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...

All the dark and light in adoption stories. For me, gotta say the whole process, was, and, in a different way, 13 years on, continues to be, incredibly eye opening and transformative. Parenting always is I suppose, but there is a special side to it in adoption.

Yep. Think of the students that could be supported. Think of the knowledge and clinical advances. We could work on equitability in bio sci funding. We could address structural issues in NIH/NSF without cutting into a starving patient. We could have nice things. And that has been true for awhile.

It’s PhD admission season in the US and elsewhere. Is anyone collecting and sharing info about what admissions letters are saying this year, especially in the neuro/psych/bio space? Last year there were some (unfortunate) changes at some Unis, eg www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/03/08/u....

"it will take new structures to build resilience into America’s....science and medical research ecosystem". Structural changes to insulate are important. But as the ecosystem has expanded over decades it has become increasingly financially untenable and inequitable. Important policy issues too.

We're hiring at CSUN. Vertebrate Functional Morphologist. Please apply! We still allow DEI, which I horribly need to specify. (I'm also not on the committee, but happy to answer any questions!)

Yet again, I (along with many others) want to remind us that THIS is what makes America exceptional. Our openness to immigrants, newcomers, and refugees has been our unique strength for many years...and it's a senseless own goal to walk away from it.

Thousands of institutions abandoned programs, ended or rewrote scholarships, closed down clubs and publications, all in pre-emptive compliance. And you know why? Mostly because they wanted to do it if they thought they could blame someone else for it.

"In this model, two linked innovations—the single Cse4CENP-A nucleosome and the CBF3 complex—emerged before the canonical CDEI, CDEII, CDEIII structure, marking an early phase of sequence-dependent centromere evolution."

Jesse Jackson Jr. also had an under appreciated sense of comedic timing. Watch his fake sermon on SNL.😂

100%. Full grown faculty who continue to believe in that hidden pot of money administration is keeping from them.

One day I shall learn to put thoughts to paper better... but for now. elizabethginexi.substack.com/p/what-nih-s...

Today's the day for our backyard! Aiming for 30 species if get lucky and listen hard. Anybody can do the GBBC. Its very placeful and lots of fun.

The Burns Paiute and Shoshone-Bannock tribes are proving that reducing grazing may be the key to saving the iconic bird.

Great picture. Sorry, gave me a word pop. Careless forever, bright green scales on the sand while deep squid braid dark seaweed strands below. A windy hat and pink nails dance upon the land as a flamingo floats on calming seas, time to wet a toe. Of course, apologies to Sara Teasdale.

2040s: Still can't correlate genetic variation in RNA with complex phenotypes. Guess RNA running errands for the environment.

Some good news. Plus, appears that Carrizo Plain will have a strong bloom this year.

CNN: "Another photograph - these are notes AG Bondi brought to the hearing today. This shows a list of Rep. Jayapal's search history. Lawmakers are allowed to go to a DOJ facility to search unredacted files. We learned from this photo that the searches are apparently being tracked & read by the DOJ"

"Smith worries that, impressed by AI's reckoning prowess, we will shift our expectations of human intelligence. What we should do, he argues, is learn to use AI for the reckoning tasks at which it excels while we strengthen our commitment to judgment, ethics, and the world".