Mark Derbyshire 🎠

I am reading the 1984 book "In search of Schrodinger's cat" by John Gribbin for some insight into quantum mechanics. I had a weird realisation. Although we can define its behaviour with accurate mathematical abstractions, what an electron (or any particle) actually 'is' is unknowable... unlike ABBA?

It's not regulated and you need no licence.

Gene-Edited Sclerotinia Resistant Canola by 2029 Cibus is field testing gene-edited sclerotinia-resistant canola, aiming for market availability by 2029 to help growers combat yield losses.

Easing back into things with a scan of the global status of commercial #sclerotinia resistance in #canola. Happy to be reminded of the pioneering work of Cibus who are tackling this complex, polygenic trait with high throughput gene editing (www.producer.com/news/company...). 2029 is not far away!

Wow. Would be interesting to see a breakdown of what is driving this. It will be important to adhere to best practices to run programs efficiently without letting your allocated CPUs sit there twiddling their thumbs.

Record Demand for Australian Supercomputing Power Australia’s national supercomputing facilities (NCI in Canberra and Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre in Perth) record unprecedented demand.

📃 Australia’s @nci-australia.bsky.social and Pawsey have recorded an unprecedented demand for compute time in the 2026 NCMAS allocation scheme.

More than 2.2 billion compute hours exceeded the annual NCMAS compute share on NCI's Gadi and Pawsey's Setonix by nearly 3 times.

#NCRISimpact #NCMAS

Pressure limiter 1 = 500 kPa. Probably not needed but ensures pressure will always be below the tap timer limit of 800 kPa.

Pressure limiter 2 = limits to 300 kPa to stay within working pressure of drippers.

Next time, will use a single 300 kPa limiter with high enough working pressure on the tap!

Exciting to see baby canola sprouting under our new drip irrigation system. Bulking some candidate #sclerotinia resistant lines.

Tap => pressure limiter 1 => timer => backflow preventer => Venturi fertiliser injector => disc filter => pressure limiter 2 => drip line.

Fertigation here we come!

Well, perhaps, technically. I would say a little risky given how fast it grows and how overgrown the rest of our plants are.

I used Google Gemini. It looks idential to the pictures of young endemic sheoaks I've seen. Shame to remove it but they grow huge.

Does anyone know what this tree is? It grew to this size in our garden in about 2 years. I think it might be a native sheoak. Amazingly, it filled in the bare patch that our sprinklers don't reach in the summer. Sadly, we may have to remove it.

That's exciting. Currently adding EarlGrey to my nextflow workflow!

First manifold assemlby, including solvent-welding PVC pipes. Live in Perth long enough and you'll end up in the Bunnings irrigation aisle scratching your head...

Overhead irrigation very satisfying to watch.

Big reveal today! After uncovering the #sclerotinia in canola trial at @curtinuniversity.bsky.social for the first time in a week, we see exceptionally good and seemingly consistent infections! @theccdm.bsky.social @tobyenewman.bsky.social

Saving the field trial version 2.0. First a severe storm, now an early heatwave. Not only are the plants not overheating under the covers, evaporative cooling seems to be keeping it a few degrees cooler than outside. So far, some nice #sclerotinia lesions under there, which is what we like to see!

Been on a journey recently. Chasing consistent #sclerotinia across 660 randomised canola plants in a field plot led to temporary hoop-houses for uniform misting. Worked for two days then damaged by the storm. Managed to improvise a fix better than the original. Very grateful for my wonderful team.

Loving the #2025ISMPMI session on cross-kingdom movement of RNAs - so many different types of RNAs on the move. So much to learn!

Grateful for the opportunity to discuss our research. We've come a long way toward establishing the basics for improving sclerotinia resistance in canola. Ultimately, there's still a long way to go but many opportunities on the horizon with new methods like speed breeding and genomic prediction.

Well, I think most of them. Some issues with poor penetrance in dense canopies but generally the mainstay of protection. Purely anecdotally, if you just waft a fludioxonil plate by a sclerotium, it seems to work. Any thoughts?

📣 We have a postdoc position in fungus-microbiota interactions! Apply here: jobportal.uni-koeln.de/bewerben/2197
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For more details, visit: bewerbungsmanagement.uni-koeln.de/ausschreibun...

Scientists with ADHD speak up: when fire meets focus Researchers with ADHD discuss its peaks and valleys and how they structure their work lives to succeed.

Less practically useful than I thought it might be but turned out to be a nice read. Encouraging to see that others have their own diverse ways of dealing with their ADHD, including playing to their strengths. Upvote mental health awareness in academia, for everyone.

doi.org/10.1038/d415...

🌿 A big week for CCDM with staff & students showcasing their research at two major conferences.
📍 #BotryScleroMoni2025 (Greece): Sharing insights on Sclerotinia stem rot and Botrytis cinerea.
📍 #APPS2025 (Sydney): Presenting work on fungicide resistance, cereal tolerance & disease control. 🌾👏

Heading home from #Botryscleromoni 2025. All over so fast! Feeling inspired and ready to start exploring new ideas. Thanks to all involved for a fantastic conference!

Well, either way it's clearly the 'best chemical agent'...

Good point.

#Botryscleromoni day 2. Another great talk by Daohong Jiang, thinking outside the box. Non-infective sclerotinia strain colonised with a mycovirus as a control for... sclerotinia. May be as effective as fungicides.

#Botryscleromoni day 2. Wonderful inspiring talk from Xin Li. Two nuclei = one haploid genome in #Science (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...). Nucleus besties stick together through thick and thin.

In the midst of all the crazy things happening in the world, it has been nice to have a morning stroll through sunny Melbourne. Good for the soul. Feeling lucky.

It was a pleasure presenting today. Had some really enjoyable and insightful discussions at day one of #GRDCUpdates, and saw many great talks. Looking forward to tomorrow.

Really looking forward to this event. Always great to see all the exciting grains R&D going on across the industry.