Elaine Coates

We're pleased to announce that our latest release of new and updated UK Biobank data is now available to approved researchers around the world ✅

A flurry of snowflakes with text reading 'Virus Snowflakes: a collection of paper art viruses by Ed Hutchinson - Download now!' along with the logo of the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research

If you'd like to celebrate the biology of viruses - or the fight against viral diseases - this winter, try out our free and updated #VirusSnowflake designs.
Please share, and if you have any photos of Virus Snowflakes in your area it would be lovely to see them!
cvr-engagement.co.uk/virus-snowfl...

I love this !

When Tommy Robinson is celebrating your policies it is time to take a long hard look in the mirror and then quit politics forever.

Conceptual and methodological flaws undermine claims of a link between the gut microbiome and autism Claims that the gut microbiome causally contributes to autism regularly appear in the scientific literature and popular press. Mitchell et al. critically examine influential studies underpinning these...

“Critically assessing the literature, we found it beset by conceptual & methodological flaws & limitations, undermining claims that the gut microbiome is causally involved in etiology/pathophysiology of autism”
Crucial PSA from @wiringthebrain.bsky.social @statsepi.bsky.social @deevybee.bsky.social🧪

I only half understood both sides of that translation guide but it still made me laugh 🤭

Go go go !

I've pressed the button, it's out there! My latest novel, A Dragon in the Title, written with J. R. Steel.

Happy to see this day

😊

All of the comments on this are worth reading. There are…. _interesting_ patterns in this data.

Nature suggests you use their "Manuscript Adviser" bot to get advice before submitting

I uploaded the classic Watson & Crick paper about DNA structure, and the Adviser had this to say about one of the greatest paper endings of the century:

That is the best argument for smart glasses I have ever heard.

Fungi growing in a woodland, it looks remarkably like zombie fingers reaching up from the ground

When in the woods, best beware of dead man's fingers lurking there.
Reaching up above the ground, a creepy fungi to be found.

Happy Halloween everyone.

Photo: Sheringham Park by Rob Coleman

Laser clinic offers major discount to get rid of Harry Potter tattoos: "I hate JK Rowling" - LGBTQ Nation "Around 16% of people regret getting a tattoo," the offer reads, "less than 1% of people regret gender affirming surgery.

Laser clinic offers major discount to get rid of Harry Potter tattoos: "I hate JK Rowling" - LGBTQ Nation www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/10/lase...

Well that’s cool and interesting

Mosquitoes found in Iceland for first time as climate crisis warms country Three specimens discovered in what was previously one of the only places in the world without the insects

Climate change is enabling vectors like mosquitos and ticks to emerge and even thrive in places they once couldn’t have existed - this is a huge threat for infection spread eg dengue that could have worse impacts in infection-naive individuals that are more susceptible 🧪

Government shutdown means many CDC experts are skipping a pivotal meeting on infectious disease An annual conference about infectious diseases is seeing a dramatic attendance decline, in part because Centers for Disease Control and Prevention experts can’t participate.

Just another normal HHS week: CDC researchers cannot present work at an annual Infectious Disease conference in (checks notes) Atlanta. As a CDC researcher put it:

“It appears to me that HHS’s goal is to prevent the dissemination of scientific information. It’s insane.”

apnews.com/article/infe...

US Government shutdown doesn’t get in the way of demolishing part of the White House then, huh ?

I want one of these :)

Me too !

mitochondria from bipolar patients are closer to the nucleus in these images; control patients' are spread out further

15 years in the making, we confirmed that mitochondria - the powerhouse of the cell - have an unusual localization in patients who experience psychosis (including schizophrenia and bipolar disorders). You’ll never guess what kind of patient cells we used to make this discovery… 🧵

A tardigrade moving around a volvox algae colony | 2025 Small World in Motion Competition Penny Fenton - A tardigrade moving around a volvox algae colony

🔬🦠🧫🧪 #MicroSky
This is the most fantatic video I've ever seen: a Tardigrade strolling on a Volvox by Penny Fenton #NikonSmallWorld #DarkField
www.nikonsmallworld.com/galleries/20...

3 yrs ago when I started my Access to HE course, a woman on the course was retaking GCSE maths, needed for a Uni place. She passed the Access course but not the maths. Today at Uni I bumped into her, she has just started her Adult Nursing course. SO happy for her, persistence finally paid off ! 👍

#MicroSky

Screen cap of parodic version of William Blake's "The Tyger" that begins: Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright (Not sure if I spelled that right) What immortal hand or eye Could fashion such a stripy guy? What the hammer that hath hewn it Into such a chonky unit? Did who made the lamb make thee, Or an external franchisee?

In honor of National Poetry Day, the greatest parody rewrite of all time:

No fair, I didn’t get a sticker 🙁

Solar becomes main source of electricity in the EU for first time More than half of the EU’s electricity in the second quarter of 2025 came from renewable energy

#Solar becomes main source of electricity in the #EU for first time. More than half of the EU’s #electricity in the second quarter of 2025 came from #RenewableEnergy
www.independent.co.uk/tech/solar-p...

Horizon Europe’s new antimicrobial resistance partnership looks to the market Horizon Europe’s partnership for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) research launched last week with a plan to bring Europe closer to finding new anti-microbial therapies in the next decade. With more of ...

Horizon Europe has launched a €253M AMR partnership to accelerate innovation and move potential therapies closer to market. The first funding call, focused on treatments, will open in November following a pre-announcement in mid-October.
sciencebusiness.net/news/r-d-fun...

Is there a reason I ask that the Times are using a picture of asylum seekers in a boat to describe rules for migrants who came on legal routes such as skilled worker visas for doctors?

Message from Audible “Charles Dickens has released a new title!” Then “check out Charles Dickens brand new title” with picture of an audiobook cover silver script on black background “A Christmas Carol”

I don’t think he has.