NSF is open again! A few comments: *Please be patient. During a shutdown NSF employees cannot open computers or respond to emails. *Merit review will continue. However panels won’t resume until after Dec 8th. *POs remain excited and committed to advancing science and the scientific workforce.

“The prohibited activities would include joint research, co-authorship on papers, and advising a foreign graduate student or postdoctoral fellow. The language is retroactive, meaning any interactions during the previous 5 years could make a scientist ineligible for future federal funding.”

#eldercare today included celebrating my parent's 60th wedding anniversary. It is really sweet watching how anchored Mom is to Dad, despite dementia robbing her of a lot of other things.

Our flagship journal's co author from the #NSF Life invited papers, @prosanta.bsky.social wrote this tremendously helpful piece for us all to consider in how we share our lives at work. Consider Sharing #Health Challenges With Colleagues (opinion) www.insidehighered.com/opinion/care...

emailing in a semi-literate manner isn’t a sign of stupidity, it’s another form of rich asshole arrogance because you don’t think you owe anyone coherent thoughts

And FINALLY paper accepted! This one went to 3 different journals and did about 6 rounds of reviews. It is a better product than when we started, and I'm glad it's finally out. It'll be open access, I'll post links when available.

I was talking to a colleague about how I feel so exposed to the news lately. Wondering if the gov't will open, since it impacts my workload (will my panel get rescheduled? Will my grant get funded?). I compare this with my sister, who works in a school system and doesn't worry about the news. 1/n

Happy exploding whale day to all who celebrate.

Job Opening **ASSISTANT PROFESSOR MARINE ECOLOGY**, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Rhode Island. jobs.uri.edu/postings/15960

ooof this feels like most every university rn

Also...the photosynthesis, oxygen production and carbon fixation in the ocean is SO important, but we still barely have a handle on how the ocean does it. The major diatom rubisco kinetics paper was in 2016. Only 9 years ago!

I love that there is a paper that literally has the title "Rubisco is not really so bad" Because I like to make fun of RuBisCo all semester and then give students this paper to get it all to come together.

With much gratitude to everyone who supported the wonderful #STAMPS summer course at the MBL, I share that STAMPS will not be offered in 2026. 💔😿

24 years ago, I was on the first research cruise to the newly established Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary in Lake Huron to map all of the shipwrecks in the area. We had a huge binder of research on all the suspected wrecks. Most of them sank in a "collision in the fog."

In the century leading up to 1975, nearly 6000 freighters went down in the Great Lakes. The Edmund Fitzgerald was the last. The last. In 50 years, not a single commercial freighter has been lost in the Great Lakes. Why? It's NOAA. Of course it's NOAA.

These things are too damn good.

I can’t stop thinking about how the ACA is one of the most impactful pieces of legislation in my lifetime. And they just let them throw it away. I know it’s been long enough that a lot of people don’t remember (or weren’t alive), but I haven’t forgotten what it was like Before.

Trust me said the spider to the fly

Timeline cleanse: Check out my cat letting my dog use him as a pillow.

The world’s first trillionaire initiated a move that has left more than half a million people dead, most of whom are children.

To all visionary microbe enthusiasts: @femsmicro.org is looking for an editor-in-chief for their flagship journal FEMS Microbiology Reviews! More details can be found here: fems-microbiology.org/opportunitie...

Prosanta is amazing and this piece is amazing. “Letting your colleagues see your vulnerability and letting them share their concern, well-wishes and help gives you an opportunity to embrace their compassion when you need it the most.”

Jared Isaacman, the billionaire Space X fanboy picked to take over NASA, plans to eviscerate the agency

Australia has so much electricity from solar power that it is going to start offering free electricity to everyone for at least three hours during the day as the wholesale price of power goes negative electrek.co/2025/11/04/a...

The clearest sign that the tariffs aren't going to survive is Lutnick's old firm, now run by his kid, buying up tariff refund options at 30 cents on the dollar.

Caught up on the GBBO and didn’t expect to be crying this much. So good to see humans being good humans.

Disturbing news out of Auburn University, where the admin is pressuring professors to sign a statement saying they're complying with an "anti-DEI" law and TPUSA is holding a rally and trying to record classes. I hear faculty are terrified to sign, worried this is a pretense for mass firings.

There is a line out the door at my polling place which is wild because we never have lines here. I’ve worked like…idk, 7 elections here? Never seen this. This is good, I hope.

Are you intetested in deep sea and ship-based #SciComm strategies? Join us TODAY for our COBRA webinar!! (This will also be recorded and posted freely online afterwards!)

Lessons learned from triton contamination means I treat this surfactant like it's a rich microbial medium and only work with it in the flow hood. Not takin any more chances, lol.

POLLING PLACES ARE OPEN ACROSS THE COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA.

Anyway, we need some joy, so here's the Egyptian foreign minister being given a Lego Pyramid by the Danish foreign minister.

I’ve released my students from class so they can drive home to vote. Get out there and get your voice heard.

#overlyhonestmethods Apparently my NCBI issues were not drastic enough to report. If anyone has any worse horror stories, feel free to DM or email me, I can get you in touch.

Got asked by a reporter to comment on the shutdown impact on NCBI and research. It's not just NCBI - it's Army Corps of Engineers permitting too, it's NSF panel reviews, and the fact we just submitted a proposal to NOAA having no idea if/when it'll ever be seen. The anxiety. It real.

The menhaden boats showed up in town late this summer and had our whole town abuzz. The entire eastern seaboard needs a good menhaden strategy. The first fishery collapse is why my campus started! But the fish were gone before anyone moved into a lab.

Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching

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Good opportunity to be on Mark's podcast. Highly recommend! #microsky

Hi @shahwalter.bsky.social ! Welcome to the place to do science!

Siouxsie Wiles: Why I’m crowdfunding despite winning my legal battle

The government is shut down, people are about to go hungry and cheeto is bragging about redoing an all marble bathroom!?! Has he never read about how revolutions start? Let them eat cake!?!?

📣 Open position: We are looking for a new #ScientificLead for the #SILVA database 🧬🖥️, who will be responsible for guiding the development of this important resource and for curating the #SILVA taxonomy🌳. Read and share! 👉 www.dsmz.de/dsmz/career/... 🧪🦠🌱🦋💽

In 1932, the Soviet Union utilized food shortages as a means of coercion against the Soviet Ukrainian population. Called the Holodomor, it was a man-made famine used for political purposes, much like what Republicans in Congress are getting ready to do to fellow Americans.

BREAKING: Furloughed employees at CDC just received an email about the shutdown, but has REMOVED language about backpay that appeared in a similar email sent out a month ago. On the left is the Oct 1st email with the backpay language, on the right is the email they received today.

As I realized my paycheck was deposited I immediately felt so bad for all the federal workers who didn’t have that experience. This shutdown is growing inhumane. Fund the healthcare. Open the govt. Release the files.

There are more than 100 marine research institutions in the United States and they’re under threat from Trump’s attack on science funding. 🌊

The average nucleotide identity (ANI) underpins how we map microbial diversity, compare species, and connect genomes to ecology. I wrote a short piece reflecting on the discovery and significance of this metric (and really enjoyed digging into the context and story behind it!) #microsky 🧬

I've got great students with marine science degrees looking for PhD programs. Many are interested in molecular projects, host-associated studies, invertebrates or microbial topics. If you're searching for a student, send me a DM! I'll be happy to connect you (all students are already published!)

Delaware SNAP is safe for now! Whew. I hope other governors can do the same.