As a histologist, can’t believe what I just read when I just saw methylene blue is trending

Seeing @noaa.gov pushing propaganda valorizing deep sea mining makes me feel physically ill. Another one of our most essential scientific institutions decimated by fascism.

The administration's preliminary FY 2026 budget requests that federal involvement in many aspects of #GreatLakes science be eliminated entirely by next year, including completely ending funding for Sea Grant programs nationwide www.freep.com/story/news/l...

So glad I just did an interview about the importance of NSF. Should be published right about the time it’s shuttered for good.

ATTENTION: NSF GRANT RECIPIENTS We received a heads up from a trusted source that you should proactively download/print/screen shot any documentation on research.gov pertaining to your NSF awards, both those that are current and any that have closed in the last 5-6 years. 1/n

Had a blast communing with longnose suckers this week in Wisconsin with @karenjmurchie.bsky.social, whose long-running study of these quietly charismatic fish has done much to reveal the extent and phenology of their spawning runs. A herd of aquatic bison fertilizing a liquid prairie.

Here's my full statement on the Trump EO opening Pacific Islands Heritage to industrial fishing I'm going to try to record a quick video today explaining what science says about this crime

The support is appreciated as the college threatens students who are in our classes to enroll in other courses or else they will jeopardize their financial aid & visa status. This message is sent while ICE is kidnapping students off the streets! Students are not bargaining chips!!

“Not only is silence in the face of mounting authoritarianism morally objectionable…IT’S NOT WORKING... We must learn from the past. We cannot remain silent in the face of authoritarian attacks on our peers, even if they have not yet come for us.” www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

Women in research need the credit & recognition they deserve for the amazing contributions they make. Nature Awards for Inspiring Women in Science are open for applications - take a look 👇🏻 & help spread the word #WomeninSTEM #AcademicSky 🧪 @natureportfolio.nature.com www.nature.com/immersive/in...

Are you or someone you know: A recently dismissed federal scientist? Doing science-related work affected by the mass firings and defunding of science? “You Can’t Fire Science” is a project to illustrate and share those stories: bit.ly/faces_of_sci... A good follow up to #StandUpForScience!

Teufelsberg - outside Berlin, Germany

Just received notice that our grant was terminated. 5R24AG066599-03 TheRiseRegistry.org

Quick watercolour of a Platy for #SundayFishSketch 🎨🐟 I used to own Platies as a child, so this was a nostalgic one for me!

Science IRL decisions went out today! We were able to fund 13 of the 77 proposals that were submitted. They are communicating science in stage productions, boxes at bus stations, interactive frog statues, musical performances, farmers market tables, backs of cars, knitting clubs, and much more.

The group that harassed these researchers is openly bragging about it on their website btw. They are so unafraid of any repercussions.

Postdocs and PhD students hit hard by Trump’s crackdown on science

Ending the week with a little motivation from our office mural. 💙 We hope you all have a great weekend. 🦈

This is me ~6 months ago, excited for my first day of work as a Scientist for the US Navy. After getting my PhD at UCLA and a postdoc at Caltech, I made the big move across the country to help our fleet. Now I may be fired due to the indiscriminate firings of new, “probationary” federal workers.

We programmed a crawler to search open web marketplaces for every animal on the IUCN red list. Nearly 2/3 of our matches were shark jaws, comprising 9 of the top 10 openly traded threatened species. A glimpse of the global trophy trade of endangered sharks: 🌏 🦑 🧪 🧵 urldefense.com/v3/__https:/...

💡#JobOpportunity: Scientist, Fish Ecology 🏢 Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research 📍#Melbourne #Victoria #Australia 🗓️ 12 months, fixed term 💰$76,817 - $93,275 🚨Deadline to apply: 23 Feb 👀 https://buff.ly/3CSeBdl #sciencejobs #sciencecareers #biology #fish

We are hearing today that NIH is restarting issuing grant awards — that is, for awards already approved by council, or renewals that normally happen as matter of course, money will start going out. Caution, though, before we interpret this as a win... 1/ 🧪

Happy International Day of Women in Science. The National Science Foundation’s list of flagged words includes both “Women” and “Female.”

Hi all, I am in contact with a reporter at Science magazine who would like to talk with a trainee or mentor who successfully applied for an equity/DEI-related NIH training grant or a training supplement but have not received the Notice of Award and probably won't get the grant.

SICB is back! Please follow the society's new BlueSky account: @sicb.bsky.social SICB recognizes that the scientific enterprise is only successful because of the people performing that science. Without those people, science and all of the political and economic strength that it provides, stops.

You can read the blog I wrote for SICB about organizing with and for Black environmentalist here: integrativeandcomparativebiology.wordpress.com/2024/01/16/g...

Link to full text of the statement from SICB leadership here!

I am continually proud to be a member of SICB. Great science 🤝 great people

All researchers will be impacted (we are literally required to address broadening participation/diversifying the STEM workforce in our grants) but these institutions will absolutely be affected the most. If you don’t think these impact you, I promise you your work is next. Fight back nowwwwww

To write a winning NSF proposal, something that happens for one out of every five or six small grants in my field (or one out of every 20 for the NSF-wide mid-scale program I'm applying to next month), you •must* have a compelling and quantifiable plan to benefit society. 4/

@dangaristo.bsky.social it's critical that people understand what NSF is being ordered to do (and what, to the discredit of its leadership, it is agreeing to do). When you write an NSF proposal, there are two criteria you are judged against, Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts. 1/

So basically they are reviewing every NSF grant because they all satisfy broader impacts

🚨BREAKING. From a program officer at the National Science Foundation, a list of keywords that can cause a grant to be pulled. I will be sharing screenshots of these keywords along with a decision tree. Please share widely. This is a crisis for academic freedom & science.

💡#PhD OPPORTUNITY: Taxonomy, systematics, and evolution of labrid fishes 🏢 University of Sydney & Australian Museum Research Institute 📍Sydney, NSW, Australia 🗓️ July 2025 or February 2026 👥 Prof Simon Ho & Dr Yi-Kai Tea #wrasse #australia #fish #biology #ichthyology

Fuck yeah look at this thing

Guess they forgot to include me in the Google Calendar invite 🦝 #Mondays But rly what are y’all doing up there?😂

Just got a story approved to run on Monday on the crisis happening at the NSF. If you are an NSF-funded scientist and have been personally impacted by the funding pause this week, I'd love to hear from you. Reach me securely on Signal: 3162958947

One thing to remember in all of this is not only will it wipe out vast swathes of already-funded research, it also has the potential to lock trans researchers out of federal funding entirely. How can I apply for funds if I can't refer to myself in them?

Can’t emphasize enough that the reason they want to stop funding DEI initiatives is because they WORK. If they weren’t effective, they wouldn’t be a target 🎯

It would be fantastic if major federal institutions would acknowledge that the executive branch cannot legally unilaterally cancel or redistribute congressionally appropriated funding on ideological grounds and thus they have no legal obligation to comply with such directives

Have you always wanted to be a marine biologist? We are now offering fundraiser charter shark research expeditions! Join me for a day of shark research while supporting the lab's effort's to bring school groups out on future trips. Join as an individual, or charter the whole day for your group!

Other privately funded sources for #phd students include: Soros (90k): pdsoros.org/why-become-a... AAUW (20k): www.aauw.org/resources/pr... NSBE: nsbe.org/scholarships/ Centers at private universities and think tanks also have smaller grants you can apply to bsky.app/profile/napa...

Don’t fall into the trap of normalizing any of this with this sort of language that we’ve seen from so many universities, falsely equating the current situation with other presidential transitions This is unprecedented, unconscionable, and deliberately disruptive. Have the backbone to say that.

This is not business as usual. It’s not just a change in funding priorities going forward; it is the reneging on funding agreements and is profoundly disruptive for even those grants that will be found to be compliant. Meanwhile, trainees who often live paycheck to paycheck are going unpaid.

Really appreciate Jonathan Lambert pointing out that NSF grants are congressionally mandated to weigh how grants broaden participation in science, putting the administration's executive order against DEIA in conflict with, and potentially undermining, congressional legislation

Still frozen out. We’re getting word that people getting Universities to reach out to NSF over this & broader freeze may put pressure on them & help resolve this. If folks could start contacting their uni admin with complaints to forward to NSF (hopefully you know who to contact) it’d help a lot

I know it’s a delicate situation but I’m disappointed in NSF leadership for not doing more to protect a very vulnerable group of scientists here. The messaging & complicity so far is very frustrating.

If anyone tries to tell me “it’ll all work out” or “calm down” for the immediate future

To expand on this, right now ~200 postdoc fellows directly funded by NSF are locked out of their salary &research funds right before the first of the month. No doubt other NSF funded grads &postdocs are affected as well. All requests for funds put in before the freeze are slowly being cancelled