Mark Davison
@bigexperiment.bsky.social
Tech CEO, science podcaster, investor, runner, cyclist. Solving temperature control (www.grantinstruments.com). Interviewing biotech founders on "The Big Experiment" https://thebigexperiment.buzzsprout.com/2312519
Pinned
We make lab equipment. Especially high-precision heating / cooling / freezing / thawing for life science and biomedical research. Message me with any tricky temp control challenges and I'll try to help. No hard sell. 🧪
www.grantinstruments.com
www.grantinstruments.com
Three million child deaths per year linked to antibiotic resistance. Major bacterial threats will re-emerge for all of us, unless we control the use of antibiotics, and discover new ones. 🧪
Three million child deaths linked to drug resistance
Children in Africa and South East Asia are most at risk from antibiotics medicines no longer working, a study suggests.
www.bbc.com
April 13, 2025 at 7:35 PM
Three million child deaths per year linked to antibiotic resistance. Major bacterial threats will re-emerge for all of us, unless we control the use of antibiotics, and discover new ones. 🧪
Pathogens to watch. 🧪
Priority pathogens: UK draws up new disease-threat watch list
Some are viruses with global pandemic potential - like Covid - others infectious illnesses with no treatments.
www.bbc.com
March 25, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Pathogens to watch. 🧪
Lab-grown food that tastes like real meat could be transformational. It can improve animal welfare (no death), climate change (uses less water, creates less GHGs), biodiversity (less farmland = more nature), hygiene (eg. no bird flu), and more. Interesting to see how this goes. 🧪
Lab-grown food could be sold in UK in two years
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is looking at how it can speed up the approval process for lab-grown foods.
www.bbc.co.uk
March 10, 2025 at 8:31 AM
Lab-grown food that tastes like real meat could be transformational. It can improve animal welfare (no death), climate change (uses less water, creates less GHGs), biodiversity (less farmland = more nature), hygiene (eg. no bird flu), and more. Interesting to see how this goes. 🧪
Having a bad day? My lucky Ace of Spades banana can help. Scientifically endorsed by Lemmy's ghost. 🧪
February 26, 2025 at 11:51 AM
Having a bad day? My lucky Ace of Spades banana can help. Scientifically endorsed by Lemmy's ghost. 🧪
Ice makes your organoids go bang in poor thawing protocols. Accept low yields and variable results, or fix the problem with electrically controlled freeze-thaw. Same great result every time. Small and cost-effective. Every stem cell or organoids lab needs one. 🧪
Controlled Rate Freeze Thaw - CRFT
The CRFT is a programmable freezing and thawing system that allows you ultimate control of cryopreservation research protocols.
www.grantinstruments.com
February 26, 2025 at 10:08 AM
Ice makes your organoids go bang in poor thawing protocols. Accept low yields and variable results, or fix the problem with electrically controlled freeze-thaw. Same great result every time. Small and cost-effective. Every stem cell or organoids lab needs one. 🧪
Sweetener aspartame aggravates atherosclerosis. 🧪
Sweetener aspartame aggravates atherosclerosis through insulin-triggered inflammation
Wu et al. provide new insights into how aspartame consumption exacerbates atherosclerosis
through an insulin-dependent mechanism. Aspartame-triggered high insulin levels upregulate
the endothelial mem...
www.cell.com
February 26, 2025 at 8:30 AM
Sweetener aspartame aggravates atherosclerosis. 🧪
Meet the AI Microbiologist 🧪
AI cracks superbug problem in two days that took scientists years
The lead researcher has told the BBC he was so astounded he assumed his computer had been hacked.
www.bbc.co.uk
February 20, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Meet the AI Microbiologist 🧪
Civilization is tissue-thin. Dead ones were great once, too. Read Jared Diamond's "Collapse" for an analysis of how it happens. Or Shelley's "Ozymandias" for a more poetic warning.🧪
There are many ways Trump could trigger a global collapse. Here’s how to survive if that happens | George Monbiot
It could be wildfires, a pandemic or a financial crisis. The super-rich will flee to their bunkers – the rest of us will have to fend for ourselves, writes columnist George Monbiot
www.theguardian.com
February 19, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Civilization is tissue-thin. Dead ones were great once, too. Read Jared Diamond's "Collapse" for an analysis of how it happens. Or Shelley's "Ozymandias" for a more poetic warning.🧪
Very interesting progress on migraines.
Article is behind a paywall but there's enough visible to get the gist. 🧪
Article is behind a paywall but there's enough visible to get the gist. 🧪
Migraine is more than a headache — a radical rethink offers hope to one billion people
Drugs that can prevent or relieve migraine attacks are only effective for some people. Research is starting to untangle the reasons why.
www.nature.com
February 18, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Very interesting progress on migraines.
Article is behind a paywall but there's enough visible to get the gist. 🧪
Article is behind a paywall but there's enough visible to get the gist. 🧪
Keeping It Up: The Story of Viagra. Fascinating BBC documentary, and great insight into big pharma's workings. 🧪
Storyville - Keeping It Up: The Story of Viagra
Twenty-five years ago, Viagra kick-started the second sexual revolution and a controversy unlike any drug before it. From Wales to New York, this is the big story of the little blue pill.
www.bbc.co.uk
February 17, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Keeping It Up: The Story of Viagra. Fascinating BBC documentary, and great insight into big pharma's workings. 🧪
Intelligent life may evolve more easily than we thought. Interesting read. 🧪
A reassessment of the “hard-steps” model for the evolution of intelligent life
Humans—and analogous life beyond Earth—may represent the probable outcome of biological and planetary coevolution.
www.science.org
February 17, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Intelligent life may evolve more easily than we thought. Interesting read. 🧪
Pope Francis has a "polymicrobial infection". He's wise enough to know that hopes-and-prayers don't replace science (strong antibiotics). He's also pro-vax. 🧪
Pope Francis's health a 'complex clinical situation', Vatican says
The pontiff will remain in hospital for as long as necessary, the Vatican has said.
www.bbc.co.uk
February 17, 2025 at 5:14 PM
Pope Francis has a "polymicrobial infection". He's wise enough to know that hopes-and-prayers don't replace science (strong antibiotics). He's also pro-vax. 🧪
"A male’s ability to subvert his rivals is central to his reproductive success" Fruit fly world is like high school. 🧪
Male-male interactions shape mate selection in Drosophila
Male-male competition strongly influences mate selection in Drosophila, with males
performing wing flicks to repel their rivals and jam a female’s perception of other
potential mates. Recruitment of p...
dlvr.it
February 14, 2025 at 9:38 PM
"A male’s ability to subvert his rivals is central to his reproductive success" Fruit fly world is like high school. 🧪
Potential game changer test. Prognosis for pancreatic is usually terrible because it is often stage 4 when discovered. 🧪
Cheap blood test detects pancreatic cancer before it spreads
The deadly cancer is often not found until it has spread to other parts of the body.
www.nature.com
February 13, 2025 at 7:36 PM
Potential game changer test. Prognosis for pancreatic is usually terrible because it is often stage 4 when discovered. 🧪
Microplastics: 10g isolated per donated human brain. That's two teaspoons. Imagine that's not great for microvasculature....🧪
Your brain is full of microplastics: are they harming you?
Plastics have infiltrated every recess of the planet, including your lungs, kidneys and other sensitive organs. Scientists are scrambling to understand their effects on health.
www.nature.com
February 12, 2025 at 9:59 AM
Microplastics: 10g isolated per donated human brain. That's two teaspoons. Imagine that's not great for microvasculature....🧪
Study implies that basic life abounds in the Universe. So why can't we find aliens? See Fermi Paradox for possible reasons 🧪 en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_p...
February 11, 2025 at 7:45 PM
Study implies that basic life abounds in the Universe. So why can't we find aliens? See Fermi Paradox for possible reasons 🧪 en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_p...
Physical activity helps protect against age-related decline in physical performance. Use it or lose it. 🧪
Impact of physical activity on physical function, mitochondrial energetics, ROS production, and Ca2+ handling across the adult lifespan in men
Cefis et al. show that mitochondrial respiration and ROS production are not affected
during healthy muscle aging but identify altered mitochondrial calcium handling as
a potential key driving mechanis...
www.cell.com
February 11, 2025 at 12:47 PM
Physical activity helps protect against age-related decline in physical performance. Use it or lose it. 🧪
Europe explodes into space as earth's core changes shape. Visual proof below. 🧪 UK still oddly cold.
Earth's inner core may have changed shape, say scientists
The findings shed light on a deeply mysterious part of Earth that is key to life on our planet.
www.bbc.co.uk
February 10, 2025 at 5:25 PM
Europe explodes into space as earth's core changes shape. Visual proof below. 🧪 UK still oddly cold.
A great listen for medical device engineers, cancer biologists, oncologists, and anyone affected by this horrible disease 🧪
Killing glioblastoma (brain cancer) with a brain-computer- interface. Hear my podcast guest discuss:
🩺 Tiny sensor fits inside a skull drill hole
🚦 Detecting differences in cancer brain signal
💡 Sending data through skin, without wires
⚡ Power without a battery
🔦 "Tuning out" cancer growth
🩺 Tiny sensor fits inside a skull drill hole
🚦 Detecting differences in cancer brain signal
💡 Sending data through skin, without wires
⚡ Power without a battery
🔦 "Tuning out" cancer growth
Therapeutic brain-computer-interfaces for glioblastoma, with Dr Elise Jenkins
open.spotify.com
February 10, 2025 at 1:27 PM
A great listen for medical device engineers, cancer biologists, oncologists, and anyone affected by this horrible disease 🧪
Killing glioblastoma (brain cancer) with a brain-computer- interface. Hear my podcast guest discuss:
🩺 Tiny sensor fits inside a skull drill hole
🚦 Detecting differences in cancer brain signal
💡 Sending data through skin, without wires
⚡ Power without a battery
🔦 "Tuning out" cancer growth
🩺 Tiny sensor fits inside a skull drill hole
🚦 Detecting differences in cancer brain signal
💡 Sending data through skin, without wires
⚡ Power without a battery
🔦 "Tuning out" cancer growth
Therapeutic brain-computer-interfaces for glioblastoma, with Dr Elise Jenkins
open.spotify.com
February 10, 2025 at 12:56 PM
Killing glioblastoma (brain cancer) with a brain-computer- interface. Hear my podcast guest discuss:
🩺 Tiny sensor fits inside a skull drill hole
🚦 Detecting differences in cancer brain signal
💡 Sending data through skin, without wires
⚡ Power without a battery
🔦 "Tuning out" cancer growth
🩺 Tiny sensor fits inside a skull drill hole
🚦 Detecting differences in cancer brain signal
💡 Sending data through skin, without wires
⚡ Power without a battery
🔦 "Tuning out" cancer growth
Brain cancer, and how to fight it with amazing tech. Great podcast episode! 🧪 open.spotify.com/episode/7G2o...
Therapeutic brain-computer-interfaces for glioblastoma, with Dr Elise Jenkins
The Big Experiment · Episode
open.spotify.com
February 10, 2025 at 7:53 AM
Brain cancer, and how to fight it with amazing tech. Great podcast episode! 🧪 open.spotify.com/episode/7G2o...
Flu infects. Just doing its job. May feel like a heavy cold, or it may channel 1918 and kill you one day, who knows. #CDC is a vital defense.🧪
The 1918 Flu Pandemic Was Brutal, Killing More Than 50 Million People Worldwide
"We had no ICUs at that time. We had no antivirals, had no vaccines for flu. We had no idea that the flu was even a virus at that time," one scholar said. But social distancing helped then too.
www.npr.org
February 8, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Flu infects. Just doing its job. May feel like a heavy cold, or it may channel 1918 and kill you one day, who knows. #CDC is a vital defense.🧪
We are entering a new, man-made biological universe. 🧪
A roadmap toward the synthesis of life
This perspective offers a cross-disciplinary roadmap toward synthetic life that does
not shy away from technical and non-technical challenges, ethical concerns, and provocative
implications, embracing...
www.cell.com
February 7, 2025 at 6:00 PM
We are entering a new, man-made biological universe. 🧪
Moves like a butterfly, stings like a shrimp...🧪
Mantis shrimp have the world’s fastest punch — here’s how their limbs survive
Insights from probing the shock-absorbing layer within the crustacean’s club-like claw could inspire the design of tough new materials.
www.nature.com
February 7, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Moves like a butterfly, stings like a shrimp...🧪
Don't sniff at this idea. Harmless microbes as intranasal drug couriers to your brain. 🧪
Engineered commensals for targeted nose-to-brain drug delivery
Shen et al. investigate the use of Lactobacillus plantarum, a commensal bacterial
strain, as a chassis for targeting the olfactory mucosa to facilitate precise nose-to-brain
delivery of therapeutic mo...
www.cell.com
February 6, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Don't sniff at this idea. Harmless microbes as intranasal drug couriers to your brain. 🧪