Jonathan Roberts
@jonroberts.bsky.social
Research genetic counsellor. PhD in Science Communication.
Researching equitable genomic testing & genetics of neurdevelopmental disorders.
https://substack.com/@jonathanrob1985?utm_source=user-menu
Researching equitable genomic testing & genetics of neurdevelopmental disorders.
https://substack.com/@jonathanrob1985?utm_source=user-menu
Pinned
Jonathan Roberts
@jonroberts.bsky.social
· Apr 17
The Myth of the 'De-Extinction' of the Dire Wolf
Don't be fooled by reports of extinct animals being brought back to life, argues genetic researcher Jonathan Roberts. The truth is much scarier
substack.com
Thank you to @bylinetimes.bsky.social for letting me write about this.
"Some losses are irreversible, not just in flesh, but in time and context. To lose sight of this risks us ceasing to value and protect what we have now"
substack.com/home/post/p-...
"Some losses are irreversible, not just in flesh, but in time and context. To lose sight of this risks us ceasing to value and protect what we have now"
substack.com/home/post/p-...
🎶 If you like a lot of chocolate on your biscuit don't buy Club! 🎶
October 18, 2025 at 10:41 AM
🎶 If you like a lot of chocolate on your biscuit don't buy Club! 🎶
Good job they've clawed back that £50 billion they gave to share holders that should have been spent on infrastructure, otherwise this would be outrageous www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Water bills to rise further for millions after appeal
Five water companies win permission for higher bills as they seek more funds to fix outdated infrastructure.
www.bbc.co.uk
October 9, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Good job they've clawed back that £50 billion they gave to share holders that should have been spent on infrastructure, otherwise this would be outrageous www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
I'll be honest, I didn't realise it wasn't subject to VAT. Closing tax loopholes for private healthcare providers and using this to fund NHS pay rises seems like an easy win from where I'm sitting.
“Not happening”
Health Secretary Wes Streeting says on #BBCBreakfast that there is no plan to add VAT on private healthcare
Health Secretary Wes Streeting says on #BBCBreakfast that there is no plan to add VAT on private healthcare
September 30, 2025 at 10:25 AM
I'll be honest, I didn't realise it wasn't subject to VAT. Closing tax loopholes for private healthcare providers and using this to fund NHS pay rises seems like an easy win from where I'm sitting.
Laura Kuenssberg: do Reform's Russian connections spell the end for Keir Starmer?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reform UK's ex-Wales leader Nathan Gill admits pro-Russia bribery
Nathan Gill admits eight charges of bribery while being a Member of the European Parliament.
www.bbc.co.uk
September 27, 2025 at 11:13 AM
Laura Kuenssberg: do Reform's Russian connections spell the end for Keir Starmer?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Approaching my 10th wedding anniversary and my 4 year old is incredulous my wife and I still have anything to say to each other. 10 years, in her view, should be quite enough time to say everything you need to each other.
September 10, 2025 at 12:25 PM
Approaching my 10th wedding anniversary and my 4 year old is incredulous my wife and I still have anything to say to each other. 10 years, in her view, should be quite enough time to say everything you need to each other.
As far as I can tell Farage has been called out in Congress after calling for sanctions against the country he seeks to lead. It's an act that should bar him from ever being PM. Yet, the BBC only seems interested in breathlessly telling us how Reform are the Government in waiting
September 6, 2025 at 1:16 PM
As far as I can tell Farage has been called out in Congress after calling for sanctions against the country he seeks to lead. It's an act that should bar him from ever being PM. Yet, the BBC only seems interested in breathlessly telling us how Reform are the Government in waiting
This feels like a mad idea because - among other things - these data centres require heaps of water and we've spent the last 30 years siphoning £50 Billion into shareholders pockets rather than investing in water infrastructure. We've built no new reservoirs in the last 30 years!
Ireland 2023 data centers accounted for one fifth of the country's energy demand.
UK also expanding data centers that are a huge strain on water supply and increase carbon emissions
Plans for a 435-acre data centre site in North Lincolnshire
www.bbc.com/news/article...
UK also expanding data centers that are a huge strain on water supply and increase carbon emissions
Plans for a 435-acre data centre site in North Lincolnshire
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Data centres to be expanded across UK as concerns mount
The number of data centres is set to jump by a fifth in the coming years, figures seen by the BBC suggest.
www.bbc.com
August 15, 2025 at 1:56 PM
This feels like a mad idea because - among other things - these data centres require heaps of water and we've spent the last 30 years siphoning £50 Billion into shareholders pockets rather than investing in water infrastructure. We've built no new reservoirs in the last 30 years!
New paper where we argue that (at least in the UK genomics context) we need to make it easier for the full diversity of our workforce to contribute to research. bmjopen.bmj.com/content/15/8...
Putting the patient at the centre: a call for research involvement of nurses, midwives and allied health professionals working in genomics
Introduction We report the collaborative views of a group of nurses, midwives and allied health professionals (NMAHPs) in the UK who have a genomics research remit or interest. Our group includes gene...
bmjopen.bmj.com
August 15, 2025 at 9:05 AM
New paper where we argue that (at least in the UK genomics context) we need to make it easier for the full diversity of our workforce to contribute to research. bmjopen.bmj.com/content/15/8...
Just going through the self check out while the kids scan everything themselves
an older woman is crying and says it 's been 84 years
ALT: an older woman is crying and says it 's been 84 years
media.tenor.com
August 14, 2025 at 5:33 PM
Just going through the self check out while the kids scan everything themselves
Yeah. If only those poor water companies had less regulation to deal with they could properly innovate! I bet there are a million ways they could pollute our waters they haven't even thought of yet!
Reeves to say rules and red tape are ‘boot on the neck’ of innovation
Reeves to say rules and red tape are ‘boot on the neck’ of innovation
At the Mansion House dinner she will call for regulators to allow more risk to clear the way for economic growth
Rachel Reeves will say that rules and red tape are acting as a “boot on the neck” of businesses and risk “choking off” innovation across the UK without bold reforms.
In a speech to City bosses attending the Mansion House dinner at London’s Guildhall on Tuesday evening, the chancellor will heap further pressure on regulators to allow for more risk in order to boost economic growth. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
July 15, 2025 at 5:54 PM
Yeah. If only those poor water companies had less regulation to deal with they could properly innovate! I bet there are a million ways they could pollute our waters they haven't even thought of yet!
Reading "the Grammar of Fantasy" by Gianni Rodari. He has a great line about why we need to nurture our imaginations: "Not because everyone is an artists, but because no one is a slave." This captures much of my worry about LLMs damaging our creative powers.
July 13, 2025 at 8:28 AM
Reading "the Grammar of Fantasy" by Gianni Rodari. He has a great line about why we need to nurture our imaginations: "Not because everyone is an artists, but because no one is a slave." This captures much of my worry about LLMs damaging our creative powers.
Fair pay for NHS workers is no-brainer. However, I think the context of this will make it a real challenge to win over the majority of the public (for clarity, I'm not saying they're wrong, just that this sets up major coms challenge)
July 8, 2025 at 12:13 PM
Fair pay for NHS workers is no-brainer. However, I think the context of this will make it a real challenge to win over the majority of the public (for clarity, I'm not saying they're wrong, just that this sets up major coms challenge)
Just don't get it out in public.
The Ploopy Knob is an open-source control dial for your PC
The Ploopy Knob is an open-source control dial for your PC
A big scroll wheel for your PC.
buff.ly
July 4, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Just don't get it out in public.
Absolutely chilling.
Ice cream truck funerals apparently produce the most horror movie ass sound you can hear in real life
June 25, 2025 at 9:48 AM
Absolutely chilling.
Ah I see we are again making policy based on right wing fantasies about 'snowflakes' that mostly just represent projections of their own insecurities. Cool. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Be ready to be shocked and offended at university, students told
Guidance has been published by the Office for Students on new free speech rules coming into force this year.
www.bbc.co.uk
June 19, 2025 at 9:46 AM
Ah I see we are again making policy based on right wing fantasies about 'snowflakes' that mostly just represent projections of their own insecurities. Cool. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
I have a joke about Hermes, but you have to be quick to get it.
I have a joke about Polyphemus that Nobody wants to hear.
I have a joke about Zeus, you'll be thunderstruck by it
June 16, 2025 at 7:44 PM
I have a joke about Hermes, but you have to be quick to get it.
Writer 1: And then the military parade could be sponsored by Coinbase
Writer 2: I dunno. It's a bit too 'in your face' with it all.
Writer 2: I dunno. It's a bit too 'in your face' with it all.
June 15, 2025 at 8:59 PM
Writer 1: And then the military parade could be sponsored by Coinbase
Writer 2: I dunno. It's a bit too 'in your face' with it all.
Writer 2: I dunno. It's a bit too 'in your face' with it all.
Or, and hear me out, we throw all the broad beans away and never speak of them again.
June 14, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Or, and hear me out, we throw all the broad beans away and never speak of them again.
Can recommend for Dad's with a little extra ballast as well!
Great to see Proof recommended by the NYT for a last minute Father’s Day present!
Apparently it’s particularly appropriate for science buff dads.
It’s also quite a heavy book to carry around, so you may well also end up with a buff science dad.
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/09/b...
Apparently it’s particularly appropriate for science buff dads.
It’s also quite a heavy book to carry around, so you may well also end up with a buff science dad.
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/09/b...
Our Favorite Books for Every Type of Dad
www.nytimes.com
June 13, 2025 at 7:35 PM
Can recommend for Dad's with a little extra ballast as well!
We imagined maleficent AI as an intelligent robot that disobeys us- I'm afraid I can't do that Dave
The truth we've got the opposite. A system - devoid of intelligence- that through flattery and obsequiousness will have us deceiving ourselves.
The truth we've got the opposite. A system - devoid of intelligence- that through flattery and obsequiousness will have us deceiving ourselves.
Don’t think I’ve ever muttered the words “fuck me sideways” quite so much reading a story as this one.
They Asked an A.I. Chatbot Questions. The Answers Sent Them Spiraling.
www.nytimes.com
June 13, 2025 at 7:33 PM
We imagined maleficent AI as an intelligent robot that disobeys us- I'm afraid I can't do that Dave
The truth we've got the opposite. A system - devoid of intelligence- that through flattery and obsequiousness will have us deceiving ourselves.
The truth we've got the opposite. A system - devoid of intelligence- that through flattery and obsequiousness will have us deceiving ourselves.
"The DNA of our language" is a metaphor so tortured it belongs, fittingly, in the Old Testament.
Can't stop laughing at this cover of the Bible filled with endoresements as if it's on the Booker longlist
June 12, 2025 at 6:30 PM
"The DNA of our language" is a metaphor so tortured it belongs, fittingly, in the Old Testament.
T-Rex: You're not my common ancestor!
Khankhuuluu: Yes I am!!!
*EastEnders drums*
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Khankhuuluu: Yes I am!!!
*EastEnders drums*
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
New species of dinosaur discovered that 'rewrites' T.rex family tree
The dinosaur skeletons, found hidden in a museum collection in Mongolia, is an ancestor of the mighty tyrannosaurs.
www.bbc.co.uk
June 12, 2025 at 6:59 AM
T-Rex: You're not my common ancestor!
Khankhuuluu: Yes I am!!!
*EastEnders drums*
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Khankhuuluu: Yes I am!!!
*EastEnders drums*
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
I think "efficiency" is so seductive to so many because often systems and problems are very complex and hard to comprehend. This is a form of uncertainty and thus psychologically uncomfortable. Much easier to believe the answer is simple: more efficiency
One of the eternal American political cycles: conservatives in a RW media bubble come to believe that the gov't is ridden with fraud & abuse; conservatives then gain actual control over gov't & discover it's incredibly efficiency & effective.
Former DOGE engineer says federal waste and fraud were 'relatively nonexistent'
NPR's Juana Summers talks with Sahil Lavingia, who worked for the Department of Government Efficiency as a software engineer assigned to the Department of Veterans Affairs, about his experience.
www.npr.org
June 11, 2025 at 6:12 PM
I think "efficiency" is so seductive to so many because often systems and problems are very complex and hard to comprehend. This is a form of uncertainty and thus psychologically uncomfortable. Much easier to believe the answer is simple: more efficiency