Karen Shears

@SarahCoupland3 @LivuniILCaMS @RCPath @pathsoc @KaliraiHelen @Shearsy13

Congratulations to LOORG PhD student, Josh Hattersley for winning "Best Talk" at the Pint of Science Festival in Liverpool on Monday 13th May. Congrats, Josh! @SarahCoupland3 @LivuniILCaMS @LivUniHLS @LivUni @pathsoc

@sarajcox Tommy the tortoise. Went for a wander one night and ended up in Italy! (Neighbours found him and gave him to their daughter who took him to Italy).

Tell me about the first pet you can remember please. Mine? 1980. One of the guard dogs on dads farm, a German shepherd lurcher cross. Called Carl. Still the best pet name we’ve had in the family I reckon. Yours?

@sarajcox 2005, Koh Tao, dive instructor, now hubbie of 15 years, 2 kids and a dog 🐶

Please tell me about your most memorable HOLIDAY ROMANCE in 6 words or so. Was it fleeting, largely unrequited, quite recent, a teen adventure or catastrophe or did you find your soulmate? Mine was “1988 Petite Yugoslavian Billy with curly hair”

Check out our new study in @ScienceMagazine, where we take on a 100-year-old debate: what’s the role of aneuploidy in cancer? We discovered that genetically removing extra chromosomes blocks cancer growth - a phenomenon we call “aneuploidy addiction”. science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

A mind-blowing paper has come out today in @Nature In 2016, JC Venter Institute scientists trimmed a bacterial genome to its barest minimum required for life to synthesize what they called a "minimal genome" (science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…). Today, a group of scientists from Indiana University reports how that minimal genome evolved over 2000 generations in comparison to the non-minimal genome. The authors found that even when you reduce a bacterial genome to its absolute minimum where every nucleotide matters, the genome undergoes mutational events generation after generation as much as the non-minimal genome. One simply cannot stop the evolution. Just over 300 days of evolution (equivalent to 40,000 years in humans) the minimal cell has gained everything it lacked in fitness on day one in comparison to the non-minimal cell. When comparing the evolved traits between the minimal and non-minimal cells, the scientists found something striking. The evolutionary process increased the cell size of non-minimal cells but not that of the minimal cell. But that is not the striking part. The scientists were able to identify the key mutation that resulted in cell size evolution. And it turned out that the mutation that helped the non-minimal cells to grow bigger is the same that helped the minimal cells to stay smaller. Growing bigger had a survival advantage for non-minimal cells and not growing bigger had a survival advantage for minimal cells. So, the mutation had a context-dependent effect. This just demonstrates that the evolutionary effects on traits have no absolute direction. All that matter is what is beneficial for the organism's survival. The conclusion of the paper is metaphorically a quote from the Jurassic Park movie: “Listen, if there’s one thing the history of evolution has taught us is that life will not be contained. Life breaks free. It expands to new territories, and it crashes through barriers painfully, maybe even dangerously, but . . . life finds a way". (scienmag.com/artificial-cel…) nature.com/articles/s4158…

Looking forward to the start of Liverpool Pathology this week (#LiverpoolPathology2023), where some of the LOORG team are presenting posters. @icanceresearch @BritishDivIAP @pathsoc @RCPath @pathologistmag @LivUniISMIB @OcuMelUK @LivHospitals @StPaulsNews

@British_Airways flying to America and trying to check in online. Covid documents verified but can’t check in? Why? 🙏🏻

@susie_dent My mum says there’s ‘nothing like your own back yard’ when she’s happy to be at home. My grandma would ask ‘were you born in a barn’ when we left the door open. I now use that one to my kids frequently.

Which words or expressions have your parents and grandparents passed on to you? My mum still calls me a ‘contrary Mary’ and often references her ‘giddy aunt’, while my gran loved telling me she ‘couldn’t give a tinker’s cuss’. How about yours?

@MartinSLewis That’s amazing! I started this for 2022 and currently averaging 11000 a day. It has become quite an obsession though!

This Sun I'll hit 6yrs since I last missed my arbitrary 10,000 steps a day target (tho my avg over that time is actually roughly 25,000). It is a bit of an obsession, Ive managed it thru illness, covid, lockdown, operations & long haul flights. Maybe I'll aim for 10yrs then stop!

@sarajcox You didn’t did you Ted? 😂 Trumping legend and card cheat (Whist).

Tell me about your grandpa/grandad/Pops in 5 words or fewer? Mine, the legendary Vince: “We arrived, hearing-aid turned down” 😂 (Would love his name too please) ♥️

@drkellyallen Ladder is missing.

Things you can say during peer-review and also in a swimming pool.

@MoiraDonegan Had them all….Tudor obsession reignited by Phillipa Gregory! Ancient Egypt obsession compounded by Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile! And love Jurassic World films for my dinosaur fix! 🦕

@Rylan My sister, head of Latin at her secondary school! And fab at it! @joaughton

Random- anyone on here a specialist in Latin … lols, genuinely

@joaughton @DaynaECopeland And his brother Teddy! With his favourite tennis ball!

@DaynaECopeland Max our Cavapoochon, hopeful for a sausage from the BBQ! 😊

Team LOORG is taking on the warm sunny streets/paths of London tomorrow, together with Unilever, to raise funds and awareness for uveal melanoma research @icanceresearch @LivUniISMIB @LivHospitals @LOOC_UK_COM @LivUniEvents @OcuMelUK justgiving.com/fundraising/Te…

LOORG are taking part in the Great Walk 2022 with Unilever in memory of their colleague Renee, raising funds for vital research into Uveal Melanoma; a rare and devastating cancer. To support our team please see the link below. Thank you! #JustGiving justgiving.com/fundraising/Te…

@bbcmaestro Why has world book day discount disappeared when yesterday it stated it was valid until 23.59 on 7th March?

So thrilled that Ada Twist, Scientist made her debut in the Thanksgiving Day Parade! This brainy little girl is teaching young viewers how important it is to be curious, and how anyone can be a scientist—no matter their age or background.

Is the drop box at Aintree Racecourse open on Sunday’s please? @RandoxOfficial