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simon1235.bsky.social
@simon1235.bsky.social
Retired drosophila brain surgeon
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November 12, 2025 at 1:42 PM
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I was in a situation where a guy had lost his arm. He had put on a tourniquet and I administered his morphine. We were waiting for his airlift and I said I hope thats not your wanking hand. He replied I don’t need one I know your Mum😂
August 9, 2024 at 9:01 AM
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For me the Times review was not behind a paywall
Francis Crick — the last of the lone scientific geniuses
Matthew Cobb’s impressive new biography reveals that the co-discoverer of DNA’s double helix was brilliant, garrulous and exasperating
www.thetimes.com
November 13, 2025 at 11:39 AM
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NEW – Met Office: Ten years of naming UK storms to warn the public | Holly Clements @metoffice.gov.uk

Read here ⬇️
Met Office: Ten years of naming UK storms to warn the public - Carbon Brief
Storm naming is a public safety tool that makes severe weather easier to remember, talk about and follow.
www.carbonbrief.org
November 13, 2025 at 12:30 PM
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Convincing you to read my novel by the first sentence. Share yours if you want.

(Here's the opening of "God's War". Still my most iconic)
November 11, 2025 at 12:42 PM
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9 November 1928 | Dutch Jewish girl Jenny Trui Spier, was born in Amsterdam.

She was deported to #Auschwitz from #Westerbork in November 1942. She was murdered in a gas chamber after the arrival selection.
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The first two gas chambers near Auschwitz II-Birkenau: https://youtu.be/Rr6lF75fDmU
November 9, 2025 at 12:00 PM
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What did Watson and Crick discover in 1953?”
“Rosalind Franklin’s notes!”
Now would be a good time to listen to my interview with the brilliant @matthewcobb.bsky.social about Franklin, Watson, Crick and the discovery of the double helix. geneticsunzipped.com/blog/2023/8/...
What really happened between Franklin, Watson and Crick in the discovery of the DNA double helix? — Genetics Unzipped
Kat Arney chats with Professor Matthew Cobb about what really happened between James Watson, Francis Crick and Rosalind Franklin during the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA.
geneticsunzipped.com
November 8, 2025 at 8:53 AM
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Woodlice on rusty iron make a quite Martian scene
November 8, 2025 at 12:00 PM
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James D. Watson is dead. Stay tuned for some thoughts, based on my research on his biography, to be published soon.
While I write that up, y'all can throw tomatoes at this if you like. But I will offer a more nuanced take.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/s...
James Watson, Co-Discoverer of the Structure of DNA, Is Dead at 97
www.nytimes.com
November 7, 2025 at 8:39 PM
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So much science and personality in 2 paragraphs. Made my day. 🧪
The things you find in your photo roll #2. For some reason, in August 2013 I took a picture of this charming letter from Max Perutz to Jim Watson, written shortly before Max died.
November 4, 2025 at 3:54 PM
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🇮🇹🇵🇱🇷🇺🇲🇩🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Absolute scenes in a Rome restaurant where a Moldovan waitress tries to communicate with Poles using a mix of Russian, Polish, Romanian, English and Italian.

- I speak Russian because I come from Moldova.
- That's great, we like Moldovans a lot. Russians, not so much.
November 7, 2025 at 5:01 PM
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🔭 Comet Lemmon Beyond Lomnický Peak

Image Credit & Copyright: Robert Barsa

star.ucl.ac.uk/~apod/apod/a...
November 4, 2025 at 8:00 AM
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On the event of James Watson's death, I highly recommend this 2023 commentary from @matthewcobb.bsky.social and Nathaniel Comfort with crucial new insights into the discovery of the double helix. (And also check out Cobb's brand new biography of Francis Crick) www.nature.com/articles/d41...
What Rosalind Franklin truly contributed to the discovery of DNA’s structure
Franklin was no victim in how the DNA double helix was solved. An overlooked letter and an unpublished news article, both written in 1953, reveal that she was an equal player.
www.nature.com
November 7, 2025 at 9:25 PM
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Deranged. Psychotic even
November 6, 2025 at 11:35 PM
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I successfully nerd-sniped myself into making a precinct-level dot-density map of the NYC mayoral election. kieranhealy.org/blog/archive...
Mamdani vs Sliwa and Cuomo
Mamdani’s victory in the New York City mayoral election gave me the opportunity to draw a few maps, and also to learn a bit about incorporating additional spatial data into maps drawn in R. R is not a...
kieranhealy.org
November 6, 2025 at 10:07 PM
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A lot of people probably won't get how finely crafted this joke is and how many layers it has, applause to Jane
November 5, 2025 at 8:51 AM
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Mere months ago, @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social was polling at 1 percent—right next to “Someone Else.” Tonight, he was elected New York City’s newest mayor.
www.wired.com/story/the-bi...
November 5, 2025 at 3:03 AM
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Literal insanity that a company that made a product that saved millions of lives just a few years ago could go out of business www.statnews.com/2025/10/30/m...
November 4, 2025 at 4:49 PM
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Terrific review of CRICK by Georgina Ferry in this week's @nature.com (the print title of the review is less clickbaity):
Sex, drugs and the conscious brain: Francis Crick beyond the double helix
A thoroughly researched account of the history and relationships that shaped the scientist who co-discovered the structure of DNA.
www.nature.com
November 3, 2025 at 1:22 PM
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Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching
November 3, 2025 at 10:04 AM
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This is encouraging!

A vaccine given to breast cancer patients 20 y ago has kept them alive. The 5 yr relative survival rate of women w/ metastatic cancer is 32%.

This vaccine elicited long term immune responses.

It is too expensive to be antivax.
🧪 corporate.dukehealth.org/news/could-c...
Could a Cancer Vaccine Developed Long Ago Hold the Key to Long-Term Survival?
DURHAM, N.C. – A small group of women with advanced breast cancer received a vaccine via a clinical trial more than 20 years ago. Today, they’re all still alive. Scientists say that kind of long-term ...
corporate.dukehealth.org
November 2, 2025 at 10:23 PM
Went to the Monet in Venice exihibit at the Brooklyn Museum 👍 yesterday so I did a search for reflections among my pics and turned up this. October 2021.
#photography #landscape #HudsonRiver #Sunset #Manhattan #NewJersey #Reflections #FtWashingtonPark
October 30, 2025 at 7:49 PM
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Brit TV is the best
October 30, 2025 at 2:36 PM
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That would have been big news a few years ago, unfortunately the great science that gives important understanding in coronaviruses is now back to the small circle of scientists. Anyway: A fully functional furin cleavage site in a bat betacorarnavirus! Congrats to the authors!
October 29, 2025 at 9:56 PM