Rhys Blakely

Is this response real? Imposters are putting health studies at risk Automated bots and people lying about their conditions risk skewing the results of medical research, Oxford academics have warned

🚨 Imposter alert 🚨

Studies into everything from cancer and HIV being plagued by "fraudulent" participants

Includes people pretending to have the diseases

It's undermining the reliability of trials and potentially harming patients

Stark warning here:
www.thetimes.com/uk/science/a...

Trump cuts to cost UK universities millions in research funding Executive orders freezing billions of dollars in science grants have disrupted more than 30 health projects in Britain

Pleased to have my investigation into the impacts of upheavals at US research agencies on UK universities picked up by @rhysblakely.bsky.social for The Times

Exclusive for @resprofnews.bsky.social: US research agency upheaval costs UK universities millions
www.thetimes.com/uk/education...

Lost portrait ‘may show Shakespeare’s secret male lover’ Does a newly discovered miniature believed to be of the poet’s first patron hint at a doomed love affair?

"Scholars will not be able to resist speculating. Could this portrait have been a gift from Southampton to Shakespeare? … no other man of the time cultivated as androgynous an image."
@rhysblakely.bsky.social reports a portrait miniature with a hidden secret:

www.thetimes.com/article/ba9c...

A man standing on what appears to be a balcony of his home.

The man's living room. There's a couch, coffee table, and foot stool, as well as some tall windows. Lots of wood.

Another living space with a fireplace and bookshelf. Possibly a compression hallway leading to this room.

The outside of the home.

Incredible.

Roland Reisley is 101 years old, the last original client of Frank Lloyd Wright. He still lives in the 3,200 square foot home that Wright built for him in 1952.

The price? $40,000. Or a little less than half a million in today's money.

‘There is nothing to buy’: Gaza’s descent into mass starvation Israel’s offensive and aid curbs tip enclave of 2.1mn Palestinians into famine

Important reporting from Gaza:

I've wanted to write this article for years. About my and other's struggles to even survive sometime in #academia. Thank you to the amazing editors at @plosbiology.org that gave me the forum to write this piece. #science

My FoIs reveal that the Trump administration has halted more than 20 projects at UK Russell Group universities including one on forced child begging in Niger.

One researcher whose project was affected tells me they “felt like their funding had been used as a pawn”.

But everything in the article is accurate -- no?

.@adambell.bsky.social -- Hi Adam, Do you have a moment to talk to The Times about Pain/Portugal? Please let me know as soon as you can. Thanks - Rhys rhys.blakely@the-times.co.uk

English life expectancy 2000-2023 for women and men

‘In the century to 2010-12, life expectancy increased by nearly three years every decade. Between 2011-18 it increased by only 0.4 years for males and 0.2 years for females - and it was virtually flat between 2014 & 2018.’

Big piece from @rhysblakely.bsky.social
www.thetimes.com/article/9aee...

New map of brain hailed as watershed for neuroscience Researchers reveal 2.5 miles of neural wiring, nearly 100,000 nerve cells and 500 million synapses — in a speck of a mouse’s brain no bigger than a grain of sand

“Just looking at these neurons shows you their detail and scale in a way that makes you appreciate the brain with a sense of awe.” - Forrest Collman

@rhysblakely.bsky.social for @thetimes.com dives into the most complete map yet of the brain's wiring & activity: www.thetimes.com/article/94bc...

🧠📈

What Earth’s biggest animals could teach us about beating cancer Giant whales rarely get cancer, defying medical expectations. New research is revealing their secrets, offering hope for human treatments

What Earth’s biggest animals could teach us about beating cancer 📰(£)

Rhys Blakely (@rhysblakely.bsky.social) @thetimes.com writes about Alex Cagan's (@atjcagan.bsky.social) work exploring cancer resistance across the animal kingdom ⤵️

www.thetimes.com/uk/science/a...

Can a virtual reality headset cure your fear of public speaking? A device that simulates even the most intimidating of audiences can make presentations less of an ordeal, a Cambridge scientist explains

Terrified of public speaking? I've written about a free virtual reality platform from Cambridge University that could help you conquer your fears -- and the article is free to read, with The Times paywall down this weekend....

www.thetimes.com/article/dc9c...

Foreign aid: how US-UK cuts could change the world by accident Trump and Musk have upended lifesaving work overnight and Britain is due to follow suit by shrinking its budget. Who profits?

The Times is free to read this weekend, with the paywall taken down. Here's something I've helped to write on the likely impact of US and UK foreign aid cuts....

www.thetimes.com/article/fd77...

We’re all suffering from qualitynesia now Borne along on the tide of technology, it is far too easy to forget that some things really were better quality in the past

Interesting twist on Doctorow's law of enshittification....

We’re all suffering from qualitynesia now - on.ft.com/3ZlwHf5 via @FT

Interested in reading about science and health? ⚛️⚕️

Do follow my colleagues at @thetimes.com:

Science Editor: @whippletom.bsky.social
Science Correspondent: @rhysblakely.bsky.social

Health Editor: @eleanorhayward.bsky.social
Health Correspondent: @poppykoronka.bsky.social

A graph titled "Cost of Transport" showing the relationship between body weight (in kilograms) and energy consumption for distance traveled (calories per gram per kilometer) for various animals and machines. It highlights that a person on a bicycle ranks first in efficiency.

A person on a bicycle is by far the most energy-efficient among animals and machines per distance traveled relative to body weight. The bicycle is magic.

www.jstor.org/stable/24923...

Royal Society fellow Dorothy Bishop (@deevybee.bsky.social) resigns over Elon Musk membership.

Bishop claims Musk has violated RS code of conduct, and is not prepared to treat him "collegially and with courtesy" as that code requires. Free to read.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-c...

The world’s largest known coral has been discovered in the Solomon Islands after a National Geographic/Pristine Seas expedition. The Pavona clavus measures 34 meters across and 32 meters in length. news.mongabay.com/short-articl...

When I was 5, I loved science, which I took to be planets and magnets and chemicals and shit.

Soon I realized science was a collective human activity, and these were just the objects of its attention.

Anyway, whenever I read an OpEd on how science isn't political, I think "Are you 5 years old?"

Reform MP James McMurdock was jailed for repeatedly kicking girlfriend The MP had told the media he had been jailed for ‘pushing’ former partner in 2006, when the court records say he repeatedly kicked her on a night out

Reform MP James McMurdock was jailed for repeatedly kicking his girlfriend.

He had told the media he was jailed for "pushing" his former partner in 2006.

Court records obtained by The Times say the sentence was given because of "the serious nature of the offence”.

www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

Three priests suspended over report that felled Justin Welby Pressure is mounting on the church to act against those who allegedly knew more than the archbishop about John Smyth abuse allegations decades earlier

NEW: Three priests have had their permission to officiate suspended by the Diocese of London after they were named in the report that led the Archbishop of Canterbury to resign

Is "pending further investigation" into their knowledge of John Smyth's abuses
www.thetimes.com/uk/religion/...

Tesla drivers appear to be crazy dangerous, compared to other drivers...

Truly rage-inducing this; our legislators should really think about the societal damage becoming the libel capital of the world has done

Absolutely fascinating this. Classlessness is so 1990s.

We Who Wrestle With God by Jordan Peterson review — rambling, hectoring and mad The conservative polemicist’s new book is a bizarre study of the Bible featuring Jiminy Cricket, Harry Potter and Tinkerbell the porn fairy

I reviewed Jordan Peterson's new book. Never read anything like it. Really quite deranged.

www.thetimes.com/culture/book...

James Marriott does not like Jordan Peterson’s new book www.thetimes.com/culture/book...

Science or religion? Pope’s chief astronomer calls for a truce They ask completely different questions, says the Vatican Observatory director, but the church’s persecution of Galileo was ‘wrong’

Fascinating interview with the Pope's chief astronomer from @kayaburgess.bsky.social -- lots to think about on the relationship between science and religion, and how it's ranged from conflict to collaboration...

www.thetimes.com/uk/religion/...

Biden allows Ukraine to strike Russia with US-supplied long-range missiles US president had resisted move for fears of escalating conflict with Russia

Biden allows Ukraine to strike Russia with US-supplied long-range missiles

www.ft.com/content/cc56...

The decoy keyboard is working