32,000 years ago, an arctic squirrel ate parts of a plant, silene stenophylla, including its seed. The squirrel was digesting it when its life ended. Its body was recovered and examined. Scientists germinated this plant seed. This silene stenophylla just bloomed. It is 32,000 years old

I can trade shoes with my ten year old now

A beautiful Somerville Christmas moment when five uhauls unite on the same block

Returning to my roots

You can just do things (half pineapple half pickle pizza)

“Is there a name for art where the vibe is “poetic science project?”” news.artnet.com/art-world/ag...

Found a friend for the Elaine #1 The Greatest mug we’ve had for 20 years

Bostonmaxxing

You should be mahjongmaxxing

What a world

little dudes with a job

We should be flowermaxxing

We should be whimsymaxxing

I do genuinely believe the reason we don’t talk about fungi more is because if the average human thought about it all for too long, it would lead to the destruction of civilization.

Right handed this time

We scientists have a funny relationship with our humanness. For a long time, talking about science as a *human* practice could be perceived as a threat to objectivity and the validity of science.

“Now it is Tuesday but soon it will be tuesNIGHT” said the seven year old, sinisterly

Gave a talk today about public perception of engineered biology and managed to recreate the crazy wall meme position nearly exactly

Poppy had a good website design idea so we made it: howtolovebooks.com We’d love if you would share some good books for people just getting into books!

Just had to do the “in this house we don’t say ‘it’s science’ to win arguments” lecture

There are cathedrals (spicy pickle pizza) everywhere for those with eyes to see

"To be truly radical is to make hope possible rather than despair convincing" - Raymond Williams (radicalized by @agapakis.com)

Biology is amazing

Trend alert: tiny Stanley

Teaching my gen alpha kids what rizz and aura mean, I’ve still got it (for now)

Patience

The executive order undoing the Biden biomanufacturing EO called it “radical biotech” so I made us some stickers. Lmk if you want one (while supplies last)

“This is some of the most precious data that exists about you; you’re right to be concerned that it may be up for grabs” … apparently not that precious womp womp

Godzilla versus a Godzilla-human-rose hybrid

Experiencing some art with poppy

My bio friends get triggered when Thiel suggests lack of progress in bio is a skill issue, and make arguments about physicists in the field and how technical we are. But what if it’s about a lack of non-technical skills, of imagination and conviction and…marketing? open.substack.com/pub/oscillat...

“I’m actually a word rotator”

It’s done and he likes it after all 😌

Are we entering a unicorn-based biotech aesthetic renaissance?

Sometimes the thrift gods smile on you

This is why "Promising" was perhaps key term #1 in Meat Planet, and why Stefan Helmreich & colleagues have been writing about the idea of potential - say in stem cells - for so long.

A funny thing about biotech marketing is everyone is constantly trying to both “harness” and “unleash” something, often at the same time!

New engineered microbial drug delivery route just dropped "Engineered commensals for targeted nose-to-brain drug delivery" www.cell.com/cell/pdf/S00...

Chatted with Claude about feminist epistemology—Claude gets it!! open.substack.com/pub/oscillat...

What are we 40+ cool girls wearing for warm weather shoes with moderate arch support? Cute flats aren’t cutting it anymore 😭

Donna Haraway leading #StandUpForScience at #UCSC. Situating science in helping us live together in better ways. She's giving deets on cuts to science, incl #Indigenous science, ag, USAID, medicine, dangers to farm workers, dangers of data loss. Donna's a master at connecting all the relations. ❤️

Trying not to let my child’s indifference to the quilt I’m making him based on his design hurt my feelings

Haven’t seen this before

Bio has been trapped by ideas about “real” engineering and programming code. Maybe AI offers us a different set of tools to think with? On cybernetics, generative genomes, and symbiotic machines.... www.oscillator.blog/p/symbiotic-...

Was dreaming up new niche costume ideas and remembered the time I was Barbara McClintock with two generations of corn lol

Just spent three days at Asilomar reflecting on the stories we tell ourselves and the patterns we fall back into. On the thought terminating cliches of “public engagement” of science: open.substack.com/pub/oscillat...

It’s only “marketing” when icky people do it When scientists do it it’s *sparkling public engagement*

Interesting to see doom and gloom as separate ends of a governance axis!