Driving 3 hours up and back, working 8 hours straight, and the first study of my PhD is underway! Couldn’t pick a more beautiful location than northern Michigan. I’m excited to see the differences in leaf decomposition and macroinvert diversity up here!

General query: I’m trying to fit a boosted regression tree using GBM in R. I noticed that gbm.step doesn’t work anymore. I’m reading that gbm3 is the newer package. Any good documentation or tutorials online? TIA!

New view is great! Today is the (unofficial) start of my PhD at Oakland University. Can’t wait to get rolling here!

“Foreign aid has changed nothing.” “These are not our problems.” “The system is dysfunctional.” “The countries we aid are corrupt.” “Other countries aren’t doing enough.” I have heard all these arguments too. @nickkristof.bsky.social succinctly answers. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/25/o...

NEW: NSF will be kicked out of their building. Announcement will be made tomorrow by HUD Sec. and Governor of VA. HUD will take over the NSF building over the next two years. NSF staffer: "There is no planning for NSF, no identified future location, appropriation for a new building or a move."

My latest for American Scientist Magazine helps give scientists the tools to fight back against politicized charges that our research is silly or pointless- tools that will work whether you’re asked “why are we funding this” from your asshole uncle at Thanksgiving or an asshole US Senator. 🧪🌎

Common snapping #turtles from northwest #Michigan this morning. All next to each other. 3 different ages, 3 different stages of decomposition. Disease or predation? Or ???

An absolute monster of a snapping turtle from northern Michigan 2 weeks ago. #turtle #herps

After finishing my masters at Purdue in July, I’m excited to announce that I’ll be starting a PhD with Scott Tiegs at Oakland University. I can’t wait to get started this fall!

This box turtle is alive and well after a near hit by an oblivious SUV. Watch out for turtles!

A very timid Pacific Screech-Owl, from the north end of Costa Rica. #bird #birding #owl 🦉

Mike Waltz has left the chat.

An extinction is not typically a single catastrophic event, where, poof, a species is suddenly gone. But the threats against the Eastern hellbender, decimated by Helene and now facing Trump, have been stacking up with frightening speed. @jackiefmogensen.bsky.social reports:

All wildlife research at USGS will be eliminated. All research and science centers. All coop units. BBS, BBL…. gone. www.science.org/content/arti...

One of my favorite memories from my recent trip to Costa Rica was (almost literally) running into this beautiful Turquoise-browed Motmot. It stayed stock-still only 10 feet from me on the trail, and was still there 30 minutes later.

Very pretty Amazon Kingfisher from Costa Rica, with such an out of proportion beak.

Green basilisk from the north, and brown basilisk from the south.

Got back early this morning from Costa Rica. Incredible, life changing trip. I have a load of photos, so I’ll be posting them on here until I get through them all. Starting off strong with Northern Emerald-Toucanets.

First day of the Costa Rica study abroad trip didn’t quite go as planned! ticotimes.net/2025/03/14/r...

Driving back from watching the sunset, and lit up this lovely American Woodcock! A lifer, and on a Monday! Further fueling my paranoid belief in always keeping my camera with me

Homemade hummus to start, then spinach and artichoke dip focaccia. Gotta have something to do to stay sane with everything going on, and this definitely helps.

I want everyone to just take FIVE MINUTES, and take a look at this extremely well put together project 2025 tracker. www.project2025.observer We're less than a month in.

Sorry I'm just in a really bad place right now (United States)

🚨 BREAKING: OMB has just issued a memo *rescinding* the previous memo freezing all federal financial assistance programs. Full text, per government source:

A classic to start us off. #music #midwestemo

NEW — OMB temporarily pauses all agency grants and loans programs. Per copy of memo: "The use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve."

NSF grant reviews frozen www.npr.org/sections/sho...

New US administration ditches Biden's plan to limit levels of PFAS manufacturers can discharge into rivers from their waste pipes. Numerous studies have linked PFAS to cancers, liver, thyroid, kidney conditions, fertility issues & harm to fetal development 🧵 www.ewg.org/news-insight...

This is Mac DeMarco. He has almost no teeth so his tongue escapes constantly. What a special boy.

“The impact of the collective executive orders and directives appears devastating.” scim.ag/40ureTO

ScienceInsider has confirmed h/t @merz.bsky.social. NIH has frozen study sections through at least Feb. 1 www.science.org/content/arti...

1 year ago, starting my very first LC50, excited! One year later, lost count of how many I’ve done and starting another. Still excited! But also very tired. #gradschool

I finished 41 books this year (far short of my (lofty) goal of 100.) These are my 5⭐️ reads. However, my favorite was James Islington’s The Will of the Many. A great world with great characters. Looking forward to chipping away at my TBR next year!

In the middle of a crazy year, I was still able to cross this weird looking guy off my list (finally) and cross the 200 mark for lifers. Black-crowned night heron, Oct 2024

In March I’ll be going down to #CostaRica as the field instructor for #herpetology 🐍🐸🐊. This will be my first time in the country, and I’m super excited! I know about snake gaiters, but are there any other gear tips people would recommend? Field guides, footwear, flashlights? TIA!

This is what happens when you have the speaker on 24/7 in the lab #spotifywrapped #gradlife

Missing the warm weather, and the warm weather friends that love to crawl all over the lab 😆

A while back I made an ecology meme account. I’ll repost the memes here from time to time. Enjoy!

You wanted starter packs to be searchable. Our engineers are busy keeping us online, so in the meantime, an independent developer built a new searchable library of starter packs. This is the beauty of building in the open 🦋

What a way to go

Hello! Please share broadly: I’m looking for a PhD for Fall ‘25. Mainly not in US. My interests lie in ecotoxicology, community ecology, and aquatic ecosystems, but herps 🐍🦎🐸🐢 are my passion. My masters work has involved macrophytes, daphnia, and pesticides. DM me for more info + my CV. Thanks! 🧪

I don’t get to see them often, but the flowers of Elodea are gorgeous if you have the right lens.

A warmer day from this year with a juvie tree frog enjoying the perfect spot to rest.