Someone has sure already made this observation but the fact they can convert all those empty warehouses into prison camps means they could have converted them into housing, community centers, job training centers or, hell, libraries or schools all along. It’s always a matter of will not resources.

Remembering that year when I absolutely lost my mind and got goats. Remember just because you can doesn’t mean you should. #newmantra

Chytrid fungi but also wait for spring. Can’t wait til the spring peepers make me have to turn the TV louder!

lol this is gonna burst so fucking hard

Franzi Schimmer captured this Grizzly bear in Brooks Falls, Alaska just floating along, tippy-tapping down the river, browsing the salmon. Prior to hibernation, up to 40% of a bear's body mass is fat, which is less dense than water (~0.9 g/cm^2), so the murder-monster is also a floaty-boaty.

Welcome to the Plutocracy

#ASLO is honored to announce Dr. Debbie Lindell as the recipient of the 2026 Hutchinson Award for pioneering contributions to understanding how viruses shape marine microbial ecology, revealing host–virus interactions from single cells to entire ocean basins. Read more: www.aslo.org/aslo-honors-...

The bold face lies that students think they can get away with is just quite shocking. Faculty talk to each other. We are smart people. We see through things. Don't dig your hole bigger.

I am seeking a postdoc to join my group at UCLA -- ideally the candidate would have some experience in either population genetics or microbes/microbiome (computational background needed). We have a range of projects and are happy to tailer to your interests. Please dm/email me if interested.

#Eldercare woes continue. Wondering if this is an infection-induced decline or this is just a decline. Spent lunch today feeding my mom and reminding her to swallow, like we used to do with my nephew when he was 2 and would chipmunk food in his cheeks. Dementia sucks.

My husband had to go to the butthole doctor today, to set up his colonoscopy. As a little treat to himself he stopped to photograph one of the local bald eagles. Please don't tell him I talked about his butthole on the internet. He'd be so mad. Also, please schedule your colonoscopy if you're due.

It's increasingly difficult to differentiate between malice and incompetence in the federal government. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

Spent a lot of time in class today talking about dental plaque and really can't wait for all the students to report back how they now notice it and it's grossing them out. 🤓

JFC I've heard that Fetterman is considering supporting the SAVE act. It's a disaster of a bill that would create sweeping disenfranchisement. Whoever your senators are, I don't care, call them. I don't wanna hear if you think they definitely will or won't support this, take 3 minutes & call.

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! #2026MMM (With a hat-tip to the Dropkick Murphys) The season's upon us, it's that time of year! Science & carnage, there's battles to cheer, there's twists to these plots and there's stings to be stung, there's research to do and plenty of fun!

On this International Day of Women and Girls in Science, I want to take a moment to celebrate the wonderful women in the editorial board of Applied and Environmental Microbiology at @asm.org Journals. It is an honor to work with them. Onward and upward! #WomenInScience #AEM #ApplEnvironMicrobiol

As a botanist, this isn’t funny. Plants are sessile and only do this when they’re in extreme distress

Anaerobic methane oxidation by ANME-2a at two molar chloride in Orca Basin https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.09.704686v1

Imagine that. Better late than never

⏰ Reminder: Peggy Cotter Travel Award apps due Feb 16! We have 3 $1,650 travel awards for ASM Microbe 2026! 👩‍🔬 Early-career professionals (≤15 yrs from terminal degree)are eligible 📧 Apply: [email protected] 🧬 ASM + CNY ASM membership are required Learn more: sites.google.com/view/cnyasm/...

Show me a way to do a global nitrogen cycle on Mars that supports more than....Matt Damon.

Apply now for funding from SSE to attend the AIBS Congressional Visits Day in Washington, DC in April! Participants will receive communications and advocacy training before meeting with lawmakers. Learn more and apply by February 15: www.evolutionsociety.org/society-awar... @aibsbiology.bsky.social

Why so close to the Canadian Football League Fans? ;) 🦠

My aunt and uncle went without power for 2.5 months after Maria. My grandfather who lives in San Juan went even longer. The power lines were the most impactful image of many tonight.

Walked on water today.

Never leave weapons out around a cat.

Well my work is threatened on the daily these days with federal threats. And today news of Hegseth’s war on scouts is spreading because of course I don’t deserve a moment of f&$king peace these days. My kid is about to Eagle and is signed up to work jamboree. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Elections are run by the states and that’s not changing. Don’t give the regime power that it doesn’t have.

everything is terrible so here’s the swedish chef doing rapper’s delight

please consult the chart

🎧 Headphones on. From Living on Earth, The Law and Environmental Justice podcast breaks down the data behind environmental racism. This #BHM episode centers Dr. Robert D. Bullard. He reflects on decades of research, frontline organizing, and paths toward accountability. https://ow.ly/OAwN50YaQg0

Graduate Students’ NSF Fellowship Applications Are Being “Returned Without Review” 🧪 eos.org/research-and...

Who else could wear a sleeping bag to the Olympics?!

Why methane surged in the atmosphere during the early 2020s www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #jcampubs

I somehow spent all day in a training about time management as I regretted not being able to spend the day in a deep focus after teaching chaos all week.

Make Peter Thiel into the villain, Democrats. It's all there. He is the node that connects Trump, Vance, Palantir, Musk, Epstein, and so many other terrible players. Just expose it and make him and Musk the face of these psychopathic billionaires ruining our lives.

Good reminder to shoot the shot you have. I boldly asked a state program for money to do a project that has really cool samples and got funded in 2 hrs!!!! Wow. Really didn’t think it’d be that easy.

Reading about these freaking brilliant journalists who were let go from WaPo today, I sort of feel like that paper at this moment didn't deserve their amazingness. And eventually, something phenomenal (quite literally) is going to grow out of the madness of this dark moment in American journalism

Seven years ago yesterday, this ad ran during the Super Bowl.

These are all spectacular, but my favorite is the crab riding the jellyfish. Micromobility for the win!

Want to ride the front of the wave of all-things-microbiology; field work, cultivation, microscopy, molecular, bioinformatics and AI tools? Me too! Please join us @mblscience.bsky.social for the 2026 Summer Microbial Diversity Course! Applications due soon. www.mbl.edu/education/ad...

But to go from assistant to associate, don't they need tenure? (haha academic joke) www.nytimes.com/2026/01/31/u...

Reading the defense of P.putida: journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... Fave quote: "This bears witness to the lack of fervor of the community for the new nomenclature." Let me keep my damn Firmicutes! I have no fervor!

I was a White House ethics lawyer. I used to advise people not to even accept a free cup of coffee from someone who had interests before them. And staff followed those rules. I can’t even find the words to describe the scale of Trump’s corruption here.

Very on the nose that in the US, a rodent has replaced scientists. It currently feels like 6 more years of winter.

This must stop.

I went to Punxsutawney once to see the Groundhog Day event. It was truly stupid and they have the parchment ready before he comes out. Use the farmers almanac.

My godson (nephew) got into med school!!! Since he did his undergraduate in Ohio, he will stay in Ohio and not pay too much for med school!!! That’s a cool benefit.

Good afternoon. For your situational awareness, Baltimore sits on a massive hydrothermal vent complex from 450 million years ago. I spent my childhood exploring serpentine barrens that were the remnants of these ancient vents, without even knowing it. That's neat.

It's hard to grasp how large this grouper is until you see it in comparison to the ship's toilet on the left. This appears to be an Atlantic goliath grouper or 'itajara' (Epinephelus itajara). They can reach 800 lbs (350 kg) & 8 feet long (2.5 m) Let's talk about these gentle giants.