William James
@wei-liang.bsky.social
Emeritus Professor of Virology, Oxford
Virology, neuroinflammation, evolution, hiPSC platforms, aptamers, education, gardening, music (classical and early)
Virology, neuroinflammation, evolution, hiPSC platforms, aptamers, education, gardening, music (classical and early)
I was sceptical but it's true. The Shingrix vaccine comes with side effects. I've never had more than a mild, injection site reaction to other vaccines, but with this, I was getting joint and muscle pains after just 3 hours!
June 29, 2025 at 2:56 PM
I was sceptical but it's true. The Shingrix vaccine comes with side effects. I've never had more than a mild, injection site reaction to other vaccines, but with this, I was getting joint and muscle pains after just 3 hours!
I was recently asked whether I thought there was such a thing as Free Will. This took me back... At my catholic school (shudder), one year there was a slightly disreputable friar staying with the Carmelite community. (Apparently quite a well known former member of the Bloomsbury set.) /...
June 29, 2025 at 2:53 PM
I was recently asked whether I thought there was such a thing as Free Will. This took me back... At my catholic school (shudder), one year there was a slightly disreputable friar staying with the Carmelite community. (Apparently quite a well known former member of the Bloomsbury set.) /...
The Trump tariff equation. What's the truth and what's the Pravda? I've done a little digging and it's pretty bad
April 9, 2025 at 8:45 AM
The Trump tariff equation. What's the truth and what's the Pravda? I've done a little digging and it's pretty bad
Perry tree coming into blossom
April 7, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Perry tree coming into blossom
The U.S. implemented the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act (1930), which significantly raised tariffs on thousands of imported goods. This protectionist policy is blamed for worsening the Great Depression by provoking retaliatory tariffs, reducing international trade, and deepening global economic turmoil
April 7, 2025 at 6:54 AM
The U.S. implemented the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act (1930), which significantly raised tariffs on thousands of imported goods. This protectionist policy is blamed for worsening the Great Depression by provoking retaliatory tariffs, reducing international trade, and deepening global economic turmoil
Characteristically, Liberation Day was accompanied by deliberate misinformation. These are not tariffs responding to tarrifs, but tariffs responding to trade imbalances, whatever their cause, plus a 10% baseline against all the rest (even net importers of US product).
April 3, 2025 at 8:32 AM
Characteristically, Liberation Day was accompanied by deliberate misinformation. These are not tariffs responding to tarrifs, but tariffs responding to trade imbalances, whatever their cause, plus a 10% baseline against all the rest (even net importers of US product).
"Standard" UK allotments are traditionally referred to as "10 pole plots". What does this mean? Well, a pole is an old unit of linear measure that's as near as dammit 5 meters. In this case, what's meant is 10 square poles (a unit of area, 5m on each side). So such a plot is 10×5×5 m = 250 m2.
April 1, 2025 at 5:08 PM
"Standard" UK allotments are traditionally referred to as "10 pole plots". What does this mean? Well, a pole is an old unit of linear measure that's as near as dammit 5 meters. In this case, what's meant is 10 square poles (a unit of area, 5m on each side). So such a plot is 10×5×5 m = 250 m2.
Reposted by William James
Dear friends,
From now on, I will be providing 24/7 updates directly from CDC and WHO officials on Bird Flu, COVID-19, Measles, and other infectious diseases.
Stay informed with the latest insights on outbreaks, prevention, and global health developments. 1/
From now on, I will be providing 24/7 updates directly from CDC and WHO officials on Bird Flu, COVID-19, Measles, and other infectious diseases.
Stay informed with the latest insights on outbreaks, prevention, and global health developments. 1/
March 31, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Dear friends,
From now on, I will be providing 24/7 updates directly from CDC and WHO officials on Bird Flu, COVID-19, Measles, and other infectious diseases.
Stay informed with the latest insights on outbreaks, prevention, and global health developments. 1/
From now on, I will be providing 24/7 updates directly from CDC and WHO officials on Bird Flu, COVID-19, Measles, and other infectious diseases.
Stay informed with the latest insights on outbreaks, prevention, and global health developments. 1/
🧪
journals.aps.org/prxlife/abst... quite interesting
Protein Folding as a Jamming Transition
Densely packed protein cores have the same interior packing density irrespective of overall fold, arising from a jamming transition where amino acids reach a critical, incompressible density, as expla...
journals.aps.org
March 30, 2025 at 3:35 PM
🧪
journals.aps.org/prxlife/abst... quite interesting
Protein Folding as a Jamming Transition
Densely packed protein cores have the same interior packing density irrespective of overall fold, arising from a jamming transition where amino acids reach a critical, incompressible density, as expla...
journals.aps.org
March 30, 2025 at 3:34 PM
journals.aps.org/prxlife/abst... quite interesting
#allotment preparing a bed for beans. This bed was used for potatoes last year, so it's a bit dusty. Legumes fix their own N, so no need for regular manure, but they benefit from the moisture, air and humus that buried organic matter can provide. This 7.5×2.5 m plot had lain bare over winter. /2
March 29, 2025 at 8:01 AM
#allotment preparing a bed for beans. This bed was used for potatoes last year, so it's a bit dusty. Legumes fix their own N, so no need for regular manure, but they benefit from the moisture, air and humus that buried organic matter can provide. This 7.5×2.5 m plot had lain bare over winter. /2
Can we shuffle this Top Trumps pack off to a VR world in which they can indulge their insanities without harming the rest of us?
March 29, 2025 at 7:49 AM
Can we shuffle this Top Trumps pack off to a VR world in which they can indulge their insanities without harming the rest of us?
#allotment I followed a suggestion of using autumn leaves from my street to mulch two of my six rotation beds. I'm very pleased with the results so far, with total weed suppression and no surface "caking" of the soil by rain action over the winter.
March 28, 2025 at 2:19 PM
#allotment I followed a suggestion of using autumn leaves from my street to mulch two of my six rotation beds. I'm very pleased with the results so far, with total weed suppression and no surface "caking" of the soil by rain action over the winter.
Tarrifs are beautiful! Enough of being taken for a ride by foreigners shipping us their coffee and tea. Let's raise tarrifs until good old British acorns and nettles are no longer unfairly undercut by cynical African and Indian producers!
an orange with a face on it is sitting on a table with its mouth wide open .
ALT: an orange with a face on it is sitting on a table with its mouth wide open .
media.tenor.com
March 27, 2025 at 7:20 PM
Tarrifs are beautiful! Enough of being taken for a ride by foreigners shipping us their coffee and tea. Let's raise tarrifs until good old British acorns and nettles are no longer unfairly undercut by cynical African and Indian producers!
Was asked why someone's genetic "profile" indicated they were 25%Germanic, when they could trace all their ancestors back a couple of centuries, and they were English. My answer:
March 27, 2025 at 6:31 PM
Was asked why someone's genetic "profile" indicated they were 25%Germanic, when they could trace all their ancestors back a couple of centuries, and they were English. My answer:
Went to a Catholic school in England in the 70s. The Priests had no truck with RE. We got old fashioned indoctrination. After a decade of such stuff, was gobsmacked when Father Prior confided in me that he didn't believe in Free Will! @catholic4choice.bsky.social
March 27, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Went to a Catholic school in England in the 70s. The Priests had no truck with RE. We got old fashioned indoctrination. After a decade of such stuff, was gobsmacked when Father Prior confided in me that he didn't believe in Free Will! @catholic4choice.bsky.social
Some Bronze Age wisdom for our Tangerine Age:
(Amenemope, ch. 10): "Associate not with a passionate man, Nor approach him for conversation; Leap not to cleave to such an one; That terror carry thee not away."
(Amenemope, ch. 10): "Associate not with a passionate man, Nor approach him for conversation; Leap not to cleave to such an one; That terror carry thee not away."
March 27, 2025 at 6:25 PM
Some Bronze Age wisdom for our Tangerine Age:
(Amenemope, ch. 10): "Associate not with a passionate man, Nor approach him for conversation; Leap not to cleave to such an one; That terror carry thee not away."
(Amenemope, ch. 10): "Associate not with a passionate man, Nor approach him for conversation; Leap not to cleave to such an one; That terror carry thee not away."
23&me is bankrupt. A decade ago, it put Oxford Ancestors, which Bryan Sykes and I founded, out of business. Should I buy the debris for OA in his memory? @sogorg.bsky.social
March 27, 2025 at 6:23 PM
23&me is bankrupt. A decade ago, it put Oxford Ancestors, which Bryan Sykes and I founded, out of business. Should I buy the debris for OA in his memory? @sogorg.bsky.social
Reposted by William James
9/ 🧵 End. Citation: Mellors, Jack, et al. "Complement-mediated enhancement of SARS-CoV-2 antibody neutralisation potency in vaccinated individuals." Nature Communications 16.1 (2025): 1-15. doi.org/10.1038/s414...
doi.org
March 25, 2025 at 7:50 PM
9/ 🧵 End. Citation: Mellors, Jack, et al. "Complement-mediated enhancement of SARS-CoV-2 antibody neutralisation potency in vaccinated individuals." Nature Communications 16.1 (2025): 1-15. doi.org/10.1038/s414...
Fellow Europeans; time to get serious about saving the culture of Voltaire, Shakespeare, Curie, Goethe, Newton, Leibniz, Mendel, Darwin, Engels, Smith, Crick, Crowfoot, Chain, etc, etc . The USA is having a bad trip and can't be relied upon. Russia though dirt poor is busy moving its empire our way.
March 25, 2025 at 8:19 AM
Fellow Europeans; time to get serious about saving the culture of Voltaire, Shakespeare, Curie, Goethe, Newton, Leibniz, Mendel, Darwin, Engels, Smith, Crick, Crowfoot, Chain, etc, etc . The USA is having a bad trip and can't be relied upon. Russia though dirt poor is busy moving its empire our way.
Roger Penrose hilariously described Planck Mass being about the mass of a flea, to suggest that biological events at the scale of cells (like neurons and hence thinking) were quantum woowoo. His scale was off by 100, but that's just one of the factual and logical errors in "the Emperor's New Mind"🧪
March 22, 2025 at 8:18 AM
Roger Penrose hilariously described Planck Mass being about the mass of a flea, to suggest that biological events at the scale of cells (like neurons and hence thinking) were quantum woowoo. His scale was off by 100, but that's just one of the factual and logical errors in "the Emperor's New Mind"🧪
'The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters" Antonio Gramsci . Prison Notebooks 1925-35.
March 22, 2025 at 8:12 AM
'The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters" Antonio Gramsci . Prison Notebooks 1925-35.
Generational betrayal. Just a reminder that the USA was declared measles-free 25 years ago. Before 1963 (the pre-vaccine era), there were 3-4 million cases every year in America. Within 5 years of the introduction of the measles vaccine, cases had dropped to the tens of thousands.
March 22, 2025 at 8:11 AM
Generational betrayal. Just a reminder that the USA was declared measles-free 25 years ago. Before 1963 (the pre-vaccine era), there were 3-4 million cases every year in America. Within 5 years of the introduction of the measles vaccine, cases had dropped to the tens of thousands.
Congratulations to Dr Jack Tan. www.rdm.ox.ac.uk/research/tan... 🧪
Tan Group: Next-Generation Vaccines against Infectious Diseases
www.rdm.ox.ac.uk
March 22, 2025 at 7:51 AM
Congratulations to Dr Jack Tan. www.rdm.ox.ac.uk/research/tan... 🧪