When someone says „Scientists do not want you to know“ you can dismiss everything from there on. Scientists want you to know. They are desperate that you know. They can’t shut up about what they found out and want you to know.

Never noticed before that the enchantress eternally cursed an entire castle of people because a 14 year old boy was rude to her. #BeautyAndTheBeast #WhatWasSheExpecting

I tried to take a photo of a grasshopper on my windshield, but now it looks like a gigantic bug destroying the town.

Hey guess what - I wrote a book, and it's coming out soon! The Dark Frontier is about the wonders of the deep sea...and the threats they face. Check it out, and if you're so moved, you can preorder from your favorite purveyor of fine literature 📚❤️ www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/652987...

Covers of the 2 leading science journals this week @science.org and @nature.com www.science.org/content/arti... www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

If you manage people, and you don't read @rawsignal.ca's newsletter... well, that's probably fine but you definitely should start. On managing teams when you don't have the relevant expertise: "The tools are getting faster but the core issue was never that you were bullshitting slowly."

This is exactly my first thought when is comes to literally *anything* about Greenland. The native Inuit who were colonized by Europe, and who have fought long and hard to regain some level of home rule, deserve better than to have their homeland considered "for sale" by this bullshitter president.

I've played enough Risk to know that if the US takes Greenland, they're going to want Canada and Mexico next to get the completed continent bonus.

The classic academic urge to write a book… #IDontHaveTimeForThis

I’m running a social experiment on my family. This fall, I’ve taken up a new hobby. I’ve mentioned it to everyone at least twice, with appropriately nerdy enthusiasm. Will holiday gifts be overwhelmingly this-hobby-related, or has it not percolated into their view of me yet?

With current pledges, the world's on track for 2.6°C of warming in 2100 compared to preindustrial levels. 10 years ago, before the Paris agreement, it was 3.6°C 20+ years ago, we thought it would be 4-5°C So 2.6°C is better, but the problem is that climate impacts are way worse than we predicted.

Not *quite* the attitude I’m looking for..

New paper from our group - megaphages, compact CRISPR-Cas effectors, and more from landfill phage, led by the talented Dr. Nikhil George (not on bsky). rdcu.be/ePo8o

I love kids. I have two of them. They’re amazing. However, kids are the absolute least self aware, clumsiest little puffins on the planet. Please don’t drive tonight unless you have to, and if you do drive, drive super slow and pay 100% attention at all times. Happy Halloween! 🎃 👻 💀 #PublicHealth

not to brag but i can generate slop with natural intelligence

@planetmoney.bsky.social AI hosts in the Trojan Horse episode? Or sound mixing gone overboard? Really hard to listen to Kenny when interspersed with the interviews, then back to “human” for the wrappers, just obviously robotic in some way

First two (of five) carved. Now to see if the squirrels eat them before Friday…

“I asked them to, if they have a chance, call me back,” said Thomas Perlmann, secretary-general of the Nobel committee Probably a call that you’d return… www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

If you aren't knowledgable, you are impressionable.

“Many young extremists now believe in a much simpler binary: Order and chaos. And if you are spending any time at all trying to derive meaning from violent acts like this then you are, by definition, their enemy.”

And this one via @ryanhatesthis.bsky.social at @garbageday.email sent me down some rabbit holes (but in a good way). www.garbageday.email/p/charlie-ki...

Walked someone through reading a COVID test correctly after they texted me a pic of a perfectly negative test saying “sorry I can’t come”…. No the C does not stand for COVID. #ItsBeenFiveYears #TwoLinesNotOne

If it’s run for profit, then it’s profiting off of … us. When I hear that the post office lost money, I think this: Good. We already paid for it. Why on earth should it make even more money from us? Who would keep the money? Would we see it?

14 yo nephew is playing Cities Skylines and his mishaps are legendary. He built a neighbourhood that only had subway access to improve ridership He forgot to build a cemetery so the bodies piled up for a while. Later, discovered more piles of bodies - turns out you can’t take corpses on the subway

The maddening thing is that we know EXACTLY how to prevent this. Yes, kids should get vaccinated, test, stay home when sick, mask as much as possible. But even without any of that: Better ventilation and filtration in schools can MASSIVELY reduce viral spread, for all sorts of respiratory diseases.

And in the meantime Canada (checks notes), right, Canada hamstrings research by bankrupting universities

Really exciting and important tree microbiome paper published in @nature.com ‘A diverse and distinct microbiome inside living trees’ 👏 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

If you are a postdoc working on any topic related to environmental microbiology and are looking for exposure, the Thermal Biology Institute (tbi.montana.edu) has slots open for virtual talks via zoom this fall. Email me if you are interested! Seminars are most Mondays, 3-4 pm Mountain Time.

at the "must actually write the grant" stage of procrastinating writing a grant. worst stage. only mitigated by my established candy reward structure

my capacity to lose receipts* is astonishing. * notice a receipt in my bag/wallet, think "ew, why do I have this?" and throw it out...

The year’s crowning achievement! 🙌😂

My sister: are you having an Icarus moment? ☀️🪽🪽 Me, yes and-ing my way to over commitment: probably? But I know how to swim! 🏊‍♀️

Research grants to universities & colleges as well as graduate scholarships face $764 million in cuts to pay for tax cuts and miliary spending. The Tri-council agencies providing those funds just won an increase in the last budget, but that will be completely undercut now. 6/x

@gilbertjacka.bsky.social does a karaoke version of Microbe Microbe with @lhug.bsky.social and @kuesellab.bsky.social and the 2025 AEM GRC group meet the challenge?

Shameless plug for this beautiful and free course on communicating with people with dementia. Based on clinical trial data, building from a critically acclaimed movie, designed and built by (disclaimer) my talented brother in law. howyouaretome.com

This week in bad graphs, the 5 yo learned about bar charts. Asked everyone in her class their favourite ice cream flavour, and then “went back to the people I needed to fill it up”.

This snow day forecast… the categories! 😂

5yo, instead of going to sleep: “we play Santa and reindeer at recess and you can choose which reindeer. There’s Dancer and Dasher and Frances and Rudolph”

I’ve occasionally been lurking on Twitter but now every time I spend five minutes there I am unwillingly subjected to a video of someone dying (crashes, accidents, security cam footage). I don’t want to see deaths, I don’t know who does, but I am Done over there.

Honoured that BACTERIA: THE TINY GIANTS was shortlisted in the AIBs 2024 @timhayward.bsky.social Huge thanks to Loftus media and the scientists and researchers who shared time/insights, incl. @audeber.bsky.social @frantecol.bsky.social @lhug.bsky.social @thecrobe.bsky.social @relenski.bsky.social

The first COVID case in Canada was January 25, 2020. I broke my 1,751-day streak yesterday with my first positive test. We’re abroad and away from our usual tools (HEPA, multiple bathrooms) so wish us luck in keeping this from the kids.

Double vaxxed (COVID + flu) my family of four on Friday and we had a very weird set of non-simultaneous side effects, which were much milder than either of those diseases

Out at a landfill for a unique reason yesterday - celestial sightseeing instead of microbes!

Aurora sighting! We dragged the kids out with us to find a dark(er) park

I set my alarm for 2:45 am today to attend a cool symposium in France (online), so a kid threw up hourly from midnight til (checks watch at 1 pm)… on-going. At least I wasn’t planning on being rested today?

Always fun when a conference is so mind-blowing that you delete half of a near-complete grant application to add new tech #LAMG2024

Sometimes I wonder if we focus on STEM recruitment instead of retention because recruitment lets us talk about how exciting and impactful our field is, whereas retention requires us to look at our own culpability in creating and maintaining environments where people don’t thrive.

Me, on a mountain surrounded by gorgeous foliage and scenery: LOOOOOOK at the microbial mats! So fluffy! So orange! Had to settle for a mock sampling photo because I needed my water to get back up the valley ridge.

Not a super early adopter but early enough for a serious handle upgrade compared to the bird site!

Not Betsy Parkinson doing a full-on chalk talk as the A/V is having a snit fit. No sweat, no fuss. Amazing. #LakeArrowhead2024