Andrew Porter
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retropz.bsky.social
Andrew Porter
@retropz.bsky.social
Research Integrity and Training Adviser at the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute

Interested in improving #ResearchIntegrity & #ResearchCulture with training, #TeamScience & promoting #OpenResearch

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3353-7002

Just seen that LinkedIn have added a #GenerativeAI collection and processing element to their settings - this is an automatic opt-in for users, requiring you to actively opt-out in the Settings if you don't want to have your data used this way

More details here:
www.techradar.com/pro/linkedin...
November 11, 2025 at 11:16 AM
Give peas a chance – even AI peas: the Stephen Collins cartoon www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

Oh my goodness! This says *so* much! Love it
Give peas a chance – even AI peas: the Stephen Collins cartoon
AI can transform all areas of our lives – even boiling a bag of frozen veg
www.theguardian.com
November 10, 2025 at 9:42 PM
If all this (points around and indicates everything) is getting a bit too much, have a few minutes of reflection & low-stakes competitiveness and join an online #QueenWorldCup on Bluesky to decide the g̵r̵e̵a̵t̵e̵s̵t̵ ̵f̵e̵m̵a̵l̵e̵ ̵m̵o̵n̵a̵r̵c̵h̵ ̵ Best Queen Song of All Time 👇🏼
QUEEN WORLD CUP
#QueenWorldCup

With Bohemian Rhapsody's victory this evening, we now know the FINAL EIGHT songs:

Killer Queen v I Want To Break Free

Under Pressure v Don't Stop Me Now

Another One Bites The Dust v Somebody To Love

Radio Ga Ga v Bohemian Rhapsody

QFs start tomorrow.
November 10, 2025 at 8:03 AM
Reposted by Andrew Porter
Can’t wait for this year-end #WCRI webinar! 🚀
Mentorship isn’t just guidance — it’s how we sustain integrity, curiosity, and kindness in research.
Excited for this! 🎉

Join the WCRI Early Career Researchers & Professionals Network for the year-end webinar “Let’s Talk About Mentorship!” on 13 Nov 2025 | 10:30–12:00 UTC.

Let’s share, learn, and build a stronger mentoring culture together.

@lexbouter.bsky.social

Register below!
November 10, 2025 at 3:46 AM
Reposted by Andrew Porter
The most incredible library in the world, @bodleian.ox.ac.uk opened to OTD 1602, through the energy, money & commitment of Sir Thomas Bodley. It began with 5k books, & now more than 22m, with 2m+reader visits a year, & multi-million online users across the globe. Privilged to be its 25th librarian!
November 8, 2025 at 7:20 AM
Reposted by Andrew Porter
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
Question for people who write and edit papers, create scientific figures and posters, and who advise ECRs on scientific design:

Is the new Affinity - which is free, and handles both vector graphics and bitmap images all in one - pretty much ideal for scientific figures?

www.affinity.studio
November 3, 2025 at 12:12 PM
Reposted by Andrew Porter
You may have seen reports about a paper claiming that "Stem cell therapy prevents heart attacks": bmj.altmetric.com/details/1830...

If so, you might want to grab some popcorn: pubpeer.com/publications...
Report for: Prevention of acute myocardial infarction induced heart failure by intracoronary infusion of mesenchymal stem cells: phase 3 randomised clinical trial (PREVENT-TAHA8)
In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
bmj.altmetric.com
November 2, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Reposted by Andrew Porter
You've got just a few days left to submit your proposal to join us as a new Group Leader

📅 Applications close 2nd November

Package includes:

🪙Multi-year funding
🧪Core Facility Access
🥼 #Postdoc & #PhD positions
🤝Mentorship

Visit our website to apply:
www.cruk.manchester.ac.uk/career/new-g...
October 30, 2025 at 11:47 AM
Reposted by Andrew Porter
TLDR; The PSF has made the decision to put our community and our shared diversity, equity, and inclusion values ahead of seeking $1.5M in new revenue. Please read and share. pyfound.blogspot.com/2025/10/NSF-...
🧵
The official home of the Python Programming Language
www.python.org
October 27, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Enjoyed this from Sheila Hayman talking about the embodiment of intelligence and experience - and why this is so hard to capture in a machine:

"show a plate of random objects to any toddler, and she’ll identify the biscuit at once"

What a piece of work open.substack.com/pub/sheilaha...
What a piece of work
the robots aren't coming just yet
open.substack.com
October 24, 2025 at 8:31 AM
Live reporting on the AWS outage from the BBC:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c5...

Seems to illustrate how dependent many seemingly unconnected services are on Amazon as a web services provider
Snapchat and Duolingo among major apps down in Amazon Web Services outage - live updates
Many of the world's biggest apps including Snapchat, Duolingo and Roblox have gone down, in what appears to be an issue affecting Amazon Web Services.
www.bbc.co.uk
October 20, 2025 at 9:13 AM
Reposted by Andrew Porter
New opportunity - this is a non clinical PhD 4 year program - have a look and DM me if wish to discuss this particular student ship in modelling high risk Leukemia.

If that doesn’t take your fancy - there are plenty of exciting projects here!
October 17, 2025 at 1:11 PM
This sounds great - take a look if you're interested in #SocialMedia and how it can be used to support and disseminate research.

Looks like it might be up your street @altmetric.com ...
October 18, 2025 at 9:01 AM
"The problem is that we tend to sometimes live in a world in which the second step [checking!] is just never taking place, and so I think it’s easy to fool people. We need to be careful and we need to spend this extra time to look at things so that we can really see beyond the façade,’ she adds."
Chemists call for ban on generative AI for chemical structures: "serious errors could damag[e] the next generation of scientists"

As ever, the problem seems to be not AI but lazy application of it and lack of checks. Whether _that_ problem is solvable...

www.chemistryworld.com/news/the-che...
The chemistry community should ban drawing chemical structures with generative AI, chemists warn
AIs like Microsoft's Copilot, Google's Gemini and OpenAI's ChatGPT still make serious errors rendering structural formulae
www.chemistryworld.com
October 16, 2025 at 1:29 PM
Reposted by Andrew Porter
⏰ 3 days left!

Both abstract submissions and travel grant applications for the 9th #WCRI2026 close on October 15, 2025!

📍 May 3–6, 2026 | Vancouver, Canada 🇨🇦

Share your work and join global conversations.

🔗 wcri2026.org/call-for-abs...

#ResearchIntegrity
October 13, 2025 at 3:11 AM
I like this piece on how employers bear at least someresponsibility for poor quality #GenAI outputs ("workshop") from not training and supporting their employees sufficiently

Seems an accelerated version of what's happened with IT more widely; think how many people struggle with Teams, for instance
AI tools churn out ‘workslop’ for many US employees lowering trust | Gene Marks
Studies show widespread errors in AI-generated work, as employers fail to train staff properly
www.theguardian.com
October 12, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Reposted by Andrew Porter
This is such a clever idea on taking kids to museums/galleries
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
October 12, 2025 at 10:18 AM
Reposted by Andrew Porter
Interested in PhD in CRISPR engineering to develop new models of myeloid malignancies?!

Join me @cruk-mi.bsky.social

www.crukcentre.manchester.ac.uk/opportunitie...

For Clinically trained applicants-DM if you have queries

Deadline 17th November 2025
October 7, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Reposted by Andrew Porter
⏰ 5 days left!

Both abstract submissions and travel grant applications for the 9th #WCRI2026 close on October 15, 2025!

📍 May 3–6, 2026 | Vancouver, Canada 🇨🇦

Share your work and join global conversations.

🔗 wcri2026.org/call-for-abstr…#ResearchIntegrityty
October 10, 2025 at 4:16 AM
Reposted by Andrew Porter
⏰ 1 week to go! Submit your #WCRI2026 abstracts by October 15, 2025.

📅 May 3–6, 2026 | Vancouver

🗓️ Preliminary schedule, commissions, hosting, and sponsorship details are now live.

#ResearchIntegrity
📢 #WCRI2026 update!

📅 May 3–6, 2026 | Vancouver

✨ Call for Abstracts – deadline Oct 15, 2025

🗓️Preliminary schedule is online, along with details on commissions, hosting opportunities, and sponsorship.

👉All links are in the replies below

#ResearchIntegrity #WCRI2026
October 8, 2025 at 12:01 AM
Reposted by Andrew Porter
QUEEN WORLD CUP
#QueenWorldCup

I want you to stop before you vote today. I want you to actually give both tracks a listen.

A few of us have been learning Queen deep cuts are amazing, and one of these is one of them.

UNDER PRESSURE
or
TIA TORRIATTE (LET US CLING TOGETHER)

Vote #UP or #TT by 10pm
the queen of hearts from alice in wonderland is sitting in a heart shaped chair and saying speak !
Alt: the queen of hearts from alice in wonderland is sitting in a heart shaped chair and saying speak !
media.tenor.com
October 2, 2025 at 9:14 AM
Reposted by Andrew Porter
Lovely summary of how the advent of confocal microscopy changed our research and ability to understand biology
October 2, 2025 at 8:00 AM
"One of the rules in the document is to ‘only use technologies whose functionality is known and scientifically validated,’ which will not be easy, as AI programmes such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Mistral generate texts and images based on statistics and data."
October 2, 2025 at 9:59 AM
Thoughtful (and hopeful) reflections on the state-of-play for #ResearchCulture assessment as part of #REF2029 and the #REFPCE indicators project:

wonkhe.com/blogs/is-res...

"We don’t need all the answers for 2029, but we shouldn’t discard the tangible progress made"
Is research culture really too hard to assess?
Yolana Pringle and Ben Tatler make the case that the REF pause should be the moment to build on the most substantial sector-wide collaboration ever undertaken on research environments
wonkhe.com
October 1, 2025 at 3:33 PM