Very big thank you to 2022 #GBBO winner Dr. Syabira Yusoff & LoveProductions for kindly allowing use of her double-helical cake as example of #DNA as icon in pop culture. Very much the icing on the cake (oh dear!) for our new book about discovery of DNA

Hear those champagne corks popping! On this day in 1922, teenager Leonard Thompson underwent 1st successful treatment for #diabetes with #insulin - plaque unveiled in Aberdeen, last Sept is 1st in world to commemorate all four scientists involved in this achievement @DiabetesUK

For moment, thought I was on bridge of Starship Enterprise yesterday…but no, was actually launch of @LEMAS_UK Leeds Electron Microscopy & Spectroscopy Centre. We’ve come a long way since WT Astbury first installed an em in toilets of Textiles Dept @UniversityLeeds back in 1943!

…and if you’re wondering why Sisyphus has been transformed into a crash-test dummy…well, all is explained in the intro to our book…(in my first sketches, he looked too much like Iron Man!)

… I took up my pencil and paper and have been busy not just writing the book, but also drawing these figures for the close of each chapter…

Discoverer of #DNA, Friedrich Miescher who is subject of new book by myself & Ralf Dahm, tragically likened himself to Sisyphus in Greek mythology. Was hoping to get Sisyphus rolling his boulder up DNA double-helix on front cover of our book, but as that hasn’t proved possible…

@LeedsPhilandLit next week - Prof. Tony North share reflections of his life in early days of structural biology - from using X-ray crystallography to pioneering application of computing to protein structure - & meeting a few Nobel winners on the way!

Should have added to previous post - Sisyphus condemned by gods to spend eternity rolling a boulder up a mountain slope, only for it to roll back down again. A feeling no doubt painfully familiar to all PhD students & post-doc researchers who’ve ever toiled at a lab bench…

Btw - Friedrich Miescher who discovered #DNA in 1869,once compared his struggles to those of #Sisyphus (who in case you're rusty on your classical mythology) was the bloke condemned by the gods to spend eternity rolling a boulder up a mountain. Hence proposed cover for new book!

PS...if anyone is sufficiently interested in reading these online musings of mine, I'm now also posting on @monkeynutcoat.bsky.social

Using ChatGPT, came up with this idea for cover of new book that I’ve been writing with Ralf Dahm about discovery of DNA & which we’re hoping to have published this year. Unfortunately turns out we can’t use this image on the cover (shame!) but wanted to share it anyway.

Can teenage years spent rolling strangely shaped dice really have nurtured invaluable career skills later in life…??? Well, yes, according to this letter which appeared in last weekend’s FT magazine…#DnD @Wizards_DnD

Thanks to @cwalshastrochem for great talk last week @LeedsPhilandLit @MillHillChapel @theleedslibrary Priestley Lecture on ‘The Search for Habitable Worlds’ - if you missed it, watch again here - well worth it!

On @WorldDiabetesD1 @WDD & DOB of Fred Banting who shared 1923 Nobel for insulin worth also remembering his colleagues Charles Best, James Collip & John Macleod who were all crucial to this work & all now commemorated with memorial in Macleod's home town of Aberdeen @DiabetesUK

Loved this article by @TimHarford in weekend FT celebrating 50 years of #DnD & how it has enriched his life. Count me in amongst that number too! Teenage hours spent immersed in 1st Ed Monster Manual proved invaluable training for later career in academia! @Wizards_DnD @shellymoo

…and if you want to know even more about James Webb Space Telescope & search for habitable worlds beyond Earth, be sure not to miss Dr. Catherine Walsh @cwalshastrochem give Priestley Lecture to @LeedsPhilandLit on 6 Nov 6pm -

Big thanks to all @ilkleylitfest for an out-of-this-world night on Saturday hosting Dame Maggie Aderin-Pocock @BBCStargazing whose energy, enthusiasm & optimism talking about James Webb Space Telescope was both highly contagious & highly welcome!

Never thought that impending hypoglycaemia would result in a letter in the Financial Times singing the praises of insulin pioneer, John James Rickard Macleod. Well, every cloud…I guess @DiabetesUK

So what was Gregor Mendel really up to, pottering with peas in his abbey garden…??? Let my colleague Greg Radick enlighten you in this great article - & perhaps more importantly, explain why it really does matter way beyond the academic seminar room…

A great week for science! Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovery of microRNA ; Alphafold protein prediction AI wins Nobel in Physics (William Astbury would be proud!)- AND - US agricultural scientist George Washington Carver gets a question on #UniversityChallenge!