Thanks to @joanaxavier.bsky.social, Javier Cristobo, and everyone else for a lovely 12th International Sponge Conference in Vila do Conde, Portugal. @wscommunity.bsky.social

Yet another study (Danish) has found no association between aluminum in childhood vaccines & 50 different health conditions, including autism, asthma & autoimmune diseases. In this study, they tracked 1 million kids over 21 years. 🧪🔗 en.ssi.dk/news/news/20...

“Fulfilling Koch’s postulates, V. pectenicida strain FHCF-3, cultured from the coelomic fluid of a diseased sunflower sea star, caused disease and mortality in exposed sunflower sea stars, demonstrating that it is a causative agent of SSWD” (www.nature.com/articles/s41...) 🦑🌊🧪 #MarineLife

While it is still #spongethursday, it is w/sadness that I note that the sponge taxonomist, Dr. Welton Lee who famous described the carnivorous "harp sponge" in 2012 w/ @mbarinews.bsky.social & a host of co-authors passed away earlier this year in March. A good man and apparently QUITE the violinist!

So this morning, as I sip my coffee and get ready for a day of meetings, I'll be thinking of Will, who was moved to ICE detention in South Texas on Tuesday morning. I can't imagine what's going through his mind, the anxiety & fear. Fear of losing the only home he's ever known.

A little belated but I've started a faculty position at Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology department at @ucsantabarbara.bsky.social. I'm absolutely stoked! I'll be recruiting at all levels and will be at #Botany2025 Reach out! www.martinezgomezlab.com

They all find savings associated with turning up or off your A/C while you're out. Air conditioning accounts for 19% of energy consumption in US homes! Any little bit you can do to reduce your A/C usage can save you money on your energy bills and fight climate change. 9/9

Santa Barbara #nokings

This shouldn't even be a particularly "hot" take in the sense that it's objectively & quantitatively correct! In formal studies on return on investment for federally funded research at universities, the enormous value is very clear. It is even (dare I say it?) a very *efficient* public expenditure.

He resolved that he would not stop either, even though it was a huge sacrifice on his part. I believe this is what we owe our trainees: so long as they are invested in their work, we must be as well, even if it seems like the world is on fire around us, both literally and figuratively. 10/

Done. Please comment, click on public comments on left bar. Suggestions in thread. bsky.app/profile/free...

OOF! @Pacificklaus captures this video of a CRAB occupying this urchin's ANAL BULB! youtu.be/yyGMrOXNn5Y?...

This is likely the weirdest and most interesting story you could read today. From @usha.bsky.social. www.statnews.com/2025/05/02/d...

In addition to the terminations of existing awards, new NSF grants are still stopped completely since DOGE was granted access to systems a week ago. Last Thursday, an agency spokesperson said "NSF continues to issue awards." That does not appear to be the case.

Today is the last day to send your Abstracts to the 'World Sponge Conference' (9-13 Sept.) in Portugal 🇵🇹 JOIN US! 👇

Nothing will kill more children than the ongoing decimation of CDC, NIH, and USAID work to lift vaccine uptake in the US and world. Child survival rose 75% in the last 50 years. Vaccines account for 40% of that. Measles vax alone was 60% of the benefit. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

DOJ, HHS, ED, and GSA Announce Initial Cancellation of Grants and Contracts to Columbia University Worth $400 Million (government press release) www.gsa.gov/about-us/new...

Today, I donated to Ukraine. I hope other Americans join me.

I made this the other night while procrastinating, mainly because I thought all the posts about the blackout were boring. It feels like there is momentum bringing people together!

STUDENT FUND for visiting the @nhmla.bsky.social collections! especially for polychaetes! #wormwednesday nhm.org/student-coll...

If you dive to reefs 100 feet deep off of extreme Southern California, you find tons of dusty, furry, wheels of cheese, about a foot across. These are Geodia sponges, and I'm trying to figure out which species they are, exactly, on this sponge Thursday.

“The thing that I can’t get over is that the actual richest man in the world directed my fucking firing. I make $50k a year and work to keep drinking water safe. The richest man in the world decided that was an expense too great for the American taxpayer.”

Doing my job: teaching, research, service, increasingly feels like an act of protest, civil disobedience, defiance. Thinking of it this way makes it a tad easier to keep my mind on work amidst the doomscrolling about the kelpto-oligo-kakistocracy

How the sudden and severe cuts to NIH funding will devastate the US biomedical industry — especially red state institutions. Also Elon Musk’s claims about “overhead” numbers were off by about a factor of two. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/02/11/o...

Helpful table to determine how much your University or health system is set to lose if the NIH indirect cap is suddenly lowered to 15%. For SJSU it is $374k which is on the smaller end but devastating considering our other budget issues. datawrapper.dwcdn.net/l0ZqA/8/

If you blast a sponge with X-rays, they de-differentiate, don't get cancer, then re-differentiate and are fine. Interesting. www.mdpi.com/2079-7737/14....

Do you want a big overview of NSF, explaining things like the fact that 24% of all federally funded academic fundamental research comes from NSF? And that 94% of its budget goes out the door in grants/awards? Here you go. nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/Factsh...

Letter from the SSE/SSB/ASN councils on the scientific understanding of sex and gender, pls RT

“NIH is accordingly imposing a standard indirect cost rate on all grants of 15%”

@matthewherper.bsky.social explains how we know that vaccines do not cause autism. www.statnews.com/2025/02/03/v...

My first and definitely last time working with the Los Angeles Times. Editing out the most urgent point of an OpEd in the minutes before sending to press while then also assigning a title and image that suggest an argument entirely opposite to the author’s clear intent is pretty shitty.

Turns out the 2010 America COMPETES Act contains language I recognize because I've cribbed it from NSF's Grant Proposal Guide for every proposal I've sent to NSF www.congress.gov/111/plaws/pu... It's encoded in 42 USC 1826p-14 uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?r... R: the 2010 Act, L: the GPG

I want the public to hear from every university president by 12 noon tomorrow. I am so serious

Application reviews for a postdoc in my lab will begin next week. Two years of funding to conduct EvoDevo research using cnidarians.

Message from UC Davis on NSF letter

looking to find folks who have current access to identified specimens (can be live or dead and well preserved) of many mosquito species. there are 3500ish described Culidae out there - anyone know anyone who might have specimens from 50+ species? please get in touch if so!

If you have been affected by the fires in LA, or are concerned about your ability to keep precious Drosophila strains going during the latest funding crisis, we will host your strains as a backup. Please email me. Please amplify. If you are also able to host fly strains, add your name as well.

Incidentally, if you want to see the carbon intensity of your local grid, or where the exports/imports are going, @electricitymaps.com is strangely hypnotic.. app.electricitymaps.com/map/72h/hourly

Happy to announce our latest paper! A fresh look at the sponge Aggregation Factor, a glycoprotein complex involved in self-recognition and adhesion. Previously thought to be sponge-specific, we report compelling structural links with proteins found in all animals! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

This is a funny and entertaining video describing #taxonomy and how new #species are named & described. Extra points for #invertebrate focus, morphology, genetics & museum collections research. Plus amphipods & isopods for #Crustmas youtu.be/yn7kUDRVcVM?...

Humpback Whales sing while in California? If you listen to this video on a device that can produce bass, you can hear one serenading us on a dive. At Souza Rock, off Avila Beach. I'd love to hear more about this.

UC San Diego is searching for a tenure-track position in marine natural products / marine biotechnology: apol-recruit.ucsd.edu/JPF04101

The Santa Barbara Natural History Museum is searching for a new entomology curator: recruiting.paylocity.com/recruiting/j...

Cool paper!

It was a loonnnnnng time coming but our paper on path dependent evolution of visual systems is in Science! @rebeccavarney.bsky.social joie_cannon, Morris Aguilar, Dan Speiser, Doug Eernisse www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Nice Perspective by @laurensr.bsky.social ! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

The use of the phrase “ancestry-specific variant” is increasing, particularly to describe rare Single-nucleotide variants (SNVs). But these alleles are not ancestry-specific. They have not yet been found elsewhere, but they will be. 1/n

I am *thrilled* to finally announce that our department is hiring an Evolutionary Biologist. We are esp looking genetic/genomic expertise, and those who can help us build a more equitable biology community at UCSB. Please apply by Jan 15! recruit.ap.ucsb.edu/JPF02635 #unicornjob

The Ecology & Evolution department at UC Santa Barbara is searching for an Assistant Professor of Evolutionary Biology. Please apply and/or spread the word! recruit.ap.ucsb.edu/JPF02635

Cool clouds on the way to Las Vegas today