Ed Hutchinson

Not all bat viruses spread the same way 🦇

A new study from @averyholmes.bsky.social & colleagues looked at six viruses in vampire bats in Peru & found contrasting patterns of circulation.

Some reflect bat movement, others were influenced by human activity.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

A black-and-white montage portrait of pioneering American virologist Charlotte Friend (1921–1987), who discovered the Friend leukemia virus and advanced understanding of retroviruses and cancer. The main image shows her in her laboratory, seated at a compound microscope in a research setting lined with shelves of scientific books and journals. She is a middle-aged woman with short, neatly styled dark hair, wearing round-framed eyeglasses, a pearl necklace, and a white lab coat over a patterned blouse with a floral collar. She smiles warmly and confidently at the camera, one hand resting near the microscope's stage, conveying dedication, intelligence, and approachability. In the lower right corner is a smaller inset close-up portrait of a younger Charlotte Friend, smiling brightly with softer features, short wavy hair, and a simple white blouse, highlighting her earlier career. The composition blends her professional lab environment with a personal archival photo, celebrating her groundbreaking contributions to virology, leukemia research, and women's roles in science during the mid-20th century. The overall mood is one of scholarly achievement, warmth, and historical significance.

Virologist Charlotte Friend (b. #OTD in 1921) proved viruses could cause cancer (1957) & revolutionized virology (& helped define modern retrovirology).

She later pioneered differentiation therapy, showing cancer cells could be "reverted" to health, defining a new path to treat cancer. #WomenInSTEM

Experts fear ‘unethical’ vaccine trial in Africa is ‘prototype’ for US studies under RFK Jr Danish researchers whose work on effects of vaccines has been called into question are at center of US vaccine policy

“We are fearful that this is a prototype for other studies,” said @cdelawalla.bsky.social. My latest on the unlikely researchers at the heart of US vaccine policy:
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Offer scientists stability or the UK’s health and economy... High costs and an unwelcoming attitude are behind a failure to recruit the best researchers

"Every time a brilliant researcher decides the UK is too expensive – or too unsettling – to call home, we don’t just lose a colleague. We risk losing the next life-saving breakthrough."

Read more from our Director Prof Samra Turajlić in the @theobserveruk.bsky.social paper

@crukpolicy.bsky.social

DAY 279
SPECIES 279 - Stygiolobus azoricus
STAGE: Archaea
MEDIUM: Arches Paper. Chromatic & QoR watercolor, Sakura pen, Tombow pencil

Stygiolobus azoricus is an thermoacidophilic, obligately anaerobic archaeon that has many hair like appendages called archaella.

#sciart #watercolor #archaea #art

A European eagle-owl

We can go up a level of difficulty: the rare triple tautonyms!

For example the subspecies of Bison bison that roams Yellowstone is: Bison bison bison.

The European toad is Bufo bufo bufo.

The caracal is Caracal caracal caracal.

The European eagle-owl is Bubo bubo bubo.

Red fox in a green field. Picture from Skandinavisk Dyrepark, Denmark.

Let's talk about tautonyms & the weird, sad little taxonomy nerds who love them (me; I'm talking about me).

A tautonym is a scientific name where both genus & specific epithet have the same spelling.

Rattus rattus, for example, the black rat.
Or Vulpes vulpes, the red fox.

DAY 278
SPECIES 278 - Metallosphaera cuprina
STAGE: Archaea
MEDIUM: Arches Paper. Chromatic & QoR watercolor, Sakura pen, Tombow pencil

M. cuprina is a thermoacidophilic, metal mobilizing archaeon isolated from sulfuric hot spring in Yunnan, China

#sciart #watercolor #archaea #painting #art #paint

Unsplash image of the Earth, mostly the nightside with a tracery of city lights on every continent.

OK, this is wild.

In September 2023, geophysicists across the world started monitoring a very odd signal coming from the ground under them.

It was picked up in the Arctic. And Antarctica. It was detected everywhere, every 90 seconds, as regular as a metronome, for *nine days*.

What the HELL?

1/

a cartoon says hey everybody an old man 's talking while bart simpson looks on ALT: a cartoon says hey everybody an old man 's talking while bart simpson looks on

A short Bluetorial on plots of NIH application success rates as a function of percentile.

1/20

As with any other peer review, really - does it do the things it should be doing well enough to be respectable, and would it interest the typical readers of this journal in its current form? At least in my sub-field I find the process of writing a peer review is very similar for both article types

Attendees engaging with scientific posters at the 21st International Microscopy Congress in Liverpool, 2026.

IMC21: Abstract submission deadline *EXTENDED* until Friday 20 March! 🙂

There's still time to submit your abstract and share your work with the international microscopy community in Liverpool this summer! #IMC21

Abstract submissions: https://ow.ly/q8EU50Yrc0Z

It's a lovely paper Tim, congratulations!

Check out our publications on influenza virus cap-snatching! 🥳

MY DREAM JOB I am going to talk about my dream job. When I was a child I wanted to be a journalist but I changed my mind and now I would like to work as a scientist, but it is very difficult. Firstly, I have to study a lot because I must have very good marks for study at iversity Biotechnology, because there are not many seats in Spain. Even if I could study it, it would be difficult to work as a scientist because it is not a common job. In conclusion, I will try to get my dream job, but I know it will be difficult.

Diving into my old hard drive, I found this English homework from when I was 17. Village girl from Spain writing about her dream job. A few thoughts.🧵👇

1. A #flu update:
Another 11 children have died this flu season, bringing the total to date to 90. #CDC says of those with known vaccination status, 85% weren't fully vaccinated.
That number will continue to rise in coming weeks. But 2026 may not be as bad as 2025 for peds flu deaths.🤞🤞

If you block junior scientists from ensuring that they can afford to live (or start families!) in the exorbitantly expensive areas around their workplaces, only family-subsidized solitary rich kids will be able to pursue careers in research - amidst exponential inflation, increasingly few people.

Pls re-post: My department @oxfordbiochemistry.bsky.social are recruiting for several new faculty positions (links below). Broad search in molecular biology/biochemistry, across prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Interested in understanding life at the molecular level, this job might be for you!
1/n

UKRI opportunities update from Professor Sir Ian Chapman YouTube video by UK Research and Innovation

youtu.be/Z1OcZl224qo?...

🚨New paper 🚨

Can protein language models help us fight viral outbreaks? Not yet. Here’s why 🧵👇
1/12

@nitzantal.bsky.social @romihadary.bsky.social @soreklab.bsky.social use structure prediction and in silico binding site analysis to discover viral immune evasion proteins! Exciting for our lab @reneechang.bsky.social @riveralopz.bsky.social to help with this project.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Thanks to the many people @cvrinfo.bsky.social @royalvetcollege.bsky.social who have worked on this, particularly #LauraMojsiejczuk, #DerekWright, #JosephHughes, @robjgifford.bsky.social and @influenzal.bsky.social, and to our funders @ukri.org through FluTrailMAP-OneHealth (/end).

This tool sits alongside some of the other excellent IAV sequence analysis tools – it complements them by making some forms of mutation analysis and risk assessment accessible to anyone through a GUI interface.

We hope it’s useful – please share it if so! (4/n)

Screenshot of a GUI showing histograms of amino acid usage at position 434 of segment 4 of the IAV genome (HA) in viruses from birds, humans, and other mammals. Alongside, part of a table of adaptation mutations in HA providing summary details and linking out to supporting literature. A disclaimer points out that 'These mammalian adaptation mutations are largely derived from in vitro studies performed in specific viral strain backgrounds. Consequently, their adaptive significance may be context-dependent and may not apply to the submitted query sequence.'

"Does this IAV have Mammalian Adaptations?"
The largest (we think) curated database of IAV avian-mammalian adaptation mutations can be compared to each major IAV gene product, or to user-specified sequences, linking all previously annotated risk markers to supporting literature.
(3/n)

A screenshot of a GUI showing a customised phylogenetic tree for IAV segment 1 (PB2), coloured by amino acid usage at positon 627 (mostly E, with a branch of K)

“Where Did This Mutation Come From?’
Search all GenBank IAV data, smoothly toggling between numbering systems. Produce customisable, publication ready, annotated trees for each major gene product, including colouring by subtype, host group/order and amino acid usage at user-specified positions
(2/n)

A 3x3 grid of coloured images of influenza virus particles in the style of an Andy Warhol screen print. Image credit Naina Nair / Ed Hutchinson (MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research)

🚨New Influenza Tool🚨
Interested in IAV mutations?
Looking for markers of mammalian adaptation?
Frustrated by converting between IAV numbering systems?
The #Flu-MutationExplorer, a new tool from @cvrbioinfo.bsky.social and @royalvetcollege.bsky.social, is here to help:
flu-gdb.cvr.gla.ac.uk
(1/n)

A man peering over the top of the book 'BioFutures and the Legacy of Our Past: Escaping Evolution' by Derek Gatherer. The cover illustration is a black and white drawing of a bone comb.

Happy #WorldBookDay! I'm currently enjoying @derekgatherer.bsky.social's wry, readable and wide-ranging 'BioFutures and the Legacy of Our Past' (bone comb not included)

🧵 UKRI has changed their budgets from considering by disciplines (as bounded by Research Council remits) to by buckets. The inability to see the magnitude of change to disciplinary funding over the spending review period is creating uncertainty.

a woman is peeking out of a window with a shocked look on her face . Alt: Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced bouquet) a character from Keeping Up Appearances is peeking out of a window with a shocked look on her face.

It occurs to me that anyone under the age of 40 or not living in the UK in the early 90s won't understand why each time I mention UKRI buckets I add bouquets 💐💐💐💐

A new video from UKRI on the budget. Kudos to Ian for addressing the community.

More terminology to sit alongside the buckets 💐:

Legs 🦵
Jam jars 🫙

And a reprise of "applicant led"

I am more confused and I still have questions🧵

youtu.be/osnqHbOywVY