
Cells | Energy | Evolution | Photosynthesis | Science | Honorary Professor, UCL | also on @jfallen@mastodon.social
Brentwood and London, U.K.
Joined May 2013
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John F. Allen retweeted
Come on, Burnham.
"It's time for this government to show some energy and some bravery and put the water companies into special administration - and then, of course, into public ownership".
💯@GreenJennyJones. It's time to end the rip-off and take private water companies in England back into public hands.
John F. Allen retweeted
#physiology laureate.
#physiology prize.
"The only safe way to use information is to try to disprove what you believe."
Medicine laureate Craig Mello reflects on AI's impact on the future of science.
Mello shared the 2006 medicine prize for his “discovery of RNA interference - gene silencing by double-stranded RNA.”
Watch the full conversation: nobelprize.org/events/nobel-…
John F. Allen retweeted
Everyone needs to know what actually happened in Serbia.
Instead of students just protest against their government, the students organized themselves into a student list and ran in elections against their government—and they have just won.
Dear Serbia, congratulations on your victory; you have just opened a new door in protesting. This is history
John F. Allen retweeted
Huge congratulations to the students of Serbia on this historic victory...
bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cw5y…
John F. Allen retweeted
How fantastic to see democracy alive in Serbia!
The Serbian Student List victory in Sunday’s snap election quickly saw 12-year strongman, pro-Russian nationalist Aleksandar Vučić concede.
This comes after he allowed convicted genocidal war criminal Ratko Mladić a hero’s funeral last month.
Like in 2000 when Serbian student protest movement Otpor defeated wartime leader Slobodan Milošević, young people have come out again to determine their future. And in Brazil too.
In both countries, the defeated candidates were Trump favourites.
John F. Allen retweeted
A Statesman.
There have been changes in Serbia – a victory of the Student List @studentblokade. And this is clearly a new chapter in the history of the country and its people. We wish Serbia success, real development, and warm relations with the European community. We in Ukraine thank Serbia for respecting our people, our state, and our independence. And we always celebrate our shared achievements – everything that strengthens our societies and gives people more opportunities. We are ready to continue expanding our cooperation, and may all the good hopes of the people of Serbia come true!
John F. Allen retweeted
I’ve come to realise something about modern political disagreement following my appearance last year on BBC Radio 4’s Moral Maze to discuss Net Zero. The whole experience completely changed my perspective on politics and sent me on a massive intellectual journey, forcing me to examine deep philosophical assumptions and beliefs I had long taken for granted.
During the discussion, I found myself returning to two deeply held convictions that I had long taken for granted: that Western civilisation has been, on balance, a moral force for good in the world, and that the Industrial Revolution represented an enormous advance for humanity. Both convictions are rooted in the Anglo-American Enlightenment tradition, with its belief in reason, individual liberty, scientific progress and the capacity of human beings to improve their material circumstances. I believe this view of modern Western civilisation is now under serious threat from within (left- and right-wing populism, eco-pessimism and Islamism) and from without (revisionist powers such as China and Russia).
Following the debate, I came to realise that if you want to understand why intelligent people can disagree so profoundly about what ought to be done in life, it is often insufficient to examine their immediate political or policy arguments. You need to understand the deeper philosophical premises from which those arguments proceed, including their assumptions about the nature of reality, human nature, progress and what constitutes a good society.
I think this gets to the heart of what we mean when we talk about political polarisation and the so-called “culture wars”. People are not simply disagreeing about policies. Nor is it about “comms” or individual personalities.
Increasingly, we are operating from fundamentally different understandings of the world itself. Yet few politicians articulate the philosophical assumptions underpinning their vision of society. Take the nature of reality. Is it an objective order that we must discover and adapt to, or something we can shape through our will and values? These are the underlying questions in many of today’s debates, from transgender identity to energy systems and whether governments can override the laws of supply and demand.
Instead of telling us what they fundamentally believe and why, politicians jump straight to political positioning, tactical messaging and policy announcements, leaving voters totally confused. I think this contributes to the growing fragmentation of our politics, which technologies such as social media are accelerating by reinforcing competing worldviews and making it much harder for people to recognise, let alone understand, the assumptions from which others are reasoning.
John F. Allen retweeted
The far far far right is losing elections. And voters appear to be losing patience. First Viktor Orbán in Hungary, after 16 years in power. Then Flávio Bolsonaro in Brazil, where voters rejected another attempt to return the Bolsonaro dynasty to the presidency. Now Aleksandar Vučić in Serbia, whose authoritarian grip on the country has been broken by a student-led democratic movement.
Three countries. Three defeats.
And across the Atlantic, Donald Trump’s Republicans are bleeding support.
When a billionaire receives another enormous tax cut, somebody still has to pay for public services. And that somebody is you!
There is only so long you can convince ordinary working people that making the extraordinarily wealthy even wealthier is somehow an act of economic patriotism.
There is something else these defeats suggest. People are growing tired of politicians who admire dictators, attack democratic institutions, manufacture enemies and treat public office as their personal property.
It is 2026. Most people want competent governments, affordable lives and a future for their children. They have remarkably little appetite for aspiring wannabe strongmen.
John F. Allen retweeted
I don’t think I ever believed I’d see a newspaper paragraph like this: President Trump ‘said he would welcome immigrants from Denmark but not from Norway “because I didn’t get the Nobel Prize, so I don’t want anybody from Norway”.’
John F. Allen retweeted
The rewriting of 2016 needs challenging.
❌ The referendum ballot did NOT ask: “Should Britain end freedom of movement?”
It asked whether Britain should remain in or leave the EU.
Nothing about leaving the Single Market.
Nothing about the customs union.
Nothing about ending free movement.
And during the referendum prominent Brexit campaigners openly cited Norway and Switzerland as models for Britain outside the EU.
🇳🇴 Norway is in the Single Market and accepts free movement.
The Leave coalition contained several completely different versions of Brexit. The public was never asked to choose between them.
So it is simply not accurate to retrospectively turn 17.4 million Leave votes into 17.4 million votes specifically against free movement.
That interpretation came afterwards.
And if Britain is now deciding what relationship it wants with Europe, voters are perfectly entitled to decide again with the actual choices made explicit.
Replying to @Femi_sorry
7⃣ Nigel Farage passionately defended the idea that we could be like Norway, a Single Market country, in 2016.
John F. Allen retweeted
In one day, two politicians - Bolsonaro in Brazil and Vucic in Serbia - with ties to Trump and his family have lost surprise elections, thanks to high turnout. The rise of the international far-right is not inevitable.
John F. Allen retweeted
Let me make something absolutely clear.
Ukraine did not invade Russia. Russia invaded Ukraine.
Ukrainians are not fighting because Europeans want an endless war. We are fighting because Russia continues to attack our cities, occupy our territory, and kill our people.
I woke up at 6 AM today because of a Russian drone attack near my home in Kyiv.
And now I am reading accusations that those helping us defend ourselves are the ones prolonging this war.
Do you understand how profoundly dishonest that argument is?
If you genuinely want peace, explain how you intend to stop Russian aggression without stripping Ukrainians of their right to defend themselves.
Peace is not the same as surrender.
And demanding accountability from Russia is not warmongering.
Stop blaming those resisting aggression for the aggression itself.
John F. Allen retweeted
That the Communist hammer and sickle isn’t commonly regarded as evil and offensive as the Nazi swastika is a failure of education.
“Dear Italian students, who today take to the streets carrying flags with the hammer and sickle and wearing T-shirts emblazoned with ‘CCCP’,” began an open letter in Italian by Lithuanian expat Neringa Budryt.
“I would like to ask you a question: do you truly know what the symbols you carry represent? And do you know what would have happened to many of you had you openly demonstrated in countries living under the oppression of communist regimes?
Let me tell you something. It is easy to display a red flag when, for you, communism is merely an abstract idea of equality, social justice, and rebellion against the system. It is easy to wear a T-shirt with "CCCP" on it when you have never experienced the reality of a communist regime.
We come from that part of Europe where communism was not a T-shirt, a symbol of rebellion, or a romanticized notion of equality. It was the system in which we lived—a system we never chose.
We know the history of Soviet repression, Stalinist purges, the Gulags, and mass deportations. Above all, we know the word "Siberia"—a place to which thousands of innocent people were forcibly deported, simply for thinking differently.
In Siberia—amidst freezing cold, starvation, and forced labor—many lost their lives; those who survived carried the scars of that experience forever. Entire families were torn apart, and generations were denied the chance to live freely in their own homeland.
In the countries of the Soviet bloc, censorship, political police, surveillance, and the suppression of dissent drastically curtailed individual freedoms.
We grew up in a system where state control permeated even our daily lives. At school, we were required to wear the red necktie of the "Pioneers." We were monitored; they tracked where we went and even whether we attended church. Even faith—a choice that should belong to an individual’s own conscience—could become a cause for suspicion.
We used to celebrate Christmas with our windows blacked out, to ensure no one would see us and report us. Because it was forbidden—just like so many other things: jeans, rock music, and all the symbols of a Western lifestyle. My mother returned from a Soviet labor camp. And do you know what happened to her? She was barred from continuing her education because she had been labeled an enemy of communism.
Under a communist regime, you could not protest. You risked arrest, imprisonment, interrogation, persecution—and, in certain historical contexts, even death. In the Soviet Union and other communist regimes, political dissent could cost you your freedom and your life.
Demonstrations independent of the authorities were not a guaranteed right; they were often suppressed by force.
That is why it strikes me to see young Italians proudly displaying the hammer and sickle—symbols associated with regimes that persecuted and imprisoned millions of people.
Today, you are free to take to the streets, shout against the government, criticize institutions, and wave your flags precisely because you live in a democracy that grants you these freedoms. Under an authoritarian regime of that kind, protesting against those in power could have landed you in prison.
This is not about denying the existence of social injustices, inequalities, or the right to fight for a better world. You are free to take to the streets to demand a more just society—but you should not idealize a system that denied so many people the very things you are free to exercise today: the right to choose, to believe, to speak, and to dissent. Before wearing a T-shirt with "CCCP" on it, listen to those who experienced that world. Talk to the deportees and their descendants; read the accounts of those who endured the gulags and forced exile to Siberia. Learn what it meant to be stripped of your freedom, your home, your loved ones—and even any prospect of a normal life—simply because of your background or your beliefs.
Before waving the hammer and sickle, please, study history thoroughly.”
John F. Allen retweeted
Why should a 25-year-old deserve the freedom to work across Europe, but not a 55-year-old starting a business?
Or a 70-year-old wanting to spend more time with family?
Freedom of Movement isn't a youth benefit.
It's a freedom for people of every age.
John F. Allen retweeted
Much of it will end with the exit of Trump and his gang, but the degradation of a society that is supposed to care about such things, and the failure of the laws and norms that are supposed to uphold them will linger. And it will get worse unless there's accountability.
"Donald Trump and his family are executing corruption at a scale never previously contemplated in the American experiment. If we are to ever graduate from this era of brazen graft, the first step is to notice." A service, from @MattWelch. reason.com/2026/07/09/the-mo…
John F. Allen retweeted
She is absolutely right. Calling Hitler a left-wing socialist is not analysis. It is the far right looking into a mirror and demanding that someone change the label on the frame.
The leader worship, the scapegoating of minorities, the contempt for democratic restraints, the obsession with internal enemies, the promise of national greatness through intimidation: an uncomfortable amount of the political sales pitch looks familiar.
Hence the rebranding. If they cannot bear what the mirror shows, they can rewrite the caption.
Unfortunately, Elon, the mirror is working perfectly.
John F. Allen retweeted
A point Mike has been making for years. It’s a big deal. I suspect few understand (I only do because I follow him) & none of those will be Brexit fans who live in a fantasy.
Actually, come to think of it, @vivamjm has taught me more than anyone else on this platform. He’s threatened to give up more than once. I’m glad he hasn’t. And grateful.
I wonder how many realise the Brexit import checks were never done and never will be. ..? It'd be too much (Mogg's words) "self harm".
thus from Brexit date 1/1/21, the unilateral advantaging of the EU (their exporters over UK counterparts)... & smugglers ...will continue.
The only solutions are rejoining the EU (SM & CU),
or (the incumbent Govt's apparent plan) extending the Windsor Framework to the whole UK.
This latter *will* level up the playing field for GB producers & remove the worst of the GB/NI border controls, but also make the whole UK a genuine vassal state to the EU, which the Brexiters always lied we were when an EU/ECJ member, with full representation
bbc.com/news/business-612598…
John F. Allen retweeted
So the “not-so-official-anymore“ presentation is in: The melanoma vaccine works. We knew that, 82% recurrence-free at two years vs 70% with immunotherapy alone.
It's built individually for each patient, the logistics are enormous: Sequence their tumor, design the vaccine, manufacture it for one person. Weeks of work that will cost a fortune.
A treatment like that doesn't scale to most of the world. It scales to countries that can afford a factory run per patient. I live in a country which happens to be able to afford that, most countries can’t. Melanoma kills people everywhere. This will reach a fraction of them.
Solving cancer and solving access are two different problems. We just got better at the first one.
John F. Allen retweeted
Just once, it would be nice to see anyone in MAGA say how terrible it is that Russia invaded Ukraine, launched a murderous war, is targeting civilians in major cities, and should stop immediately. Instead, they keep attacking Ukraine. Curious.





























