Nimal Archish | நிமல் அர்ச்சிஷ்

he/him/அவன் | biology master's @niser_official (with a dash of interdisciplinary identity crisis) | intern: @maxplanckpress @NCBS_Bangalore @IMScChennai

[Nimal Archish | நிமல் அர்ச்சிஷ் @NimalArchish]

Grateful for the opportunity to contribute! Congratulations to everyone who was a part of this wonderful story :D

[Saleem Mohammed @Ssaleem_M]

Happy to share that this work is now in press at Nature Communications! Led by @jskrockstar working with a great team of @Sandeep_IMSc @SwagataGhatak @urssahu
Thanks to @niser_official @ANRFIndia @DAEIndia
@India_Alliance for support. https://t.co/hA1R8HSaiG

[Nimal Archish | நிமல் அர்ச்சிஷ் @NimalArchish]

@jskrockstar Congratulations bhaiya!!

[Saleem Mohammed @Ssaleem_M]

Happy to share that this work is now in press at Nature Communications! Led by @jskrockstar working with a great team of @Sandeep_IMSc @SwagataGhatak @urssahu
Thanks to @niser_official @ANRFIndia @DAEIndia
@India_Alliance for support. https://t.co/hA1R8HSaiG

[Nimal Archish | நிமல் அர்ச்சிஷ் @NimalArchish]

@Ssaleem_M @jskrockstar @Sandeep_IMSc @SwagataGhatak @urssahu @niser_official @ANRFIndia @DAEIndia @India_Alliance Congratulations!

[Nature India @NatureInd]

A computational model recreates and expands intricate one-line patterns from a centuries-old ritual drawing tradition

https://t.co/MUBWEJFf3Z

[Math Files @Math_files]

Proof by intimidation

[Niko McCarty. @NikoMcCarty]

One of the most important discoveries in molecular biology, I'd say, happened in 1974 when scientists took a gene from a frog (Xenopus laevis) and transferred it into a bacterium (E. coli). The bacterial cells read, processed, and expressed the gene.

If a bacterium can read a frog gene, so the logic went, then the entire living world is, in principle, "programmable." Genes can be swapped between kingdoms of life, thus enabling:

- The production of human insulin in bacteria.
- Manufacturing of vaccines in yeast and chicken eggs
- Engineered crops carrying biopesticide genes from algae etc.

Check out A Brief History of Xenopus to learn about other key experiments in which frogs played a role. 🔻

[Saleem Mohammed @Ssaleem_M]

Happy to share the latest preprint from the lab led by @Debrajkoiri, in a wonderful collaboration with Shobhana Kapoor (IITB).
Can pathogenic bacteria hijack the bystander host cells remotely even before encountering them ? Answer is Yes!
https://t.co/IKIVWAQmn0

[TheLiverDoc™ @theliverdoc]

Dear friends, I have something important to tell you.

In December 2024, 'researchers' from multiple Indian Government Homeopathy institutions along with 'researchers' from Israeli Homeopathy institutes, published a randomized controlled trial that concluded that use of Homeopathic formulations in children during first 24 months of life reduced infections and antibiotics use compared to 'standard of care.' This was published in the prestigious European Journal of Pediatrics.

The study was viral. It was all over the media and news here in South India and also in some National media and was Whatsapp 'proof' of Homeopathy being better than modern medicine in infants. The study was used to promote anti-vaccine sentiments and Homeopathy products in South India. Homeopaths hailed the study as 'path breaking' - also because the Ayush Ministry and Government Homeopathy practitioners were study authors involved in it.

I read the study. I am trained in advanced statistics and research writing.

The study was utter nonsense. And fraud. It looked like the authors did not even actually perform the study. I really doubted whether any patients were involved at all.

I wrote a letter to the editor of the journal, asking him to kindly review the paper and investigate 'scientific integrity' and ethics.

And after nearly 10 months of investigations by the Journal, Publisher and Research Integrity Team, we were proven correct.

The paper was fraud and now it has been RETRACTED. @RetractionWatch

The lesson here is that, if people really did understand what Homeopathy is and what its practitioners are, it is easy to find that it is clearly fraud. There is nothing in Homeopathy that works. It is unscientific utter nonsense. Every positive study on Homeopathy is mostly published in 'Homeopathy' journals. Sometimes, it infiltrates a real, valid journal (like in this case) and then it gets retracted because the scientific community is always alert.
There are many such instances: See - https://t.co/JHC3anPss3 and https://t.co/iDRNha2Yw5 and https://t.co/84S02zuxv3

The worst part here is that all these Homeopathy practitioners who are authors of the study are working in Indian Govt. public health sector - meaning, their salary is paid from public funds and citizens taxes. These wastrels are eating away our hard earned money and using it to fund fraud. Who will stop these criminals?

Even worse, the fraud, now retracted study was published as 'open access' in the European Journal of Pediatrics - which means, the authors paid £3090.00 GBP or $4990 USD, or €3990 EUR equivalent in INR to publish fraud. Where did they get this money from? Yes. Indian public tax money.

Homeopathy needs to be booted out of this country. Parents, do not send your children to study Homeopathy even though India offers a 5 year course and gives them a "Dr." title at the end of it. They are not doctors. They are legitimized frauds and legalized quacks, as you can see from this retraction.

"Homeopathy is a lively relic of the prescientific era. Not healthcare."
@arifhussaintm

Link:
https://t.co/0CxLrVMHDj

[Shubh @kadaipaneeeer]

In 2006, my brother was doing his PhD.
Topic: Bovine AIDS.
Institute: a university in Mathura.
Coursework: HSADL, Bhopal, India’s top animal disease lab.

Then bird flu happened.

Suddenly, HSADL became the lab.
And suddenly, my brother was told to drop 1.5 years of research and switch topics.

Not because science demanded it.
Because the system did.

The deal was simple:
Change your topic, or lose your stipend.

He called me and said,
“I love my research. I don’t want to work on what babus want.”

For once, I didn’t give gyaan.
I gave him an exit.

“Apply outside India. Let’s see if anyone values your work.”

He applied to 8 universities.
7 in Australia, 1 in Europe.

Within hours, 7 offers came back.
5 with full scholarships and stipends.

The 8th replied three days later.
The professor was at a conference.
That’s it. That was the delay.

Why?

Because his CV was ridiculously good:
•17 international publications
•1 book
•54 national publications
•103 reviews

He went to Europe.
Finished his PhD.
Got a Post-Doc in Texas.
Applied for a Green Card.
Got it in 2 months.
Citizenship the moment he was eligible.

Still, he wanted to come back.

Because India is home & hope dies slowly.

In 2011, he applied for a professor’s job at JNKVV, Jabalpur.
Salary: ₹40,000/month.

They asked for hard copies of all publications.

I still remember packing a full carton of his papers and couriering it.

Then, on July 8, we got a letter dated July 6.

Interview: July 10. In person.

Bring:

•NOC from his current university
•Character certificate
•Hard copies again

Because “what if interviewers want to see?”

I called them.

“How does someone fly from Europe in two days?”

Answer:

“Interviews are till 12th. He must come.”

That was the moment we stopped trying.

India wasn’t rejecting him.
India was humiliating him.

Later, when he sent his HSADL work to Elsevier, the journal did a routine verification.

HSADL replied saying:

•He left without due process
•His stipend wasn’t settled
•His address was false

We sent:

•No Dues Certificate
•Formal relieving letter
•Proof that the address was the same as his passport
•Proof that our parents still live there

Didn’t matter.
Publication rejected.

That’s the system.

We happily talk about reservations. But we quietly harass competence.

And before someone says, “Things have changed under Modi” no, they haven’t.

I tried in 2023.
Same hard copies.
Same physical interviews.

I now work as a visiting professor with an IIT. Online.

My reimbursement request has been pending since August 2023.

The professor in charge says,
“I get 100 mails a day. I don’t check all.”

Fair enough.

This country doesn’t lack talent. It lacks respect for it.

And the smartest people don’t leave India for money. They leave to save their dignity

[60% Water By Mass @MoleculesGoHard]

It's all happening on reddit, the everything app

[Nimal Archish | நிமல் அர்ச்சிஷ் @NimalArchish]

hmmmmmm

[Rebecca Adson @RebeccahAdson]

It's a small idea, but it'll change a lot.

[Society for Developmental Biology @SocDevBio]

🐸 Xenopus laevis 💚 The frog that shaped modern developmental biology! ✨ Xenopus embryos have revealed how the body axis forms, cells choose their fate, and tissues self-organize during early development 📹 Video by Bioquest Sudio and Xenbase #ModelMonday #DevBio

[Niko McCarty. @NikoMcCarty]

This is a nice Quanta article on mechanical forces in biology.

The flow of wine down the sides of a glass (called the Marangoni flow) "is similar to the flow of the tissue in the gastruloid" of a developing embryo.

A cell is a vibrating bag of molecules, but those molecules can drive both chemical and mechanical forces!

I'd argue that biotechnology has made a great deal of progress in altering genes to encode new molecules for chemistry, but has lagged quite a bit in manipulating those genes to drive new mechanical forces, which will be essential for reprogramming development and many other things.

[Sebastian S. Cocioba🪄🌷 @ATinyGreenCell]

Boooo, my Triton X-100 stock got contaminated. What on earth could live in a 10% surfactant solution???

[Shreya Dhanwanthary @shreyadhan13]

This cannot be India. This is so hateful and wrong. Is this kind of hate mongering truly going to go unchecked? What is happening?!

[Santosh Chauhan @Chauhanlab_ILS]

FROM CELL DEATH TO REGENERATION: What if dying cells -come back to life? Now online @embojournal I https://t.co/eOKTg6qVnk , we aim to answer this question. Here is the journey. If you🩷science, please dont 🛑till the end of 🧵, I promise you will not regret. 1/n

[PhDs of India @PhDsofIndia]

We don’t know how to begin this. But we’ll try. Because silence has already taken too many. Across the country, PhD scholars are choosing to end their lives. Again. And again. And again. Each one was someone’s child. A bright spark. A dreamer. A survivor. But even survivors have a limit. And what’s worse? The system that was supposed to protect them bullied them. Silenced them. Ignored them.
Universities shrug. Administrations turn deaf. Student councils, even when well-meaning, are often powerless. And all of this has been normalised.
“So what if the supervisor screamed again?” “So what if you were locked out of the lab?” “That’s just how academia is.”
But no, it shouldn’t be!
At PhDs of India, we try to build hope, a stronger, more connected academic community. But every time a scholar takes their life, it shakes the very foundation of what we stand for. Because we can’t glorify survival if survival itself is this brutal.
And yet we refuse to believe this is all there is. We believe there are good people. There are safe spaces. There is hope.
So here’s what we want to say:
If you’re struggling: Suicide is not the answer.
If you’re hurting: Reach out. To anyone. To us. To someone you trust.
If your voice has been shut down, we will amplify it. Because social media, despite its flaws, can spark change.
We honour the grit, determination, and quiet strength of those who survive and choose to live, to speak, and to demand better. Let this be the last generation that normalises academic abuse.
Let this be the generation that learns to be kinder to peers, bolder against bullies, braver in rebuilding the system from within

It starts here. With us. With you. With all of us. 
To everyone who has ever suffered silently until the pain nearly consumed them, we stand with you. And we hope that the next time you break down, it isn’t in isolation but into the arms of a community that refuses to let go of you.

With love,
PhDs of India

[orinam.net 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️ @chennaipride]

Ripon building, seat of the Greater Chennai Corporation, was lit up in Pride colors for the second year in a row today, June 29, 2025, on the occasion of today's Pride/Self-respect march. PC: Radha Parthiban

[Saleem Mohammed @Ssaleem_M]

Excited to share our lab’s latest preprint!
Led by Jafar with great support from the whole team and in wonderful collaboration with @Sandeep_IMSc @SwagataGhatak, and @urssahu

https://t.co/lcmoryVCS1