Furqan Shah

🧪📸 Spent 2 years exploring forests in Sweden & Finland, observing (not picking) fungi. So many shapes, colors, and species — this collage is just a glimpse. Nordic nature is full of surprises.

#mycology #fungi #mushrooms #nature #biodiversity #nordicforests #mycophile #biology

Can you "untrain" medical AI that has been trained on data in papers that eventually get retracted? 🤔

And soon after, you run into peer-reviewers who will try to make sure that nobody in the world ever gets to know...... 😜😆

🧪📸 Here's a link to a higher-resolution version of this:

jmp.sh/s/JmUnHVxNbx...

#mycology #fungi #mushrooms #nature #biodiversity #nordicforests #mycophile #biology #fungifriends #mushroom #algae #moss #lichen #photography #nature #biology #trees #LichenSubscribe

A major danger of LLMs is that humans are SO predisposed to attribute knowledge to any entity that uses natural language fluently. We cannot imagine that a machine that outputs natural-seeming speech/text doesn't have cognition. Brilliantly articulated by @emilymbender.bsky.social et al. (2021).

🧪📸 Here's a link to a higher-resolution version of this:

jmp.sh/s/JmUnHVxNbx...

#mycology #fungi #mushrooms #nature #biodiversity #nordicforests #mycophile #biology #fungifriends #mushroom #algae #moss #lichen #photography #nature #biology #trees #LichenSubscribe

🧪📸 Spent 2 years exploring forests in Sweden & Finland, observing (not picking) fungi. So many shapes, colors, and species — this collage is just a glimpse. Nordic nature is full of surprises.

#mycology #fungi #mushrooms #nature #biodiversity #nordicforests #mycophile #biology

The study underscores the importance of material composition on bone quality, not just quantity, and raises important questions about the fate of phagocytosed, non-resorbable particles in vivo.

🧵 6/6

These findings are highly relevant for the development of next-generation bone graft substitutes, especially in craniofacial and maxillofacial reconstruction, where synthetic materials must balance bioactivity with long-term stability.

🧵 5/6

The materials were designed to enable controlled degradation and bone formation in non-osseous environments. The inclusion of Ca-PP—a known mineralisation inhibitor—was of particular interest due to a dual role in both promoting and potentially impairing bone quality.

🧵 4/6

These materials were tested in a subcutaneous sheep model to evaluate their osteoconductive and osteoinductive potential, as well as their long-term degradation behaviour.

🧵 3/6

This study investigates a series of multi-phase calcium phosphate (CaP) biomaterials composed of monetite, β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP), and varying concentrations of calcium pyrophosphate (Ca-PP) (0–12.5%).

🧵 2/6

Pyrophosphate‐Containing Calcium Phosphates Negatively Impact Heterotopic Bone Quality The role of calcium pyrophosphate (Ca-PP) in heterotopic bone formation and material degradation is investigated using calcium phosphate (CaP) compositions with varying Ca-PP content. Results show th....

🦴🔬🧪 Pyrophosphate-containing calcium phosphates negatively impact heterotopic #bone quality

📄 Full paper:
doi.org/10.1002/adhm...

#Biomaterials #BoneRegeneration #CalciumPhosphate #Osteoinduction #TissueEngineering #BoneQuality #Orthopaedics #RegenerativeMedicine #Pyrophosphate

🧵 1/6

I suppose, unless you’ve clearly stated that you disagree with the message or content of a shared article, people have a tendency of doing that under the assumption that your views are in agreement / alignment with the message of the shared article (regardless of who the author is).

Grant application rejected with the following comment:

"Further support for that one can detect the bone mineralization via Raman imaging would have strengthen the application."

Where do they find such reviewers? I'm perplexed! 🤯

#ramanspectroscopy #bone #biomineralization #science

🧪

When you’re at #ECTS2025 to give a talk on the applications of Raman spectroscopy to study #bone #biomineralization, but find a Raman hairstylist instead.

What your graph colour pallet says about you Source: https://errantscience.com/

What your graph colour pallet says about you

Source:
errantscience.com

#science #publishing #academia #phdlife #biology #physics

🧪

Indeed. It can be complicated for evaluation committees to decide who gets the promotion/funding. Therefore, quantity is a *useful* measure. Unfortunately, there are field-specific challenges. Pure biology papers can take many more “man-hours” (personnel + time) than e.g., materials science papers.

2-3 papers to review every week is unmanageable + unpractical. Sometimes I’m quite disappointed at the quality of papers that are sent out for peer review. There’s a giant disparity between journals that are selective (and high impact, but NOT only for that reason) and those that publish everything.

Publications costs are truly insane 😳

🌱☘️🌿 Adventures of a baby snail called Rainbow🌈

Munching on some lichen at 10X speed! 🐌🐚

#fungifriends #lichen #fungi #algae #moss #photography #nature #biology #trees #winter #mosstodon #video #mollusk #molluscs #stickoftheday #timelapse #timelapses #LichenSubscribe

🧪 The peer review system is truly broken! 😵‍💫

An editor's perspective:
–Ever increasing number of manuscripts submitted for publication
–Authors want quick editorial decisions + fast peer review
–Reviewers are "too busy" to review
–Everyone wants to submit papers but no one wants to review

1/2

🧪 The peer review system is truly broken! 😵‍💫

An author's perspective:
–All reviewers behave like Reviewer #2
–Reviewer comments are *do more* wishlists rather than factual scrutiny of reported data
–"Cite these (irrelevant) papers written by me"

2/2

#bone #biomaterials #biomineralization #science

Nepenthes is a genus of carnivorous #plants, also known as tropical pitcher plants, or monkey cups, in the monotypic family Nepenthaceae. The genus includes about 170 species, and numerous natural and many cultivated hybrids. [Source: Wikipedia]

#nature #photography

☀️ The #sun poking through the #trees at #sunset 🌅

#forest #photography #nature #outdoors #sky #bluesky

The Biomineralization and Biointerfaces Group investigates “bone as a material”, examining the structure, composition, and adaptation under diverse conditions using advanced techniques such as electron microscopy, micro-Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray micro-computed tomography, encompassing the macro-, micro-, and nanoscale. Bone is a complex, living tissue with a hierarchical architecture, from tiny mineral crystals to the entire skeleton. Particular attention is on the mineral component of the extracellular matrix and the mineralisation process of osteocytes (micropetrosis), bone repair biomaterials such as calcium phosphates, titanium, magnesium, and cobalt-chromium alloys, and distinguishing bone mineral from other bioapatites (e.g., in dental enamel) and geological apatites (i.e., hydroxy(l)apatite).

🧪🥼🔬 The “Biomineralization and Biointerfaces” group webpage is up and running! 🥳🍾

www.gu.se/en/research/...

🌲 #Tree or #Ninja 🥷

#nature #sky #bluesky #photography #trees #light #shadow #sunset

🐌🐚 Here is a fabulous snail! 😍

#animals #snail #snails #fungifriends #lichen #fungi #algae #moss #photography #nature #biology #trees #winter #mosstodon #mollusk #molluscs

Long shot: Sheep/goat cervical vertebra?

See Figure 4 on page 11:
lbhi.is/images/pdf/u...

🐌🐚 Here is a fabulous snail! 😍

#animals #snail #snails #fungifriends #lichen #fungi #algae #moss #photography #nature #biology #trees #winter #mosstodon #mollusk #molluscs