100s labs ordered the wrong "p16" antibody. They wanted to study p16-INK4a, but bought p16-ARC antibodies. 312 papers got it wrong. Now the literature is polluted with false mechanistic pathways. As a reminder: validate your reagents. But also read the datasheet and use your brain.

You can't help but love a big fluffy tabby cat!

The Great Horned Owls, of the Americas They are a monogamous pair. The male brings food for 30-37 days while the female incubates the eggs and until the young are 6 weeks old, when they climb out. They will fly after 7 weeks short distances. The parents provide food for them for 3-5 months.

Scientists are scrambling to test vaccines and drugs that can work against the Bundibugyo virus. Here's my story on some of their prime candidates. Gift link: nyti.ms/4u7cN4A

In @nytopinion.nytimes.com “Since A.I. is built on the collective knowledge of humanity, the wealth it generates must benefit humanity,” Senator Bernie Sanders writes on the legislation he is introducing that would give the public a direct ownership stake in the largest A.I. companies.

🤖 Scientists conducted an experiment where the world was given under the control of neural networks, — Fortune 📍AI gave over 120 tools — they could create laws, vote, distribute resources, build an economy… 📍Claude — his “society” was the only one that could survive all 15 days.

Dismissed as a natural phenomenon for more than a century, red stripes on a rock in Wales have been found to be the oldest known prehistoric art in Britain and northwestern Europe, created by human fingers 17,100 years ago, according to new research.

You don’t need to ‘kill’ research all at once. Just delay or restrict funding in such a manner that researchers are forced out of their institutions due to, wait for it, lack of funding. At most universities, research faculty depend on grants to pay a portion or most of their salary.

When you’re having a completely normal day… then you come across these glowing dog sneakers 🐕✨😭 I can’t stop smiling. Ridiculously cute and an instant mood booster. 💖🐾🔥

now available - cat shaped alarm clock *cannot be switched off or snoozed

It is HARD to tell our dorky little stories under fascism. But I'm sending out big hearts to everyone who's trying and huge high fives to anyone who gets anything done in that regard. Take part in actual political action to fight fascism. But keep telling your dorky stories. They matter, too.

International Workshop on Microbial Ecology Data: 8 de junho Horário: 14h Saiba mais: shre.ink/3Ezt

“The result is a horror show for US science research. Not only is peer review made a secondary consideration, but the new rules would allow any federal agency to cancel any grant at any time based on the vague assertion that it isn’t in the “national interest.” 1/2 🧪 arstechnica.com/science/2026...

Classifying ovaries solely as #reproductive organs has obscured their role as systemic regulators of female physiology. @jennifergarrison.bsky.social contends that ovarian #aging is a primary determinant of healthspan and belongs at the center of geroscience. 🧪

Of all the harm this administration has done to US science, today's proposed changes to the way federal grants are awarded and administered is the most damaging yet. The text of the federal register document is impenetrably tedious by design, so here's an excellent summary of what it says.

This right here is very telling. The OMB proposal directly dismantles the post-WWII system used by NIH, NSF, DOE, NASA, and nearly every science agency, in which independent expert peer review was the primary measure of scientific merit. 🧪 elizabethginexi.substack.com/p/summary-of...

Sleuths say Thermo Fisher doctored data to sell antibodies –– so Thermo can rob you and make science unreliable, and is just one of the consequences of scientific #MisInformation and #DisInformation 🧪 #TheMoreYouKnow 💫 cen.acs.org/research-int...

Oxford, the longest running continuous weather station in UK history, with temperature observations stretching back to 1815, has preliminarily broken its maximum temperature record for May yesterday by OVER 3ºC with a temperature of 33.7ºC. Unprecedented in its 211-year history.

“Academic science is not only about productivity, it is also about deep understanding, exploring creative solutions and training critical thinkers to be the next generation of researchers.” www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Scientists are calling this the most metal shit they’ve ever seen

“I’ve built a calculator that only works correctly sometimes, a search engine that just guesses, and a sycophantic friend machine that might shatter your perception of reality. It is the future!”

A PhD student at Stanford noticed her classmates were asking Al to write their breakup texts. So she ran a study. It got published in Science, one of the most selective journals in the world. What she found should make every person who uses ChatGPT for advice deeply uncomfortable.

"Cat in the summer meadow" Art by Bruno Lijefors #MenWithCats

No joke: I got angry hate mail today for writing an obituary of a Black woman scientist—because the person felt she did didn’t deserve the recognition. Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

“Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.” Dune (1965) Frank Herbert

🧪 #ebola #DRC “We have made requests… but we have not yet really received anything,” said Julienne Lusenge, president of Women’s Solidarity for Inclusive Peace and Development… operating a small hospital near Bunia. “We only have hand sanitiser and a few masks for the nurses,” she said.

32.3ºC at Kew Gardens is the hottest May temperature on record at the station since records began in 1881, beating its previous May maximum by 2ºC (30.3ºC, 25th May 1922). It beat its maximum temperature date record for the 24th of May by OVER 2ºC (30.2ºC, 1922), exceptional.

“It absolutely defied all of our expectations. This was so surprising that my whole project changed.” This phenomenon could have far-reaching implications, and is leaving neuroscientists baffled. go.nature.com/4wEzuzH

Ancient wars between microbes gave us key immune defenses | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti... 🧪

Pope Leo XIV previews his encyclical by attacking Silicon Valley’s “unbridled promotion and implementation of technology at the expense of human dignity.”

There’s only one correct answer to a request like this and it’s “get fucked.” I realize that most individual investigators are not in a position to respond this way, but isolationism as a condition of funding will destroy US science even faster than a dearth of funding will.

In @nytopinion.nytimes.com “I’ve seen Ebola up close. I got it while treating patients in West Africa in 2014,” Craig Spencer writes in a guest essay. “I know how destructive the disease can be — and how unprepared we are for its return.”

Commencement speakers who bring up the sweeping changes that artificial intelligence is driving are facing boos from the Class of 2026. n.pr/4tNKQ1E

My next newsletter "What is the most common form of 'chartjunk' in the scientific literature? " is coming out tomorrow morning. Subscribe to get it and stay in the loop on everything I'm up to in helping scientists make the most effective data visualization! shop.riffomonas.org/posts/

Looking for someone to give a talk to your group on the problems with AI for culture, society, or education? I'm a STEM professor at the U of Michigan and would be happy to give that talk.

Thinking about #ASMicrobe. I like to bring #MicrobialEvangelism pins and buttons with me. This year, I am bringing 50 of the first three, and a few of the "cult(ure)" fancy pins. If you see me, introduce yourself/say hello, I will give you one. I hope people will post about it and tag me. @asm.org

"Murujuga is home to my people’s culture and is also the beginning point for songlines, which is home to other people’s cultures.” Songlines are a map of a story throughout the landscape. This knowledge is then passed on to other groups and carried on throughout the land."

Cat 😺 won the Bird Lottery

😮

The University of Pennsylvania demoted Katalin Karikó in 1995. Twenty‑eight years later, she won the Nobel Prize for the work they tried to kill. The system did not lift her up. She climbed over it. That is not a success story. It is an indictment.

More often than not, sadly, this is what happens when surrounded by mediocrity and defensive narcissists who feel threatened by anyone they think might outshine them.

Teams of AI agents boost speed of research www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Now that's a science headline. Gift link.

I'm not a plumber. But I'm pretty sure that's not how sinks work.

Imagine you're shrunk down to amoeba size & could observe a tiny plant root under the soil. The first thing you might notice is that the root isn't all plant cells. Both inside & outside the root are symbiotic fungal cells (grey in photo) in close association, working together. (🔬:Eye of Science)

American science right now is basically 10,000 of these stories, all with their own heartbreaking specificity Lost careers, lost progress, lost discoveries I feel so sad every day for all we’ve lost and continue to lose 💔

Sir, another graduation ceremony in which the students booed AI has dropped. "College graduates were pissed after their school used AI to announce graduates’ names and missed hundreds of names" (via @/FearedBuck on Twitter)

Real scientists are fully aware there is always someone out there that might have a better idea! It’s why we interact with others. It’s why we’re constantly trying to recruit more people and $ to the science enterprise.

One of my favorite people in the world has a postdoc open! Go work for Rosa Leon Zayas! careers.msu.edu/jobs/postdoc...

Come See our Grad Student @astrobio-agb.bsky.social this week at #AbSciCon2026. She'll be presenting her research on how desert microbes can literally drink water vapor from the air! 🌵💧 #Microbiology #Extremophiles #Desiccation #Astrobiology