Worth noting: A film called Photograph 51 is in the works starring Natalie Portman, who will be playing Rosalind Franklin. deadline.com/2025/05/nata...

Only 25 when he published the DNA structure with Crick in 1953, so he got see the impact of it over his long life. But sadly, he also lived long enough to say plenty of crazy things along the way. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/s...

"There's something wrong with me and I don't want to make it right." 😍

The history of significant U.S. government shutdowns, updated as of today. There are other sources out there, but I based it primarily on Wikipedia data: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governm...

Over his two terms, the government has been shut down for about 1 out of every 24 days Trump has been president. The runner up is Bill Clinton, whose presidency saw the government shutdown for 1 out of every 108 days.

My latest story for @scenichudson.bsky.social is about terrariums. This also happens to be one of my nerdy hobbies. www.scenichudson.org/viewfinder/w...

Post-election timeline cleanse: I like to start my day by watching my rocket killifish (Epiplatys annulatus) enjoy their breakfast of baby brine shrimp, so maybe you should too!

Every single county in Virginia shifted toward the Democrats tonight. That’s quite remarkable.

"A little party never killed nobody?" Clearly Trump never made it to the end of "The Great Gatsby"

Living in an old house in a semi-rural area, we catch mice inside from time to time. But this time I caught something different - I'm guessing a short tailed shrew. Fun fact: these are venomous.

While doing a deep dive on medical research history, I came across the story of John R. Brinkley, who touted the transplantation of goat testicles as a cure for impotence in the early 20th century, and later ran for gov. A reminder of history's cyclical nature. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

If you aren't tuning into KEXP's Halloween mix today while performing your mundane work tasks, what are you even doing?? kexp.org

Donald Trump's approval rating in our tracker has fallen to -18, the lowest it has ever been (lower than any point in his first term) www.economist.com/interactive/...

Seen on a brisk walk somewhere between Lake Minnewaska and Lake Awosting at a state park in NY. #hudsonvalley

Simultaneously sad that it has to come to this and thrilled that there is the will and capacity for this to happen from with the pillars still standing. Kudos to NJEM and CIDRAP. www.statnews.com/2025/10/21/c...

Nothing can prepare you for the end of this Rochester local news clip promoting acts at an avant garde festival. Skip to around 4 minutes. www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG-S...

Gathering info for a deep dive on the landscape pre-WW2 scientific research and the role of universities, and found this recent piece by @willbunch.bsky.social for Brown U. Really well-written of course, and informative - worth a read. www.brownalumnimagazine.com/articles/202...

Constitution, Article II, Section 1, Clause 7: "The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation...and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them."

Once again, EVERY R1 research university depends on federal funding for ~15-25% of its budget. You simply can't unplug the largest or 2nd-largest source of $$ of every R1 university & expect it not to have devastating consequences for graduate education, which will spill over to undergrad education.

The Erie Canal, completed 200 years ago, transformed America's economy, explains a historian. Although the canal idea was widely criticized as impractical and against “God’s will”, within a few years, shipping rates from Lake Erie to New York City fell by over 90%.

A tiny change in Iceland's temperature now appears to be enough for mosquitoes to survive there. www.ruv.is/english/2025...

Academia hivemind: I'm trying to map out the NIH review process to the best of my knowledge (having never served on an study section myself). Does this look about right to you? Any feedback is appreciated!

Innisfree Garden near Millbrook, NY. Beautiful weekend to get out and step on crunchy leaves.

Say what you want about UVA's founder Thomas Jefferson, I'm sure he's cheering on this rejection from his grave.

Time is up. I gave Speaker Mike Johnson two days to swear in Adelita Grijalva. Arizona's 7th congressional district 813,000 Arizonans are now being taxed without representation. I have lawyers downstairs right now drafting litigation. youtu.be/9OBdjsGntQI?...

Huge honor today for one of my colleagues who was included in the 2025 STAT Wunderkinds list @statnews.com, recognizing some of the great work he's done investigating how viruses cross the placental barrier. www.statnews.com/wunderkinds/...

AI struggles to draw molecules correctly. May be surprising since there are discrete rules in chemistry for doing this that a machine (or O-Chem student) could learn, but that's not how AI operates. A good example of why it's problematic for many other things. www.chemistryworld.com/news/the-che...

This performance by Haley Williams recently on Fallon is worth watching, even if (especially if), like me, you've haven't been into her music in the past. A popular artist/musician who has something important to say about society is always refreshing. Just wow. www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNNY...

During a military-style raid on a building in Chicago’s South Shore, one resident heard a knock on his door. 

It wasn’t the feds —  it was a mom and her 7-year-old daughter, pleading for help. He let them hide in his unit for the next 3 days. chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

Woke Pope Says Nope To DisInfo Slope

Following on that story in the Atlantic this week, I looked up the prices of cocoa and made this graph. Annual averages adjusted for inflation. If your kids end up with nothing but bit-o-honey in their Halloween bags this year, you can blame the weather in Ghana and the cacao swollen shoot virus.

Interesting data, kind of surprising given sports betting these days. I'm not nearly the sports fan I was at a younger age, just don't have the time anymore or the budget for ESPN, etc.

Julius Caesar was the first Roman to put his own living face on coins, weeks before his death. It is one of the deepest cultural signifiers of something autocracies do and republics do not. “Render unto Caesar.” A practice so notoriously arrogant Jesus himself dunked on it with snarky wordplay.

My latest for @scenichudson.bsky.social is about the Erie Canal: how it changed the state of NY, its effect on modern ecology, and efforts to preserve it in the best way possible. www.scenichudson.org/viewfinder/h...

Thinking about this quote from Pres. Nelson, a favorite because of how frank it was. Just wish it could have had more of an impact. Love and grief for those involved in the Michigan tragedy today. www.fox13now.com/2018/02/23/l...

Weekend visit to Utah, and the mountains are really putting on a show.

For any old school Utah basketball fans out there, check out this chat with Andre Miller, telling funny stories about his time at the U and the culture shock. A close friend of mine played on the team with him so I met him a few times, just a funny down to earth dude. www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQuu...

Andrea Baccarelli released this statement yesterday about his study (Harvard/Mt. Sinai) on Tylenol-autism association to try and clear some things up. As RFK goes off the rails with this, it would be great if he started making some TV appearances too. medicalresearch.com/tylenol-in-p...

Never been diagnosed. But I recall getting ready to go to my first high school dance, junior prom, and being excited about it. But I was equally excited that the pair of tokay gecko eggs in my terrarium had hatched that same day. (I kept that excitement to myself though)

My quote of the day I have known a vast quantity of nonsense talked about bad men not looking you in the face. Don't trust that conventional idea. Dishonesty will stare honesty out of countenance any day in the week, if there is anything to be got by it. Charles Dickens

St. George and Colorado City have something from the 19th century in common.

A thread of a few things that might be relevant to this autism-tylenol announcement expected today: 1. Statement from Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine dated 9/05/25 expressing no support for this theory. www.smfm.org/news/smfm-st...

Portishead reunited to perform 'Roads' to benefit Palestinians, and I just though the world should know. Sounds as great as it did in 1994. This is more than a song, it's a hymn. www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2Am...

I delved into the history of Jimmy Kimmel's feud with Trump, and how the guy from The Man Show became the guy pissing off the president www.vox.com/culture/4619...

We are now beyond satire.

There’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for people to build on the rubble of what’s being destroyed before our eyes. Private corporations bending over to forcefeed everyone government-approved speech is evil and amoral, but more than anything this creates boring, inauthentic, unwatchable shit.

My institution has invited its employees to post a "kudo" in recognition of colleagues doing excellent work. I had no idea "kudos" existed in singular form, but apparently it's a thing. www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/k...

One time I went to the theater to watch a whole movie about a guy in a boat. And it wasn't bad because that single cast member was Robert Redford. A life well lived, may he rest peacefully.