Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Paul Francois

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

5 45 120

Reposted by Paul Francois

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

7 100 190

Paul Francois @pfrancois.bsky.social · 2d

oui les Etats-Unis c'est une catastrophe qui semble s'accélérer ... Le Canada résiste mais on ne pèse rien globalement. Impression de décadence globale. La Chine est en plein boom, mais évidemment .... Il faut espérer que quelque chose s'inverse, il ne nous reste que ça, l'espoir.

1

Paul Francois @pfrancois.bsky.social · 2d

Même si je n'y vais plus très souvent, la France c'est mon pays, j'y suis né et toute ma famille est là-bas. Encore une fois je suis très très inquiet et j'ai du mal à imaginer autre chose que le désastre annoncé pour 2027 ...

1

Paul Francois @pfrancois.bsky.social · 2d

Tout cela me rend très triste et très très inquiet pour le futur, de la France et de l'Europe ...

1

Paul Francois @pfrancois.bsky.social · 2d

I guess the current problem of France is that a government can lose a vote of no confidence without any costs for the political parties (while it is very costly for the country). In Canada we hear regularly that parties cannot afford frequent elections.

1

Paul Francois @pfrancois.bsky.social · 2d

It would be beneficial for French politicians to learn from other established parliamentary democracies. In Canada, there is a long-standing culture of minority governments, but a significant difference is that elections are called as soon as a vote of no confidence is lost.

1 2

Paul Francois @pfrancois.bsky.social · 4d

Best time of the year

6

Reposted by Paul Francois

James Briscoe @jamesbriscoe.bsky.social · 5d

Mechanical constraints disrupt gastruloid polarisation without changing gene expression - uncouples morphogenesis & patterning

Gregor & co use tunable hydrogels to show cell motility, not gene expression, drives axis formation in gastruloids

journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

Fine-tuning mechanical constraints reveals uncoupled patterning and gene expression programs in murine gastruloids

Highlighted Article: A bioinert confinement system enables dissection of how stiffness and timing shape gastruloid development, revealing uncoupling between polarization and transcriptional programs.

journals.biologists.com

1 10 37

Paul Francois @pfrancois.bsky.social · 6d

Suite à cet article Radio Canada vient d’annoncer qu’on aurait pu avoir les Bleus en camp de base à Montréal en 2026 mais que la ville a refusé parce que trop cher… c’est un peu rageant, il y aurait eu un soutien enorme !!! www.lapresse.ca/sports/chron...

La MLS veut un meilleur soutien de la Ville pour le CF Montréal

Saviez-vous que Montréal aurait pu recevoir un petit morceau de la Coupe du monde de soccer de 2026 ? Pour moins de 1 % du coût d’un match, en plus.

www.lapresse.ca

Reposted by Paul Francois

Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 6d

So much this (the "but" part).

Simon Fisher @profsimonfisher.bsky.social · 11d

New analysis of a 1-million yr old fossil skull captured worldwide media attention this week, with many headlines saying it requires a complete rewrite/rethink of human evolution. This is an intriguing study & it's brilliant to see so much public enthusiasm for deciphering our origins, but....1/n 🧪

Image shows just two example headlines from prominent media outlets earlier this week, heralding a newly published discovery that supposedly "rewrites human evolution". Left side, from the BBC: "Million-year-old skull rewrites human evolution, scientists claim"; right side, from the New York Post: "1M-year-old skull discovery could change everything we know about human evolution".

1 10 27

Reposted by Paul Francois

Manlio De Domenico @manlius.bsky.social · 11d

This is just astonishing. Amazing.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRzg...

Making A Billion-Year Lego Clock

YouTube video by Brick Technology

www.youtube.com

1 2 8

Paul Francois @pfrancois.bsky.social · 11d

Après sur la pratique le vélo c’est quand même super populaire au Québec (et de plus en plus, suffit de voir la prolifération à Montréal) donc je pense que la victoire d’aujourd’hui va avoir pas mal de retentissement chez les amateurs.

2

Paul Francois @pfrancois.bsky.social · 11d

Ben moi je suis plutôt vélo, mais oui je pense que beaucoup de gens vont regarder le rugby, les média en ont pas mal parlé (sur le mode on n’a pas de moyens mais on a quasiment les meilleures du monde)

1 1

Paul Francois @pfrancois.bsky.social · 11d

Magdeine Vallières, allez allez ! Énorme exploit !!! Ça va être le feu demain !!!

1 2

Reposted by Paul Francois

Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 12d

I felt very moved by this too. Not because we yet have a cure, but because of the reminder of the passionate and humane commitment that goes into such research, contrasted with the vicious idiocy with which medical research is being treated right now by the US administration.

Bethany Brookshire @beebrookshire.bsky.social · 12d

In reporting this piece on the new trial for a Huntington's treatment, I was struck by one thing in particular:

The joy.

One of my sources wept for joy. He has spent his entire career studying this disease, he said it was the happiest day. www.sciencenews.org/article/hunt...

Huntington's progression slowed by experimental gene therapy

An experimental gene therapy slowed Huntington’s by up to 75 percent in a small clinical trial. While not a cure, it may give patients longer lives.

www.sciencenews.org

1 22 77

Paul Francois @pfrancois.bsky.social · 14d

c'est aussi fascinant dans l'autre sens : malgré le fait que les LLMs dominants aient virtuellement déjà ingurgité la totalité des données et travaux produits par l'humanité, on est quand même (à mon avis) assez loin de l'efficacité de l'intelligence humaine.

1 4

Reposted by Paul Francois

gquaggiotto.bsky.social @gquaggiotto.bsky.social · 14d

"After the fall of the Roman Empire, elephants virtually disappeared from Western Europe. Since there was no real knowledge of how the animal looked, illustrators had to rely on oral and written transmissions to morphologically reconstruct the elephant" www.uliwestphal.de/elephas-anth...

6 59 170

Paul Francois @pfrancois.bsky.social · 17d

In France we call him ‘Guillaume le Conquérant’ to remind people where he came from and what was conquered :) en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayeux_...

1

Reposted by Paul Francois

The Company of Biologists @biologists.bsky.social · 19d

In our Forest of Biologists we fund the restoration and preservation of ancient woodland and dedicate these trees to our peer reviewers.

There are now over 10,000 trees for peer reviews!

Thank you to all our peer reviewers. Find out more:
forest.biologists.com

#PRW2025 @peerreviewweek.bsky.social

Lots of illustrated trees. A sample image taken from the Forest of Biologists website.

12 30

Reposted by Paul Francois

Venki Murthy @neurovenki.bsky.social · 19d

(edited repost) Thrilled to see our computational work on adaptive shaping of behavior (we call it outcome-based curriculum learning) in PLoS Comp Biol! @wl-tong.bsky.social, @gautamreddy.bsky.social & I formalize curricula in any RL task that can be framed as sequential simple-to-complex behavior.

Adaptive algorithms for shaping behavior

Author summary Animals are commonly trained by ‘shaping’ their behavior using a sequence of simpler tasks towards a complex behavior. Numerous schools of thought have proposed heuristics for shaping b...

journals.plos.org

11 35

Reposted by Paul Francois

Oded Rechavi @odedrechavi.bsky.social · 19d

Only single cell sequencing of the all these post docs will reveal why

8 46 350

Reposted by Paul Francois

Nicolas Hervieu @nhervieu.bsky.social · 19d

Brillantissime Gorafi.

Sous couvert d’un très ordinaire professeur d’archéologie et d’un passionné pour les artefacts rares, il aurait été ainsi au centre d’une cellule d’ultra gauche radicale, dite “Antifa” et aurait opéré en Europe, en Asie et aux Etats-unis entre les années trente et les fin des années soixante. “Il s’est semble-t-il radicalisé tout seul mais il est possible qu’il y ait des complices” a estimé un porte-parole de l’université qui a annoncé qu’elle allait collaborer avec les autorités et le gouvernement de Donald Trump. “On sait qu’il a déclaré devant témoins, “les nazis, je hais ces gars-là” c’est un discours de haine radicale” a affirmé Laura Loomer, une chroniqueuse conservatrice.

6 140 480

Reposted by Paul Francois

CAUT/ACPPU @caut.bsky.social · 20d

Au Canada, les coupes budgétaires de 15% proposées au sein du gouvernement fédéral auraient un effet dramatique sur la recherche & la science.

Demandez au premier ministre Mark Carney de préserver le financement promis en 2024.

Envoyez une lettre: win.newmode.net/canadianasso...

1 6 2

Reposted by Paul Francois

CAUT/ACPPU @caut.bsky.social · 20d

In Canada, proposed cuts of 15% across the federal government would have a dramatic effect on already globally decimated research & science.

Join Canada's research & science community and tell PM Mark Carney to preserve the funding promised in 2024.

Send a letter: win.newmode.net/canadianasso...

36 28