Facts!

NIH just lighting money on fire now

We’re hiring: Research Group Leader in computational biology. Are you generating more research ideas than you can explore? Lead cutting-edge AI & biology research at EMBL-EBI. Apply by 11 April 2026: embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/EMBL/j... #ScienceCareers @ewaldlab.org @embl.org

Botany valentine. Another oldie.

This is a powerful message from Freeman Hrabowski. 🧵 1/12

Postdoc position available in my lab! Project will focus on how the microbiome-derived metabolite butyrate shapes C. difficile fitness and pathogenesis & will build on our previous/ongoing work in this space. Apply here: hr.wisc.edu/postdoc-and-...

Tip for those finding Bluesky sparse or empty: Follow more people until your feed feels right. You can fix this. There are a ton of active accounts across a lot of areas. Scientists are waaaaayy more active here than on X, for example. Just hit that follow button.

Our EMBO workshop is now live. Visit us in Bath this summer for a two week workshop designed to help you study host-microbe interactions in the zebrafish, and develop the bioinformatics skills needed to analyse the complex data sets that arise from microbiomic studies.

🚨 Hiring Alert! 🚨My lab at Institut Pasteur is recruiting several Postdocs! We have exciting open projects in: 🦠 Synthetic Biology and🛡️ Bacterial Immunity. Come do great science with us in the middle of Paris! 🇫🇷🥐 research.pasteur.fr/en/job/postd...

Holy shit: it's an RFP for the NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology (PRFB). Hello old friend www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

In the process of signing on. A notice will be published when that is done.

The AWIS scholarship cycle is now open, offering over $25K in awards for first-generation college students, undergraduates, PhD students, and women seeking to reenter #STEM fields. Apply by 2/28. Visit https://awis.org/scholarships/#STEMto learn more. #WomenInSTEM

Founded in 1950, NSF's mission is "To promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, & welfare; & to secure the national defense; and for other purposes." NSF discoveries underpin most modern technology from the US. That scientific progress is ending. Tell your reps!

#LuxPortrait collaboration between yours truly and @jennifer.j.quinn . Here is Jane Hinton. Read about her fabulosity here: www.blackpast.org/african-amer... Yes, she helped invent Mueller-Hinton media. #MicrobialHeroes @ASMicrobiology @univpugetsound @microbetv.bsky.social

But, as they say, there is no time like the present [OK, maybe the 1930s if you want to nitpick] But, with some data wrangling, my first NSF Funding Curves! 2/3

Very much worth 3 min of your day.

Open sessions are useful getting a sense of where priorities are and what changes could be coming. For those interested in training programs at NIGMS I recommend listening this morning.

I wrote about how the closure of #thebrewersart reminds you to visit your local iconic businesses before you can't anymore. www.thebanner.com/opinion/colu...

This is my thing, yes criticize Dems and call them. But run your Republican Congress critters ragged right now. Make it impossible for them to have a moment of peace.

Oh shiiiiit native plant stickers are here and ready to ship! You can get 'em at SquidFacts.net

My weekly update on NIH funding. This is for all projects. The breakdown for competing and non-competing awards will follow. 1/4

Paylines don’t exist anymore. As for MYF impact, @jeremymberg.bsky.social did a really good analysis on this. His numbers suggested a 10% cut. open.substack.com/pub/goodscie... Tho last year we saw a 24% cut in new research largely driven by MYF.

NIGMS will have council meeting tomorrow. You can watch the open session here. nigms.nih.gov/node/145911

Please stop saying the bill allows "no more multi-year funding" - or at least be clear the 'more' is in reference to disastrous FY25 levels. The bill allows 39% MYF, same as in FY25, which contributed substantially to a 24% drop in new research. The bill has some wins. MYF is not one of them.

"authors also express frustration at the amount of work expected for a single publishable unit, a concern we share (while humbly noting that it may not be held by the same authors when they serve as reviewers of other work)" <-THAT www.nature.com/articles/s41... ht @ritastrack.bsky.social

Come and join our editorial team

NSF GRFP applicants (and mentors): Was your application Returned Without Review and deemed ineligible despite fitting in the allowed topics? 1) Write NSF 2) Write your Congressperson 3) CC us at [email protected] so we can compile + follow up Details and template at grant-witness.us/grfp-letter

Epstein’s economic power among academics was made possible by a capitalist system that makes higher education dependent on the charity economy rather than a public good supported by taxing the rich

Hey cuties. Everything sucks ass. Get some valentines and send them to your friends. I'm sad. You're sad. They're probably sad. Send them a valentine. It keeps Skype a Scientist running, which hey, is very good too. squidfacts.bigcartel.com/product/deep...

The United States of America under Trump has slid into fascist policies FASTER than Hungary, Turkey, or even Russia did in their paths. So many people warned about this, repeatedly, and we are now in a place where Americans are going to have to do some hard work to right our democratic institutions

A permanent position as a research scientist is opened in our team! We look for a plant physiologist with expertise in plant / microorganism interactions to identify plant susceptibility factors to fungal disease. Please forward!

If you are a student whose NSF GRFP application was returned without review for vague 'eligibility' reasons: 1) Let your department chair & Graduate School know. Encourage them to contact NSF & congress 2) Write to your congressional reps. 3) Write to [email protected] to request re-consideration;

🧵Good news out of #NIH today. (1) NIH is extending #ESI and #K99/R00 eligibility to accommodate researchers whose eligibility would have ended during the previous shutdown. Take a look at NOT-OD-26-020. If your ESI status would have ended in 2025, you get an automatic extension through 2026/03/31.

If you are outside Canada and looking to post-doc in Canada, University of Alberta is currently recrutiing Canada Impact + Research Post-doctoral Scholars. Deadline to submit an Expression of Interest is Feb 9th. 🧪 www.ualberta.ca/en/graduate-...

“Independent” is doing too much work in this first wave. They are arresting journalists and just like everything else they’ve done, they’re testing the limits of our resistance by starting wt vulnerable margins.

We are hiring for group leaders again — EBI is a great place to start your research group! embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com/EMBL/job/Hin...

Friends, please help spread the word about our microbiology REU program at Montana State University. www.montana.edu/mbi/reu/ Each student receives a stipend ($7000 for 10 wks). Travel compensation, room, and board are also provided. Details in the attached pic--Feb 14 deadline 🧫🧪🦠#microsky

Join us at the Evolutionary Biology Centre at Uppsala University. We’re searching for an Assistant Professor in Biology. www.uu.se/en/about-uu/...

Please forward this REU opportunity (paid summer internship) to undergraduates interested in plant biology and related fields etap.nsf.gov/award/7573/o...

Here's a taste of something we're cooking up in Bath - a computational and experimental microbiomics workshop that includes hands on training using fish to study host-microbe interactions. Sign up to be notified when the website is launched.

Call for applications to the Postdoctoral Positions in the Tri-Institutional Molecular Mycology and Pathogenesis Training Program (Tri-I MMPTP) at Duke University, UNC-Chapel Hill, and North Carolina State University mmptp.mgm.duke.edu

-5°F in Minneapolis tonight. At the site where feds killed Alex Pretti, the air still smells faintly of tear gas. Hundreds of people still here behind some impromptu barricades. Message spray painted on the road reads, "fuck ICE, love always wins."

Incredibly important story that everyone should read. These are not disorganized lone actors, but well-funded and powerful networks to be treated as serious threats. They are using our work to push a eugenicist and racist agenda that is scientifically invalid and morally reprehensible.

Call. Your. Senators. Right. Fucking. Now. It’s ok if your voice shakes while you leave the voice mail. If you cry. If you cuss. If you’re inarticulate. Just get the message across. bsky.app/profile/jaso...

I left messages with my NJ senators @booker.senate.gov and @kim.senate.gov and congressman Frank Pallone, asking them to protect US citizens from being murdered in cold-blood. Please flood your representatives with pleas to stop this madness.

Once again: Focusing on their lack of training is a mistake. With "better training," their violence would simply cost more, and they would still kill whoever they wanted, but make it look more professional — to make people more comfortable, the way many of you are at ease with local police violence.

🚨We are hiring a Bioinformatician who will be embedded in our lab and work with members of the NCCR Microbiomes at ETH Zurich, as well as the Institute of Microbiology.🚨 nccr-microbiomes.ch jobs.ethz.ch/job/view/JOP...

Lots of PhD opportunities for UK + international students involving my lab. Topics relate to metals & microbiology. First up: TonB-dependent receptors in commensal Neisseria in my lab at Durham, with @kjosts.bsky.social and @mattbashton.bsky.social. www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Hello world! I am excited to announce my lab is open at the University of Utah in the Department of Biochemistry. We are looking for scientists at all levels interested in studying host-virus interactions in both bacteria and animals. Come join us in beautiful Utah! (photo is 10 steps from lab)

Cost of being female lead/corresponding author in biomedical sciences: "[T]he median amount of time spent under review is 7.4%–14.6% longer for female-authored articles than for male-authored articles" even in disciplines where women well-represented. #AcademicSky journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...