Timely to highlight the life and work of Ben Barres.
Ben was a remarkable biologist who transformed our understanding of brain function. Born in 1954, he transitioned from female to male in the late 1990s. In his research, Ben and his team gained an understanding of glial cells, and importantly showed that astrocytes could damage the brain - an important breakthrough in terms of understanding a variety of neurodegenerative disorders.

It's timely to highlight the life & work of computer scientist Lynn Conway.
In the late 1960s, she transitioned from male to female and was sacked by IBM as a result. For some years, she went underground and, for the rest of her career, worked as a woman - herstory unknown. Under the legislation of the 1960s, Lynn was denied all access to the children she had previously had with her wife.
Lynn went abroad for her surgery, all alone. She had lost not only her career and professional reputation but also her family, relatives, friends, and colleagues.

On autism/ADHD & behaviour.
Over the weekend, I have read lots blaming autistic children for their behaviour, or suggesting poor parenting is to blame.
Autism & ADHD are *disabilities* that can impact on behaviour - to fail to understand this is simple disability discrimination. When neurodivergent children are dysregulated, and in a bad environment, they can struggle to behave.
This is an inherent part of their disability.
You cannot 'make' them behave by shouting at them, in the same way you cannot make a blind person see by yelling in their face.

In 2018, trans rights were broadly accepted - even Theresa May proposed legislation to treat trans people with dignity. In 5 years, Stock, Bindel, Rowling, et al, have created a toxic environment where trans people are demonised and fear for their safety. That's their legacy. This Pride, all I read, is hateful & degrading rhetoric against trans people. Although gender critical people have the right to believe what they want about sex, that does not give them carte blanche to abuse trans people or discriminate against them in the provision of services.

Bempton Cliffs - Seabird City. England's best onshore seabird colony. Didn't get lucky with puffins today, they are mostly egg-sitting in their burrows, but the gannets and razorbills were great.
@Bempton_Cliffs Followed by North Landing, Flamborough. @YorksWildlife

29 scientists write about 'merit' in science and use this figure to 'measure' it. First, I should emphasise we all want great science. Also, merit is not opposed to diversity as the authors suggest - noone wants bad science. The problem is those axes...
journalofcontroversialideas.org/article/3/1/236 Who decides importance?
Is it scientists who go to conferences with buddies and set agendas?
Is it editors based on what gets cited?
Is it rich governments deciding national priorities?
Is it disadvantaged citizens in developing world?
All have different views and priorities.

Trip to our favourite bluebell woods. North Cliffe Woods are just over 20 miles from York and gorgeous on a warm spring morning - walking through a haze of blue. @YorksWildlife They were featured in the latest issue of @YorksWildlife magazine, so I don't feel so bad about sharing the 'secret' of where they are!

This is Mo. Mo was trafficked to the UK when he was 9 to work in modern slavery. In future, unaccompanied children like Mo, who arrive on boats, will simply be offered accommodation until they are 18, then sent back to their country of origin, or somewhere like Rwanda. #r4today This is Dominic. Dominic's Jewish father escaped the Czech Republic as a 6-year-old when the Nazis annexed it in 1938. If Dominic's father had ended up on a boat, with the new laws, he would have been sent back to Prague in 1950, once he reached the age of 18 (or sent to Rwanda).

There is real tension here. As educators, we design degrees to be good value for high fees. They require (especially in sciences) ca. 35 h/week in termtime to succeed. Yet because of the costs, our most disadvantaged students can't afford to fully engage.
bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-… I don't think the answer is to cut-back degrees to a 'part-time' undertaking. Instead, we should properly fund disadvantaged students so they can dedicate energies to study. If govt refuse, we must think seriously about making proper, top-quality, part-time degrees available.

I get lots of people asking me how a chemistry curriculum can be 'decolonised', so I thought I'd make a short thread with examples.
Firstly, decolonisation is not about removing science from the curriculum, it is about giving students more context (see: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/ac…) If teaching org/med chemistry, why not include quinine? Known since ancient times in South America, the bark of the cinchona tree was brought to Europe by a priest, aware of problems with malaria in Rome. In the years after, it became a key malaria treatment in Europe.

A restorative visit to the Himalayan Sculpture Garden, one of our absolute favourite places to go and relax. Sheltered in a valley in the Dales, it's a tranquil magical wonderland that feels tucked away from the world. @The_Hutts The beauty of the place is the way that sculpture and nature entwine - as the seasons change it brings out different aspects of the work.

To mark the end of Pride Month, here is a short thread to celebrate some trans scientists and their amazing contributions. These are great scientists, and great people who have risen above transphobia to succeed - that's worth celebrating.
#Pride2022 Lynn Conway is a computer scientist who revolutionised the design of the computer chip. Fired by IBM when she transitioned in the late 1960s, her contributions during the 1970s ushered in a new age of personal computing. In recent years, she has been a powerful trans advocate.

'Britain's strictest teacher' explains how she deals with kids with additional needs as part of a Times interview. When I took her to task about SEND education, she blocked me. It's evident she simply couldn't care less about kids who are different. She says, dyslexic kids have 'not been taught to read properly', with no understanding of underlying issues. She doesn't make any allowances for kids with ADD or ADHD because she 'doesn't believe in making allowances'. Well actually, it's the law to make reasonable adjustments.

TW: Palliative care/Assisted suicide/Death
With a bill coming to Parliament, there's discussion in UK about the right to die. This is a hugely difficult issue, and one I'm conflicted about. Having been through palliative care with my husband Sam, I have a few reflections. The palliative care pathway aims to make patients comfortable at the end of life. Patients are treated with anti-anxiety drugs and large amounts of painkillers like morphine. For a patient with breathing difficulties, the doctors were clear that this also accelerated end of life.

To be absolutely clear:
Under £12,570 - tax free.
>£12,570 - 20% tax
>27,000 - 29% tax (if a graduate)
>50,271 - 40% tax (49% if a graduate)
The proposal is to drop £27,000 to £21,000.
This masssively raises taxes for the lowest paid graduates. A couple, both of whom are graduates and earn around the average UK wage of £29k (e.g. newly qualified teachers), will have to find an extra £1080 a year just to service their student loans.
This is the impact of what the govt is trying to say is 'progressive and fair'.

Once again David Willets on #r4today arguing graduates earning £21k-£27k should also repay student loans, at an effective marginal tax rate of 9%. A 9% tax hike for people well below the average UK wage of £29.6k! Why not tax the very wealthiest graduates an extra 1-2% for life? The problem with student loans is not that they put people off going to uni, but that those on low/medium incomes, who repay them with interest for 30 yrs at a marginal tax rate of 9%, cannot afford houses, holidays or other types of spending the economy (and they) need. #r4today

Entering the lecture room after another department has done their induction lecture to find 150 unmasked Year 1 students crowded round the front desk waiting to collect their course documents. 😱 So that's the air in the room trashed before I even begin.

My best biscuit creation was this Tardis cake with a spiced biscuit shell. A light came on inside and it made the Tardis sound. It was a nightmare! But my husband was dying in hospital, it was our son's 6th birthday, and I wanted Sam to know that we would be OK. #GBBO

https://twitter.com/professor_dave/status/1091457149933416448

I took it into hospital to show Sam before taking it to the birthday party. I wanted him to know that I had this - he didn't need to worry. Me and the (now) 8yo were going to be OK. I recorded the story in #TwEatMore, although the cake recipe was FAR too complicated for my books!

This paper argues against 'politicisation of science'. It's a seductive idea that science has been apolitical and things like decolonisation contaminate it, but it's wrong. Science has always been political - with significant impact on outcomes & culture.
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/ac… Most importantly, science occurs within a context. The science that gets done is primarily decided by the richest countries in the world. They decide that (e.g.) diseases of ageing deserve more funding that tropical diseases. This changes the way science itself develops.

Towards the end of last week, over 15,000 UK coronavirus cases were not entered into the official figures, and none of their contacts were traced. It's time for those in charge of test, track & trace to be held accountable. It's just a complete shambles.
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-544125… I'm afraid to say, but the government has now lost control of the virus and where it is in the community. Contact tracing is broken and we are getting dangerously close to another situation like March where Covid begins to rip through communities. #r4today

Am sure the 'ship migrants to Ascension Island' story was only leaked so the real 'lock them up on a ferry' story would seem more 'reasonable'. They then say 'Denmark do it', using Denmark as code for tolerance, when in fact, it currently has, like us, a hard right govt. #r4today You can find a good analysis of Danish politics shift to the right and the increasingly hard-line approach to immigration here: time.com/5504331/denmar…