Our new Perspective is out in Nature Microbiology today. It covers some common/emerging myths and misconceptions in the human #microbiome field, and explains why they are likely incorrect: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-023-01426-7

A hopefully helpful primer against uncritical repetition.

Alan and I have written something we're proud of. We were both worried it wasn't going to go down well with the wider research community, but feedback so far would suggest otherwise. Nice to know we're not the only ones frustrated by the lack of critique with respect to a lot of microbiome-related content.

@BugsInYourGuts i thought it was a great piece. Refreshing even, to see something written so candidly to provide clarity on a nascent field (or at least prevent incorrect dogma setting in).

Didn't realise you had an account here - would have credited you in my post on your paper last night - apologies.

@gpollara no need to apologise. It's not exactly easy to find people on Mastodon. Glad you liked the piece. Glad you liked it - more timely given the preprint that's just come out on the cancer microbiome.

@BugsInYourGuts was just browsing my timeline and actually it's getting a bit better here for science purposes. This is actually my main goal on these social networks, though I do stray off topic a lot!

I don't know whether the X rebranding has pushed more people away or whether slowly but surely a network is forming, so I'm discovering more relevant people to follow of late (like yourself!)

@gpollara @BugsInYourGuts Traffic is definitely increasing, with no side order of celebrity/advertising/neonazi content

@cyrilpedia @gpollara agreed. Bluesky is also nice and free of nutters so far.

@BugsInYourGuts @cyrilpedia interesting, maybe that's my next place to try out. I do quite like trying out different services - even on Mastodon I fluidly move between 4-5 different apps / websites to access the service. Phanpy my favourite at the moment - so much more colourful and fun!