Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Ed Hollox

@edhollox.bsky.social

480 followers 750 following 710 posts

Professor of Genetics at U of Leicester. Genome structural variation. "Anyone with gumption and a sharp mind will take the measure of two things: what's said and what's done." Views my own.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Ed Hollox @edhollox.bsky.social · Sep 4

Academics! Delighted to announce that the new 3rd edition of Human Evolutionary Genetics is now available to book inspection copies. Available to buy January 9th. 1/5
www.routledge.com/Human-Evolut...

Human Evolutionary Genetics

Human Evolutionary Genetics reaches its third edition at a time when sequencing and analyzing whole genomes, modern and ancient, has become rapid, affordable, and routine. These advances have led to a...

www.routledge.com

3 3 8

Reposted by Ed Hollox

Inigo Martincorena @imartincorena.bsky.social · 14h

Our latest work is out in Nature today. In this paper, we introduce an improved version of NanoSeq, a duplex sequencing protocol with <5 errors per billion bp in single DNA molecules, and use it to study the somatic mutation landscape of oral epithelium in >1000 people www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Somatic mutation and selection at population scale - Nature

A new version of nanorate DNA sequencing, with an error rate lower than five errors per billion base pairs and compatible with whole-exome and targeted capture, enables epidemiological-scale studies of somatic mutation and selection and the generation of high-resolution selection maps across coding and non-coding sites for many genes.

www.nature.com

3 20 44

Ed Hollox @edhollox.bsky.social · 20h

Honestly, why is @theguardian.com science reporting often so poor?

John Greally @greally.bsky.social · 20h

1/3 Start by getting highlighted in the @theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Scientists develop first ‘accurate blood test’ to detect chronic fatigue syndrome

Research could offer hope for ME patients – but some experts urge caution and say more studies needed

www.theguardian.com

1 1

Reposted by Ed Hollox

Dennis O’Rear @djorear.bsky.social · 1d

RFK Jr’s attack on science has close parallels to Lysenko’s attack on genetic in Soviet Russia.

Speak in populist press, not journals
Make quick solution to problems
Blame failures on internal enemies

He needed a supporting anti-elitist government

A good podcast

🧪

youtu.be/MuikGTW1LvQ

Stalin’s War on Genetics | HISTORY This Week

YouTube video by HISTORY

youtu.be

3 11 24

Ed Hollox @edhollox.bsky.social · 1d

Sad news. He was an excellent teacher, taught me as a naive undergraduate how to cut xenopus eggs. I was doing it all wrong (obviously) but he did not say so!

Katherine Brown @katherine-brown.bsky.social · 1d

Very saddened to hear of John Gurdon’s passing. I’ve been lucky enough to interact with him at multiple points through my career - from undergrad lectures, through his position as former Chair of @biologists.bsky.social’s Board of Directors, and as an author at @dev-journal.bsky.social.

Nobel Laureate Professor Sir John Gurdon dies aged 92

It is with great sadness that the University shares the news of the death of Professor Sir John Gurdon, founder of the Gurdon Institute.

www.cam.ac.uk

Ed Hollox @edhollox.bsky.social · 1d

I like my shortbread with at least 30x chocolate coverage

Ed Hollox @edhollox.bsky.social · 1d

Is Illumina X10 millionaire's shortbread sequencing?

Reposted by Ed Hollox

Vincent J Lynch 🐘🦣🦥 🦇🐋🐢🐍 @devoevomed.bsky.social · 2d

#MammothMonday factoids: A comparison of 23 woolly mammoths (how cool is it to have that many mammoth genomes!) and 28 living elephants identified at least 1.2 million mammoth-specific genetic changes, including 4,786 amino acid substitutions in 3,097 genes 1/n 🧪 🐘 🦣

PMID: 37030294

1 13 51

Ed Hollox @edhollox.bsky.social · 1d

Yes. Particularly "super-nostalgia" involving a time period that nobody living remembers. Visiting the IWM Duxford (which is nuanced and excellent) I was shocked by amount of WWII pastiche stuff in the shop. (Where is the Cold War pastiche stuff? V-bomber tea towels?)

1 5

Reposted by Ed Hollox

Tori Herridge @toriherridge.bsky.social · 2d

So very excited to be finally able to shout from the rooftops about my incredible friend Brenna’s new project.

Reflected glory is the best glory to bask in, like a soft warm glow that makes you smile and —even better— requires no effort except finding happiness in other people

Brenna Hassett @brennawalks.bsky.social · 2d

so... the wellcome trust gave me a £1,000,000? and i didnt even have to hold the world to ransom.

i am super excited, going to be recruiting SOON for a phd and a postdoc, and could not do anything without my amazing collaborators <3

www.lancashire.ac.uk/news/grant-t...

Archaeology research project receives £1 million grant to better understand how people got sick

University of Lancashire’s Dr Brenna Hassett receives Wellcome funding to understand how the invention of farming, herding, and sedentism changed human disease.

www.lancashire.ac.uk

1 4 16

Ed Hollox @edhollox.bsky.social · 2d

Reform plugged in to the fallacy that your council tax just pays for bins. Its the facebook/reach media comments narrative of "they waste the money".

Ed Hollox @edhollox.bsky.social · 3d

This is intereeting and important. Taleb has argued this on a theoretical basis for some.time. The opposite of @ukri.org and @wellcometrust.bsky.social direction of travel/policy.

Kevin J. CREATURE @kevinjkircher.com · 4d

Research also shows that spreading smaller amounts of funding out over more researchers generally delivers better scientific outcomes per dollar spent than focusing bigger grants on fewer researchers.

journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

Big Science vs. Little Science: How Scientific Impact Scales with Funding

Agencies that fund scientific research must choose: is it more effective to give large grants to a few elite researchers, or small grants to many researchers? Large grants would be more effective only...

journals.plos.org

Reposted by Ed Hollox

Patrick Jackson @pehjackson.bsky.social · 5d

UVA Faculty Senate passed a resolution strongly opposing the Trump “Compact.” We, at least, remain committed to the historic values and mission of the university.

Resolution Opposing the "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education"
WHEREAS the United States Secretary of Education has requested that the University of Virginia enter into a “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education”, and
WHEREAS the Compact contains provisions antithetical to the mission and traditions of the University, and
WHEREAS the Compact contains provisions which endanger the independence and integrity of the University, and
WHEREAS the compact likely violates state and federal law, and infringes upon the constitutional rights of members of the University community, and
WHEREAS the University of Virginia exemplifies American academic values of the highest standard, including universal right to free speech and the cultivation of academic freedom; therefore
BE IT RESOLVED that the Faculty Senate of the University of Virginia firmly opposes this Compact as written and calls upon Interim President Mahoney and the Board of Visitors to also reject this Compact outright as well as any similar proposal compromising the mission, values, and independence of the University.

4 65 200

Reposted by Ed Hollox

Frames @oxinabox.bsky.social · 4d

as a girl with a PhD in natural language processing and machine learning it's actually offensive to me when you say "we don't know how LLMs work so they might be conscious"

I didn't spend 10 years in mines of academia to be told ignorance is morally equal knowledge.

We know exactly how LLMs work.

65 1.6K 5.7K

Reposted by Ed Hollox

Ana Ignatieva @anaignatieva.bsky.social · 5d

Delighted that our paper about the distribution of genomic spans of clades/edges in genealogies (ARGs), and using this for detecting inversions and other SVs (and other phenomena that cause local disruption of recombination) is out in MBE academic.oup.com/mbe/article/... (1/n)

The Length of Haplotype Blocks and Signals of Structural Variation in Reconstructed Genealogies

Abstract. Recent breakthroughs have enabled the accurate inference of large-scale genealogies. Through modelling the impact of recombination on the correla

academic.oup.com

4 37 60

Ed Hollox @edhollox.bsky.social · 6d

Thesis defence must be postponed until you have been sent it and had enough time to read through it critically. Otherwise you cannot examine it.

Ed Hollox @edhollox.bsky.social · 6d

* biomedical services not biomedical sciences. Apologies for the typo.

Ed Hollox @edhollox.bsky.social · 7d

In happier news, my quince and blackberry crumble is truly a taste sensation.

Ed Hollox @edhollox.bsky.social · 7d

Etc etc...

Ed Hollox @edhollox.bsky.social · 7d

Or shouting "Damn the the King and Sir Kier" at the prizegiving for the Suffolk County Show, after overindulging in the gin slings.

Ed Hollox @edhollox.bsky.social · 7d

Or discussion of rather salty ideas within earshot of the Lord Lieutenant of Surrey.

Ed Hollox @edhollox.bsky.social · 7d

Or overexuberant expression of concerning views over the port and cigars.

Ed Hollox @edhollox.bsky.social · 7d

Exactly. It is his actions not his views. Our view of opposition is repeatedly mischaracterised. PRS is not stupid, so we must conclude that this is wilful misreprentation of an argument. Not very scientific...

Ed Hollox @edhollox.bsky.social · 7d

Addressing a T0mmy R0binson rally urging people to "fight back or die" is not the same as airing one's views in a angry letter to the parish magazine.

1 2

Ed Hollox @edhollox.bsky.social · 7d

"...not the role of the Royal Society to police the personal political opinions of individual Fellows and disciplinary procedures should not be initiated because of a Fellow’s social and political views."

IT IS MUSK'S ACTIONS NOT HIS VIEWS!! How many times do we have to say this...? Shameful.

The Royal Society @royalsociety.org · 7d

"I am increasingly concerned over threats to the values that allow science to flourish." Read the full statement from the President of the Royal Society Sir Adrian Smith: royalsociety.org/news/2025/10...

A statement from the President of the Royal Society | Royal Society

A statement from the President of the Royal Society regarding threats to the values that allow science to flourish.

royalsociety.org

2 2 11

Ed Hollox @edhollox.bsky.social · 7d

The RS recieves a grant from DSIT because it is supposed to represent UK Science and scientists. It clearly doesn't. If you can speak to Liz Kendall about this...