Biogeochemists going to AGU, plz sign up to mentor new attendees : docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

“Texas A&M University System regents voted Thursday to limit how instructors may discuss matters like gender identity and race ideology in classrooms, tightening the rules in a conservative state where debates over academic freedom have flared for months.” www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/u...

Environmental microbiology folks - let's discuss! I worry about repercussions of this massive removal. We use UniProt tools to look for gene neighborhoods even on small contigs in low quality MAGs and metagenomes in UniProt. This would take that function away?

Huge deal! Democrats—with strong climate credentials—edge toward control of Georgia’s giant energy system

#nokings see you tomorrow on the streets!

📣 New bacterial order name change alert! 🦠 The uncultivated alphaproteobacterial order (formerly TMED127) is now "Methylaequorales" in @seqcode.bsky.social 📝 New AEM paper on these marine methylotrophs: journals.asm.org/doi/epub/10.... 🙏 Special thanks @rodriguez-r.bsky.social & SeqCode team

This moment from our latest episode with science writer @edyong209.bsky.social is 🔥 We asked Ed — how do we talk up the benefits of science in the face of government cuts? He told us that's the wrong approach. 🧪 Listen wherever, or watch on Spotify 👇 open.spotify.com/episode/7Evh...

Also @ascbiology.bsky.social @biologists.bsky.social @jcellsci.bsky.social @jcb.org

A reminder to please support non-profit publishers. It’s good for science and scientists. It’s a responsible use of taxpayer dollars. It requires resisting peer pressure to submit to Nature journals. Thanks @bacteriality.bsky.social for this helpful slide for microbiology journals.

The amazing Carrie Masiello received @agu.org 2025 AGU fellow !! Extremely well deserved! Congrats Carrie! @agubiogeosciences.bsky.social

🎤 Excited to share that I will give a seminar next week at Georgia Tech’s 🌎 School of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences! 💡 Photochemical formation of nitrous oxide! #PhotoChemoDenitrification 📅 Sept 25, 11AM 🔗 eas.gatech.edu/events/eas-seminar-series-dr-elizabeth-leon-palmero 📣 Hope to see you there!

Excellent seminar talk today by Dr Elizabeth Leon-Palmero on her discovery of #photochemodenitrification & nitrous oxide production in aquatic systems. 2025 Science paper: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Check out her website for her impressive research & outreach: eleonpalmero.com

Attending #AGU25 with caregiving responsibilities? Whether you're joining virtually or in person, our Caregiver Grant is here to support you! Let us help make your participation at the Fall Meeting possible and meaningful. Application Link: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Biogeoscientists - plz apply for DEI travel grant to AGU 2025 Annual Meeting ! Details below!

Same here.

Journalist Anas al-Sharif with his daughter Sham and son Salah. Today's assassination of al-Sharif and four other Al Jazeera staff brings the number of journalists killed by Israel to 237. www.middleeasteye.net/news/al-jaze...

BBC International Editor Jeremy Bowen has confirmed that the entire Al Jazeera team in Gaza City has been killed.

Blue dots are UN aid distribution sites that existed in Gaza before the IDF and US mercenaries took over the process and blocked the UN. Yellow squares are current sites. The current system is aid theater and has created killing fields where dozens of aid seekers are killed every single day.

Incredible graphic memoir. Highly recommend. Winner of a 2025 Pulitzer in autobiography.

I’m marching today in ATL against unlawful detentions by ICE. My shirt reads “Y’all Means ALL” #rageagainsttheregime #50501GA

Is there another way to BLAST the entire NCBI-nr database using a server other than NCBI? I tried ENA browser SSS & it’s taking hours for a single protein. Broader question: are there contingency plans being made by international bioinformatics community in case NCBI is no longer supported?

You can spend a life time on a boat - and still be looking at new things every single day! Here is a quick glimpse of what’s just under our feet/boat!!

DO NOT GIVE UP! Our advocacy is working. A key Senate committee has indicated that it will reject Trump’s proposed cuts to science agencies including NASA and the NSF. Keep speaking up and calling your electeds 🗣️🗣️🗣️

This is such a loss. I've served on the selection committee for this program for the past three years, because it has funded so many incredible people doing such important research over the years. It should be expanding to meet the new challenges of climate change, but instead is totally defunded.

What a great tool.

Marine microbial ecology folks: if I have (full length) 16S rRNA gene sequences for bacteria of interest, how can I determine relative abundance of the bacterium of interest in surface open ocean seawater (ideally at multiple sampling sites)? Are there any web tools that will do this?

Ten simple rules for faculty members building just and equitable environments in academic science journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol... #jcampubs

Please apply if you are interested in environmental microbiology topics such as microbial dark oxygen production and methane cycling under oxygen depletion.

Fascinating !!

There is one month left to apply for our Simons Graduate Fellowships in Ecology and Evolution! These awards provide support for students entering U.S.-based Ph.D. programs with a plan to perform research in #ecology and #evolution. www.simonsfoundation.org/grant/simons... #science

I think it’s also hard for non Iranians to understand that the West had a big role to play in getting the Mullahs in charge in the first place. Like, we’ve seen project Ajax and what happens when they get involved. It’s not great for Iranians ever

My heart is with my Iranian friends and their families. May everyone live.

Some good environmental news from GA: www.ajc.com/business/202...

A new heme enzyme family forms #hydrazine groups in diverse biosynthetic pathways doi: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. From the Trail of Tears to 2020 Supreme Court decision, Nagle brings history to life. Also see author’s podcast crooked.com/podcast-seri...

I said a version of the part about figuring it out to a group chat like an hour ago You stay good at thinking by doing thinking. There's no way around that. If you let someone else do your thinking for you, they're sharpening their skills while yours decline. Same with an LLM.

New preprint is out where we report a new obligate (?) methylotrophic bacteria with diel cycle of methanol dehydrogenase transcription in surface seawater, with implications for marine lanthanide and carbon cycling. Where the methanol comes from is a mystery! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Yay!!!!! So well deserved !!!

Officially TENURED! 🥳 Grateful to those who supported me along the way – colleagues, collaborators, mentors, students, postdocs and friends. It takes a village and I’m lucky to have mine.

Review of methane through space and time, coauthored with @planetdr.bsky.social, is out (OA) in @annualreviews.bsky.social. Hopefully a helpful resource for community and courses. www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

How bad will it be? Catastrophic. Proposed cuts to #NSF, #NIH, and #NASA will set the US R&D landscape back 25 yrs+, cause economic and job loss now, and undermine innovations to come. But, this is the WH's *proposed* budget. Speak up now before it is too late. (inflation adjusted $-s below)

It's not: We didn't handle public communication during covid all that well It's: FREE COUNTRIES DON'T PROHIBIT ACCESS TO VACCINES ON IDEOLOGICAL BASIS It's not: Well food dyes aren't great It's: FREE COUNTRIES DON'T BAN WHOLE AREAS OF RESEARCH

Do not give them an INCH! It's not: Well, maybe there are some areas where DEI has become too much a focus. It's: FREE COUNTRIES DON'T SEND OUT BANNED WORDS LISTS TO THEIR SCIENTISTS It's not: Well, science isn't perfect... It's: FREE COUNTRIES DO NOT HAVE SCIENCE COMMISSARS

All NSF GRFPs to students choosing to attend Harvard in the Fall were just terminated

It is ridiculously challenging to my identity for me to be rooting so hard for Harvard University www.cnn.com/2025/05/22/u...

🧪 Update: NSF's website now also notes the pause in implementation of NSF 15% indirect rates. But still intends to apply it to new awards "upon a court decision permitting application of the policy" (I'll add: after unsuccessful attempts at NIH and Dept of Energy...) www.nsf.gov/policies/doc...

Latest needlepoint creation. Made for a friend & colleague Prof Annalise Paaby whose lab studies genetics and evolution using C. elegans. Will post the figure it’s based on below. 🪱🧬

Of course I worry about speaking up, but I worry more about what will happen if none of us does.

NSF's EES division includes programs **required by law** like the Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP), mandated by Congress since the 1990s. So far, over 70% of active LSAMP grants have already been terminated. Today's news on EES staff firings only heightens the illegality.