Don’t worry I’m under very close supervision at home. For my health and safety. 😂 🪿 🐶

Waited for a shot til I could find Novavax. Which turned out to be about a week too long cuz I have COVID. 😭

Can’t believe this itty bitty grandbaby is 4 already! She’s been my favorite wild lady from the beginning. 💜

Little boys at the playground: Are you sure she should climb that high? It’s dangerous! Grandlady is a daredevil!

I’ve enjoyed @cheriepriest.com on the internet for some time, but hadn’t read any of her books. No longer! I just gulped down “It was her house first” in two days, and I suspect I’m gonna be on a Priest-binge this spooky season! 👻

I like this piece, and I like doing sci comm. But I also think it’s not fair to demand every subject matter expert also be public-facing. Some people are really good at doing and that’s enough. We need more economically viable jobs for full-time sci comm to bridge findings from experts to public.

IT'S OFFICIAL: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York State, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and New York City have formed the Northeast Public Health Collaborative. The collaborative will issue their own vaccine recommendations and coordinate public health efforts.

Proud of my postdoc and his undergrad mentee for winning poster awards in their respective categories at the Waksman retreat! 🤩 A wonderful day of great science and great company.

This is how academia sucks you in! At the Rutgers Waksman Institute annual retreat where I get snacks and coffee all day while scientists tell me about their special interests! 😍 We got flies, worms, bacteria, plants, all the best genetic model systems! (Vertebrate free is the way to be).

The amount of dog I had this morning vs. the amount the groomer gave back:

everything going on rn and it may still be an MS Office product that is my last straw

I got the notice of award!!! I’m so relieved. 😅

I really love the woven rug that I got in Tunisia, not least because of its stylized depiction of receptor-ligand interactions at the lipid bilayer! 🇹🇳 🧪

I’ve tried three NJ pharmacies and none of them have the Novavax COVID vaccine. Is availability very limited? The mRNA vaccines take me out for 48-72 hours every single time, and Novavax doesn’t. I don’t have time to sleep for 3 days! 💉

I had an R21 that ended on 8/31. I requested a no-cost extension 7 weeks before the end of the grant. It's been nearly two weeks since the grant ended and I'm still in limbo. NCE has been neither granted nor denied, but I did get a request for closeout today... 🫠

14-3-3 proteins sequester yorkie in the cytoplasm, preventing access to its nuclear targets. 😂 #sciencewithGoose 🧪

I had a lot of “help” with my workout this morning. View from trying to do situps:

Half marathon is my happy distance. But I ran my first 5K today! Horrible distance. 🤢 Fourth woman overall and first in my age group in the Mill Street 5K! 🏃‍♀️

This dog is allowed on all the furniture. The house is littered with soft blankets and dog beds for him. And yet he is behind a door on the hard floor. Urchin behavior. 🐶 🪿

Context unimportant. This is good life advice for ANY academic meeting.

Couldn’t click pre-order fast enough! I already have all my students read his Scientists’ Guide to Writing.

Who run the world? Lil guys.

Caught somebody gazing out the window during lab meeting!

What does it say about me as an advisor that my graduate students want to have a book club to read Katabasis by R. F. Kuang??? 💀😂

I’m in a union and it’s great! Join your union! And join AAUP or AFT even if your state/workplace won’t engage in collective bargaining. The representation and solidarity are worth it! #laborday #unionsolidarity

I was 9 and cleaned house for my Great Aunt Barbara. She had exacting standards, but was also a patient teacher and let me drink soda at her house. I was paid $5 for 2 h/ week.

Nabisco has been reunited with his owners. Who were actually awful and sent threats and called police on us saying we’d stolen their dog when they no-showed at the animal shelter for an arranged pickup. We eventually handed him off at a police station for our own safety. 😞

Kids’ farm outing with Grannika’s best girl! (My best boy was nappin’).

So many awkward epiphanies when I realized a word I’d heard and a word I’d read were actually the *same* word!

In my happy place (at the beach with my grandkids). 🌊 🩵

Update - found a shelter that will intake if we can foster, cuz they have no physical space. So Nabisco will be staying for at least his 7-day stray hold. #fosterpup

Surprise weekend guest! Found stray and all the local shelters are at capacity and said they won’t accept him. Animal control said to just leave him outside if no one could keep him over the long weekend. So we’re keeping him over the long weekend! #rescue #foster #adopt

Maybe the only we survive this is with a twinge of sarcasm and very dark humor😞.

Rutgers friends and colleagues - come on out! I'll be there too - lmk what issues you hope the union can take on for you.

This is who you’re emailing when you send me yet another scheduling email the first week of school. Expect coherent responses accordingly.

If the university logs me out of all online services, won’t recognize my password, and won’t recognize a password reset, can I just go home and nap???

I work in a 1950s lab building, and like all universities, we don't really believe in preventative maintenance. While the asbestos, mold, flooding, and broken elevators are real problems, I gotta say the annual cricket infestation in my office walls offers kinda soothing white noise! #academicsky

W/o downloading anything new, where are you mentally?

I have a grant ending in 6 days. I submitted a "prior approval NCE" request 2 months ago. No response. New notice says the NCE button is back, and the prior requests will be disregarded. But the NCE button is NOT back for me! And still neither the PO nor GMS respond. 😱 grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

Saddest scrap of dog does not like baths, but is such a good patient boy. 🥺

What they are doing to NIH defies all logic and reason. This admin is needlessly, irreversibly destroying one of the greatest resources our country has ever built. A few quotes from yours' truly are in the video below. Thanks to @nytopinion.nytimes.com for covering www.nytimes.com/2025/08/24/o...

Despite the horrors, there is also ice cream at the beach. 🍦 ☀️

Five years of living in Trenton and I’m finally at a Trenton Thunder game! Best part is the bat dog. ⚾️🐕

If you bring your dog to work, maybe he’ll answer your emails for you! Can you spot Goose in this photo? He got busted by a grad student. 😂

Vought, Rufo, and Bhattacharya do not want what the American people overwhelmingly want.

Trying again: Does anyone know if the NSF GRFP will return this year? We're >1 month past the date of last year's solicitation (July 12, 2024) and there's not a new one up yet. @akallen10.bsky.social @surtlab.bsky.social @sicb.bsky.social @paleophile.bsky.social @omearabrian.bsky.social

For reasons related to kids, I had to talk to the Pennsylvania office of the victim advocate again. They are just the best! Consistently have gone above and beyond in every situation I’ve come to them with. They are compassionate and creative in their support of helping victims feel safe.

NIH progress on new R01s in FY 2025 drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2025/08/18/n...

Obviously you should share real art. But also birds in hats!!! 👒 Might give Handsome Ron at @cpsc.gov a run for his money.

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. 🧪🌎