbc.co.uk

1 42 150

Reposted by Andy Truman

Jennifer Raff @jenniferraff.bsky.social · Jul 18

Thanks for your advocacy and this excellent letter, @anthrofuentes.bsky.social !

This is not the time to step back from diversity, equity, and inclusion

Recently, I exchanged views with a prominent Ivy League scientist who was complaining about the minority students and junior faculty applying to his program. He claimed that the university, through di...

www.science.org

2 12 19

Andy Truman @andytruman4.bsky.social · Jul 12

Also, wasn’t particularly fast!

Andy Truman @andytruman4.bsky.social · Jul 12

Cycling achievement unlocked: Strava “excluding” my ride as its rubbish AI can’t believe I could ride this fast 😂

2 2

Andy Truman @andytruman4.bsky.social · Jul 9

Or why Nocardia harbour massive multi-domain proteins that may be over 50,000 AAs (5.6 MDa!) in some cases with no known function for the organism? Bigger than titin and PKZillas. Should stop this procrastination 😅

Andy Truman @andytruman4.bsky.social · Jul 9

New grant application: "Ignorance is a really good reason for you to give me some funding, please"

Andy Truman @andytruman4.bsky.social · Jul 9

It always pleases me to see how little we know. I can pick a random ~700 AA protein from a bacterial genome and it has no conserved domains and no characterised structural homologues, yet there are >1000 homologues across diverse Gram+ and Gram- bacteria.

2 6

Reposted by Andy Truman

Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · Jun 28

Hungary banned Pride marches. This is the response ✊🏳️‍🌈

Phillip Ayoub @payoub.bsky.social · Jun 28

Absolutely incredible turnout for Budapest Pride! So proud of all the organizers, including some old friends, who estimate hundreds of thousands— major embarrassment to Orban

10 210 970

Andy Truman @andytruman4.bsky.social · May 20

Super happy to see our work on lydiamycin biosynthesis, structure and function published in @pnas.org 😀
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

The work is described in the thread below, where we use BGC info to guide the discovery of multiple key features of this antibiotic.
@johninnescentre.bsky.social

1 12 26

Andy Truman @andytruman4.bsky.social · May 13

Returning home after a fun couple of days in London at the RSC Chemical Biology Symposium and then the Chemical Biology Interface Council meeting. Excellent talks and always a joy to return to Burlington House @rsc.org

2

Andy Truman @andytruman4.bsky.social · May 13

Happy Tuesday to everyone apart from whoever approved this awful design! Annoys me every time I use Greater Anglia.

Andy Truman @andytruman4.bsky.social · Apr 14

Join us for the RSC Chemical Biology Leadership Retreat for Early Career Researchers! This is designed for researchers within 5 years of their first independent position. Bursuries are available (details in link below).

Venue: Imperial College London
Date: 10-12 Sep 2025
www.rsc.org/events/detai...

2nd CBIC Chemical Biology Leadership Retreat for Early Career Researchers

www.rsc.org

1

Reposted by Andy Truman

Christine Faulkner @pdchristine.bsky.social · Mar 11

We're looking for a postdoc to join the lab to work on cell-to-cell communication via the apoplast. Candidate must be brave, as they will have to lead us (me) away from the plasmodesmata-lands we've inhabited for so long!

www.jic.ac.uk/vacancies/po...

Postdoctoral Researcher (Faulkner Group) | John Innes Centre

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Postdoctoral Researcher to join the Faulkner Group at the John Innes Centre, working on cutting-edge science in the field of Cell & Developmental Biology.

www.jic.ac.uk

4 87 74

Reposted by Andy Truman

Pete Slater @peteslater.bsky.social · Feb 20

If you have a few minutes spare in your busy schedule today, it's well worth taking time to read this article from @lewisgoodall.com.

Lewis Goodall @lewisgoodall.com · Feb 20

Trump could have pushed for an end to the war in Ukraine without becoming actively hostile to Ukraine. Instead, he has imbibed Putin’s lies. Have written about the emergence of a new US/Russia axis, where it comes from and the staggering implications for Europe.

open.substack.com/pub/goodalla...

We're waking up to a new US/Russia axis

Why Trump clings to Putin.

open.substack.com

2 14 65

Reposted by Andy Truman

John Innes Centre @johninnescentre.bsky.social · Feb 13

PRESS RELEASE - Professor Uauy appointed as Director of the John Innes Centre

Following an international search, we are delighted to announce that Professor @cristobaluauy.bsky.social has been appointed as the next Director of the John Innes Centre.

www.jic.ac.uk/press-releas...

@ukri.org

Professor Uauy appointed as Director of the John Innes Centre | John Innes Centre

Following an international search, Professor Cristóbal Uauy has been appointed as the next Director of the John Innes Centre. Professor Uauy is internationally recognised for his significant…

www.jic.ac.uk

9 46 130

Andy Truman @andytruman4.bsky.social · Feb 11

Utterly bonkers. I’m stating the very obvious, but it’s remarkable (yet also depressingly predictable) how quickly the proponents of “free speech” start banning everything they don’t like.

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · Feb 11

We got a message from the university to remove any use of the "DEI", "diversity", "equity", or "inclusion" from all public-facing documents. They said that even "biodiversity" is being flagged by the federal government. We live in the dumbest timeline.

Andy Truman @andytruman4.bsky.social · Feb 11

We have an exciting full-time permanent position available for a proteomics specialist for the Proteomics platform at @johninnescentre.bsky.social The platform has excellent facilities and provides essential experimental expertise research at the institute.
jobs.jic.ac.uk/Details.asp?...

John Innes Centre

jobs.jic.ac.uk

9 3

Andy Truman @andytruman4.bsky.social · Feb 9

#NowListening some banging tunes on.soundcloud.com/ZbMUDa61xrHo...

Anish Kumar - BBCR1 Essential Mix [02.11.24]

Tracklist 01 Anish Kumar - ID1 [unreleased] 02 DWIG - Luise und die Strandpiraten [Giegling] 03 Anish Kumar - ID2 [unreleased] 04 The Blessed Madonna - Exodus [Stripped & Chewed] 05 K-Lone - Cinco [Sw

on.soundcloud.com

Andy Truman @andytruman4.bsky.social · Feb 9

Trying to find an experiment we could actually do this evening and spotted “make your own telephone”. Was looking promising until I realised we were all out of bladders 😂

1

Andy Truman @andytruman4.bsky.social · Feb 7

Harmless Scientific Experiments for Boys (the introduction does at least acknowledge that girls can also use the book) including such “harmless” experiments as making gas from coal, and a DIY thermometer involving your own glass blowing and “a very small quantity of mercury” 🤔

1 2

Reposted by Andy Truman

Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · Feb 3

Well the award for most cowardly, boot-lickingest academic society has squarely gone to the American Society of Microbiology, who has taken down features of various non-white scientists. Absolutely pathetic behavior. Those articles are now coming up as “under review”. Truly sickening cowardice here.

340 4.9K 18K

Andy Truman @andytruman4.bsky.social · Jan 28

Is anyone having issues with NCBI at the moment? Really difficult to reliably retrieve sequence data using Entrez. Unsure if this is an impact of the absurd presidential decisions about the NIH, or just routine maintenance?

1

Reposted by Andy Truman

Jeremy Noel-Tod @jntod.bsky.social · Jan 9

This is how Bruce Wayne became a millionaire

Martin Robbins @mjrobbins.com · Jan 9

Includes the astonishing stat that HS2 paid £330,000 per inconvenienced bat.

4 21

Reposted by Andy Truman

Phil Carella @philcarella.bsky.social · Dec 19

Very happy to share the final version of our work on the evolution of broad host virulence in Pseudomonas out now @cellhostmicrobe It’s just in time for the holidays 🎄🦠 www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...

A necrotizing toxin enables Pseudomonas syringae infection across evolutionarily divergent plants

Grenz et al. interrogate the Pseudomonas syringae species complex for its capacity to infect evolutionarily divergent host plants. Their results demonstrate that broad host isolates from phylogroup 2 rely on the lipopeptide toxin syringomycin to promote host necrosis and enhance bacterial growth in plants.

www.cell.com

3 47 100

Andy Truman @andytruman4.bsky.social · Dec 19

Congratulations! Excellent work!

1 1