Harriet Carroll: Long Covid Scientific Consultancy
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angryhacademic.bsky.social
Harriet Carroll: Long Covid Scientific Consultancy
@angryhacademic.bsky.social
680 followers 260 following 4.4K posts
#LongCovid Scientific Consultant
PhD Nutrition & Metabolism
Hon Research Fellow, Lund Uni
Posts: nutrition ▪ health ▪ all-things-science ▪ activism ▪ fun facts ▪ #PostVac

Donations: https://ko-fi.com/drsmash

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LongCovidSC
Posts Replies Media Videos
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Fun fact: do you ever feel like someone is talking shit? Maybe they are blow fly maggot!

These little rascals have evolved termite "faces" on their butt giving them access to the termite colony, its food, and free grooming
www.cell.com/current-biol...
www.livescience.com/animals/inse...
A maggot butt which looks like a termite face with a little dot for each eye and antennas coming off the top
November 10, 2025 at 8:57 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Fun fact: this 👇🏻 is a mola mola or sunfish. No it has not had its tail cut off, it is a plate-shaped blob that swims vertically, & cant close its mouth. It is unusual in many ways, cue a miniseries!
taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/1...
📸: newsweek.com/ocean-sunfis...
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_s...
A sun fish. It looks like a round flat plate with two large fins, one of the top and one on the bottom. There is no tail, so it looks like the body ends very abruptly A sun fish. It looks like a round flat plate with two large fins, one of the top and one on the bottom. There is no tail, so it looks like the body ends very abruptly. This picture is more front on where you can see its open mouth
November 9, 2025 at 10:04 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Fun fact: water in the desert is hard to come by so animals have learnt different ways to get it. The fog-basking beetle climbs up the sand dunes when it's foggy, does a little handstand, & its body collects water which trickles towards its mouth
frontiersinzoology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
Beetle in a fog chamber with its rear legs extended pushing it's butt upwards, and it's head tilted towards the floor. 2 red lines are overlaid on the picture to show the angle ("a") the beetle's body is at, relative to being perpendicular to the ground
November 8, 2025 at 9:16 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Fun fact: this 👇🏻 is the furry puss caterpillar. It may look like a wee kitty ready for some cuddles, but touching it results in hours of radiating burning pain
nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti...

Image from this video: youtu.be/d81e8p3AkkM
A mans face close up to a furry blond-ish caterpillar sitting on a leaf.
November 8, 2025 at 9:15 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Fun fact: this maggot filled teabag is an effective way to treat wounds. The maggots:
Eat dying tissue & bacteria
Release antimicrobials
Release substances that promote healing
Eliminate odours
www.swbh.nhs.uk/wp-content/u...
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
www.manchester.ac.uk/about/news/m...
A sort of tea bag with a white sponge and maggots inside Image: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Sterile-larvae-in-biobag_fig1_5502681
November 8, 2025 at 9:11 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Fun fact: the long eared jerboa is a desert rodent found in China & Mongolia. They have a snout-like nose 🐽, mouse-like body 🐁, kangaroo-like legs 🦘, & the biggest ears 🐰 relative to body size—up to 50 % body length!
livescience.com/largest-anim...
Image: reddit.com/r/Awwducatio...
A sand coloured rodent with really long ears, really short front arms, kangaroo like legs, a snout like nose, big black eyes, and a long pink tail
November 7, 2025 at 9:01 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Fun fact: pineapples grow from the ground

See the immense work behind growing pineapples here: youtu.be/LLcei6vgK0A
A growing pineapple sitting on top of the pineapple plant, with sword-like leaves coddling the pineapple at the bottom
November 6, 2025 at 10:30 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Fun fact: this👇🏻 is Naica Cave, Mexico, a cave of giant crystals

Its so hot & humid that the lungs become the coolest place water lands on (and then condenses)...and yeah that doesnt end well
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tec...
youtu.be/O7yfx0ejELg?...
Image: wired.co.uk/article/crys...
A cave of giant white crystals. It doesnt look very impressive until you notice tiny looking peope in orange suits walking across the crystal protrusions
November 6, 2025 at 10:29 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Fun fact: this 👇🏻 is a hairy frogfish. They:
🌈 Come in lots of colours
🚶🏻‍♀️"Walk" along the sea bed
🌬️ Use jet propulsion from their gills to move
🥞 Spread out like a pancake if placed on land
jstor.org/stable/1445573
sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Image: youtu.be/5--DNyBeInQ?...
A hairy frogfish. Looks like a a hairy blob of coral. The main body is a salmony pink beige colour and the hairs look turquoise. The feet (which are really fins) are just about visible walking along the floor, and the mouth is just about visible under the hairyness
November 6, 2025 at 10:28 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Not-at-all-fun fact: folate intake during pregnancy helps reduce the risk of neural tube defects (NTDs). One NTD is anencephaly where the babe has parts of its brain & skull missing, usually fatal in utero or shortly after birth 😥
my.clevelandclinic.org/health/disea...
www.cdc.gov/birth-defect...
A baby with anencephaly. Its face is quite rounded with large eyes that are closed. Around where youd expect eyebrows, there is no more skin; instead the top of the head is flat, and the red remnants of brain are visible Image: https://archive.cdc.gov/www_cdc_gov/ncbddd/birthdefects/surveillancemanual/quick-reference-handbook/anencephaly.html
November 6, 2025 at 10:23 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Fun fact: transegrity structures intuitively look like they shouldnt work 👇🏻

They have lots of uses beyond looking cool, including as a table, a kids toy, & as space robots
nasa.gov/general/supe...
physicslens.com/tensegrity-e...
youtu.be/0onncd0_0-o?...
Image: 3dexport.com/3dmodel-tens...
Two identical bars. Each bar has a square "C" shape base, with a bar going up the X plane located at the middle of the square C. The vertical bar has another bar at the top at a 90° angle facing the same direction as the bottom C shape bar. The same shape is replicated and flipped to be upside down. The two shapes are attached only by strings and are not touching each other. Intuitively it looks like the shapes should collapse but the top shape stays levitated above. These structures can be used as a table. Sorry this is very hard to describe in text, i hope it makes sense!
November 5, 2025 at 7:44 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Fun fact: dipygus is a condition where the body essentially splits, resulting in a double pelvis, genitals, & legs. Myrtle Corbin was a famous dipygus in a US sideshow in the 1800-1900s. She successfully had children
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles...
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrtle_...
A young lady sitting down on a chair with a neutral expression. She had 4 legs, the 2 outer legs are of expected length, and the two inner legs are much smaller and are unable to reach the floor A baby with four legs
November 4, 2025 at 7:11 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Fun fact: in humans, it's typically men who find women's boobs sexy, but in sage grouse, the ladz strut their titties and make a little blooping sound to attract the ladiez
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10518472/
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Watch: youtu.be/cLnbiTkj1TQ?...
Four panel picture of a male sage grouse. Top two pictures are from the side showing a flat chest versus black sac protruding from the chest. Bottom two images show the flat and protuded chest from the front. The two black sacs are notable poking through thick white chest feathers
November 4, 2025 at 7:08 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Fun fact: different areas of skin can go darker during pregnancy, such as across the belly, nipples, or face, usually reverting after pregnancy
sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Image: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles...
A pregnant belly with hyperpigmentation over the top of the bump
November 3, 2025 at 8:17 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Fun fact: the female hooded seal "nose" a male is randy because he inflates a large red sac from his nose. Size does matter here: the bigger, the better. And if she ain't impressed, she'll nip his tail to tell him to sod off
www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/hood...
Watch: youtu.be/rM4BXSOiCjY?...
A hooded seal lying face on to the camera on the snow. It is grey with a large red sac coming out of its nose, about the size of its head
November 3, 2025 at 8:15 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Fun fact: chronic overconsumption of energy leads to obesity. In obesity, fat cells are characterised by chronic low-grade inflammation and immune dysfunction. Sometimes these cells can rupture, releasing their contents
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/pmc/art...
lean fat cell showing a range of immune cells lightly spread across the cell, with an arrow titles "chronic positive energy balance" pointing towards an obese fat cell. the obese fat cell shows overexpression of a range of immune cells and other factors: IL-6, TNF-alpha, IL-18, MCP-1, IFN-7, IL-8, IL-15, PAI-1, MIP-1 alpha, IgG2e, leptin, resistin, RANTES, DAMP's, elastase, tryptase, osteropontin. In the middle of the image between the lean and obese fat cell is rectangle split in half diagonally. the top half is called metabolic health and is green, with the thick end at the lean lean fat cell; the bottom half is red called "local and systemic inflammation" which gets thicker towards the side of the image with the obese fat cell. factors between the transition of lean to obese are written: stress kinase activation, inflammasome activation, hypoxia, ECM remodelling, adipocyte rupture, preadipose exhaustion.
November 2, 2025 at 9:31 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Fun fact: i previously ran a pointless poll where most admitted to nose picking: x.com/angryhacadem...

Nose picking is called rhinotillexis and seems common among primates with dextrous digits, so nose pickers of the world have no shame!
zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Harriet Carroll: Long Covid Scientific Consultancy @angryhacademic 5. Do you pick your nose (the poll is anon, be honest!😁)? pick n flick 👃🏻👆🏻👌🏻 29.3% pick n eat 👃🏻👆🏻👅 12.1% just pick 👃🏻👆🏻 37.9% noooooo 🤮 20.7% 58 votes · Final results
November 2, 2025 at 9:29 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Why is Britain off work sick?
news.sky.com/story/money-...

I have thoughts on this. Firstly, it starts with a nice example of NHS attitudes 👇🏻🙄 i can kinda understand this ill-informed attitude from some people, but not healthcare workers
The former NHS manager, charity chief executive and self-confessed workaholic once dismissed those off work with long-term sickness as "malingerers", "the worried well" or suffering from "yuppie flu". But after she collapsed in her garden in 2021, she was diagnosed with a debilitating neurological condition, adding her name to the growing list of 2.8 million people off work due to long-term sickness. "There's always been this negative thing about people who don't work. And I would have been part of that. Until it happened to me," says Jones, 63, who lives with multisystem dysautonomia, a condition that causes her "bone-crushing" pain and fatigue.
November 2, 2025 at 6:55 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Imagine if there was something about as simple as putting shoes or pants on that reduced the risk of:
Heart attack
Stroke
Autoimmunity
Dementia
Liver & kidney problems
Diabetes
Possibly even cancer
And more...

Oh wait! There is! A well fitting FFP3 respirator does exactly that!
Two stick figures talking. One is wearing blue trousers and the other is naked. The naked one is saying to the trousered one: you mean to tell me you have to pull them down every time you pee?!
November 1, 2025 at 9:46 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
"Areas where pro-Gaza Independent candidates won last year have...seen deprivation rise more than other parties. Green & Labour wins come...in areas where deprivation has gone down over the last years, while for wards won by Conservative, Lib Dem, Plaid & Reform candidates, deprivation has gone up"
Wards won by Labour and the Greens last year saw deprivation fall Change in level of deprivation since 2019 in wards won by the following parties in the General Election Independent +1.92 Conservative +0.68 Liberal Democrat +0.42 Plaid Cymru +0.42 Reform +0.19 Average change in deprivation score, 2019-25 +0.18 Labour −0.18 Green −0.92 Change in level of deprivation refers to average change in 'deprivation score' by ward Source: Britain Predicts ward modelling; ONS
November 1, 2025 at 5:25 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Fun fact: vampire 🧛🏻‍♀️ moths drink human (and other mammals) blood 🩸
ars.usda.gov/news-events/...
Image: neatorama.com/2007/10/15/w...
A vampire moth with its proboscis penetrating a human thumb, sucking up the blood
October 31, 2025 at 9:03 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Currently, evidence is growing for long covid-like vaccine reactions

And if you're truly pro-vaccine, you should be more invested than anyone in making sure we understand risks, as this leads to even safer vaccines AND understanding pathophysiological mechanisms in general
Michaela argued against this point, reflecting that discussing vaccine impacts contributed to a vision of improved vaccine science as a whole. There's a … a fear of being labelled antivaxx if you … if you talk about the negative vaccine side effects, and to be honest I think it's the most pro-vaxx thing you can do because if we acknowledge the side effects we can help patients, we can improve trust, we can build safer vaccines, so if you want to be truly pro-vaccine, you need to understand why people are reacting like this. So, I think it is the most beneficial thing we can do for vaccines is to talk about these side effects, but counterintuitively, society thinks that the worst thing we can do is talk about vaccine side effects.
October 30, 2025 at 9:40 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
And thirdly, the poor response by healthcare professionals to acknowledge negative vaccine reactions, let alone think critically and independently about recommending vaccines, has the opposite response in fuelling distrust
Disengagement by healthcare professionals in the discussion of the possibility of individual vaccine harms had the inverse consequence of limiting uptake of further Covid vaccines for some participants. This mirrors findings from Nurmi and Jaakola [21], who identify the importance of serious engagement in potential adverse events as key to addressing distrust. We interpret that the resolutely pro- or anti-vaxx polarised discourse combined to stifle the ability to voice concerns or access clinical support to interpret symptoms and make decisions about reasonable trade-offs between potential harms and protection. This left some people in limbo, unable to determine safe routes towards vaccination or decide conclusively if they should abstain. This demonstrates a disconnect between public health discourses and the emerging scientific evidence base, which indicates a realistic possibility of improvement or worsening of long Covid symptoms following vaccination [9, 10, 14-16]. Had these stories been acknowledged earlier, they could have usefully contributed to setting directions for further research.
October 30, 2025 at 9:40 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Fun fact: ever notice you can often see the un-illuminated bit of moon, & wondered what is making it visible? 🌒

That would be Earthshine: light is reflected off the Earth onto the moon so we can see where the sun dont shine!
earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/83782...
The moon on a black background. There is a small crescent of the moon that is bright white which is illumi by the sun, and the rest of the moon is darker, grey, but still visible on the black background. This grey portion is illuminated by earthshine Image: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthlight_(astronomy)
October 28, 2025 at 6:12 PM
angryhacademic.bsky.social
Fun fact: Schamroth's window is the little gap between your finger nail & knuckle when you put your fingers together (see pic). Lacking this window can indicate various diseases, even lung cancer
bestpractice.bmj.com/topics/en-gb...
cmaj.ca/content/191/...
Image: medscape.org/viewarticle/...
Cartoon image of 2 sets of index fingers. The finger tips are together so the nails are in parallel touching each other with the finger bent at the first knuckle. In the first image, there is a small gap between where the finger nails touch and the skin on the knuckle touches. This gap is labelled Schamroth's window. The second image has no gap, and the finger nails struggle to touch because the nails are so curved
October 24, 2025 at 9:09 PM