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Devang Mehta🌱🧬

@mehta-lab.com

2.2K followers 1.2K following 360 posts

Leading the Experimental Plant Systems Biology Lab at KU Leuven 🇧🇪. Previously at UAlberta 🇨🇦, ETH_Zurich🇨🇭, Imperial College London 🇬🇧, VIT University 🇮🇳. Fmr Early Career Advisor @eLife, @biorxiv affiliate he/him mehta-lab.com

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Devang Mehta🌱🧬 @mehta-lab.com · Nov 14

By way of (re)introduction, here's a repost of a short 🧵 about our latest study published in Science Advances:

We discovered that plants sense the duration of TWILIGHT🌅, giving us a new insight how plants measure the length of a day!

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adl3199

Just a moment...

www.science.org

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Reposted by Devang Mehta🌱🧬

Claus Wilke @clauswilke.com · 1d

Biology is much more complicated than most non-biologists can imagine. And AI is not going to change this anytime soon.
blog.genesmindsmachines.com/p/we-still-c...

We still can’t predict much of anything in biology

Biology is hard. Yes, even for AI.

blog.genesmindsmachines.com

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Reposted by Devang Mehta🌱🧬

Andrew Gregory @andrewgregory.com · 2d

The NHS and social care would cease to function under the government’s new rules to be imposed on foreign staff, nursing leaders have said, as hundreds of medics condemned the policy as “divisive and xenophobic”.

NHS could cease to function under Labour’s new visa rules, say nurses

Exclusive: Royal College of Nursing says plan to tighten rules for foreign workers is ‘pandering’ to Reform UK

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Devang Mehta🌱🧬

Journal of Experimental Botany @jxbotany.bsky.social · 5d

📣 NEW SPECIAL ISSUE 📣

🔬Plant Proteases - Guardians of Proteome Integrity & Function
🌱 Exploring the fascinating diversity, function & regulation of proteases in plants

📘 Edited by Pitter Huesgen, Annick Stintzi & Andreas Schaller

🔗 academic.oup.com/jxb... #JXBspecialissues #PlantScience 🧪

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Reposted by Devang Mehta🌱🧬

Josiah Mortimer @josiah.writes.news · 5d

Zack Polanski leads a conference shout of "migrants and refugees are welcome here"

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Reposted by Devang Mehta🌱🧬

Tamar Haspel @tamarhaspel.bsky.social · 6d

If you think high-fructose corn syrup is worse than sugar, or artificial sweeteners are harmful, or genetically modified foods are bad for you, or organic vegetables are better for you, you're engaging in the same kind of evidence-blindness that RFK Jr. is.

Not at the same scale! But same idea.

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Devang Mehta🌱🧬 @mehta-lab.com · 6d

Yep! Here’s a nice article in the NYT about this. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/09/28/o...

Opinion | Spraying Roundup on Crops Is Fine. Really.

www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Devang Mehta🌱🧬

Tamar Haspel @tamarhaspel.bsky.social · 6d

"The right is anti-science!"

We hear it all the time.

But the left does it too. As with glyphosate. When @mikegrunwald.bsky.social runs down the actual science, he gets called names and loses a speaking gig. (Gift link.)

And not just that one! ...

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/28/o...

Opinion | Spraying Roundup on Crops Is Fine. Really.

www.nytimes.com

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Devang Mehta🌱🧬 @mehta-lab.com · 6d

*more than

Devang Mehta🌱🧬 @mehta-lab.com · 6d

There’s almost nothing a country can do to damage its scientific infrastructure than making it harder for skilled immigrants to obtain permanent residence, and the security that comes with it.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Mahmood demands migrants earn right to settlement in UK

New tests will include learning English to a high standard, paying National Insurance and not claiming benefits.

www.bbc.com

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Zoe Gardner @zoejardiniere.bsky.social · 6d

People recognised as refugees fleeing persecution & granted the right to live in the UK to be denied the right to be joined safely by their spouse & children.

This Labour govt is a moral void, a stinking darkness, an empty hollow of cowardice & contempt. #r4today www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Starmer to end asylum ‘golden ticket’ of resettlement and family reunion rights

People granted asylum will have to earn right to invite family in plan charities call ‘straight from populist playbook’

www.theguardian.com

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Stephen Curry @scurry.bsky.social · 7d

Deeply disappointing. Once again the @royalsociety.org has avoided explaining how *actions* by Elon Musk that clearly repudiate the Society's values are consistent with the code of conduct that Fellows must adhere to. royalsociety.org/news/2025/10...

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

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

royalsociety.org

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Devang Mehta🌱🧬 @mehta-lab.com · 8d

Disappointing how her and @veritasium.bsky.social (cf. recent uncritical, conspiratorial video on Monsanto) have fallen into this trap for YouTube views and engagement.

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Kevin Mitchell @wiringthebrain.bsky.social · 8d

Great piece by @jonathanjarry.bsky.social on the descent of Sabine Hossenfelder, from science communicator to contrarian outrage-monger www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/...

Sabine Hossenfelder Asks If Science Is Dying. It’s Not.

Physics is dying. It’s mathematical fiction. Science is failing. Most of academic research that your taxes pay for is almost certainly bullshit. I don’t trust scientists. Would you believe me if I tol...

www.mcgill.ca

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Reposted by Devang Mehta🌱🧬

TheBossRoss @thebossross.bsky.social · 9d

As someone who's been on both sides (fmr migrant in the UK & fmr 🇦🇺 Migration Officer), the entire anti-immigration movement (that ironically washes across borders) is destroying my soul. There are so few now who confidently defend welcoming, open-minded, multicultural societies. They are my people.

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Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 8d

Is there a reason I ask that the Times are using a picture of asylum seekers in a boat to describe rules for migrants who came on legal routes such as skilled worker visas for doctors?

The Times & Sunday Times @thetimes.com · 8d

Tough new conditions to be imposed on migrants who want to settle in the UK will not apply to more than a million people who arrived in the UK under the post-Brexit immigration surge

Labour’s tough new rules will not apply to migrants already in UK

www.thetimes.com

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Saloni @scientificdiscovery.dev · 9d

I don't think the average person is going to learn much by accessing a paywalled scientific paper.

But the current system keeps out journalists, science communicators, policy researchers, and fact checkers from reading into a topic as well.

Saloni @scientificdiscovery.dev · 10d

In general I think it's hard to combat scientific misinformation when some of the best research is locked behind an academic paywall, while lots of nonsense gets published free for everyone to read in predatory journals.

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Reposted by Devang Mehta🌱🧬

Madhu Pai, MD, PhD @madhupai.bsky.social · 10d

“Untreated fevers during pregnancy can cause more harm than taking paracetamol will”

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

What happens if pregnant women stop taking Tylenol?

Untreated fevers during pregnancy can cause more harm than taking paracetamol will, scientists say.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Devang Mehta🌱🧬

Gaia Vince @wanderinggaia.bsky.social · 10d

This is fantastic by @j-amesmarriott.bsky.social Articulates so well our (intentional?) societal regression

The dawn of the post-literate society

And the end of civilisation

jmarriott.substack.com

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Reposted by Devang Mehta🌱🧬

North American Arabidopsis Steering Committee @naascarabidopsis.bsky.social · 16d

RSVP to join the Dec 16th webinar and hear from the 2025 Arabidopsis Community Dissemination of Arabidopsis Knowledge Awardees! bit.ly/naascawards
@bar-plantbio.bsky.social
@natanellae.bsky.social

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Reposted by Devang Mehta🌱🧬

Journal of Experimental Botany @jxbotany.bsky.social · 16d

🚨 Calling all #PlantScience ECRs! 🚨

JXB is now inviting applications for its 2026 Editorial Internships 🌱✍️ 🧪

✨ You’ll gain:
🌿 Behind-the-scenes publishing experience
📝 Write commentary pieces
🤝 Join our 2026 Editorial Board meeting 👩‍💻

🗓️ Deadline: 30 Sept
👉 bit.ly/jxbinterns @sebiology.bsky.social

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Reposted by Devang Mehta🌱🧬

Pallavi Singh @thepallavisingh.bsky.social · 16d

We are looking for a Postdoc with expertise in plant molecular/synthetic biology, or single-cell/spatial transcriptomics to join the UKRI-FLF funded project focused on understanding and improving water-use efficiency in rice.

Apply online before 15/10/2025:
vacancies.essex.ac.uk/tlive_webrec...

RP

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Tobi @tobifrenzen.bsky.social · 20d

If the government can celebrate scaring a critic off TV, the punchline writes itself — and it’s from 1933.

#JimmyKimmel

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Reposted by Devang Mehta🌱🧬

Journal of Experimental Botany @jxbotany.bsky.social · 19d

🌱 In the final talk of the conference, Andrew Millar is presenting “Practical steps to build a future digital plant: counting proteins, sharing data and an anchoring institution” 🌿

Learn more in Andrew's JXB review 👇
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/ery435

#JXB75 #PlantScience 🧪 @andrewmillar.bsky.social

Andrew Millar (University of Edinburgh, UK) presenting the final talk of the JXB 75th Anniversary Conference, “Practical steps to build a future digital plant: counting proteins, sharing data and an anchoring institution,” with slides projected behind him. Learn more in his JXB review doi: 10.1093/jxb/ery435.

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Journal of Experimental Botany @jxbotany.bsky.social · 19d

🌱 The final invited speaker of the conference is Devang Mehta (KU Leuven, Belgium) presenting “Re-engineering plant chronobiology: from genome to proteome and from molecules to future geographies” 🌿

Devang also shared his lab’s ethical publishing pledge 📝 🙌

#JXB75 #PlantScience 🧪 @mehta-lab.com

Devang Mehta (KU Leuven, Belgium) presenting his talk, “Re-engineering plant chronobiology: from genome to proteome and from molecules to future geographies,” with a picture of earth from space on slides projected behind him at the JXB 75th Anniversary Conference.

Devang is at the podium presenting his talk, and on the slide he shares his lab’s ethical publishing pledge:
"Reimagining Science Publishing
Stop playing a rigged game
Our #EthicalPublishing pledge
All our original research articles will be published in non-profit/charitable journals, preferably as Open-Access with a CC-BY licence. (Rare exceptions might occur in the case of collaborative projects). All papers will be first published as preprints (Read Plan U). All research data and code will be shared freely, with the exception of protected IP. Read about KU Leuven's Open Science policies."

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Nick Loman @pathogenomenick.bsky.social · 19d

Terrific new feature presented by @theo.io on @pathoplexus.org called SeqSets for generating DOIs for sequence subsets used in publications, that can then be tracked for impact via CrossRef that will allow data generators to track impact! #IMMEMXiV

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