@markbasham.bsky.social
Science Director for AI at #RosalindFranklinInstitute creator of the #LegoBeamline and #DiamondTheGame. #SoftwareSustainabilityInstitute and #InstituteOfPhysics Fellow. #Dad he/him
A photo of a table under a black cloth and covered in leaflets, stickers and pens. Behind it is a roller banner with the Society of RSE Logo on it.
If you're at #CIUK2025, come and say hi to Mike at our stand. We're in the Research Zone with our friends from The SSI (@softwaresaved.bsky.social), CAKE and more.
04.12.2025 08:19 — 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 1
Applications for the Franklin's PhD Programme are now open for 2026/2027.
The Franklin’s 4-year PhD scheme is fully funded by EPSRC where students experience a vibrant, cross-disciplinary research environment, drawing strength from a network of UK collaborators.
Find out more:
tinyurl.com/54hmdcdm
Yes the current state of play feels a lot like lossy reverse compression.
1. Sender writes a bullet point list.
2. Sender turns it to prose with LLM
3. Receiver summaries prose with LLM
4. Receiver reads bullet point list.
Laboratory setting with gloved hands preparing a sample for loading in a microscope and computer screens displaying imaging data. Text on the right reads ‘WE’RE HIRING’ in bold white letters on a pink background, followed by ‘Research Associates’ and a row of white chevrons pointing right. The Rosalind Franklin Institute logo appears at the top.
📢 We are on the lookout for Research Associates to support our Multidimensional Imaging Team across several cutting-edge projects in the following areas:
• Electron ptychography
• Liquid phase electron microscopy
• Electron spectroscopy and diffraction
Find out more: tinyurl.com/4ce5t7sm
I really like this as an idea, I'm looking at getting solar for the roof, but it's a big job and we have other work that needs doing too. But we do have a south facing flat roof (the garage is half outside the house) which would be amazing to put a couple of panels on to get things going.
30.11.2025 22:04 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
The latest RSE Newsletter is out! This month’s newsletter highlights our continued work championing the often-overlooked contributions that drive research forward and also bring updates from across our community, including one item with a deadline for today!
society-rse.org/november-202...
I was slightly sad when it was replaced by the bulldog towards the end of my time with cadets. I didn't realise they were still about to be honest, but very glad they are!
23.11.2025 21:28 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Loved flying the chipmunk when I was a cadet (especially aerobatics!) Hope you had fun :-)
23.11.2025 21:24 — 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Researcher Spotlight: Shigeyuki Morishita, Visiting Researcher from JEOL
As part of an ongoing collaboration between JEOL and the Franklin, Shigeyuki is developing a new transmission electron microscope, the first of it’s kind in the UK. One of the key features of this new microscope is a chromatic aberration corrector, this will enable researchers to obtain high resolution images of biological samples.
“One of our main targets is the observation of thick biological specimens, and we expect to achieve higher image resolution with this new instrument. In addition, this microscope is equipped with a pulsed electron gun, and I believe that this feature will also improve the resolution when recording movies of specimen motion.”
Meet Shigeyuki, a visiting researcher from @jeoleurope.bsky.social
Shigeyuki is currently working with the electron microscopy teams at the Franklin to install and set up UK’s first chromatic aberration-corrected electron microscope - a cutting-edge instrument developed in collaboration with JEOL.
💼 Did you know that the Society has a job board?
👩💻 We encourage people to post opportunities that involve a significant element of writing software for research, or supports the role of RSEs.
🌍 Vacancies anywhere in the world are welcome!
If you see this, post your getaway vehicle. However the $880k pricetag is a bit outside my current vehicle budget.... youtu.be/gGPCOVcaCoQ?...
20.11.2025 06:55 — 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0It's well worth a binge watch!
18.11.2025 19:26 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
This one?
youtube.com/playlist?lis...
Do you have an exciting announcement or news article that you would like to disseminate to the RSE community?
If so head to our news submission form and submit your news items by the 20th of November!
society-rse.org/calling-for-...
Plumbing is genuinely horrible, the level of anxiety after you have done it that it's actually not going to work is huge, and for some reason every pipe is somewhere horribly complex to actually get to. All hail the dad god!
15.11.2025 20:52 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
📢We’re Hiring: NMR Facilities Manager
Join us in managing and advancing our NMR Spectrometers to support cutting-edge research in small and large molecule characterisation, including biomolecules and ligand interactions.
👉🏻 For more details, and to apply, follow this link: tinyurl.com/yuwj6wkd
Ooh, good pumpkin, ours were more traditional (i.e. simple)
01.11.2025 08:50 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0totally agree :-) in an internal meeting I was at just after the world cup a while back, the session chair brought in a vuvuzela which he then promised to use to end every talk for questions. He had to blow it once! It's amazing what fear can do....
01.11.2025 08:48 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0I also enjoyed the description of scientific instruments as icebergs, with the capital cost the bit you can see, and the running costs and required infrastructure as the larger hidden piece underneath.
01.10.2025 17:34 — 👍 5 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0One new term I especially enjoyed was the term #Sciborg which referred to someone with scientific, software, and data science skills. An increasingly regularly spotted unicorn.
01.10.2025 17:34 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Coming home from the excellent #LabsOfTheFuture conference in #Amsterdam. Had great fun presenting this year, and the content of the other talks was excellent. Heading back to the @rosfrankinst.bsky.social very much inspired.
01.10.2025 17:34 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0What sort of spider? I give all cellar spiders a free pass as they catch the nasty ones like the false window which we annoyingly have a number of who try to get in.
06.09.2025 10:08 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0I totally agree :-) That's one of the main reasons I love giving tours, as introducing your normalised work to others lets you see it through their eyes, and remember how cool some of the things we do are.
06.09.2025 06:50 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
A lively screenshot from an online “Meet the Scientists” chat with Peterhead Academy’s Astronomy Elective 🌌. Students and scientists are checking in, greeting each other, and talking about the weather before diving into space science discussions. ✨
And we're off again for another year of scintillating, surprising and superb chats.
Teachers, get your students involved: imascientist.org.uk/signup/t/
Scientists, Mathematicians, Engineers, get yourself involved: imascientist.org.uk/signup/c/
I assume it was a fresh batch, but it tasted just like I remembered!
30.08.2025 16:20 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Can you remember what the house was called?
30.08.2025 08:46 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Visual of segmented human induced pluripotent stem cells with the key workshop dates: Symposium on November 10-11, Hackathon on November 12-14th in Zurich Switzerland
We're happy to announce the 2025 International OME-NGFF workshop 🎉
📅 Dates:
- Symposium: Nov 10–11, 2025
- Hackathon: Nov 12–14, 2025
📍 Location: Zurich, Switzerland
Full details & registration: www.biovisioncenter.uzh.ch/en/events/Up...
#bioimaging #openscience #OMENGFF #OMEZarr
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Although I found a lovely wood panelled room at Chirk Castle, it wasn't really set up for drinking in @alunashton.bsky.social :-)
29.08.2025 16:26 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 2 📌 0
A bottle of Black Dragon Welsh cider with a lovely Welsh landscape backdrop.
Very much enjoyed a brief camping holiday to #Llangollen, we did a lot of excellent touristy things, and I very much enjoyed finding an old favourite from my last visit to #Wales for the Eisteddfod.
29.08.2025 16:26 — 👍 6 🔁 0 💬 3 📌 0
@markbasham.bsky.social, science director for AI, and @mdarrow.bsky.social, head of data strategy for cryoimaging at the Rosalind Franklin Institute, wrote about this topic for @resprofnews.bsky.social.
Read the news story and op-ed here - www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-i...
