MASSIVE turnout. Well done #Edinburgh. We are the people.
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Sally Lowell
@CellySally@biologists.social
mastodon 4.7.3Developmental & stem cell biologist at the University of Edinburgh. Digs repetition. #DevBio #StemCells #SustainableConferencing #Music #Science #MoreScience
778 Followers
889 Following
43 Posts
Joined June 26, 2023
A machine for solving differential equations, made from Meccano.
Built in 1947 by Nicholas Eyres and pupils of Radley school #CentreForComputingHistory
I just made myself a Post It holder for my desk and am feeling pretty pleased with myself
(I feel sure I must have stolen this idea from someone at some point... if anyone knows who please let me know so that I can credit them)
Just look at that graph. Amazing.
Congratulations to the Pollard lab and all authors.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10329-6
RE: @CellySally@biologists.social
My #MicroBookReview of Elizabeth Alker's book
The subheading"How 20th-Century Classical Music Shaped Pop" really undersells this book. It it is somehow also about how things become connected, and how culture emerges in response to particular social or political situations, and how making strange new sounds can help us understand how to exist in strange new times, and how to find joy. And it has a good cover, and a good title written in a very good font.
I loved it. 10/10
My beautiful city #Edinburgh
"Why we won’t be funding open access publishing any more"
- Cancer Research UK
(h/t @@earthowned@mastodon.scot but on BlueSky)
"We want to see the academic publishing industry change in a way that benefits science, not just profits"
- Cancer Research UK, and also all the rest of us
https://news.cancerresearchuk.org/2026/04/01/why-we-wont-be-funding-open-access-publishing-any-more/
Good #Edinburgh things: today, the cherry blossom is out, and so is this new track from Boards of Canada 😍
Inspired by @brianbilston@mastodon.online I tried to turn this post into a Haiku but find myself defeated by the impossibility of determining how many syllables there are in the word Edinburgh.
Tape 05
Replying to
@steveroyle@biologists.social oh no. It's been said many times before I know, but learning how to organise and present data is part of understanding your own data. Sigh.
Roni Size: there was drum, there was bass, there was dancing, it was ace.
What was the sky like when you were young?
Replying to
@steveroyle@biologists.social So true. There are many reasons that homogenisation is bad. The wonky and imperfect path may well lead nowhere great, but it just might lead to somewhere unexpected and brilliant.
Replying to
@steveroyle I'm sure Iggy got lots of gifts for his 79th birthday yesterday, but I bet you are the only person who paid tribute to him by naming a blog about quantification of research funding after one of his records 👏 .
It's #GoodFridayMusicQuiz day!
What links:
Whole Lotta Love by Led Zep
Please Go Home by the Rolling Stones
Race for the Prize by Flaming LIps
If you think know the answer, can you name another song with the same link?
A further clue will be provided upon request
Favourite talk so far at BSDB2026 was from Cliff Tabin, entitled 'Quack science':
Proper hardcore dev-bio airway-patterning mechanisms... explaining distinct vocalisations in birds!
Estrogen modulates developmental signalling, explaining why male (but not female) ducks can whistle as well as quack.
Left-Right asymmetry during development of airways explains why some songbirds can harmonise with themselves.
Replying to
@steveroyle@biologists.social Ah, so close! I'll save that up as a #paperthemetune for next time I see a nice paper about neural tube closure
Replying to
@albertcardona@mathstodon.xyz same story for emousealtas, an amazing invaluable resource built up over many years, then it limped along unfunded for 5 years before being decommisioned in 2023 😞 https://www.emouseatlas.org/emap/home.html
Replying to
@steveroyle@biologists.social I think there has been some passive diffusion of the letters in Williams's surname
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@SteveRuss@biologists.social @steveroyle@biologists.social I followed your instructions and am grateful. This was the perfect accompaniment to my walk to the shops to buy potatoes for our tea.
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@SteveRuss I live dangerously close to Morningside, where the number of syllables in "Edinburgh" reaches astronomical proportions
Replying to
@brianbilston
"Good times / For a change..." 😃
Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou
For letting us
Get what we want.
Replying to
@steveroyle I'm bad at finding time to read as well, but this book is very easy to read/absorbing, and can be read in highly asynchronous small chunks. You would definitely enjoy it.
Friday music quiz: without looking it up, do you know, or can you guess, where the title comes from? It is a quote from a very famous musician who, arguably, stretched the definition of "music" further than anyone else before or since.
Replying to
@steveroyle Ah! Alker says G.V. was initially played on a theramin (maybe your easier-to-play version?) but nobody could master it other than a particular trombone player
When aformentioned trombonist was busy washing his hair or something Moog was called upon to integrate the slidy portemento effect into his nascent synths. And the rest is history. Or at least one version of history.
So, if true, we should all be grateful the unavailablity of that particular trombonist!
Replying to
@steveroyle in other news, nice to see Josh flying the #talkthemetune flag here at BSDB. But I'm frankly sad and disappointed in the DevBio community who almost universally fail to get the reference (data collected by show-of-hands on Josh's request).
Replying to
The ABC of my fave things in this paper:
* ABOLISHING both silencing AND leakiness of SynNotch (check out the DTA-based demo of this 😍) while preserving high efficiency, in pluripotent & differentiating cells
* BOOSTING signal during #PUFFFIN neighbour-labelling
* CITING Robbie Burns (1786) 🏴
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.22.713470v1
Time for a #FridayMusicQuiz
The following songs are linked in sequence. Can you suggest a song that comes next in this sequence? There is more than one correct answer.
Friend or foe?
Wouldn't it be nice?
Do you really want to hurt me?
Replying to
@steveroyle@biologists.social @MCDuncanLab@mstdn.social This sounds useful! @MCDuncanLab@mstdn.social would you mind if Steve forwards it to me? He has my email address.
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@steveroyle@biologists.social Ok, I'll have a go at Q3. I can actually speak Welsh actually, although the only sentence I can say means "superfurryanimals are behind the curtain", which may come in useful tomorrow but doesn't help with this answer. My guess is "songs from the sandwiches"
Replying to
@steveroyle yes! I'm impressed! My next clue would have been a Beach Boys song that would have made it much easier.
The question was insired by reading Elizabeth Alkers's excellent book. Just finished the chapter on Bob Moog.
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@steveroyle@biologists.social Sudden inspiration: feature in song titles (or song lyrics)? But I don't know which is the odd one out, other than it definitely isn't Howard and I think isn't Che Guavara
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@steveroyle@biologists.social Howard Marks is the only one not born in Wales? Hope this baseless accusation doesn't cause offence to Howard if he sees this..