No problem, Iβll email tomorrow
01.03.2026 21:38 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0@cyberplasm.bsky.social
Scientist and engineer. Interested in understanding complex biological systems. Still very interested in the naked mole-rat and ion channels. Recently ex academic. Working in a synthetic biology start up. Loves thermodynamics.
No problem, Iβll email tomorrow
01.03.2026 21:38 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0Would be on an individual basis , also can show evolution of the one that got no response from employers to one that had better success
01.03.2026 21:33 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0True, but usually people end up leaving after a year or 2 and getting a job in another start up /company. In academia you are likely to put up with the toxic environment for the whole of your career
01.03.2026 20:29 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0Sure , I miss the teaching , the students , and the research, but the environment in academia is π€’
01.03.2026 20:07 β π 3 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0Well , I got that off my chest didnβt I
01.03.2026 20:04 β π 2 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0Overall I wish I left university 15 years earlier. When you are inside you think everything is about success in university, absolutely everything. But when you are out itβs like getting out of a cult . Thereβs so much more to life than listening to a salesman scientist boasting about his H factor
01.03.2026 20:03 β π 85 π 1 π¬ 4 π 0Job hunting in middle age is scary but itβs possible to make all of that experience work for you
01.03.2026 20:01 β π 4 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0Older people can get jobs in a tech startup. I was 48 when I got my job in my first start up and 51 when I got my job in my 2nd . Academics have a huge amount of transferable skills , itβs all about how you present them in both your CVs and at interview
01.03.2026 19:59 β π 6 π 2 π¬ 1 π 07) Both academia and startups can be stressful. However academia can be very bad for your mental health
01.03.2026 19:56 β π 2 π 0 π¬ 2 π 06) People - academia is the most toxic environment I have ever encountered . Competition for money , space , students and promotion bring out a child like behaviour in some academics . Some very unpleasant people , usually in positions of power , as the system promotes such people
01.03.2026 19:55 β π 6 π 0 π¬ 1 π 15) Excitement- working in a start up is exciting. University, exciting for the first few years until it grinds you down
01.03.2026 19:52 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 04) Free time . Much more free time and better quality of life in startups . Ironically I only started having time to read scientific papers when I left academia . Quality of life has shot up since leaving academia
01.03.2026 19:50 β π 5 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
3) only having left academia after so many years do I realise how institutionalised I was. The job and university take over your life in every aspect and form part of your identity. Not healthy
Startups , not the case at all
1) Job security- a big plus as a UK academic in a tenured position in an engineering department.. spent 18 years in same job , could have spent another 18 years there.
Tech startups , change jobs every 1-3 years, v lucky if you get 4/5 years. Length of tenure dependent on runway
(1) Well, itβs been almost 3 years since I left my tenured position at Newcastle Uni for life in sustainable tech start ups and I have a few plusses and minuses for both academia and industry (obv n=1!)
Anyone wanna hear whether I regret leaving academia after 20 years?
Our brains make new neurons from stem cells ...
even when we're really really old!
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Researchers @uicbios.bsky.social discovered lifelong #neurogenesis in human post-mortem hippocampi
β young adults
β aged adults
β SuperAgers!
#aging #health #science #longevity π§ͺ
When it comes to the brain's conservation of energy, practice makes perfect.
Watch Dani Bassett's lecture on our brain's neural system function and its implications for health, disease and neural computation.
Online now: youtu.be/7uGxRE7kmHI
This is my 2nd start up job, working on completely different systems in each company. All those skills I developed in academia have been very useful indeed.
24.12.2025 16:23 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0I havenβt abandoned biology , soft matter , ageing , cancer research , and thermodynamics. Iβm just keeping those on the down low while I navigate the excitement that is start up life.
24.12.2025 16:21 β π 4 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0New year new Job!!! Based in the heart of Cambridge (next to Parkerβs Piece) Iβm now a materials and process development manager at sustainable tech startup , Fab Materials.
24.12.2025 16:19 β π 3 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0Darwin on top Christmas form
24.12.2025 16:16 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0Working through 3 months of gardening leave. Itβs such a weird place of limbo. It gives me time to find a job or setup my company. Itβs such a strange feeling having no job to go into in the morning.
18.10.2025 14:42 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
We're looking for a new postdoc on our new BBSCR grant (Graham Taylor/Tim Guilford/Cait Newport). See link below!
my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...
Darwin on top form
26.09.2025 20:05 β π 5 π 1 π¬ 1 π 0Well hereβs a life update !! Iβve resigned from my job in the sustainable tech startup . It was a good 2.5 years but time to move on. The question is what to do next . I mist likely will be starting up my own company!!
26.09.2025 19:50 β π 2 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
If replicated in humans this could revolutionise the treatment of Alzheimerβs
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Well it's been 2 years and 2 months since I left academia (after being in academia for 25 years!!). Start up life is pretty crazy but still infinitely less stressful than academia. I should have made the transition 15 years earlier!!
30.07.2025 07:38 β π 4 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0Home electronics projects are fun..next up a radio controlled car
30.07.2025 07:37 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0I must be bored, I just typed in to Google βKaroline Leavitt, what does she do all day?β
07.06.2025 20:36 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0Darwin on top form
28.05.2025 20:35 β π 8 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0