Maria Hodges
mariahodges.bsky.social
Maria Hodges
@mariahodges.bsky.social
Publishing Director at Springer. Opinions my own
Reposted by Maria Hodges
For #WorldDiabetesDay we would love to share with you this article published in 'Diabetologia'. 🩺📊 This journal explores nutrition guidelines for a person living with diabetes, through evidence-based, sustainable dietary advice! bit.ly/3LqrKOT @easdnews.bsky.social #ResearchPublishing
November 14, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Delighted to be here & hear such fantastic talks
Today we have our fantastic Autumn Meeting on Ancient Genomes @royalsociety.org !
November 14, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Great Synthetic Biology meetings: capacity attendance, multiple uses, great science (or great engineering!)
Synthetic Biology UK 2025 has begun! We’re excited to celebrate our 10th anniversary, showcasing groundbreaking advancements, and exploring future directions in the field #SBUK25 #BiochemEvent 🧪
November 13, 2025 at 7:47 PM
Reposted by Maria Hodges
A bit mad. Take a struggling industry whose core problem is relying on intl student fees for funding instead of stable funding... and tax that revenue to... pass it on to the uni's domestic students? The uni already sets domestic fees per what they can afford based on intl fee collections..
October 3, 2025 at 7:26 AM
Reposted by Maria Hodges
attacking Starmer for buying a field so that his disabled mother could watch her beloved donkeys is possibly the dumbest line of inquiry ever

as well summed up by Rob Hutton here: thecritic.co.uk/donkey-work/
September 29, 2025 at 8:02 AM
Reposted by Maria Hodges
Ed Davey, "I'm afraid Nigel Farage should be apologising for helping cause this problem in the first place"

"Before Brexit we didn't have a small boats problem because we had 27 return agreements with EU countries and we could return people"

-Maybe we should call them Farage's Brexit Boats
September 22, 2025 at 10:08 AM
Reposted by Maria Hodges
The methodology used to train a large-scale reasoning model in DeepSeek-R1, the open AI model released this year, is published in Nature. The reasoning ability of the LLM is shown to be improved by pure reinforcement learning, reducing the amount of human input needed: spklr.io/63326BylQ4
DeepSeek-R1 incentivizes reasoning in LLMs through reinforcement learning - Nature
A new artificial intelligence model, DeepSeek-R1, is introduced, demonstrating that the reasoning abilities of large language models can be incentivized through pure reinforcement learning, removing the need for human-annotated demonstrations.
spklr.io
September 18, 2025 at 9:53 AM
Reposted by Maria Hodges
AI models are being applied more often across a range of biomedical domains to support clinical decision-making and therapeutic strategies. A Review in Nature Reviews Bioengineering examines the transparency of medical AI systems, highlighting key approaches to increasing transparency. 🔒
Transparency of medical artificial intelligence systems - Nature Reviews Bioengineering
Artificial intelligence (AI) models are being applied more often across a range of biomedical domains to support clinical decision-making and therapeutic strategies. This Review examines the transparency of medical AI systems, highlighting key approaches to increasing transparency in model design, operation and outcomes.
go.nature.com
September 14, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Reposted by Maria Hodges
Pet parrots which typically live alone (whilst those in the wild live in large flocks) were given the technology to call each other. They would use it for up to three hours a day, and developed favourite friends 💔
on.ft.com/3K05vhS
September 12, 2025 at 6:00 AM
Reposted by Maria Hodges
Octopuses can use any of their arms to perform tasks, but tend to use a particular arm, or arms, for specific tasks. This finding, presented in a paper in Scientific Reports, reveals more about the complex behaviour these animals display: spklr.io/63328ByzFm

#Zoology #AnimalBehaviour 🦑
Octopus arm flexibility facilitates complex behaviors in diverse natural environments - Scientific Reports
Octopus arms are among the most flexible of biological structures, yet the full range of arm flexibility has not been investigated in detail, for example in varied benthic marine habitats where structural complexity far exceeds that of lab trials. This field study quantified arm flexibility with a hierarchical analysis of octopus behaviors, arm actions, and arm deformations used throughout diverse natural habitats. Twenty-five videos of naturally behaving octopuses were analyzed from 5 Caribbean sites and 1 site in Spain. Octopus behaviors were delineated into 12 arm actions, consisting of 4 possible arm deformations (shorten, elongate, bend, or torsion). Overall, 3,907 arm action occurrences demonstrated that all arms could execute each action. Anterior arms performed more actions than posterior arms, while there were no differences between left and right arms. Furthermore, 6,871 arm deformation occurrences indicated that all 4 arm deformations were used across all actions; however, the frequencies of these deformations varied by arm region (proximal, medial, distal). The combination of deformations and arm actions implemented to achieve complex behaviors illustrates extreme arm flexibility and coordination during a wide range of arm functions. Such demonstrations of flexibility may help inform ethologists, sensory ecologists, neuroscientists, and engineers designing soft robotic appendages.
spklr.io
September 11, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Reposted by Maria Hodges
UK recovers position in EU’s Horizon Europe science research programme

Scientists received €735m in grants in 2024 after UK rejoined the programme as associate member post-Brexit 👏
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
UK recovers position in EU’s Horizon Europe science research programme
Scientists received €735m in grants in 2024 after UK rejoined programme as associate member post-Brexit
www.theguardian.com
August 13, 2025 at 9:34 AM
ENNNGGGLLLAAANND!!!!
July 17, 2025 at 10:12 PM
Reposted by Maria Hodges
🔍 Behind the paper: A recent paper published in Chromosome Research provides the first description of zebrafish lampbrush chromosomes that develop during the diplotene stage of oocyte maturation. bit.ly/4jLdXhc. #AcademicSky
June 14, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Reposted by Maria Hodges
Welcome to our new @springernature.com HSS account on Bluesky! Showcasing the impact of our authors and communities in Humanities & Social Sciences from Nature, Springer, Palgrave Macmillan, Metzler, Apress & BMC.
June 3, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Reposted by Maria Hodges
Thanks to these efforts we were selected from the nearly 150,000 journals from 22,000 members using @crossref.bsky.social infrastructure for having the highest #metadata completeness (82%) in the small publishers category. You can also read more in their blog www.crossref.org/blog/crossre...
May 12, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Reposted by Maria Hodges
🚀 The 2025 #StateOfOpenData survey is live! 🌐 Researchers worldwide, we want to hear about your experiences and challenges with data sharing. Help shape the future of #OpenScience and stand a chance to win 1 of 5 $100 gift cards! Participate today: go.sn.pub/024jk6
@figshare.com @digital-science.com
May 2, 2025 at 7:09 AM
Reposted by Maria Hodges
Lots of data to be analysed, but we know what yesterday means. Labour has fluffed its 1st year in govt: a promise of vague change followed up with no obvious change & the prospect of limited change between now & 2029. Reform is the party best exploiting the frustrations which follow from this.
May 2, 2025 at 5:28 AM
Reposted by Maria Hodges
"Trump administration has blocked access to multiple data repositories maintained by the NIH for researchers in several countries"

Still think the solution to science publishing is "the government should just run it..."?

www.fiercebiotech.com/research/nih...
NIH blocks researchers in China, Russia and other countries from multiple databases
The Trump administration has blocked access to multiple data repositories maintained by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for researchers in several countries, including a cancer statistics d | ...
www.fiercebiotech.com
April 10, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Reposted by Maria Hodges
Now published in Peer Community Journal, #ecology section: Code-sharing policies are associated with increased reproducibility potential of ecological findings
Code-sharing policies are associated with increased reproducibility potential of ecological findings
Sánchez-Tójar, Alfredo1  ; Bezine, Aya1 ; Purgar, Marija2, 3 ; Culina, Antica2, 4 1 Department of Evolutionary Biology, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany 2 Ruđer Bošković Institute, Zagreb,…
buff.ly
April 2, 2025 at 11:00 AM
Reposted by Maria Hodges
The idea that trauma can leave epigenetic marks that can be passed onto following generations remains controversial.

New research on 3 generations of Syrian refugees echoes results from studies of children of survivors of the genocide in Rwanda & the Holocaust
🧪
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Can trauma from violence be genetically inherited? Scientists debate Syria refugee study
Study finds genetic imprints in three generations of Syrian refugees. Researchers urge caution in interpreting findings and call for replication.
www.nature.com
March 31, 2025 at 7:16 AM
Reposted by Maria Hodges
🌐 Celebrate #WorldWaterDay with us! Explore more with Springer and join the global conversation on Sustainable Water Management and Glacier Preservation. 💦
March 24, 2025 at 8:43 AM
Reposted by Maria Hodges
Drug shortages have been affecting people around the country but haven't really reached Westminster as a story. A big issue unlikely to go away any time soon - complex supply chains providing an ever greater number of drugs will always have vulnerabilities. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Brexit a key factor in worst UK medicine shortages in four years, report says
Nuffield Trust says supply chains have shifted, with medicines for epilepsy and cystic fibrosis among those now scarce
www.theguardian.com
March 22, 2025 at 8:52 AM
Reposted by Maria Hodges
‘Travel agencies charge far more than it would cost an academic to arrange their own travel and accommodations - sometimes staggeringly more.’
Why academia is sleepwalking into self-destruction. My editorial @brain1878.bsky.social If you agree with the sentiments please repost. It's important for all our sakes to stop the madness
academic.oup.com/brain/articl...
March 9, 2025 at 9:35 AM
Reposted by Maria Hodges
Unbelievable news.

Pancreatic is one of the deadliest cancers.

New paper shows personalized mRNA vaccines can induce durable T cells that attack pancreatic cancer, with 75% of patients cancer free at three years—far, far better than standard of care.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
February 27, 2025 at 5:03 PM