Andrew Kennard @askennard@qoto.org

In the endless discussion of #Mastodon over #Bluesky (which, btw, really, we all should move on if not away from it and it would be about time), I am amazed bout the quantity of people posting (on Mastodon) that scholars post more on Bluesky than here, bc (insert whatever feature of Twitter).
Maybe it's bc I'm tired and sleepy today, but considering the endless stream of complaining here, wouldn't it be better for the #AcademicFedi to stop comparing and start posting about their work?

Very cool preprint from the Fritz-Laylin lab - "Genetic transformation of the frog-killing chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis" https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.17.561934v1

17/ #31NightsofHalloween #MicrosCreepy
Here's a closer look at the cell division fail from yesterday. The contractile vacuole network gets distributed through the cell during division- here you can see tubules converting to bladders that pump unusually synchronously

16/ #31nightsofhalloween #MicrosCreepy
These are the cells that created yesterday's maximum intensity projection! Featuring one failed cell division, and one successful cell division. Lots of contractile vacuole activity.

15/ #31NightsOfHalloween #MicrosCreepy
A max intensity projection of crawling and dividing cells

“Graduate student mentorship as a target for diversifying biology.”

Girish Kale and Reinier Prosee cover a recent preprint from researchers #UCBerkeley. Particularly excited to note the positive impact of informal mentorship & being part of interdisciplinary groups that the students report as part of this study. #preLightsPeerSupport

#preLight 👉 https://prelights.biologists.com/highlights/mentoring-practices-predictive-of-doctoral-student-outcomes-in-a-biological-sciences-cohort-v2/

#challenges #diversity #mentoring #practices #STEM

12/ #31nightsofhalloween #microscreepy
I got to play with a very cool microscope today!
purple: actin
orange: mitotic spindle

New blog post just dropped!

"Assembly theory is cool... but doesn't quite do what its inventors say it does."

http://www.johannesjaeger.eu/blog/assembly-theory-is-cool

reviewing this recent Nature paper:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06600-9

news & views here:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03061-y

#evolution #complexityscience #innovation #possibilityspace

8/#31NightsOfHalloween #MicrosCreepy
A twirling flagellate

I wanted to consolidate a few thoughts on google, misinformation, large language models, enshittification, and the fate of the web as we know it.

It started when Carl Zimmer shared this remarkable example of Google being fooled by machine-generated bullshit online.

It's #MicrosCreepy season!
Here's an experiment that went horribly wrong

7/ #31nightsofhalloween #microscreepy

Gummy worms!

... or the tracks of cells before (green) vs after (orange) being squashed to a 5 micron ceiling. They tend to crawl faster when squished. Circles are the pillars holding up the ceiling.

Bungee Beetle Escape!

My son has been learning to code so that he can write his own game, and here, after many many weekends of effort, it is! It's fun!

I had to get him to add 'easy mode' (AKA mum mode) to give me a chance of getting beyond level one. Level three remains, for me, a place only heard tell of in legend.

If you give it a go then feedback is welcome - it is a work in progress.

https://mixian.noodlefactory.co.uk/~tom/bungee-beetle/

@askennard @JoseEdGomes

The moderator is really important.

If a talk is really bad, it's usually only the PIs who can come up with a cogent question.

I think a good moderator should know the seminar was a stinker and if so just let the PIs ask questions. If it was a fantastic talk, that is when to pause before picking a PI question or cajole students to ask questions.

Having the moderator choose the questioner is ideal, because the speaker usually has tunnel vision.

@askennard I agree this is an issue and that students need time to process. some people may never ask a question for very good reasons, e.g. because of neurodivergent or mental health condition which means they are unable to speak up. I agree with the other comments that good moderation is key and that zoom taught good lessons. It's not beyond the realm of current tech to poll comments via an app and then get the moderator to ask the question on the students' behalf.