Tim Barnett

Congratulations Alex, Fatoumata and team. Another amazing body of work from SpyCATS, and still so many more things to learn from this!

Portuguese editorial cartoonist Zez Vaz reaches back to Tiananmen Square to call on American defiance.

‘Stamp out paper mills’ — science sleuths on how to fight fake research A group of scientists who are experts at spotting fraudulent research outline five essential steps to combat industrialized scientific misconduct.

I'm delighted to share our opinion on #papermills published in Nature. Science is flooded with papers from paper mills.Certain steps can be taken, but this is a challenge that neither universities nor journals are ready to face.Some use paper mills to their advantage.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Thanks!

Host-dependent resistance of Group A Streptococcus to sulfamethoxazole mediated by a horizontally-acquired reduced folate transporter - Nature Communications There is increasing evidence for metabolic processes mediating antimicrobial resistance. Here, the authors present a mechanism of sulfamethoxazole resistance in Group A Streptococcus that is dependent...

Strep pyogenes: ....and a plug for our own lab's work where we used experimental evolution to identify a novel AMR gene: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Spatiotemporal microbial evolution on antibiotic landscapes A key aspect of bacterial survival is the ability to evolve while migrating across spatially varying environmental challenges. Laboratory experiments, however, often study evolution in well-mixed syst...

E. coli: I love this paper, and there are some cool time lapse videos that are great for lectures as well: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Research Fellow (eDNA in Biofilms) The Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering (SCELSE) is a unique interdisciplinary Research Centre of Excellence (RCE), funded by National Research Foundation, Ministry of Educati...

I'm recruiting! I'm looking for a motivated postdoctoral scientist to join my new team at SCELSE in Singapore. The role will explore various aspects of how #eDNA is produced and utilised in #Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms.

#Microsky #phagesky #Science

ntu.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/Careers/job/...

New Stan Perron Charitable Foundation grants to accelerate WA child health research Funding from the Stan Perron Charitable Foundation will support world class researchers at The Kids Research Institute Australia to improve the health and wellbeing of WA children facing serious…

Thank you to the Stan Perron Charitable Foundation for funding me for the next 5 years!

Can colleagues amplify this appeal to journals and journal editors to open accounts on Bluesky, please? @MicrobioSoc @TrendsMicrobiol @CellCellPress @JBacteriology @jbiolchem @Nature @ScienceMagazine @PNASNews @MolMicroEditors @NAR_Open @NatureMicrobiol @NatureComms @ASMicrobiology 🙏
🦠🧪🧫🧬

Being a Scholar in Trumpian times Some thoughts about doing the right thing as an academic in an autocracy

Endorse this outstanding essay by @hormiga.bsky.social written in 2016, republished here:

TLDR:
1. Keep up our research.
2. Teach critical thinking.
3. Advocate publicly for evidence-based decision making.
4. Build diverse and inclusive academic communities

open.substack.com/pub/sciencef...

An advertisement for the polio vaccine which reads: "they all got vaccine except dad...don't take a chance...take your polio shots!" It depicts a photo of a family gathered around a father who is in an iron lung.

With science falling under increasing attack, this medical historian is here to remind people of the power of vaccines. THREAD👇

Hard-hitting polio advert from 1958. In the first half of the 20th century, polio was the leading cause of death in children and young adults. 1/7 #history #skystorians

Dear scientist,

You will NEVER know enough to do a perfect piece of work.

Everything you do can only be as good as the knowledge you currently have.

That means 1) keep learning, 2) keep an open mind, 3) don't be ashamed when you discover you did something wrong. Welcome it; that's growth!

It’s not about getting “the scoop”, it’s about getting it right | Origin of COVID-19: My emails… In a recent book, former New York Times reporter Donald McNeil falsely accuses several subject matter experts, myself included, of having…

It’s not about getting “the scoop”, it’s about getting it right | Origin of COVID-19: My emails with former NYTimes reporter Donald McNeil.

medium.com/p/7447e59d79...

You can now read what I have been up to in Victor Nizet's lab UCSD during my sabbatical. Very grateful for this great experience, my colleagues at DMF for taking over my duties at UNIL and @snsf-ch.bsky.social for making this scientific exchange possible! #MicroSky
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

This looks amazing! Congratulations!!

Job Vacancy at the University of Surrey: Senior Lecturer / Associate Professor in Virology [No Meta Tag Description provided]

jobs.surrey.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...
Come and join our Infection and Immunity section at the University of Surrey School of Veterinary Medicine, as Senior Lecturer / Associate Professor in Virology. Lot of opportunities for great research, and teaching on our BVMSci RCVS-accredited veterinary degree.

Please come join us! Postdoc job opportunity working on Group A Strep infections and Rheumatic fever. Closes 19th January 2024. #ScienceJobs #AcademicSky
jobrxiv.org/job/telethon...

If you’re going to be gathering with people over the holidays, you can potentially save your loved ones a lot of pain and grief by doing a rapid test first and staying away if you test positive or feel at all unwell. Missing out is no fun but being the cause of someone else’s illness would be worse!

Cool new paper from Ian Paulsen and co - Systematic analyses identify modes of action of ten clinically relevant biocides and antibiotic antagonism in Acinetobacter baumannii www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Thanks!

Is there any good information on which covid vaccine to get? I’ve only had mRNA vaccines so far, never had covid as I know, and 8 months since my last vaccine. Options are bivalent mRNA or novavax. Any suggestions where to look? Thanks! 🦠🧪

Supporting nonlinear careers to diversify science Those who follow non-linear career trajectories often face disadvantages in academia. This Perspective looks at why individuals might choose non-linear careers and how these benefit diversity in scien...

Many people take "non-traditional" career paths in academia.
My Leading Edge colleagues and I did! We wrote for
PLOS Biology about how non-linear careers are increasingly common, but funding agencies and search committees penalize these paths. journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

I set some up with my daughter and we followed this article. We used T75 flasks also. www.scientificamerican.com/article/brin...

I didn't know there were so many microbiologists here! 🦠 It's fantastic that we can start building a community on this platform. I've stopped notifying every new person because there's too many of you.. but if you've filled in the sign-in form then you've been added (and I'll continue adding people)

Thanks!

Thanks!

Whoa. Redux of a paper from 12 years ago with the opposite effect: sweeps and persistence not brief perturbation 🧪🧬

A reminder we have two completely open search prof posts going the IMI at Birmingham

Microbial Genomics: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DBJ457/c...

Infection Biology: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DBJ427/c...

Welcome!