Arwyn Edwards

AI Keeps Failing at Microbiome Prediction Why simple models keep winning, where deep learning still shines, and where the field is headed

AI has huge promise for genomics -- but it has consistently failed at microbiome-based prediction.

My new post on why simple models keep winning, where deep learning actually earns its place, and where the field is headed

blekhman.substack.com/p/ai-keeps-f...

When someone says „Scientists do not want you to know“ you can dismiss everything from there on. Scientists want you to know. They are desperate that you know. They can’t shut up about what they found out and want you to know.

Job description text

Job description text

Cruise logo from our 2024 expedition to Greenland

Sampling on a small motorboat during our 2024 expedition to Greenland

If you're interested in particle fluxes, sinking plankton and the Arctic, then the fantastic Emilia Trudnowska has a great 2.5 year position open for you: Work on data from our Arctic expeditions to study how microbial dynamics around Greenland and Svalbard are responding to climate change 🌊

🔔Seminar Opportunity🔔

We're looking for (self)recommendations for a Postdoc who is working in the area of AMR (any area, any discipline) to give an online seminar in May.

Reply, DM or email me, there will more opportunities in the future as well so will be good to have a list.

#MicroSky #AMR

A new era for #ONT amplicon sequencing?
We show that #ONT #amplicon sequencing now achieves accuracy sufficient for #ASV resolution using standard Illumina-based pipelines. We validated this by sequencing identical amplicons on #ONT and #PacBio. @nanoporetech.com www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Crunchy on the outside, squishy on the inside. And good with ketchup, apparently...

Tales from the Poles - APECS Netherlands Tales from the Poles Tales from the Poles is a collaborative storytelling project organized by APECS Netherlands and the UK Polar Network. Its aim is to bring together diverse voices connected to th...

Polar researchers are so often great storytellers. Here's a compilation of stories from the field by polar scientists, including @aberdlsagb.bsky.social 's @tir5.bsky.social apecsnetherlands.nl/tales-from-t...

Saving The Life We Cannot See | NOEMA Conservation has traditionally ignored the planet’s smallest life forms. Microbiologists are trying to change that — before it’s too late.

A great read on saving endangered microbes (and not just from glaciers)

“The world is at a critical inflection point,” says @gilbertjacka.bsky.social “If we don’t do something now, shit’s going to get real, and microbiology needs to be considered in this space.”

www.noemamag.com/saving-the-l...

If you want to know what Reform would be like in power, look at how it threatened Bangor University | Gaby Hinsliff A debating society didn’t want to invite two figures connected to the party to speak. Cue an authoritarian response, says Guardian columnist Gaby Hinsliff

If you want to know what Reform would be like in power, look at how it threatened Bangor University | Gaby Hinsliff

Excellent commentary, but I think we mustn’t lose sight that tourists are not the only visitors to glaciers. Last-chance glaciology also has its impacts and paradoxes.

Hi Bluesky microbiology/limnology/hydrology/field folks!

Has anyone used this style of cordless drill peristaltic pump for sample collection or field filtration?

The design checks a lot of our boxes (replaceable tubing, decent suction height, compact batteries), but doesn't seem widely available.

Remember, a fish sunsets from the head down…

A new era of bioclimatic extremes in the terrestrial Arctic Long-term climate data suggest that the Arctic is entering a new era of bioclimatic extremes threatening cold ecosystems.

A new era of bioclimatic extremes in the terrestrial Arctic

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Polar bears getting Scientists think that Svalbard bears have adapted to recent ice loss by eating more land-based prey.

Poor bears. First the climate change and now the fatshaming. #svalbardtillegget www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

GitHub - bluenote-1577/savont: Amplicon sequencing variants from 16s ONT R10.4 / HiFi long reads Amplicon sequencing variants from 16s ONT R10.4 / HiFi long reads - bluenote-1577/savont

Announcing a new tool for "denoising" long-read amplicon sequences: savont.

Savont enables amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) directly from nanopore (or HiFi) long reads. Tested on 16S nanopore amplicons -- seems to work okay.

1/4

github.com/bluenote-157...

Looking for a tool to estimate abundances of aerobes versus anaerobes directly from metagenomes? Here you go: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Some unorthodox ice coring techniques… #fieldphotofriday #fieldworkfriday

New blog post with some thoughts on @nanoporetech.com and their recent announcement that the P2 Solo will be discontinued:
rrwick.github.io/2026/01/21/p...

Big news in one of those weeks where decades happen.

Best wishes for whatever comes next!

Copenhagen town hall square, Denmark right now.

Massive solidarity with Greenland demonstrations.

Source: dr.dk

Metabolically flexible microorganisms rapidly establish glacial foreland ecosystems - Nature Communications An enduring question in ecology is how new ecosystems form. Studying retreating glaciers, this study shows that life’s first foothold in these new environments is not established by photosynthetic org...

How do new soils develop after glaciers vanish? ❄️🧬🦠🏔️

The first microbial colonisers use flexible chemoautotrophic strategies to overcome nutrient scarcity, including scavenging H2, CO and CH4 from the air! ⛅

Led by Francesco Ricci, Sean Bay @greening.bsky.social

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Where are you?! Hope to see you in about 3 weeks - Chris has asked me to pop in for a seminar.

I’m so greatful to #PAM26 for the opportunity to present some of my work on identifying deep Antarctic subglacial populations. This was my first experience of an extended presentation, and a great first day. I’ll take away so much from this presentation and the conference as a whole.

Fabulous start to 2026 - it’s been great fun to share some surprises from our sampling of Arctic glaciers as well as meet old friends and new at polar & alpine microbiology. Haribo served in whirlpaks is definitely on-brand if you’re a veteran fieldworker... #PAM26

I am calling for a complete and total boycott of the Mercator projection in all news stories about Greenland until every member of the American public has seen this

Yes. I heard and saw this last night. Visible on real time lightning map just south of Newcastle Emlyn and Crymych. It may have caused us to lose power for 8 hours too. Thundersnow isn’t uncommon in west Wales when we get a big dump of snow from a big depression rather than the Pembrokshire Dangler.

Defunding fungi: US’s living library of ‘vital ecosystem engineers’ is in danger of closing These fungi boost plant growth and restore depleted ecosystems, but federal funding for a library housing them has been cut – and it may be forced to close

Article in the Guardian by @mountainogre.bsky.social

Defunding fungi: US’s living library of ‘vital ecosystem engineers’ is in danger of closing

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Agreed - although I can’t say I could move on so swiftly, so I try to have something else in play already.

I’ve also observed that, given a longer perspective, initial failure is almost always the secret ingredient for greater success.

TBT Fieldwork, Spring 2025
Arrived at a distant hut — first open the hut, fire and snow clearing. Slowly, warmth returns after a day in minus 20.
Svalbard fieldwork blends presence of harshness, long hours with awe. Even with a busy mind, the beauty is hard to be unnoticed.