Ben Hall
@hallben.bsky.social
Professor in computational cancer biology at UCL interested in disease, mutations, and aging. Funded by CRUK, MRC and Royal Society.
Personal account for science, code, music, photography! “Tired is the new awake”
Personal account for science, code, music, photography! “Tired is the new awake”
Pinned
Ben Hall
@hallben.bsky.social
· Nov 3
UCL – University College London
UCL is consistently ranked as one of the top ten universities in the world (QS World University Rankings 2010-2022) and is No.2 in the UK for research power (Research Excellence Framework 2021).
www.ucl.ac.uk
Very excited to share an advert for a new lecturer position in Computational Cancer at UCL! Permanent position at assistant professor level- join a growing community at UCL in a cutting edge discipline.
Please share widely!
www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...
Please share widely!
www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...
Reposted by Ben Hall
Second preprint of the year in which @sarahgersing.bsky.social from @rhp-lab.bsky.social mapped the effects of >7500 variants in glucokinase (GCK) on the interaction with the glucokinase regulatory protein so that we now have a 3D GCK scan (abundance, interaction, activity)
doi.org/10.64898/202...
doi.org/10.64898/202...
January 18, 2026 at 6:14 PM
Second preprint of the year in which @sarahgersing.bsky.social from @rhp-lab.bsky.social mapped the effects of >7500 variants in glucokinase (GCK) on the interaction with the glucokinase regulatory protein so that we now have a 3D GCK scan (abundance, interaction, activity)
doi.org/10.64898/202...
doi.org/10.64898/202...
Reposted by Ben Hall
Funny, but also one of the two best career pieces of advice I got -- get exercise, especially when you are too stressed or don't have time for it.
discovered a pretty critical coding error in The Human Body where sometimes the way to feel better when you feel too bad to work out is to work out. this is suboptimal for user experience of The Human Body
January 17, 2026 at 6:21 AM
Funny, but also one of the two best career pieces of advice I got -- get exercise, especially when you are too stressed or don't have time for it.
Reposted by Ben Hall
One of my concerns with AI-assisted research in biology is that we're already looking only in the lamplight and AI incentivizes us to narrow the beam. Seems like it's happening...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Artificial intelligence tools expand scientists’ impact but contract science’s focus - Nature
Artificial intelligence boosts individual scientists’ output, citations and career progression, but collectively narrows research diversity and reduces collaboration, concentrating work in data-rich a...
www.nature.com
January 15, 2026 at 4:08 PM
One of my concerns with AI-assisted research in biology is that we're already looking only in the lamplight and AI incentivizes us to narrow the beam. Seems like it's happening...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Ben Hall
'Another Warrington has hit the North-West'.
January 14, 2026 at 1:18 PM
'Another Warrington has hit the North-West'.
Reposted by Ben Hall
An absolutely key first principle when using AI is that you, the human, are responsible for its outputs, and that you must *check* everything it churns out. Blaming Copilot doesn't wash.
WM Police chief Craig Guildford has apologised for identifying a fictitious West Ham v Maccabi Tel Aviv match in a police report. He’s written to the home affairs committee and blames Microsoft CoPilot for the error
January 14, 2026 at 9:53 AM
An absolutely key first principle when using AI is that you, the human, are responsible for its outputs, and that you must *check* everything it churns out. Blaming Copilot doesn't wash.
Reposted by Ben Hall
@stephenkb.bsky.social did a good piece the other day about this very thing. You're responsible for how you use AI in your work; that's a really important principle and guardrail www.ft.com/content/3236...
AI cannot take responsibility for human faults
As Grok shows, decisions have consequences and someone needs to be able to answer for them
www.ft.com
January 14, 2026 at 9:54 AM
@stephenkb.bsky.social did a good piece the other day about this very thing. You're responsible for how you use AI in your work; that's a really important principle and guardrail www.ft.com/content/3236...
Reposted by Ben Hall
And that's definitely what OpenAI/Microsoft/Whoever's insurance company will tell you when you make a catastrophic mistake.
@stephenkb.bsky.social did a good piece the other day about this very thing. You're responsible for how you use AI in your work; that's a really important principle and guardrail www.ft.com/content/3236...
AI cannot take responsibility for human faults
As Grok shows, decisions have consequences and someone needs to be able to answer for them
www.ft.com
January 14, 2026 at 10:06 AM
And that's definitely what OpenAI/Microsoft/Whoever's insurance company will tell you when you make a catastrophic mistake.
Reposted by Ben Hall
AGI may never happen. But in some tasks, 'as good as human' intelligence does already exist - yet there is still one vitally important thing that AI can't take, which is responsibility. Some thoughts on that in my column this week:
AI cannot take responsibility for human faults
As Grok shows, decisions have consequences and someone needs to be able to answer for them
www.ft.com
January 13, 2026 at 5:16 PM
AGI may never happen. But in some tasks, 'as good as human' intelligence does already exist - yet there is still one vitally important thing that AI can't take, which is responsibility. Some thoughts on that in my column this week:
Reposted by Ben Hall
Anyone curious about a typical academic workload might be interested (short thread). I crossed 17 items off my to-do list this past week. The list now stands at 59 items (this includes 15 items that were freshly added last week - a lower-than-average spawning number as we're just after holidays).
January 10, 2026 at 9:40 AM
Anyone curious about a typical academic workload might be interested (short thread). I crossed 17 items off my to-do list this past week. The list now stands at 59 items (this includes 15 items that were freshly added last week - a lower-than-average spawning number as we're just after holidays).
Reposted by Ben Hall
Interest in this convinces me I should host a symposium here at @lieberinstitute.bsky.social where we invite kids and their scientist parents, and teach the kids about genomic instability under the guise of them understanding the Pokemon world better. Elevate my waning parenting cool factor too ;)
Got way too excited finding out that evolution of my fave Pokemon Vaporean is due to the unstable genetic makeup of Eevee. Kids were not amused 🙄 at my musings on doing some sequencing experiments to understand whether this is transposons, epigenetic, fragile hotspots for mutations...
January 8, 2026 at 2:08 PM
Interest in this convinces me I should host a symposium here at @lieberinstitute.bsky.social where we invite kids and their scientist parents, and teach the kids about genomic instability under the guise of them understanding the Pokemon world better. Elevate my waning parenting cool factor too ;)
Reposted by Ben Hall
With the start of our new study trying to find causes of bowel cancer in young people hitting the headlines today: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... I'm so glad to see bold efforts to raise awareness, like this giant 5x3m poster on the Croydon station platform I pass by on my to the lab each day
January 7, 2026 at 10:38 AM
With the start of our new study trying to find causes of bowel cancer in young people hitting the headlines today: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... I'm so glad to see bold efforts to raise awareness, like this giant 5x3m poster on the Croydon station platform I pass by on my to the lab each day
Reposted by Ben Hall
Moving beyond monogenic disorders in clinical healthcare - @ki.se @scilifelab.se go.nature.com/4spqsof
Moving beyond monogenic disorders in clinical healthcare - Nature Biotechnology
Our understanding of the genetic mechanisms underlying rare diseases has rapidly advanced over the past decade, largely because of technological innovations. Yet clinical practice still has a strong m...
go.nature.com
January 6, 2026 at 5:41 PM
Moving beyond monogenic disorders in clinical healthcare - @ki.se @scilifelab.se go.nature.com/4spqsof
Reposted by Ben Hall
ggdiceplot 1.0.1 is out now!
From today, {diceplot} is deprecated and treated as the legacy implementation, all new development and features will go into {ggdiceplot}.
Repo: github.com/maflot/ggdic...
Docs: dice-and-domino-plot.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
Paper: tinyurl.com/ggdiceplot
#rstats #ggplot2
From today, {diceplot} is deprecated and treated as the legacy implementation, all new development and features will go into {ggdiceplot}.
Repo: github.com/maflot/ggdic...
Docs: dice-and-domino-plot.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
Paper: tinyurl.com/ggdiceplot
#rstats #ggplot2
December 8, 2025 at 3:51 PM
ggdiceplot 1.0.1 is out now!
From today, {diceplot} is deprecated and treated as the legacy implementation, all new development and features will go into {ggdiceplot}.
Repo: github.com/maflot/ggdic...
Docs: dice-and-domino-plot.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
Paper: tinyurl.com/ggdiceplot
#rstats #ggplot2
From today, {diceplot} is deprecated and treated as the legacy implementation, all new development and features will go into {ggdiceplot}.
Repo: github.com/maflot/ggdic...
Docs: dice-and-domino-plot.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
Paper: tinyurl.com/ggdiceplot
#rstats #ggplot2
Reposted by Ben Hall
Widely Targeted Metabolomics and Machine Learning Identify Succinate as a Key Metabolite in Sepsis-Associated Encephalopathy: iScience www.cell.com/iscience/ful...
Widely Targeted Metabolomics and Machine Learning Identify Succinate as a Key Metabolite in Sepsis-Associated Encephalopathy
Sepsis-associated encephalopathy (SAE) is a common and serious complication of sepsis
that leads to acute brain dysfunction and long-term cognitive impairment. We used
widely targeted LC–MS/MS plasma ...
www.cell.com
January 4, 2026 at 1:54 PM
Widely Targeted Metabolomics and Machine Learning Identify Succinate as a Key Metabolite in Sepsis-Associated Encephalopathy: iScience www.cell.com/iscience/ful...
Reposted by Ben Hall
When in doubt (in teaching and in research) do a simulation on the computer.
statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2026/01/04/w...
statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2026/01/04/w...
When in doubt (in teaching and in research) do a simulation on the computer. | Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science
statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu
January 4, 2026 at 2:58 PM
When in doubt (in teaching and in research) do a simulation on the computer.
statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2026/01/04/w...
statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2026/01/04/w...
Reposted by Ben Hall
'Although AI is helping Science catch errors that can be corrected or elements that are missing from a paper but should be included, such as supporting code or raw data, its use and the evaluation of the output require more human effort, not less.'
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Resisting AI slop
It’s hard to talk about any topic in science or education today without the subject of artificial intelligence (AI) coming up—whether large language models should be allowed to aid in searching for a ...
www.science.org
January 4, 2026 at 9:27 AM
'Although AI is helping Science catch errors that can be corrected or elements that are missing from a paper but should be included, such as supporting code or raw data, its use and the evaluation of the output require more human effort, not less.'
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Ben Hall
The tl;dr is: can the press just stop harassing and bullying someone who litera lost his mother at 12 to press harassment?
I wrote about some very strong feelings I have about the royal family.
open.substack.com/pub/naomiald...
open.substack.com/pub/naomiald...
I love Prince Harry
possibly my most controversial opinion that I am very sure of and which I think could not publish like this in the UK press (plus, under the line: a great documentary, podcast and parrot news)
open.substack.com
January 4, 2026 at 9:28 AM
The tl;dr is: can the press just stop harassing and bullying someone who litera lost his mother at 12 to press harassment?
Reposted by Ben Hall
We all should remember that by publishing in a journal, we financially support their existence, and intellectually support their values and approach to publishing. Publish in journals that give back to your discipline, that give back to science. Such as Development and Developmental Biology
"revision requests can expand beyond what is feasible...we've been told reviews are unnecessarily harsh... reviews can seem formidable but usually represent constructive critiques"
Interesting reflections and introspection from editors of Development 1/n
journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...
Interesting reflections and introspection from editors of Development 1/n
journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...
The hard truth about how hard it is to publish in Development
Every researcher knows the anticipation and trepidation that come with submitting a paper to a journal. Years of effort have been distilled into a few thousand words and a handful of figures containin...
journals.biologists.com
January 3, 2026 at 7:33 PM
We all should remember that by publishing in a journal, we financially support their existence, and intellectually support their values and approach to publishing. Publish in journals that give back to your discipline, that give back to science. Such as Development and Developmental Biology
Reposted by Ben Hall
"revision requests can expand beyond what is feasible...we've been told reviews are unnecessarily harsh... reviews can seem formidable but usually represent constructive critiques"
Interesting reflections and introspection from editors of Development 1/n
journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...
Interesting reflections and introspection from editors of Development 1/n
journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...
The hard truth about how hard it is to publish in Development
Every researcher knows the anticipation and trepidation that come with submitting a paper to a journal. Years of effort have been distilled into a few thousand words and a handful of figures containin...
journals.biologists.com
January 3, 2026 at 4:23 PM
"revision requests can expand beyond what is feasible...we've been told reviews are unnecessarily harsh... reviews can seem formidable but usually represent constructive critiques"
Interesting reflections and introspection from editors of Development 1/n
journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...
Interesting reflections and introspection from editors of Development 1/n
journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...
Need to think about this some more but the availability of open access scientific papers and scientific code as a legitimate source for training LLMs should be recognised as a benefit.
Is ‘open science’ delivering benefits? Major study finds proof is sparse www.science.org/content/arti...
Is ‘open science’ delivering benefits? Major study finds proof is sparse
It’s hard to measure social and economic impacts of making papers and data free, researchers say
www.science.org
January 3, 2026 at 5:24 PM
Need to think about this some more but the availability of open access scientific papers and scientific code as a legitimate source for training LLMs should be recognised as a benefit.
Reposted by Ben Hall
Is ‘open science’ delivering benefits? Major study finds proof is sparse www.science.org/content/arti...
Is ‘open science’ delivering benefits? Major study finds proof is sparse
It’s hard to measure social and economic impacts of making papers and data free, researchers say
www.science.org
January 3, 2026 at 5:00 PM
Is ‘open science’ delivering benefits? Major study finds proof is sparse www.science.org/content/arti...
Reposted by Ben Hall
My blogpost on the success of universal chickenpox vaccination in the US, and why the UK should have made the move sooner:
www.scientificdiscovery.dev/p/13-the-suc...
Chickenpox vaccines are really effective!
www.scientificdiscovery.dev/p/13-the-suc...
Chickenpox vaccines are really effective!
January 2, 2026 at 12:16 PM
My blogpost on the success of universal chickenpox vaccination in the US, and why the UK should have made the move sooner:
www.scientificdiscovery.dev/p/13-the-suc...
Chickenpox vaccines are really effective!
www.scientificdiscovery.dev/p/13-the-suc...
Chickenpox vaccines are really effective!
Reposted by Ben Hall
Woohoo! Chickenpox vaccines are on the menu in the UK - finally!!
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Ignore the sceptics: with this new vaccine, chickenpox could become a thing of the past | Wes Streeting
Thousands develop serious complications from the varicella virus. Today the NHS rolls out a new jab, alongside measles, mumps and rubella, says health secretary Wes Streeting
www.theguardian.com
January 2, 2026 at 12:06 PM
Woohoo! Chickenpox vaccines are on the menu in the UK - finally!!
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Reposted by Ben Hall
Not that snapshots are the be-all either way, but FWIW on New Year's day, in the dead of winter, solar power is still providing nearly 10% of the UK's electricity at lunchtime. That's not nothing.
January 1, 2026 at 12:39 PM
Not that snapshots are the be-all either way, but FWIW on New Year's day, in the dead of winter, solar power is still providing nearly 10% of the UK's electricity at lunchtime. That's not nothing.
Reposted by Ben Hall
Loved this brilliant biography of Crick by @matthewcobb.bsky.social But what struck me from the start: it's also a portrait of a lost time in science: no grant applications or teaching, big travel budgets: the job only to think, talk & get science done. Future scientific biogs will be so different.
December 31, 2025 at 8:38 PM
Loved this brilliant biography of Crick by @matthewcobb.bsky.social But what struck me from the start: it's also a portrait of a lost time in science: no grant applications or teaching, big travel budgets: the job only to think, talk & get science done. Future scientific biogs will be so different.