Ben Krishna

My favourite part of #ihw2025 was the student explaining their poster who said: "This is the mechanism we propose, which is supported by the data. I don't think we have it right really but its the best explanation we have". Quite appreciated the honesty!

Having to explain Yu Gi Oh to an Emeritus Professor #ihw2025

…I got an email today from the SLC asking why I paid my student loan in 2021 when I wasn’t earning anything

Back in 2021 I was unemployed so I asked the SLC if I could stop repaying my student loan until I got a new job. They would only recognise me as unemployed if I took unemployment benefits. I actually got a job before I managed to get unemployment benefits….

YouTube video by James Leith How to tackle a laboratory spillage.

Doing chemical safety training today, not sure why the videos all have a jazzy intro but I'm thoroughly enjoying it

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyxB...

This is probably the most exciting result I’ve had in about 18 months!

Update, I asked them to discuss similar work in the field. They said no! What a weirdly convoluted way to get your manuscript rejected

I'll be honest, I've read this so many times and can't work out what you mean!

I’m amazed how many papers I read which don’t compare their data to similar studies. “We found xyz”. Ok but similar studies found wxz, why?

It feels so fundamentally incurious that you wouldn’t discuss this after doing 2-3 years of work?

Adobe's stupid AI agrees with me

I note that when you agree to review a paper within a week, they don't tell you how long the paper is beforehand

The apheresis cone price has gone up. Feels weird that the cost of human blood is subject to inflation

It feels so tacky now that the queen’s death was first announced on twitter. It shows how important boring, stable institutions are

If you'd like to see more of my Dad's work, he's on Flickr (www.flickr.com/photos/18841...)

I think it came out really nicely AND it was chosen for the front cover of Pathogens! My Mum's convinced this is his breakthrough into the big leagues.

And after quite a bit of back-and-forth, given I have no creative skills and Dad didn't quite get what information needed to be conveyed, he made this! I think it's a really nice art/science collaboration. 3/4

The last paper I was writing (tinyurl.com/bkback5290), I realised how useful it would be to put in a diagram showing the evolutionary tree. Pictures say thousands of words and frankly, I don't know how best to explain how things are related....

...so I asked my dad. 2/4

My dad's pastel drawing of a Portugese cistern in El Jadida, Morocco

When my father retired, he decided to take up art as a hobby. I don't know much about art and he doesn't know much about science so we both just sort of nodded and said "very nice" at each other's work. The most I can say is that he seems to like chalk and pastels, like the piece I've attached 1/4

30 years after the end of the Cold War and Greece is still considered Western Europe and Poland Eastern Europe

Luckily in this case it turned out the English was a pretty minor problem compared to the data!

I always wonder how best to review manuscripts with suboptimal English. Like I understand what they mean but it's not how it ought to be said. I refuse to correct English line by line, and I really think it's the journal's job to sort out

Hyper-reactivity of CD8+ T cells and high expression of IL-3 correlates with occurrence and severity of Long-COVID Following SARS-CoV-2 infection, some individuals develop Long-COVID-syndrome lasting for more than 3 months. We analyzed blood samples from patients w…

It’s another group finding overactive CD8 T cells in Long COVID! They focus more on IL-3 than IFN-y

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Giving blood on the hottest day of the year. Wore a white jumper. Peak planning

I really want to avoid being political on this account. Or a millennial book nerd…

…But if I wrote a popular book where the bad guys’ colour are green and silver, I’d avoid taking celebratory photos wearing those exact colours?

The academic career has really delayed my family life, but I hadn’t realised how bad it was

I feel like dentistry is just the modern version of blood letting

Didn’t even know he had twitter

My dad: “I want to go on twitter and say rude things about Elon Musk but I’ve forgotten my password”

One day someone will say: “hey Ben, aren’t you Burmese?” And it won’t be in response to a natural disaster, civil war, genocide…

Shrinkflation: my lunch costs the same but is smaller and now advertised as a low calorie option