I know everything is shit! But, I marinated a rack of lamb spare ribs & a shank in yogurt, berbere, & smoked paprika. Braised them for 3 hrs. Used the fat rendered to confit potatoes, shallots, garlic, scallions, hot peppers, & fresh mint. Shredded the braised lamb, & sauteed it back in the confit.🤌🏾

Outlining the trial-and-error processes that are involved in every research project could help others to become more efficient and paint a more honest picture of life as a researcher, says Séverine Toussaert go.nature.com/4q4TPLs

let the gourd times roll

Portland, OR, as seen from Marquam Hill.

Co-signing this on stone. When you think you can relax for having the drafts of all those 10+ documents ready, a lot of places ask the same thing in different formats. I have spent at least four months over two years, applying to jobs, with nothing added to my CV/skill set because of these efforts.

I think I need this to survive the news cycle and the academic job market.

Abysmal. Bleak. Crestfallen. Despondent. Exhausted. The present day ABCs.

Unfortunate truth is, U.S. academics are not going to find jobs overseas. Some of the biggest name glam faculty will be poached, but for most, the ride is just going to end. This isn't to say other countries won't take the lead in research, etc. They'll just do it mostly with their own citizens.

India set a new record for solar and wind in first half of the year: their 22GW of installations reflects policy momentum, falling technology costs, and rapid uptake by utilities, which means that their renewables are now outpacing coal by more than 3 to 1. buff.ly/CV18dq3 #ShareGoodNewsToo

It's a dog-eat-dog world out there. The day barely started, & I already had to eat a foot-long chilli dog without spilling anything on my white shirt.

Go check out the 2025 Bench to Art gallery. The theme is cryo-EM and/or membrane protein structures. They're all awesome!

Midwest sized okra.

For all mankind, is that you??

Latest paper elifesciences.org/articles/107... closes an important cycle in our efforts to study regeneration: week-long recordings allow us to observe the behaviour of cells during the entire course of regeneration in a crustacean leg – bright objects in movie are fluorescent nuclei of cells. 1/6

I am honored to be selected as an ASCB fellow! SO much thanks to those who nominated me and provided letters of support! And congratulations to the other Fellows selected! 🎉🥳🎊

Around the world, the student visa landscape is undergoing a tectonic shift. My latest for @nature.com looks at the impacts on early career researchers—& country economies. One PhD student from China now plans to leave the US: “I want to work somewhere where I feel seen, valued and appreciated”

Our latest preprint on the mechanism of GqPCR regulation of TASK K2P channels. biorxiv.org/content/earl...

Sichuan tofu rice bowl for the lady. Barbecued pulled pork for the pig.

Damn! The job market is bad.

📣 New paper alert! Just out in Cell Reports! pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40644298/ Thrilled to share that we have discovered a brand-new anti-phage defense system! Bacteria have evolved various defense strategies (CRISPR etc) to counter phage attacks. We found a new one - fascinating and dramatic ⚔️🦠❄️🔬

God destroys dinosaurs. God creates Man. Man destroys God. Man creates dinosaur dumplings. Everybody eats dumplings. Nobody inherits the earth.

Homemade biscuits.

I've been making this weekend pizza breakfast, which I think could get me arrested in Italy. The toppings are bell peppers, pepperoncini, shallots, garlic chives marinated in soy sauce & vinegar, apple, daikon radish, & potato. Seasoning is a mix of store bought Italian seasoning & tandoori masala.

Excited to share this story on the protein crystallography CURE I developed and have been teaching for the last 3 years! www.vassar.edu/news/student... This course is supported by my #CottrellScholars Award from RCSA. @rescorp.org @vassar.bsky.social #grantsinaction #biochemistry

📣 Thrilled to share the first paper from ReForm Lab Are you an international scholar on a visa? Faculty with international students in your lab and class? Student center workers? For the 1st time, we report data on visa burdens from over 700 ECRs. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Ricewood BBQ, Ann Arbor. 4 oz each of chicken, brisket, & spare ribs. Chicken was amazing, & spare ribs fell off the bone. But the brisket? One of the best I've ever had. The peppery bark on it was the icing on the cake. Because, what's really a brisket without good bark? An emperor without clothes.

Now out in Structure: Paper on high-resolution #cryoEM using the 100 kV Tundra cryo-TEM by Dimple Karia, Adrian Koh, @abhaykot.bsky.social, @lingboyu.bsky.social, @landerlab.bsky.social and many others. Happy to have contributed to this effort. Check it out: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

🧪BREAKING: NIH has laid out 5 options for funding publications costs on grants (yes, FIVE!). This is hugely impactful. Make your opinions known by September 15, fellow scientists. 🧪 grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

Alternatives to the statistical mass confusion of testing for "no effect." Josh Morgan discusses how progress in cell biology is hindered by significance testing and the need for a shift to effect size estimation. rupress.org/jcb/article/... #Technology #Reproducibility #Statistics

it’s all fun and games until Mom eats your watermelon 🍉

Although not always on their menu, Q Bakehouse in Ann Arbor makes amazing baos!

TBH, Ambassador of Westarctica is hilarious!

Some gochu peppers can be a bit extra.

Happy to have contributed to this amazing story by Hari!

World central kitchen has been doing great work consistently. Every meal counts. Donate here. donate.wck.org/give/525879/...

I made some lehsuni aloo keema buns. Sprouted whole wheat buns, stuffed with spiced minced lamb, garlic, chives, and potatoes. Loads of garlic, actually. Like about 10-12 garlic cloves & 2 bunches of chives for a pound of minced lamb.

Pozole. That's the definition of a good soup.

You should listen to Khruangbin.

Go drunk cabbage, you're home!

Also, the exhaustion of constantly holding rigid boundaries to prevent getting exploited by disregulated people panicking about things you're an expert on.

A piece of good news in the deluge of unnerving changes: the @biophysicalsoc.bsky.social will host its signature annual meeting in February 2026, in San Francisco! If you plan on attending ONE meeting in 2026, this is the one!

Academia can become so much better if people simply treat each other as they'd like to be treated by others. And, if they valued people simply as an autonomous educated adult as opposed to deciding their importance based on the title they hold.

Apparently, that's a small plate of birria at the Birrieria Zaragoza in Chicago. Who am I to complain when they're doing the lord's work!

Filipino tapsilog for breakfast, at Cebu Chicago. Perhaps, the most flavorful short ribs I've ever eaten.

Amazing 3 days at ACA2025 meeting. Greek Suckling pig, Indian goat biryani, Mexican offal meat tacos, & Uzbeki kebabs. Of course, I also spoke on advances in membrane protein structural biology.

On the way to ACA2025, I went looking for coffee around the Union station in Chicago, but instead found this creation at a cafe called Swadesi. A samosa chat croissant.