Field notes from a weekend PI at the #microscope: vesicle cargo lanes lighting up in real time like @FedEx. This is the ML1N PX domain in a fibroblast. Hot damn, there’s mind-blowing action under the surface of cells: this video shows 2 min of time 🤯 #Cellbio #MicroscopyMonday #SciArt #SciComm

So cool they discovered the cause of autism on basically day they guessed they would. I’m also glad they are withholding this information for a few days to prep for a WrestleMania-style announcement. This is how science works.

This is it, essentially. The core of it. The goal of ICE detention in the mass deportation system is to make people give up their case without fighting; to have an officer say “if you want to see a judge and plead your case, you’re going to be jailed for months and months, so why not give up now?”

Fearful Americans Stockpiling Facts Before Federal Government Comes To Take Them Away https://theonion.com/fearful-americans-stockpiling-facts-before-federal-gove-1819579589/

Still true

💥OUR LAB IS HIRING!!💥 We are hiring a research assistant/lab manager to assist with managing our axolotl colony and enabling some kick-ass science! Looking for high levels of organization, collaboration, problem solving and curiosity. Application link: tinyurl.com/3tpvphpm #SciJob #JobAlert

No notes, put this in a museum

Whew. 15 min break. Let's recap: > CDC officials learned of Covid vaccine recommendation change via X post > RFK Jr. can't show scientific evidence for changing childhood vax schedule > RFK Jr. gets no briefing from agency public health experts > CDC officials "very nervous" about new ACIP

It's amazing how straightforward and direct answers can be when you are not lying or trying to tap dance around the issue.

Growing up we had a VHS tape of Robert Redford's The Natural and I probably watched it a few hundred times. One of my favorties. RIP

Computer crashed and lost ~100 browser tabs. This feeling of loss needs a label - phantom tab syndrome?

H’okay; let’s try it here! We use swarm behaviors, bioelectricity, and biomaterials to herd living cells like sheepdogs and sheep. New site live: cohenlab.princeton.edu. I really want to more frequently share my amazing crew’s work ! Starting with an oldie vid—living Escher! More soon, for serious.

Shit's about to start to hit home for lots of folks

An apt comment from Harold Varmus in this piece: ‘Running a lab is not like running a clothing store, where if your sales are down you can bounce back. You are dealing with highly trained people and projects which, when stopped for a short time, are ruined.’

New NIH Notice about International Collaborations grants.nih.gov/grants/guide... 1/3

This child was infected with measles before they were able to be vaccinated (under 12 months), likely from someone unvaccinated. They survived the infection but years later they’re dead. The risk of SSPE for an infant infected with measles is 1 in 600, & it’s 95% fatal. Your vaccine protects others

Transitions in development – an interview with Misty Riddle. We caught up with Misty from @unevadareno.bsky.social to find out about her path from the vet clinic to the lab bench, her research into cavefish and her transition to becoming a group leader: journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

"The state also established a fund in 2020 with money earmarked for early childhood education. Thanks to tax collections from the oil and gas industries, the fund has grown from $320 million to $10 billion."

Your tattoo may be nerdy, but is it this nerdy?

MAHA gold-standard science. By @glaucomflecken.bsky.social

There's a key principle that gets lost in these discussions because it can become a fine distinction in a room filled with righteous people yelling at each other. Many academic studies are *descriptive*. They /characterize/ something without making explicit judgements about it.

SCOTUS: considering race as one factor in a college applicant's file is blatantly unconstitutional ALSO SCOTUS: considering race as one factor in targeting whom to detain and deport is cool cool cool

Highest level of support since Gallup started asking this question a quarter century ago

Absolutely insane when the NY Post can lampoon RFK as a tinfoil conspiracy theorist better than most other outlets

Seasonal flu shots and COVID-19 vaccines are available in North Carolina to everyone 6 months and older. I'm going to try and get mine this week at UNC where flu vaccines are already available. Get yours!!

Skeet a PERFECT Album from the 90's that isn't Nirvana or Pearl Jam

It’s been anything with any sort of foreign involvement, usually if question 6(?) on form is clicked yes. I’ve had a several K99/R00 apps pulled last 2 rounds because they have a Foreign collab offer to help with data analysis or even just “mentoring” but they didn’t include the justification doc

We are all the staffer behind Senator Warren right now.

The CDC Director said that she was not a trustworthy person? How does that even make sense? RFK Jr. is a pathological liar, the only qualification that matters to this administration.

Kinda depressing to see disease advocacy groups and research hospitals (e.g., St. Jude) doing their normal TV fundraising without any acknowledgement that THE source of biomedical research in the U.S. is under attack on a daily/weekly basis.

Absolutely bananas

Stand up to the bully. Do not surrender in advance: Judge rules Trump administration cannot withhold funding from Harvard www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...

enshittification | noun | when a digital platform is made worse for users, in order to increase profits

The House discretionary budget bill is now out for FY26, including a proposed *slight boost* in NIH funding & many other components that will take time to unpack. Bill text: appropriations.house.gov/sites/evo-su... A few key points including IDC analysis in a provisional 🧵

😂

Excited to share the first paper from my PhD! We looked at what traits help Aneides salamanders excel at climbing using museum specimens, CT scans, SEM, and more! No claws or toe pads, so how do they do it? In short, with long limbs, big feet and grippy toes! 🦎🧪 DM for PDF doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

I got to play with a @tomocube.bsky.social HT-X1 yesterday. Such a cool microscope!

One of the most monumental victories of the human species

These letters of resignation from CDC officials are VERY MUCH worth your time. PLEASE READ AND PROPAGATE.

Very cool....directed migration along an oxygen gradient!

“If killed whole-virus vaccines for Covid were thought to be the best technology to move forward with back when the pandemic started, we would have,” Campbell said. The amount of malignant stupidity on display is as vast as an ocean.

Finally a university president with a spine. This is how it's done.

Hello Bluesky: Long time listener, first time poster! Excited to share the first publication of my Ph.D. work studying the development of appendage shapes in @plosbiology.org! The zebrafish caudal fin is quite distinctive, and we examine the timing and mechanisms of how its shape might come to be!

When the PI hasn't worked in at the bench in years but needs to do something in the lab for a photoshoot

They important thing about #TaylorSwift getting engaged is that millions of dollars in grants funding for research projects on how to cure cancer,reverse alzheimer's dz and discover vaccines for serious infections, are being canceled daily and we really should care about how devastating that is.

Boohoo, fascist stormtroopers are experiencing burnout. F' all the way off with that shit #AbolishICE

Nemo needs gap junctions, too. New preprint with Marleen Klann, Vincent Laudet, et al. showing anemonefish Snowflake mutant due to E42K substitution in Connexin Gja5b. Found exact same E42K in zebrafish gja5b (= leopard) by ENU, to the nucleotide! Details, inferences: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

US scientists are being forced to remove words associated with diversity, equity and inclusion to get research grants renewed. www.wsj.com/health/scien...

WARNING WARNING WARNING #ResearchAdmini I am hearing reports of NIH Awards being issued with ~15% indirect cost rate without comment. I believe the hope is that they will be accepted with noticing this.