I love it! DNA strands make the perfect garland. 🧬

Everyone is all reflecting on their 2025 professional goals this year and I'm over here like... yeah, my goal was to knit four stockings by EOY. Well I did it. I accomplished my goal. (but seriously, I'll probably make one of those posts later this week or next week)

Super excited to work on this blog article for @nautilus.bio! This blog is all about plant pathogens and #OneHealth and how proteomics can help us study one health in ways that other methods can't. Thank you to @tyfordfever.bsky.social for fantastic edits as always! #MicroSky #AMR #Proteomics

Take a look at this list and you will see that Foldscopes make great gifts (and the accessories can be fun stocking stuffers!!)! Happy Holidays! Visit foldscope.com/pages/store-... to take advantage of our holiday sales!

Read @jtsangwrites.bsky.social's article about the squid-vibrio symbiosis in the latest @asm.org Microcosm magazine!

indeed, 𝘙𝘶𝘨𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘢 𝘰𝘳𝘺𝘻𝘢𝘦 looke like fusilli, which are notably better at holding on salsa di pomodoro than spaghetti... and as pasta addicts, we fell instantly in love with the shape of this newly described alphaproteo from the Rhizobiales 🤭 #MicroSky

The newest issue of Microcosm from @asm.org is now out! It's all about animal microbiology and I was excited to contribute the story about the fascinating vibrio-squid symbiosis (my story is available via member log-in, but others are free). asm.org/magazine/202... #MicroSky #Microbiology

Chocolate might have an anti-ageing effect, according to a study of 500 women that I reported on earlier this year 🧪 It's not definitively proven - but is all the excuse I need to indulge over Xmas www.newscientist.com/article/2478...

Shopping for a microbiologist? I have a gift guide for you! Check it out for fun ideas for microbiology themed gifts including @contamclub.bsky.social @teamfoldscope.bsky.social @artologica.net @breadtopia.bsky.social and more. #MicroSky #Holiday #Christmas microbialmenagerie.com/holiday-gift...

Hi everyone, a few years ago, we started a list of labs studying bacterial immunty for students, editors, conference organizers... (currently n=79). Update time ! Send me a message to 1) add your lab or others 2) Correct info docs.google.com/spreadsheets... #Phagesky #Microsky

How the hooting heck was I not following @owlsintowels.org on here before now?

❄️ These virus snowflake patterns are amazing! I love that each pattern comes with a factsheet about the virus. Great #scicomm

I used to think tight timelines and unclear goals were exhausting. But I negotiated with my 3 year old about putting on socks for the zillionth time this morning. Now every content brief feels like a spa retreat. #FreelanceWriting #Parenting #WorkingParent

How not to use colons. Just saying.

A while back back, I asked Bluesky for random questions about the world. I'm finally sharing some answers to three of them! Why is cinnamon "hot"? Why is mint "cold"? Why does soda fizz more when you add ice? 🧪 news.ncsu.edu/2025/12/why-...

If you're looking for #microbiology themed gifts, I have several Pinterest boards for that. Hope these are helpful! #microsky #ScienceGifts A thread 👇

👋 Call for sources: My name is Julia Métraux, and I am @motherjones.com disability reporter. I am working on a series (to be published before May 1) profiling three American aging adults (50+) about how you're aging independently while taking care of your health. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

It's always great when I get to cover a cool new #microbiology story! www.the-scientist.com/gut-microbes...

Microbiologist Dr. Rita Colwell was born #OTD in 1934. She is recognized for her study of global infectious disease spread through water sources. Her research on cholera helped save 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 lives. She was the first female director of the National Science Foundation (NSF), 1998-2004. #WomenInSTEM

Fluorescent microscopy is beautiful🔬✨ People who are pushing the envelope will not only uncover new biology, but captivate (and entice!) new generations of brilliant minds to love biology the same way we do

‼️🚨🗓️ CONTAMCALENDAR 2026 🗓️🚨‼️ Excited to say the ContamCalendar is back for its fifth edition! We’ve created a fresh new design, folding out for an A3 monthly spread. It’s our best yet, we hope you’ll love it 🗓️🦠🧫🍄 Get yours here ➡️ www.contam.club ⬅️

3. If you haven't got a #flu shot yet, now's the time. You may have heard that there's likely a mismatch this year — the #H3N2 virus mutated after the vaccine strains were picked. More on that in a bit. But that's not a reason to skip getting a shot this year. www.statnews.com/2025/11/20/f...

This is wild... and I feel like I've seen another similar story about people using AI to create fake pitches, sources, and quotes.😬 thelocal.to/investigatin...

Angry person yelling at chill person who is responding by being calm, which makes the angry person even more mad? Problematic rage gap.

The sweater you’re knitting is supposed to be 10 stitches to an inch, but you’re only getting 7? Problematic gauge gap.

At the beginning of the year, I set a goal to knit four Christmas stockings. So far I've done three and just started my last one. Think I can make it and have them up shortly after Thanksgiving? 😬 #knitting #knitsky #yarnsky #yarn

Bacteria have to adapt rapidly to changes in environment. Can they ‘remember’ those conditions? Another one for my “to read” pile! cc @microberamon.bsky.social @victoriachu.bsky.social @nickyuen.bsky.social @fratorelli.bsky.social #UTISky #MicroSky

Best part of being a freelancer? I'm in charge of everything!!! Worst part of being a freelancer. I'm in charge of IT. 👎

The deadline for this call has been extended to Nov 18 - consider submitting some great host-centered microbial ecology entries too!

As a long-time reader of @theopennotebook.bsky.social, I was happy to contribute to this article and be on the "other side" of the interview. Thank you @skylerdware.bsky.social for the opportunity. Lovely to hear how others are diversifying their work.

Amazing journal cover for the new Trends In Microbiology special issue on geographic diversity in microbiology www.cell.com/trends/micro...

Sometimes it freaks me out that using the washing machine is like using a giant centrifuge in my house. Is it just me?

November. The time of year where... 1) Writing happens at 5AM b/c you can't sleep 2) You work in the dark b/c sunset is at 4PM 3) You don't know whether to listen to Halloween or Xmas music 4) Everyone comes to you w projects to finish by EOY 5) No one has projects for you b/c they're at conferences

So happy to share this! Bacteriocins were first discovered over 100 years ago, but what do they actually do? We look at >1000 bacteriocin plasmids and find links to virulence and antimicrobial resistance, and frequent bacteriocin sharing in Enterobacteriaceae. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

M. smegmatis uses new types of biofilm to enclose a liquid core and expand outwards in a weird new way.

bacteria move by swimming, twitching, gliding/sliding, ...and now by 'swashing' go figure! #MicroSky

Early Microbial Evolution "The origin of life on Earth remains one of the greatest and most pervasive mysteries in science. We know the story in broad strokes: Around 4 billion years ago, simple chemical compounds gave rise to living cells, which later formed..." 🦠 asm.org/articles/202...

Just read about a flu test using taste as a 24/7 infection detector. This test could enable rapid, low-cost detection even before symptoms appear. Read more on #TheMicrobialMenagerie: microbialmenagerie.com/taste-based-flu-detection #FluSeason #Influenza #MicrkSky #IDSky #MedSky #Microbiology

Too much cooking today. Couldn't sleep bc of the time change so I made spinach oat pancakes. Big batch of pumpkin bolognese for dinner. Then made yogurt pouches for the preschooler and now working on a new batch of yogurt.

Say hello to zombie ants, slime molds, and vampire bacteria. A few years ago, I was really into adding some fall vibes into my #microbiology blog. So here's a throwback to this round up of seven spooky microbiology stories for #Halloween. #microsky microbialmenagerie.com/seven-spooky...

Cool 🦠 William Schmidt Gerard Wong Lab @UCLA Nature Microbiology Pseudomonas aeruginosa lays down Psl exopolysaccharide as it crawls Other cells detect and follow these trails using type IV pili pulling against adhesins like CdrA triggering c-di-GMP & cAMP surges to shift into early biofilm mode

We selected the laziest mouse at each round to inoculate the next batch of germfree mice: over rounds of selection and passaging, behavior shifted without changes to the mouse genome: rdcu.be/eM3rO 🦠🧫

⬇️ One of my favorite conferences when I was a grad student

I'm late to the game, but what are everyone's thoughts on emoji reactions to work emails? I only started using them sparingly a few weeks ago when I saw someone emoji-ed an email thread I was in... and then more followed with emojis in the same thread.

Cool paper! Makes me think of my flagella research days...

I'm a bit slow on sharing this one, but a few weeks ago my story about non-invasive colon cancer screening went live on The Scientist. The options are improving but colonoscopies remain the gold standard for now. www.the-scientist.com/could-non-in...

I can't believe I didn't think of this until now. I used to struggle getting social media posts to fit the character limit. Now, I just ask AI to do it for me. I paste in my post and ask it to shorten it by x characters. Really saves me times and also helps me see where I can be more concise.

In 2025, we are losing our measles-free status, just 25 years after we eliminated measles from the US because of vaccines. It’s not because our sanitation systems have been eliminated. It’s because people aren’t getting vaccinated. 1/

Maybe I'm weird, but I try to time my flu shot so that I get it late enough so it's still effective through spring, but before cases go up. I ended up getting it yesterday. I wrote about this on #TheMicrobialMenagerie. Sharing incase it's helpful! microbialmenagerie.com/when-should-...

This particular figure was quite striking - physical microscopy of the E. coli genome. Somehow we run these tangles mess through pores (often not breaking them over significant distances) and render them into reliable representation of whole genomic compartments. 🧫🦠