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Máté Varga

@mvargam.bsky.social

870 followers 130 following 66 posts

Developmental geneticist by training, science-blogger by choice. Interested in all things #zebrafish, #devbio and #scicomm. Lab webpage: http://danio.elte.hu/index.html

danio.elte.hu

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Máté Varga @mvargam.bsky.social · Apr 2

Being thrilled is a solid understatement here - I am extremely happy and grateful to @hfspo.bsky.social to be one of the awardees this year together with @fabianlab.bsky.social and Takaykui Onai. Stay tuned for exciting updates on the formation and function of labyrinth organ in paradise fish :).

Human Frontier Science Program @hfspo.bsky.social · Apr 2

🥳Congratulations to the 104 pioneering scientists from 30 nations awarded 2025 #HFSPResearchGrants! 🎉Your frontier research is shaping the future of #LifeSciences! 🌍🔬🧪
🏆 Meet the awardees & their projects: www.hfsp.org/bookletRG202...
#ScienceDiplomacy #HFSP #FrontierScience #sts

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James Briscoe @jamesbriscoe.bsky.social · 1d

Very sad news, John Gurdon has died.

A developmental biologist's developmental biologist, Nobel prize winner

His work is the foundation of much of today's dev & stem cell bio.

An inspiration to many, including me. Always asking questions & wanting the answers

www.magd.cam.ac.uk/news/profess...

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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Current Biology @currentbiology.bsky.social · 7d

Sad news: Jane Goodall has died. She did more than any other human for our understanding and appreciation of our closest relatives, the chimpanzees.

That chimpanzees are Endangered tells you everything about our species and about what made her so exceptional.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/01/o...

Jane Goodall, Eminent Primatologist Who Chronicled the Lives of Chimps, Dies at 91

www.nytimes.com

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Gaspar Jekely @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy · 12d

Ernst Haeckel's dumbbells from the Haeckel House in Jena.

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Máté Varga @mvargam.bsky.social · 14d

Share your favorite black and white movie.

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 18d

Massive sibling regression study finds that human traits are largely environmentally driven (average heritability = 0.3)

Within-family heritability estimates for behavioural and disease phenotypes from 500,000 sibling pairs of diverse ancestries

Quantification of the direct effect of genetic variation on human behavioural traits is important for understanding between-individual variation in socio-economic and health outcomes but estimates of ...

www.medrxiv.org

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Christophe 🔬 L @christlet.bsky.social · 19d

With the caveat productivity is defined as the number of papers published, it's notable to see that the gender and English proficiency gaps are about the same overall. Then the gender gap decreases along the career, while the English proficiency gap widens

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Cynthia Wolberger @cwolberger.bsky.social · Sep 8

A giant in molecular biology and virology has passed. RIP David Baltimore.

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/07/s...

David Baltimore, Nobel-Winning Molecular Biologist, Dies at 87

www.nytimes.com

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V4SDB @v4sdb.bsky.social · Sep 7

Wow, that was amazing! We thank everyone for attending the V4SDB 2025 meeting! You all made it an excellent conference, where we had the opportunity to hear from outstanding speakers,share ideas and experiences, and of course have some unforgettable time during social activities!

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V4SDB @v4sdb.bsky.social · Sep 6

Next we look forward to hearing from Máté Varga @mvargam.bsky.social from ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, who will tell us about the Evolution and Development of Breathing Strategies in Paradise Fish!
#V4SDB2025 #developmentalbiology #evodevo

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Máté Varga @mvargam.bsky.social · Sep 5

For 2025 we went back to the high Tatra mountains - this was our second attempt for Slavkovský štít 🇸🇰 (2452 m) as the first one the previous day failed due to heavy rains.

We choose the Tatras so we can easily hop over to the @v4sdb.bsky.social conference in Stará Lesná (v4sdb2025.img.cas.cz).

Summit picture of the ELTE Fishgenetics group at Slavkovský štít in the Tatra mountains.

Máté Varga @mvargam.bsky.social · Sep 5

Just realized that I have not moved over the lab’s yearly hike thread to Bluesky yet :-/. So previously (somewhere on X) we had summit photos for: Triglav 🇸🇮 (2864 m) in 2019, Säuleck 🇦🇹 (3086 m) in 2021, Kôprovský štít 🇸🇰 (2367 m) in 2022, Ankogel 🇦🇹 (3254 m) in 2023 and Mangart 🇸🇮 (2679) last year.

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V4SDB @v4sdb.bsky.social · Sep 5

Some of our colleagues arrived yesterday to attend the amazing two-day Young Developmental Biologist Workshop, a Round table on the use of Artificial Intelligence in research, and of course some social networking!

#V4SDB2025 #conference #developmentalbiology #evodevo #morphogenesis #organoids

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Máté Varga @mvargam.bsky.social · Aug 30

Ummm... a better version of our summary figure, with alt text.

Spider chart representation showing differences in zebrafish and paradise fish behavior. Zebrafish score higher in the domains of social preference and response to anxiolytic agents, whereas paradise fish show superior novelty exploration, working memory and behavioral consistency.

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Máté Varga @mvargam.bsky.social · Aug 30

Making a long story short: whereas zebrafish are happy with their buddies in the shoal, paradise fish are loners, who do not care (much) about the presence of their conspecifics. This makes them a more reliable test subject when tested alone in different behavioral paradigms, and during exploration.

Máté Varga @mvargam.bsky.social · Aug 30

Better later than never, I guess - we are quite happy to see this paper out in @commsbio.nature.com. Spearheaded by my super talented colleague, Zoltán Varga, we have compared the behaviour of zebrafish and paradise fish larvae, which turned out to be quite different. www.nature.com/articles/s42...

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Neglected Books @neglectedbooks.com · Aug 29

A selection of covers from early (1951-1953) Decca classical long-playing records designed by the legendary graphic artist Erik Nitsche. (1/4)

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Attila Bátorfy @attilabatorfy.bsky.social · Aug 28

Well, let's give it a try.

Infographic paradise from Hungarian magazine Tudomány és Technika (Science and Technique)

The youth educational magazine Tudomány és Technika (Science and Technique) was published biweekly in Hungarian between 1954 and 1963, but in Czechoslovakia, in Bratislava.

attilabatorfy.substack.com

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V4SDB @v4sdb.bsky.social · Aug 11

📢The full programme for the @v4sdb.bsky.social Meeting 2025 is now online! Check out the exciting line-up, including selected short talks and flash talks.
v4sdb2025.img.cas.cz/programme/
See you in 25 days in 🇸🇰⛰️!
#developmentalbiology #evodevo #conference

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paveltomancak.bsky.social @paveltomancak.bsky.social · Jul 31

Plus, the “Barkley Marathon” included a canoe trip to the other side of the river, and, of course, to become a #Finisher (we had 5), you needed to bring the pages back FIVE times. But everyone knows that, right? It’s #Barkley! 😉

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Oded Rechavi @odedrechavi.bsky.social · Jul 31

#TCTeAC #theconferencetoendallconferences

Oded Rechavi @odedrechavi.bsky.social · Jul 31

🥂This was the highlight of my year. The "instigators", led by local master of the ceremony @svobodalab.bsky.social will never forget the privilege of organizing it and i think every participant will treasure the experience forever ❤️ @nature.com @josiegz.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Scientific bedlam at the world’s weirdest and wildest research conference

Woodstock Bio2 + Night Science aimed to encourage collaborations through creativity. The walk-on music for presentations was fun, too.

www.nature.com

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Attila Bátorfy @attilabatorfy.bsky.social · Jul 21

Infographic paradise from the youth magazine Tudomány és Technika (Science and Technique) published in Hungarian but in Slovakia, Bratislava between 1954 and 1963. And this is just a "small" selection! 1. source adt.arcanum.com/hu/collectio...

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Lynn Chiu @drlynnchiu.bsky.social · Jul 20

Read all Elements in The Philosophy of Biology series for FREE during the ISHPSSB conference 20 - 25 July. You can find all of these Elements free to download and read here: cup.org/4kEgivL

Philosophy of Biology

Welcome to Cambridge Core

cup.org

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Máté Varga @mvargam.bsky.social · Jul 18

🙋‍♂️Could you add me please as well :).

Máté Varga @mvargam.bsky.social · Jul 17

If you got Bernard to print you a label, and you will not save a bottle for me, then better beware!!44!!!!

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M. Brent Hawkins @homeobox.bsky.social · Jul 7

We take for granted that our hands have two sides and can articulate in an endless number of ways. But what about a fish’s fin? Can a fish know something “like the back of its fin,” or have its future told with a fin palm reading? Check out this bluetorial to find out 👇🧪🧬🐟 doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Schematics depicting the dorsal and ventral sides of fins and limbs

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