Stuart Thompson
@drdsthompson.bsky.social
Into plants, science fiction and comics, naturism (inasmuch as defining yourself by what you wear or don't is meaningful), mythology and archaeology.
Reposted by Stuart Thompson
In response to concerns over “designer babies,” a government panel of experts in Japan approved a proposal to submit legislation that would ban the implantation of a genome-edited fertilized human egg.
Japan eyes ban on gene-edited babies
The government aims to submit related legislation during next year's ordinary parliamentary session at the earliest.
www.japantimes.co.jp
December 22, 2025 at 4:00 PM
In response to concerns over “designer babies,” a government panel of experts in Japan approved a proposal to submit legislation that would ban the implantation of a genome-edited fertilized human egg.
Reposted by Stuart Thompson
Quinoa guard cells adapt ABA response for efficient gas exchange under salinity
Huang et al.
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/JMGQUZ...
Huang et al.
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/JMGQUZ...
December 22, 2025 at 2:45 AM
Quinoa guard cells adapt ABA response for efficient gas exchange under salinity
Huang et al.
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/JMGQUZ...
Huang et al.
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/JMGQUZ...
Reposted by Stuart Thompson
Reposted by Stuart Thompson
The actor Michael Sheen used all his money to start a fake debt collecting business, buy 900 people in Wales's debt, and excused it. If Musk bought ALL $194 billion in medical debt in the U.S. and excused it in the same way, he'd still be the world's riches man by hundreds of billions of dollars.
Michael Sheen spent his own money to write off $1.3 million of neighbors’ debts | CNN
Actor Michael Sheen has bought $1.3 million of his neighbors’ debts and written them off using $129,000 of his own money.
www.cnn.com
December 21, 2025 at 3:07 PM
The actor Michael Sheen used all his money to start a fake debt collecting business, buy 900 people in Wales's debt, and excused it. If Musk bought ALL $194 billion in medical debt in the U.S. and excused it in the same way, he'd still be the world's riches man by hundreds of billions of dollars.
Reposted by Stuart Thompson
‘Borrowed time’: crop pests and food losses supercharged by climate crisis: Heating means pests breeding and spreading faster, warn scientists, with simplified current food system already vulnerable How climate breakdown is putting the world’s food in peril – in maps and charts The destr...
‘Borrowed time’: crop pests and food losses supercharged by climate crisis
‘Borrowed time’: crop pests and food losses supercharged by climate crisis: Heating means pests breeding and spreading faster, warn scientists, with simplified current food system already vulnerable How climate breakdown is putting the world’s food in peril – in maps and charts The destr...
www.theguardian.com
December 20, 2025 at 10:38 AM
‘Borrowed time’: crop pests and food losses supercharged by climate crisis: Heating means pests breeding and spreading faster, warn scientists, with simplified current food system already vulnerable How climate breakdown is putting the world’s food in peril – in maps and charts The destr...
Reposted by Stuart Thompson
The ethics of clinical trials that deliberately infect people with a disease aren't clear-cut – but there's a strong case for doing more of them
Human challenge trials have never been more popular
The ethics of clinical trials that deliberately infect people with a disease aren't clear-cut – but there's a strong case for doing more of them
www.newscientist.com
December 18, 2025 at 9:03 AM
The ethics of clinical trials that deliberately infect people with a disease aren't clear-cut – but there's a strong case for doing more of them
Reposted by Stuart Thompson
Reposted by Stuart Thompson
Prioritizing carbon reserve over growth: how aging trees mitigate carbon starvation risk
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
#Commentary by Fang highlighting the recent work by Zhang et al.
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/YWNADQ...
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
#Commentary by Fang highlighting the recent work by Zhang et al.
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/YWNADQ...
December 16, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Prioritizing carbon reserve over growth: how aging trees mitigate carbon starvation risk
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
#Commentary by Fang highlighting the recent work by Zhang et al.
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/YWNADQ...
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
#Commentary by Fang highlighting the recent work by Zhang et al.
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/YWNADQ...
Reposted by Stuart Thompson
🌱 RESEARCH 🌱
Under low-phosphorus conditions, mycorrhizal symbiosis can alter alfalfa root morphology and physiology. High-phosphorus efficiency genotypes show greater biomass, mycorrhizal responsiveness, and positive trait plasticity - Fan et al.
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...
#PlantScience 🧪
Under low-phosphorus conditions, mycorrhizal symbiosis can alter alfalfa root morphology and physiology. High-phosphorus efficiency genotypes show greater biomass, mycorrhizal responsiveness, and positive trait plasticity - Fan et al.
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...
#PlantScience 🧪
December 16, 2025 at 8:55 AM
🌱 RESEARCH 🌱
Under low-phosphorus conditions, mycorrhizal symbiosis can alter alfalfa root morphology and physiology. High-phosphorus efficiency genotypes show greater biomass, mycorrhizal responsiveness, and positive trait plasticity - Fan et al.
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...
#PlantScience 🧪
Under low-phosphorus conditions, mycorrhizal symbiosis can alter alfalfa root morphology and physiology. High-phosphorus efficiency genotypes show greater biomass, mycorrhizal responsiveness, and positive trait plasticity - Fan et al.
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...
#PlantScience 🧪
Reposted by Stuart Thompson
Health news on cancer: pesticides alert and medications warning
Food security, nature recovery, and environmental sustainability are interwoven; they rely on responsible use of pesticides
northeastbylines.co.uk/news/health/...
Food security, nature recovery, and environmental sustainability are interwoven; they rely on responsible use of pesticides
northeastbylines.co.uk/news/health/...
Health news on cancer: pesticides alert and medications warning
Food security, nature recovery, and environmental sustainability are interwoven; they rely on responsible use of pesticides
northeastbylines.co.uk
December 15, 2025 at 8:15 AM
Health news on cancer: pesticides alert and medications warning
Food security, nature recovery, and environmental sustainability are interwoven; they rely on responsible use of pesticides
northeastbylines.co.uk/news/health/...
Food security, nature recovery, and environmental sustainability are interwoven; they rely on responsible use of pesticides
northeastbylines.co.uk/news/health/...
Reposted by Stuart Thompson
“The noise in human peer reviews is crucial because it arises from the variability in human experience and practical knowledge — two features that no model’s training corpus can fully capture,” writes Giorgio F. Gilestro in Nature about the introduction of AI peer reviews. #Academicsky 🧪
AI reviewers are here — we are not ready
Artificial intelligence promises rapid and polite feedback on papers — but we must first review the reviewer.
go.nature.com
December 14, 2025 at 5:57 PM
“The noise in human peer reviews is crucial because it arises from the variability in human experience and practical knowledge — two features that no model’s training corpus can fully capture,” writes Giorgio F. Gilestro in Nature about the introduction of AI peer reviews. #Academicsky 🧪
Reposted by Stuart Thompson
This is why we cannot and must not rely on US tech giants.
Amazon is among the worst but none of them is safe.
They are all instruments of the Trump regime.
Amazon is among the worst but none of them is safe.
They are all instruments of the Trump regime.
“Prost had been added to the United States’ sanctions list, because in 2020 she ruled to authorise an investigation into possible atrocities in Afghanistan [..] Amazon, obliged to implement the sanctions as a US company, had cancelled her account.” www.irishtimes.com/world/us/202...
‘It’s surreal’: US sanctions lock International Criminal Court judge out of daily life – The Irish Times
Canadian judge Kimberly Prost is unable to use credit cards, transfer money or book everyday services in what she calls an attack on the independence of the judiciary
www.irishtimes.com
December 14, 2025 at 9:23 AM
This is why we cannot and must not rely on US tech giants.
Amazon is among the worst but none of them is safe.
They are all instruments of the Trump regime.
Amazon is among the worst but none of them is safe.
They are all instruments of the Trump regime.
Reposted by Stuart Thompson
This is the paper that now wants us to elect Reform.
December 13, 2025 at 2:44 PM
This is the paper that now wants us to elect Reform.
Reposted by Stuart Thompson
Variation in bud phenology, frost tolerance and non-structural carbohydrates among white spruce seed sources on climate-contrasted test sites: implications for assisted migration https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.10.693555v1
December 14, 2025 at 12:01 AM
Variation in bud phenology, frost tolerance and non-structural carbohydrates among white spruce seed sources on climate-contrasted test sites: implications for assisted migration https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.10.693555v1
Reposted by Stuart Thompson
Reposted by Stuart Thompson
Dont miss the monstrous @humblebundle.com bundle of digital comics from @mikemignola.bsky.social. From the vampire hunting adventures of Lord Baltimore and Frankenstein’s New World miniseries to the saga of Hellboy. There's so much to explore: https://bit.ly/4iQ79js
Proceeds benefit @wck.org
Proceeds benefit @wck.org
December 12, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Dont miss the monstrous @humblebundle.com bundle of digital comics from @mikemignola.bsky.social. From the vampire hunting adventures of Lord Baltimore and Frankenstein’s New World miniseries to the saga of Hellboy. There's so much to explore: https://bit.ly/4iQ79js
Proceeds benefit @wck.org
Proceeds benefit @wck.org
Reposted by Stuart Thompson
Anti-vaxxism is an ideology with maybe the dumbest combination of pointless and evil that has ever existed bsky.app/profile/nyti...
More than 250 people who were exposed to measles, including dozens of unvaccinated school-aged children, are quarantining in South Carolina as the state wrestles to contain an outbreak that has sickened more than 110 people.
Hundreds Quarantined in South Carolina as Measles Outbreak Shows No Sign of Slowing
The outbreak shows no signs of slowing, likely because of the affected area’s “lower-than-hoped-for vaccination coverage,” a state health official said.
nyti.ms
December 12, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Anti-vaxxism is an ideology with maybe the dumbest combination of pointless and evil that has ever existed bsky.app/profile/nyti...
Reposted by Stuart Thompson
Social media is reshaping how we see politics, each other and even reality itself.
Let’s look at the research and gain some insight into how our democracy and communities could do better (thread) ⬇️
#polisky #socialmedia #misinformation
Let’s look at the research and gain some insight into how our democracy and communities could do better (thread) ⬇️
#polisky #socialmedia #misinformation
December 12, 2025 at 5:14 PM
Social media is reshaping how we see politics, each other and even reality itself.
Let’s look at the research and gain some insight into how our democracy and communities could do better (thread) ⬇️
#polisky #socialmedia #misinformation
Let’s look at the research and gain some insight into how our democracy and communities could do better (thread) ⬇️
#polisky #socialmedia #misinformation
Reposted by Stuart Thompson
This week in @science.org
Structural insight into the incorporation of far-red chlorophyll f in cyanobacterial photosystem I
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
#cyanobacteria
#plantscience
Structural insight into the incorporation of far-red chlorophyll f in cyanobacterial photosystem I
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
#cyanobacteria
#plantscience
Locating the missing chlorophylls f in far-red photosystem I
The discovery of chlorophyll f–containing photosystems, with their long-wavelength photochemistry, represented a distinct, low-energy paradigm for oxygenic photosynthesis. Structural studies on chloro...
www.science.org
December 12, 2025 at 3:49 PM
This week in @science.org
Structural insight into the incorporation of far-red chlorophyll f in cyanobacterial photosystem I
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
#cyanobacteria
#plantscience
Structural insight into the incorporation of far-red chlorophyll f in cyanobacterial photosystem I
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
#cyanobacteria
#plantscience
Reposted by Stuart Thompson
🌻 TECHNICAL INNOVATION 🌻
Regeneration and transformation systems were improved and an efficient CRISPR platform developed in Tragopogon (Asteraceae), an evolutionary model for studying the immediate consequences of polyploidy in nature - Shan et al.
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...
#PlantScience 🧪
Regeneration and transformation systems were improved and an efficient CRISPR platform developed in Tragopogon (Asteraceae), an evolutionary model for studying the immediate consequences of polyploidy in nature - Shan et al.
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...
#PlantScience 🧪
December 12, 2025 at 8:06 AM
🌻 TECHNICAL INNOVATION 🌻
Regeneration and transformation systems were improved and an efficient CRISPR platform developed in Tragopogon (Asteraceae), an evolutionary model for studying the immediate consequences of polyploidy in nature - Shan et al.
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...
#PlantScience 🧪
Regeneration and transformation systems were improved and an efficient CRISPR platform developed in Tragopogon (Asteraceae), an evolutionary model for studying the immediate consequences of polyploidy in nature - Shan et al.
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...
#PlantScience 🧪
Reposted by Stuart Thompson
We put up #Christmas trees because… ancient solstice celebrations did it first 🎄
Evergreens symbolized life during winter darkness for Egyptians, Romans, Hopi, Persians and others. Christians adopted the tree centuries later, and Queen Victoria made it a worldwide trend. buff.ly/4dqjwLL
Evergreens symbolized life during winter darkness for Egyptians, Romans, Hopi, Persians and others. Christians adopted the tree centuries later, and Queen Victoria made it a worldwide trend. buff.ly/4dqjwLL
The Christmas tree is a tradition older than Christmas
Evergreens have long served as symbols of life during the bleakness of winter. But Queen Victoria spurred the tradition that has become a global phenomenon.
theconversation.com
December 12, 2025 at 3:25 AM
We put up #Christmas trees because… ancient solstice celebrations did it first 🎄
Evergreens symbolized life during winter darkness for Egyptians, Romans, Hopi, Persians and others. Christians adopted the tree centuries later, and Queen Victoria made it a worldwide trend. buff.ly/4dqjwLL
Evergreens symbolized life during winter darkness for Egyptians, Romans, Hopi, Persians and others. Christians adopted the tree centuries later, and Queen Victoria made it a worldwide trend. buff.ly/4dqjwLL
Reposted by Stuart Thompson
This is a fascinating new experimental jurisprudence paper from Chris Jaeger on what is "reasonable."
For laypeople's judgments of reasonableness, the probability of harm (P) has an important effect beyond its role in the B
yalelawjournal.org/article/the-...
For laypeople's judgments of reasonableness, the probability of harm (P) has an important effect beyond its role in the B
yalelawjournal.org/article/the-...
The Hand Formula’s Unequal Inputs | Yale Law Journal
Tort law’s famous Hand Formula does not align with how laypeople judge whether conduct is reasonable. Five original experiments demonstrate that the Hand...
yalelawjournal.org
December 5, 2025 at 1:38 PM
This is a fascinating new experimental jurisprudence paper from Chris Jaeger on what is "reasonable."
For laypeople's judgments of reasonableness, the probability of harm (P) has an important effect beyond its role in the B
yalelawjournal.org/article/the-...
For laypeople's judgments of reasonableness, the probability of harm (P) has an important effect beyond its role in the B
yalelawjournal.org/article/the-...
Reposted by Stuart Thompson
#Invasive #reptiles spread the #seeds of #plants—for better and worse. In PNAS Journal Club: https://ow.ly/zMP350XH11y
#tegu #BurmesePython #InvasiveSpecies #Everglades #WildlifeBiology #SeedDispersal
#tegu #BurmesePython #InvasiveSpecies #Everglades #WildlifeBiology #SeedDispersal
December 10, 2025 at 6:02 PM
#Invasive #reptiles spread the #seeds of #plants—for better and worse. In PNAS Journal Club: https://ow.ly/zMP350XH11y
#tegu #BurmesePython #InvasiveSpecies #Everglades #WildlifeBiology #SeedDispersal
#tegu #BurmesePython #InvasiveSpecies #Everglades #WildlifeBiology #SeedDispersal
Reposted by Stuart Thompson
Thinking of studying for a PhD? I'd be happy to hear from anyone considering research into British or Irish prehistory, monuments, radiocarbon dating, heritage. Part-time, distance options. There are funding schemes here at @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social - but be quick, deadlines are in Jan/Feb!
PhD funding | PhD and Research Degrees | University of Exeter
www.exeter.ac.uk
December 8, 2025 at 5:52 PM
Thinking of studying for a PhD? I'd be happy to hear from anyone considering research into British or Irish prehistory, monuments, radiocarbon dating, heritage. Part-time, distance options. There are funding schemes here at @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social - but be quick, deadlines are in Jan/Feb!
Reposted by Stuart Thompson
Leaf drought strategy trade-off: water retention vs rehydration
Liu et al.
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/JXVSDD...
Liu et al.
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/JXVSDD...
December 8, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Leaf drought strategy trade-off: water retention vs rehydration
Liu et al.
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/JXVSDD...
Liu et al.
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/JXVSDD...