John McCutcheon
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mcsymbiont.bsky.social
John McCutcheon
@mcsymbiont.bsky.social
3.5K followers 1.1K following 130 posts
I like bacteria that live inside of insect cells.
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mcsymbiont.bsky.social
Oh, your favorite genetic locus only encodes one gene? That's boring.

Amazing work from Jess Warren (www.hhmi.org/scientists/j...) to figure this out and prove it was real, given the wacky and challenging insect system we've got here.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Image showing 4 tRNAs being produced from only 2 loci, the tRNA genes completely overlap
November 14, 2025 at 8:07 PM
Reposted by John McCutcheon
paolocrosetto.bsky.social
What is the most profitable industry in the world, this side of the law? Not oil, not IT, not pharma.

It's *scientific publishing*.

We call this the Drain of Scientific Publishing.

Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Background: doi.org/10.1162/qss_...

Thread @markhanson.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy 👇
November 12, 2025 at 10:31 AM
Reposted by John McCutcheon
hansonmark.bsky.social
We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing:

a 🧵 1/n

Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
A table showing profit margins of major publishers. A snippet of text related to this table is below. 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. A figure detailing the drain on researcher time. 1. The four-fold drain 1.2 Time The number of papers published each year is growing faster than the scientific workforce, with the number of papers per researcher almost doubling between 1996 and 2022 (Figure 1A). This reflects the fact that publishers’ commercial desire to publish (sell) more material has aligned well with the competitive prestige culture in which publications help secure jobs, grants, promotions, and awards. To the extent that this growth is driven by a pressure for profit, rather than scholarly imperatives, it distorts the way researchers spend their time. The publishing system depends on unpaid reviewer labour, estimated to be over 130 million unpaid hours annually in 2020 alone (9). Researchers have complained about the demands of peer-review for decades, but the scale of the problem is now worse, with editors reporting widespread difficulties recruiting reviewers. The growth in publications involves not only the authors’ time, but that of academic editors and reviewers who are dealing with so many review demands. Even more seriously, the imperative to produce ever more articles reshapes the nature of scientific inquiry. Evidence across multiple fields shows that more papers result in ‘ossification’, not new ideas (10). It may seem paradoxical that more papers can slow progress until one considers how it affects researchers’ time. While rewards remain tied to volume, prestige, and impact of publications, researchers will be nudged away from riskier, local, interdisciplinary, and long-term work. The result is a treadmill of constant activity with limited progress whereas core scholarly practices – such as reading, reflecting and engaging with others’ contributions – is de-prioritized. What looks like productivity often masks intellectual exhaustion built on a demoralizing, narrowing scientific vision. A table of profit margins across industries. The section of text related to this table is below: 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. The costs of inaction are plain: wasted public funds, lost researcher time, compromised scientific integrity and eroded public trust. Today, the system rewards commercial publishers first, and science second. Without bold action from the funders we risk continuing to pour resources into a system that prioritizes profit over the advancement of scientific knowledge.
November 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Reposted by John McCutcheon
tweethinking.bsky.social
There's a PhD position now available with me in Bath, on the evolution of symbiosis. www.findaphd.com/phds/project.... The supervisory team also includes @anja1.bsky.social @phil-donoghue.bsky.social and others. NB, this is open both to UK-based students *and* to international students :)
The genomic basis of symbiotic integration at University of Bath on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - The genomic basis of symbiotic integration at University of Bath, listed on FindAPhD.com
www.findaphd.com
October 9, 2025 at 9:39 AM
Reposted by John McCutcheon
brockhurstlab.bsky.social
Three Bicentenary research fellowships on offer at @officialuom.bsky.social @fbmh-uom.bsky.social for exceptional ECRs with <3y postdoc experience

3yrs salary + £30k pa research expenses

Do you have a great idea & want to join @mermanchester.bsky.social?

www.bmh.manchester.ac.uk/research/sup...
Bicentenary Early Career Research Fellowships | Biology, Medicine and Health | University of Manchester
Find out about and apply for a Bicentenary Early Career Research Fellowship.
www.bmh.manchester.ac.uk
October 9, 2025 at 8:48 PM
Reposted by John McCutcheon
microbiome.bsky.social
Thinking about a postdoc in microbiome science?
Our lab at the MPI for Biology (Tübingen) builds on the culture I established at Cornell: collaborative, creative, and internationally diverse. Postdocs lead their own projects with secure funding. Join us!
#PostdocJobs #HostMicrobe #AcademicJobs
October 4, 2025 at 5:37 PM
Reposted by John McCutcheon
carlzimmer.com
Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE
nyti.ms
October 8, 2025 at 11:29 PM
Reposted by John McCutcheon
berasymbionts.bsky.social
🚨 Save the date! Thrilled to be co-organizing the next iteration of the @embl.org Symposium on the Cellular Mechanics of Symbiosis (📅 March 17-20), w/ @floravincent.bsky.social, @hassansalem.bsky.social & Tom Richards.
www.embl.org/about/info/c...
#EESSymbiosis #Symbiosis #SymbioSky #MicroSky 🦠
The cellular mechanics of symbiosis: sensing friend from foe
www.embl.org
September 8, 2025 at 10:24 AM
Reposted by John McCutcheon
nonresidentdesi.bsky.social
Our paper in @science.org 👉🏽 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

is accompanied by an especially thoughtful perspective by Carey Nadell and Chris Marx 👉🏽
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
June 13, 2025 at 6:11 AM
Reposted by John McCutcheon
policyhound.bsky.social
Things are going from bad to worse at NSF; www.science.org/content/arti...
Exclusive: NSF faces radical shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions
Changes seen as a response to presidential directives on what research to fund
www.science.org
May 8, 2025 at 11:30 PM
Reposted by John McCutcheon
krissychula.bsky.social
This is high art
April 6, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Reposted by John McCutcheon
jencmars.bsky.social
Reposting an oldie

I've moved away from using gouache in this very thick, opaque way, but the colors really are nice to look at
Stylized painting of an annual cicada seen from the side up close. It has lots of detailed texture, and very bright green and orange and blue swirling colors.
April 4, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Reposted by John McCutcheon
thibautbrunet.bsky.social
Striking new study from @archaeon-alex.bsky.social's lab just out in @science.org on multicellular development induced by compression in Archaea: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Tissue-like multicellular development triggered by mechanical compression in archaea
The advent of clonal multicellularity is a critical evolutionary milestone, seen often in eukaryotes, rarely in bacteria, and only once in archaea. We show that uniaxial compression induces clonal mul...
www.science.org
April 3, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Reposted by John McCutcheon
stairwaytokevin.bsky.social
New article from @science.org gives a bit of a peek behind the curtain. It seems NSF internally has no idea what is happening, how to implement, or what the consequences of non-compliance will be.
January 30, 2025 at 11:32 PM
Reposted by John McCutcheon
brianphillips.bsky.social
If you wanted no leaks you should have gone into Settings -> Security -> Configure privacy & security -> Privacy options -> Other -> Configure -> Media interface and clicked “Disallow.”

The Leak setting is on by default but we understand your privacy is important so we’ve made it easy to opt out
January 30, 2025 at 10:07 PM
Reposted by John McCutcheon
kstsosie.bsky.social
Last push for final application to our one-week workshop on #Indigenous #Health and Artificial Intelligence! IndigiData is held this summer on the Tribal lands of the Ak-Chin Indian Community in Central AZ, June 2-6, 2025: indigidata.org Apply: 01/31

(Not reliant on federal funds)
January 30, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Reposted by John McCutcheon
brittlundgren.bsky.social
👏👏👏 Every state university system should be doing this! lsmagazine.wisc.edu/issues/fall-...
Mapping the Wisconsin Idea
The Wisconsin Idea. It’s the time-tested notion that the boundaries of the University stretch beyond campus and directly impact the lives of others. But what does it look like in practice? For the Col...
lsmagazine.wisc.edu
January 30, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Reposted by John McCutcheon
robertsilverman.bsky.social
Wow. it must feel terrible when someone takes something you made and uses it without permission or payment
January 29, 2025 at 4:59 AM
Reposted by John McCutcheon
harmitmalik.bsky.social
If you have been affected by the fires in LA, or are concerned about your ability to keep precious Drosophila strains going during the latest funding crisis, we will host your strains as a backup. Please email me.

Please amplify. If you are also able to host fly strains, add your name as well.
January 28, 2025 at 9:45 PM
Reposted by John McCutcheon
eli.bsky.social
Today’s one for the history books: Mastodon is becoming an independent non-profit, and Bluesky is supporting #FreeOurFeeds taking their AT Protocol in the same direction.
January 13, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Reposted by John McCutcheon
jeremymberg.bsky.social
Bluetorial-A dream and a bit of a nightmare

Serving as Editor-in-Chief at Science was fascinating. I greatly enjoyed working with talented and committed editorial, news, graphics, and production staff. But the inside look into scientific publishing and AAAS was also deeply disillusioning.
a cartoon says hey everybody an old man 's talking while bart simpson looks on
ALT: a cartoon says hey everybody an old man 's talking while bart simpson looks on
media.tenor.com
January 21, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Reposted by John McCutcheon
messorensen.bsky.social
Out today! Our review on the current evidence of protein import into endosymbionts/early organelles. We cover protists, insects and plant systems, so something for everybody!

With Mygg Stiller, Lena Kröninger and Eva Nowack.

#protistsonsky #SymbioSky

febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
FEBS Press
The acquisition of bacterial endosymbionts by ancient host cells followed by massive adaptation of the partners gave rise to mitochondria and plastids. Today, various systems with younger and less in...
febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
December 11, 2024 at 6:41 PM
Reposted by John McCutcheon
burnsajohn.bsky.social
Is it a repeat? Sort of, but this is a radiolarian in motion! I wanted to see how dynamic the symbionts are. They mostly stay still over a couple of minutes. With @micrott.bsky.social and @evocellbio.bsky.social #protistaday #protistsonsky #marinelife
December 12, 2024 at 3:29 PM
Reposted by John McCutcheon
spribille.bsky.social
What was a subtweet called in 1912? While in Berlin I’ve been rummaging around in the library and found a book of poems written by Simon Schwendener, the guy who discovered symbiosis, towards the end of his life, and ran across this
December 11, 2024 at 7:48 PM