"Kane marvels at the substantial gains in test scores in the 1990s and early 2000s — which went largely unremarked upon at the time. If anything, the prevailing narrative was that nothing in education was working".

Cell biol people...ASCB annual award nominations are due June 12. Nominations for two education awards can be submitted at links below. We are hoping to hear about your great colleagues! Bruce Alberts Award www.ascb.org/award/bruce-... Innovation in Education Award www.ascb.org/award/innova...

Given Exhibit A, next time I order lab supplies, I'll be looking at options from VWR.

PLoS One paper from my MS days leads to conservation win! people.com/worlds-oldes...

Wolf enters Sequoia National Park for first time in more than 100 years

I’m afraid that too many people don’t understand just how terrible the Biden pandemic response was—and how it contributed to Trump’s return. I also fear that given how much this administration has dismantled public health, the appetite for looking back and identifying points of failure is low.

The fiscal pressures of keeping the lights on at universities have led to a long-term, increasing mission schism between faculty and admin. This is a dramatic example; across the country there are many others, often subtle. It's why unis have been easy to roll. Fixing that will not be easy.

When this student speaks of learning soft skills, that's a useful insight. It does not change underlying issues of preparedness, but it is proactive. The metacognition of learning to learn is something universities can help with.

Pre-Trump II I was browsing through Abundance at a bookstore while my daughter had book club. On the NIH, they obviously had no clue. And now, after all that's happened, its clear these guys are just wedded to their model. Smoking their own supply. However you want to put it. Useless.

Haven't pitched the void in a bit. The Boy at Turtle Pond #poetry

This is funny right here. Funny like when you've get hit on the nose but can't stop laughing.

This week, the Supreme Court finally killed off the Voting Rights Act of 1965. I've spent the past decade studying the VRA and the attacks on it, so I thought I would offer some historical perspective, and where I think we're headed. This will be a long thread; buckle up.

For more info: www.science.org/content/arti...

On reforming the NIH drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2026/04/29/o...

John Gurdon (1933-2025) by Jim Smith journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

Oh wow! My kid just sent me a link to a release article his university wrote up about a recent paper he published. That's really fun! ps.uci.edu/news/ian-bac...

Words arrive, form in an internal space. And within that mirrored creation, sometimes flash "earthed lightening".

It's been a while... dusted off some old code to see what the current publication lag times are at cell bio journals. At the end of the post there's the poor paper with the longest delay in the dataset... Hold On Hope: publication lag times at cell biology journals quantixed.org/2026/04/09/h...

There is ABSOLUTELY another story here about how higher ed has abdicated its commitment to education by counting on federal funding to provide salary support to scientists like Donovan

Politics cut the funding, but preexisting structural problems in academia underlie this story. "he figured it was a good time to try for a tenure-track academic post. But....academic tradition of delineated departments makes it hard to know what to do with...inter-disciplinary research"

The Company of Biologists @biologists.bsky.social has a more than 100 year history of supporting science through its journals, meetings, and fellowships. Help lead it into its second century! pls share www.inspiredselection.com/jobs/jo00000...

So beautiful and implausible. It is impossible not to see it, somehow, from somewhere, as a gift.

To give just one sense of what is at stake, check out the wildfire research being done by the Pacific Southwest Reseach Station, headquarted in Albany, CA, with research branches adjacent to several landgrant UCs. All in the name of corrupt profiteering. research.fs.usda.gov/psw/fire

Was playing with some sequence files tonight and realized I'm so old that I still miss DNA Strider.

🎉 Congrats to 2026 Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal recipient Judith Kimble of @uwbiochem.bsky.social! Her work has built an entire field and inspired generations of scientists through her mentorship and leadership. 🔗Read more: buff.ly/0yzHXvk

A really nice piece of work. Once again, the CENPC/SUMO axis emerges. Maybe effect of SPF2/ULP2 going through modulation of cohesin/condensin at CENs, but SUMO targets within monopolin or other meiotic regulators also seem quite possible.

Just a reminder that 1yr ago today many dedicated NIH employees received RIF notices and started the process where many others were told they must leave their positions/ICs after years of service. The pain felt across the scientific community in the last year is also felt by those serving it.

the trump administration is selling this country wholesale to rapacious, extractive industries that will destroy our collective resources for private profit morethanjustparks.substack.com/p/breaking-t...

"it might still be difficult “to identify the perfect sweet spot — exciting, deeply fundamental scientific projects with real-world implications.” How environment affects genetic network set points and feeds back on gene expression programs important part of this.

Fantastic piece by @dereklowe.bsky.social. Feeds into an ongoing debate among scientists: is it possible to dedicate yourself to finding the truth about the real world, and not vocally oppose an administration that constantly undermines the truth? Is doing so political, or just being a scientist?

Administrator comes. Administrator contracts. Administrator buys expensive software package recommended by contractor. Administrator claims success. Administrator moves on. Software creates more problems than solves. New administrator arrives.

I recently had an epiphany about why I’m a birder, courtesy of bobcatting. In Pt. Reyes Natl. Park there are lots of gophers and, consequentially, lots of bobcats. In spring, before the grass gets long, you drive around, spot bobcats at gopher holes, and take pictures. That’s bobcatting. 1/4

Been thinking about Intro Genetics this week. Key course, student engagement is challenging. Writing this out to pin down thoughts. When I teach it, I do a bit called cat genetics Fridays. Every other Friday take a coat trait, tabby, calico, tux, etc and do a self-contained molgen story. 1/7

This is such a cool analysis. There is lot more to it, of course, but for some reason just the thought of the snowy owl genome checks a lot of boxes for me.

Good synopsis. Stripped down.. system under strain, fewer opportunities, concentrate resources, limit innovation and equity, knowledge vs impact, adaptation, collaboration, pathways from research to practice..engage emerging methods, accelerate impact. A science no longer for the little people.

"They call it flame point Monday, but Tuesday's just as bad".

Important topic. In the article, I found it interesting how they built out the curriculum to address this. But also, "I was a bit surprised not to get a call from the Provost after teaching these classes." Maybe not a class for the pre-tenure young-uns to cover.

This is a key point. Money and control are intertwined. Each is necessary, neither is sufficient.

Pitching the void... #poetry

My kid's first paper is published! So proud of him. Its a project he started in high school and completed as he's getting ready to graduate college, working with faculty mentors at UCR and UCI along the way. From idea to final work product-that's a good ride. iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...

For decades biologists assumed ravens follow wolves to their kills. Our paper @science.org shows something different: ravens rarely follow wolves far. Instead they remember areas where wolf kills are common and return to them—sometimes from >150 km away. doi.org/10.1126/science.adz9467 📷Dan Stahler

The SOS response set the conceptual framework for virtually all subsequent work in eucaryotes, damage signaling to the cell cycle machinery, an extensive transcriptional response, ssDNA as the proximal signal for damage, all of that. The logic is the same.

11/ ...When people are being shot, detained inhumanely, deported, and abused for having the same identities we are removing from grants, it is abundantly clear we are participating in hate.” - anonymous NIH program officer

Oh no. Just saw that David Botstein passed. Storied geneticist. I remember him for his analysis of yeast tubulin genes and the microtubule cytoskeleton, but he contributed much to the foundation of genome sequencing and genomics. www.online-tribute.com/DavidBotstei...

Cookie cutter sharks showed up in my feed. Sounded cute so I looked it up. Turns out its more like "I'm going to chew a hole through your skull and implant nightmares in your brain" shark. Yikes.

The scene: committee questions following public seminar of a Ph.D dissertation. Just a formality, a done deal. Except the student has been up 48 hrs making their slide deck and reformatting. You start to ask a softball question, and they say "Imma gonna stop you right there, cause I gotta say...

Been trying to decide to keep or cull this slide from my genetics course. I put in some quotes from late 1990's as transition from HGP to GWAS. Funny ones but this one maybe a bit on the nose. I mean sometimes things take awhile. On the other sometimes you just guess wrong.

mood

Definitely-great read, skillful writing. Addresses how current fascination with technology (gene editing, omics) is not grappling with complexity. And need for improved genetics pedagogy. "Pleiotropy and polygenicity are...reflections of the immense complexity...between genotype and phenotype."

Ernest Boyer, arguing 30 years ago for re-weighting research, teaching, service in Univ. M&P. "a scholarship of engagement...creating a...climate where...academic and civic cultures communicate... continuously and creatively. Interesting what did/did not change. www.jstor.org/stable/38244...