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Aylwyn Scally @aylwyn-scally.bsky.social · 11h

Really exciting work from @mattneville.bsky.social, @r-rahbari.bsky.social and their colleagues at @sangerinstitute.bsky.social and @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social .

Matthew Neville @mattneville.bsky.social · 14h

Now published! Our paper on:
(1) Accurate sequencing of sperm at scale
(2) Positive selection of spermatogenesis driver mutations across the exome
(3) Offspring disease risks from male reproductive aging
[1/n]
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Sperm sequencing reveals extensive positive selection in the male germline - Nature

A combination of whole-genome NanoSeq with deep whole-exome and targeted NanoSeq is used to accurately characterize mutation rates and genes under positive selection in sperm cells.

www.nature.com

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Aylwyn Scally @aylwyn-scally.bsky.social · 15h

Brian Cox is an expert on epidemiology now?

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Aylwyn Scally @aylwyn-scally.bsky.social · 1d

Check out our new preprint: 'Shortbread genome resolves the phylogeny of pastries and baked treats'.

Using the croissant genome as an outgroup, we show that chocolate covering has evolved several times on separate lineages. 1/n

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Darwin College, University of Cambridge @darwincollegecam.bsky.social · 1d

Enormous congratulations to Darwin alumnus Professor John Clarke, who has been jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics.

John joined Darwin in 1965, as one of our first PhD students. He became an Honorary Fellow in 2023.

www.darwin.cam.ac.uk/news/alumnus...

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Cahir O'Kane @cahirokane.bsky.social · 1d

Sad to hear of the death of John Gurdon this morning, aged 92.

Professor Sir John Gurdon FRS (1933-2025) | Magdalene College

Magdalene College is deeply saddened to announce the death of Professor Sir John Gurdon FRS, who served as Master of the College from 1995 to 2002.

www.magd.cam.ac.uk

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Aylwyn Scally @aylwyn-scally.bsky.social · 2d

I can only imagine the feeling of satisfaction currently experienced by the person Jim Gavin pinched €3,300 from all those years ago. Absolutely sweet.

RTÉ News @news.rte.ie · 3d

Fianna Fáil's candidate Jim Gavin has announced he is withdrawing from the Presidential Election "with immediate effect"

Jim Gavin withdraws from Presidential Election

Fianna Fáil's candidate Jim Gavin has announced he is withdrawing from the Presidential Election "with immediate effect".

www.rte.ie

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Aylwyn Scally @aylwyn-scally.bsky.social · 3d

Yes, in particular some form of transferable vote is definitely better. Not a panacea of course, because lots of other issues too, but at least it reduces the ability of large parties to scare voters into supporting them.

Aylwyn Scally @aylwyn-scally.bsky.social · 3d

The fallacy of the 'wasted vote' is toxic to democracy. If people don't vote for parties that better represent them, even when such parties are on the ballot, then their views will continue to be ignored.

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Aylwyn Scally @aylwyn-scally.bsky.social · 3d

For sure, the system doesn't have to be perfect to work. But (my perspective) too many people are clinging onto what used to be left-leaning parties, due to inertia, nostalgia and/or loyalty, even as those parties shift to the right to meet the challenge of populist right-wing movements.

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Aylwyn Scally @aylwyn-scally.bsky.social · 3d

I think people were wrong then too, if they thought that!

"Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself in all cases as the age and generations which preceded it..."

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Aylwyn Scally @aylwyn-scally.bsky.social · 3d

As a result I think the onus is on molecular biologists, who have co-opted the term to mean something very specific that they can identify experimentally (much as they did with the concept of the gene), to clarify what is & is not meant by it. Or alternatively, use less ambiguous terminology :)

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Aylwyn Scally @aylwyn-scally.bsky.social · 3d

This would be fine if there wasn't also a long-established context of using it to mean phenomena that somehow transcend the principles of inheritance as understood by evolutionary geneticists. There is now a whole field of people writing (and monetising) nonsense about genetics based on this.

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Aylwyn Scally @aylwyn-scally.bsky.social · 3d

Really cool work. FWIW, I think 'epigenetic' is a terrible word that has changed its meaning multiple times even in scientific usage over several decades. I particularly dislike the use, now predominant, to mean parts of the DNA molecular complex that are not the nucelotide sequence.

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Aylwyn Scally @aylwyn-scally.bsky.social · 3d

Opinions like this are one of the reasons democracy is failing.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Some people have a choice about whether or not to vote Labour. I wish I did too | Polly Hudson

I’m disillusioned with Keir Starmer’s government. But my late father’s passion for his political career makes it difficult to imagine putting my cross in another box, writes Polly Hudson

www.theguardian.com

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 5d

As a theoretical cosmologist, I'm frequently asked "what is the benefit of the work you're doing for people's lives?" Nothing I work on makes money or cures disease.

There are a few different answers one can give, at various levels of "convincing" / "actually relevant to why the work is done."

1/🧵

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Aylwyn Scally @aylwyn-scally.bsky.social · 5d

'Those beastly Russians interfering with our spy satellites'.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Russia persistently targeting British satellites, UK Space Command chief says

Maj Gen Paul Tedman says Moscow trying to disrupt UK’s military activities on ‘weekly’ basis and closely monitoring space assets

www.theguardian.com

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Marta Mirazon Lahr @martamlahr.bsky.social · 6d

Like you, I've read so many nice things about Jane Goodall's amazing life and legacy today, but this video of the realease of the chimp called Wounda is beyond words ♥️

If only we could find the will to stop destroying the extraordinary natural world around us...

youtu.be/ClOMa_GufsA?...

Wounda's Journey - Jane Goodall Witnesses Release of Chimpanzee Into New Island Sanctuary Site

YouTube video by Dr. Jane Goodall & the Jane Goodall Institute USA

youtu.be

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Cahir O'Kane @cahirokane.bsky.social · 7d

When BCE (before the confocal era) turned into CE (confocal era) - 1987

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology @natrevmcb.nature.com · 7d

New Online! The advent of confocal laser scanning microscopy in biological research

The advent of confocal laser scanning microscopy in biological research

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology, Published online: 01 October 2025; doi:10.1038/s41580-025-00905-5The advent of laser-scanning confocal microscopy revolutionized cell biology, offering unprecedented resolution and depth and enabling scientists to visualize cellular structures in 3D.

bit.ly

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Aylwyn Scally @aylwyn-scally.bsky.social · 8d

Who are these people and what planet have they come from? If I saw someone walking around work in their socks I'd avoid eye contact, on the assumption they were working their way through some difficult times, and probably sleeping in their car.

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Aylwyn Scally @aylwyn-scally.bsky.social · 10d

It's interesting how open people are to certain things such as university 'choice' being causal and even deterministic, while resisting the role of social, cultural or (perish the thought) inherited factors. Sort of a desire for the factors we imagine we have control over to be the most important.

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Aylwyn Scally @aylwyn-scally.bsky.social · 10d

Interesting data. Though clearly many factors influence salary besides degree subject. I wonder if one reason bioscience graduates are earning less than historians, physicists and others after 5 years is that a larger fraction of them are still in bioscience, rather than e.g. finance..

Ian Sudbery @iansudbery.bsky.social · 10d

This dataset gives you data on student earnings 5 years after graduation. Shows that bioscientists make less than historians, geographers, or even politics. Something to think on when people are saying that kids should do real STEM subjects, and not silly humanities. www.thetimes.com/article/63c3...

Degrees that don’t even earn you minimum wage — how does yours rank?

Official data shows a huge disparity between the average salaries of leavers from different universities and courses. Use our search tool to compare

www.thetimes.com

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Robin Hofmeister @rjhfmstr.bsky.social · 12d

🚨 New preprint out!
We reconstructed parental haplotypes in >440k individuals (UK & Estonian biobanks) to estimate assortative mating directly in the parental generation.
This reveals intensified assortment in recent generations.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Aylwyn Scally @aylwyn-scally.bsky.social · 11d

I was commenting on this paper: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

The phylogenetic position of the Yunxian cranium elucidates the origin of Homo longi and the Denisovans

Diverse forms of Homo coexisted during the Middle Pleistocene. Whether these fossil humans represent different species or clades is debated. The ~1-million-year-old Yunxian 2 fossil from China is impo...

www.science.org

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Aylwyn Scally @aylwyn-scally.bsky.social · 11d

Yes sorry, forgot to post actual link

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Aylwyn Scally @aylwyn-scally.bsky.social · 11d

I do like the fact that this is in the UFC section of the sports news. First for me TBH.

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