Soph turned 37 over the weekend. I did not wish her happy birthday. We will get to celebrate eventually.
#severeME #MECFS #pwME
17/02/2026 Another birthday lost.
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How do we know our research results are REAL? We replicate them! Most folks agree but lament on how hard it is to publish these replications.
My dearest gentle reader, lament no more! Delighted to unveil: Replication Studies, a new section of Behavioral Ecology 1/
academic.oup.com/beheco/artic...
We're Hiring! We're looking for a postdoc with bioinformatics/modelling skills to join us in an exciting microbiome ecology project in Manchester (deadline 1st March) www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...
Excellent article but stark reminder that for all the perceptions of universities as ivory towers for elites, they are actually vital hubs in towns n cities supporting local businesses and providing key services as well as education….
If only there was a way to stop some of the biodiversity crisis... We don't need a backup plan for life on earth, we need to stop the production and burning of fossil fuels. This feels a lot like science-washing.
Some initial reactions to the 'published on a Sunday afternoon' letter from the CEO of UKRI. 🧵
www.ukri.org/news/open-le...
I am sorry. We all knew the three buckets were coming. We are all prepared for a shift in priority. But this message does nothing for all the UK scientists dependent on project grant funding. It doesn’t actually give any information
www.ukri.org/news/open-le...
Its hard to know what to say. I have no idea how Soph does it. Another heartbreaking, gut-wrenching visit, finishing with a lunch that wasn't. We did not get to say goodbye.
#severeME #MECFS #pwME
25/01/2026 Every new day turns into the worst of her life.
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Checking code is the error you made here. Just submit and don't provide the code. What's the old Chinese proverb, if there are errors in code but no one can read it, does it have a meaningful impact?
It's especially galling as @jburnmurdoch.ft.com and others so brilliantly use ggtitle to explain graphs. And yet we still write them underneath.
The New World asked me to speak to some British trans women about what life has been like for them over the past few years - here's what they had to say, in their own words: www.thenewworld.co.uk/marie-le-con...
Slide demonstrating how a community assembly framework can be used to understand ecological responses to climate change. Arrows link everything to everything, demonstrating the context dependence and interlinking of factors, processes, and mechanisms across scales.
Thanks everyone. I ended up with a slide that looked like this. Basically demonstrating it is complicated and we will go into more detail through the module.
New post!
Where does new knowledge come from when everyone relies on AI models and those models collapse because they only have their own output to train on?
https://tomstafford.substack.com/p/model-collapse
International Fellowships 2026 The International Fellowships Programme enables researchers to work for two years at a UK institution with the aim of building a globally connected, mobile research and innovation workforce. Funding status Open for applications Career stage Early-career
Please help spread the word on this, especially to those who may be feeling cold winds towards their research.
We’ve opened the call for our International Fellowships, enabling early career researchers to work for two years at a UK research institution
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/sche...
First trip of 2026. Soph's vertigo has gotten worse. This has made everything worse. I really cannot convey how hard that visit was. Or how she gets through every day.
07/01/2026 The worst visit ever. #severeME #MECFS #pwME
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This is quite close! I wish I could find it! Maybe it was all a very dull dream?
Maybe something more general than this one by @jenniferfunk.bsky.social in Journal of Ecology from 2021 (although this is pretty great!)
doi.org/10.1111/1365...
It is like a really lovely version of going from a regional species pool to a local species pool. Looking to use it when teaching about ecological responses to climate change.
Ok science hivemind 🧪. I have a distinct memory of an awesome graphic in a paper about how environmental filtering and biotic interactions determine whether an organism can live in any given place. Almost like multiple filter layers on top of another. Does anyone have a preferred graphic of this?
Very happy to say I will be starting a NERC Independent Research Fellowship in April with the University of Exeter 🥳
This 5-year project will be looking at how environmental conditions determine the impact of phage on microbial communities 🧫🦠
Thank you to the lovely ppl who helped along the way!
Good job the owners of those AI owners share all the questions they're asked so the whole world can benefit from their knowledge...
A four-year postdoc focusing on "plant growth-promoting bacteriophages" available in my group. Skills in metaviromics and metagenomics essential. Application deadline: 2.2.2026. For more info, see the link.
1 of the saving graces of 2025 being my dog having inoperable cancer but still being fine atm sums up this year well. Soph still does not know.
20/12/2025 When you cannot communicate, how do you deliver bad news?
#severeME #MECFS #pwME
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Congratulations! But also... burn it with fire. Maybe @microbiologysociety.org should have something similar.
On my reading list. Looks super cool!
Academia has this way of making you feel utterly unsuccessful even when by any reasonable standard you are doing just fine.
Had a great time at #MicroEvo25 soaking up some inspiring science from lots of amazing people. Even networked! Very well organised by @microbiologysociety.org. Next time hopefully more of the work presented is published in society journals! If we don't use it we will lose it!
Two fully-funded PhD openings in my research group at the University of York.
If you’re excited about viromes, phage biology, Nanopore sequencing, soils and the odd bit of alpine or agricultural field sampling, we’d love to hear from you!
🌱🦠🏔️
tiny.cc/c4pv001
tiny.cc/e4pv001
Soph has an ear infection which makes sound super painful. I have a cough this trip was shorter. Im on the way to a conference when today I was holding the cup for Soph to eat soup. A crazy life.
25/11/2025 A cough that won't go.
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#pwME #severeME #MECFS
