Absolutely heartbreaking to be a US ecologist these days

NSF LTER program “archived”. LTER=“Long Term Ecological Research”. This program has been incredibly successful, incredibly frugal for what they accomplish, and…of course…targeted by evil know-nothings. My heart is breaking.

So happy to say I’ve been awarded tenure! My colleagues have been so sweet in reaching out to offer congratulations and hopes that I celebrate. I haven’t celebrated anything in a while and I’m not sure what to do. What have you done or do you plan to do to celebrate tenure?

That's right. Worse than Pointless www.nytimes.com/2026/02/23/o...

My Freshwater Ecology students are doing student-led exam review with cornhole: answer a question correctly and you get a toss.

Grad Students: The Larry Summers news should shed any shred of imposter syndrome you've felt in academia. Clearly, academics* can be far from perfect (at everything from spelling to relationships to human decency) and still make it all the way to the top of ivory tower.

This is the platinum-quality shitpost I needed to be able to make it through the day today: hadley.github.io/genzplyr/

I'm looking to switch out the Winogradsky column lab I've been doing in my Wetlands course for something new (I never get visible diffs among treatments and I don't think students are getting much from it). What are your favorite labs for an upper level Wetlands course? Bonus if biogeochemistryish!

I'm recruiting a lab manager for my soon-to-be-launched lab at Ohio State! If you know of any recent grads who may be interested both in helping to build the lab and in developing skills in the cognitive neuroscience of memory, please share! osu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/OSUCar...

make art! if it's the end of the world, you might as well make art! if it's not the end of the world, then the future will be better because people made art right now!

I am making a Starter Pack for people who are looking for PHD STUDENT POSITIONS in the biological sciences! If you wish to be added, please respond directly to this post saying you want to be added. I need at least 5 people to create the pack. Please share widely!

If there was ever a time to call your Senator, this is it. Voting has begun on the GOP plan to cut off health care for working-class Americans and slash taxes for the wealthiest.

BREAKING: A federal judge in Massachusetts (the Reagan-appointed William Young) has declared the Trump administration's cuts to NIH grants — ostensibly over Trump's EOs on gender ideology and DEI — are "illegal" and "void." He's ordering many grants restored.

After ruling, with anger in his voice, Judge Young: "This represents racial discrimination. And discrimination against America's LGBTQ community. That's what this is. I would be blind not to call it out. My duty is to call it out. And I do so."

It's 2p here in Boston, and we're back on the record in the NIH grant terminations case. It's possible Judge Young could issue some sort of ruling here in the next few minutes, or he could provide more context for case management going forward. Stay tuned.

Hi everyone, Any of you NYC or NYC adjacent scientists who like to talk to people in person about your work and its relevance? I'm part of Brooklyn Speculative Fiction Writers. Our live We Demand Stories salons need more academics who like to talk about the thing they do.

1. Trump's tax cuts overwhelmingly help the rich 2. His spending cuts are targeted at the poor 3. Tariffs cost the poor a larger share of their income Roll these three regressive policies together and you get the largest redistribution from poor to rich in American history. The anti-Robin Hood.

On June 14th, Trump is spending $60M on a parade — while slashing life-saving research. While he celebrates himself, we’ll be fighting for science — and for the lives and futures of the American people. Find an event near you ➡️ www.nokings.org www.thenewstribune.com/opinion/arti...

Ecologist Lauren Kuehne writes to Tacoma, Washington, “On June 14, Trump will spend $60 million in taxpayer dollars on a birthday parade for himself. As a scientist, what I see is $60 million in lost science, lost engineering, lost innovation.” 🧪🏠

What is this country going to look like in three years?

"The results were stark: Black applicants consistently faced higher barriers to homeownership, even when their financial profiles were identical to white applicants." This is why disparate impact theory must be protected, and AI decisions must comply with existing fair housing and lending laws.

🚨 Big milestone for Rdatasets 🚨 The web archive now hosts 3400+ free and documented CSV datasets. Fantastic for teaching and testing! And {Rdatasets} is a new #RStats 📦 for easy download and search Web archive: vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets R 📦: vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasetspkg

Wrapping up your PhD? I’m planning to hire a postdoc in the next few months (start date flexible). Will start formally advertising soon, but you heard it here first!! Possible research topics include - critical zone hydrology, agricultural water quality, SW-GW interactions. Reach out if interested!

My Canadian university, Queen's, is offering TWENTY 4-year funded PhDs (40k CAD/yr) for a student of ANY citizenship who has been accepted at a top 100 US university but have had offer rescinded OR are reconsidering offer due to US policy. Details found here👇 www.queensu.ca/grad-postdoc...

Warning that if you do this, you might cry during your conference talk, like I did. Still worth it.

If your business model doesn’t work without breaking the law, then you’re not in business. You’re in organized crime.

Conference events for Sunday! Look forward to a post each morning this week with the events for the day! #sfs2025

There was an old tweet that stuck with me: "If you can easily walk to the coffee shop but your barista has a one hour commute, you don't live in a walkable 15 minute city; you live in a theme park"

A victory for the federal scientific workforce! We could not stand by while this irreparable harm continues at NSF, NOAA and all our scientific agencies. TODAY the judge granted our request to temporarily HALT the mass firings at federal agencies under Trump’s Executive Order.

Dorks, it’s time to throw sand in the gears. They want us to stop teaching, we will teach in the streets. They want us to stop our research, we will use archival data. They want to send us back to the dark ages, we will be a light. We will not lay down and take this.

I'm so, so grateful to work with the thoughtful, smart, & generous @omfishient.bsky.social. We just filed an appeal for our project, and we hope this will help you if your project was also terminated (or is about to be...)

This is from The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson aired on May 20th, 1977. Carl Sagan says something very important, a strong message that didn't lose any validity since then.

FUCK OFF JUST BUILD TRAINS

Now is the time for boat rocking! Now is the time to speak up! None of this “science isn’t political” trash. IT IS and you’re living in it. If you don’t want to be the last generation of American scientists, GET UP AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. 4/x

Much like a poorly constrained nutrient budget, our calendar entry had a few missing inputs. This event is will be held on ✨Friday✨, May 9th. Hope to see you there!

Please help this early career researcher find a new postdoc! Expertise in social/cognitive development.

With rumors of more NSF grant terminations today, contact your university research offices about top admins checking email. Termination letters come from a random NSF email that could go to junk folders & are not directed to core staff that handle proposal/award submissions or communications daily.

US based scientists are not ok.

I believe with all of me that this is illegal, this is our lives, our dreams, these grants & resulting innovations help communities, transform possibilities, make science/the world a better & more just place. Fight like hell, for what is right in the moment, and for all those who come after us 💪🏼✊🏼🫶🏼🔥

If you, like me, had you NSF granted terminated, here’s what I learned from a hopeful meeting with my VP of research: 1. We have 30 days to act! Meet with your admin asap 2. APPEAL: Everyone can appeal! It must go through your institution, there’s a template, sent registered mail. My VP told me ⬇️

🧪 Our Terminated NSF Grant Tracker is live 🧪 🔴 114 NSF grants listed so far 🔴 Cancelled grants focused on → Training scientists → Misinformation → AI → Climate change Credit to @noamross.net for all the work to build this & to all PIs who submitted their info. Link: airtable.com/appGKlSVeXni...

NSF PD Raleigh Martin out with another statement on the NSF grant freezes. 🧪 ⚒️ #climatesky

I'm heartbroken and so, so angry to say that my NSF grant that asks how we can make conferences better serve people doing environmental science in different sectors was terminated of Friday. Keep different back for science and let's hope for injunctions against these illegal actions.

so far I'm seeing a lot of universities respond to grant terminations with "oh I guess now we don't have that grant anymore" instead of "your assertion of a grant termination is executive overreach, see you in court" So, universities: respectfully, what the fuck?

Remember this picture, & others like it, every time you hear someone in your city say "we're not Amsterdam." This was #Amsterdam in the 1970s. Many of the cities we admire made better choices regarding cars in the past. and are still making better choices today. Better choices instead of excuses.

I know this isn't nearly everything, but I'm trying to keep my seminar class updated on what's happening. Is there anything else I should add/correct?

I’ve long used FiveThirtyEight’s interactive “Hack Your Way To Scientific Glory” to illustrate the idea of p-hacking when I teach statistics. But ABC/Disney killed the site earlier this month :( So I made my own with #rstats and Observable and #QuartoPub ! stats.andrewheiss.com/hack-your-way/

My alma mater, the University of British Columbia, Dept of Medical Genetics, is hiring for a tenure track junior faculty position specializing in chromatin regulation / gene regulatory mechanisms. Beautiful city and vibrant epigenetics research. Please share! medgen.med.ubc.ca/assistant-pr...