Readers in Arizona, Michigan, & Georgia! Your senators have been getting a LOT of dedicated pressure to end the shutdown, without fixing healthcare. If you have a minute, go ahead & give them a call! Their job is to respond to constituents & they're mostly hearing from GOP voters rn.

The Leading Edge Fellows gathered this week to celebrate Zara Weinberg, a beloved member of our community. Our 7th cohort of Leading Edge Fellows (2026) will be named in her honor. The Zara Weinberg Leading Edge Cohort application is now open! Due Feb 2. www.leadingedgesymposium.org/apply/

Nature Reviews Nephrology comment on the harms of NIH grant terminations related to kidney disease www.nature.com/articles/s41...

For postdocs not yet on the job market!

The #FindThatLizard Scholarship is accepting applications until 12/10. We fund girls, women, and gender non conforming persons pursuing herpetology🦎🐍🐸🐢 I can’t wait to read your application! earynmcgee.com/findthatliza...

Our local animal shelter just put out an urgent request for food for the Pet Food Bank. If you have a local pet food bank please help people feed their pets during this challenging time ❤️

Warning. ⚠️ If you are writing an NSF GRFP, new this year, you need official transcripts to apply. Beware. They will not review applications without official transcripts. ‼️

New-to-me but very helpful visualizations how all the actions of the past ten months are affecting the CDC www.cdcdataproject.org

As polls open across the nation, know your rights this Election Day.

Today is Election Day in Texas and across the country. Let me be clear: every single election matters.
Not just the “big” ones. Every. Single. One. So if you haven’t voted yet, grab your ID, call a friend, and make your plan to get to the polls. Find your polling location at vote.org

If you have an election today, however big or small it seems, and whatever you think "the odds" are, please take the time to go vote!! #ElectionDay2025 #CatsOfBsky

"Science is being destroyed across many agencies" say federal researchers. For my latest @nature.com piece, I spoke to 19 different scientists across EPA, NOAA, NIH, NASA, and USGS to document how science is being dismantled across US federal agencies.

Lakshmi has some thoughts about synapse structure and function... #CatsOfAcademia #CatsOfBsky

Donald Trump is telling the Republicans to "get tougher." Get tougher on who? The woman with malignant melanoma? Because he sure as hell isn't getting tougher on the billionaires he invited to his Great Gatsby party.

📽️ WATCH: The U.S. government doesn’t track how often immigration agents detain citizens. So ProPublica did. We found more than 170 incidents since the start of Trump’s second term. Americans have been kicked, dragged and held for days without access to lawyers. ➡️ Full story: propub.li/3LjuAVS

This is what I find with my students, too. 90% of them think that AI is net bad, and none argue with my intro lecture about the objective harms of AI. And yet we get emails in our inbox from the university twice a month promoting AI tools.

Ozempic, MRI machines and flat screen televisions all emerged out of fundamental research decades earlier — the very types of study being slashed by the US government go.nature.com/47hn0n5

GET TO KNOW US! Meet Janelle, our Administrative Assistant! A recent grad of Keck Graduate Institute with a degree in Human Genetics & Genomic Data Analytics, she fights for a future where science lights the way toward hope, healing, & opportunity. 🌠👊 Be like Janelle, join here: zurl.co/ifwl7

The US funds the bulk of biomedical research globally by far. It's not like other countries can simply take up the slack. The more likely: people leave research, new people don't become researchers. There is no happy ending. www.pbs.org/newshour/sho...

Amazon is helping fund a $300 million build of a ballroom for the White House. Independent bookstores are donating to food banks and organizations that help with food insecurity. They are not the same.

The Office of Naval Research (for historical and other reasons) has been an important supporter of innovative research (including for me early in my career). This is deeply worrisome and incredibly stupid. File under "Shocking but not surprising"

1/6 The Cooperative-Breeding Database (Co-BreeD) is alive! Co-BreeD covers key biological parameters relevant to cooperative breeding research in birds and mammals. Get your copy of this updateable & open-access database: besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... @animalecology.bsky.social

Now accepting nominations for the Gould Prize, which recognizes an individual who has advanced public understanding of evolutionary science and its importance. The awardee will present a public lecture at #Evol2026 in Cleveland. Nominations due January 15! shorturl.at/jornc

The NIH has insisted there are no banned words But, an analysis by @jeremymberg.bsky.social found over 700 hundred grants changed their titles from '24 to '25 Some see it as a small price to pay to keep their grant, but others are worried about what comes next www.statnews.com/2025/10/29/n...

“We help scientists…move from individual action to collective impact.” Collective power is key—across race, class, and sector. No one is left behind. Read more: 🤲

"According to his running club, the man, who is a U.S. citizen, was returning from a team run when agents pulled him out of his vehicle, tackled him to the ground and kneeled on top of him, allegedly breaking six ribs and causing internal bleeding"

As NSF GRFP is in the news, PLEASE spread the word about the new EGFP program they have for past GRFP honorable mentions. Universities in eligible states can apply to get funding for HMs in the same amount as GRFP. My impression is that many depts don't know this exists and so don't apply.

Black cats continue to inspire fascination. Discover research on their health, behavior, and biology conducted with Arbor Assays kits. #BlackCatDay Read Feline Studies: www.arborassays.com/publications...

Election Day is a week from tomorrow, and millions of Americans have a chance to elect important local leaders — judges, council members, school boards, and more — crucial to defending and rebuilding democracy. If you haven’t already, make a plan to cast your vote.

Thank you to the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation for an amazingly informative and supportive symposium this weekend! 🙏🩵 If you or a loved one is fighting #mesothelioma, please check out the foundation, attend support groups & get advice on doctors, clinical trials & more. curemeso.org

Javan slow lorises (Nycticebus javanicus) are arboreal, nocturnal, omnivorous, slow-moving, and VENOMOUS! Because of their inability to leap, they need vines and lianas to connect from tree to tree. Heavily hunted for the illegal pet trade and their body parts. Critically Endangered.

Secretary Kennedy presents a clear and present danger to the American people and their families. This week, even more of our colleagues in the fields of medicine, public health and patient advocacy join us in calling for his resignation. Our full statement: https://bit.ly/42zItEV

Hey, I know books are expensive and money is tight right now. But if there's a brand new book you really wanna read — including my own Lessons in Magic and Disaster — you can help get the book into way more hands by requesting it from your local library! It's easy! Check your library's website.

My art shop has a collection of my original bird art. Good news for buyers in the USA, your art will be sent duty paid, and art is exempt from the tariffs! folksy.com/shops/thewee... #Birds #BirdArt #BirdDrawing #OriginalArt #Drawing #Painting #Artwork #ArtFromScotland #GiftIdeas #ArtShop #bsnm

While government workers go without pay, after 9 months of following Vought’s plan to dismantle government because we “can’t afford” to research cures for cancer or support kids who need services to succeed in school, Trump is tearing down part of the White House to build himself a gilded ballroom.

I am seeing this play out first hand. Federal investment in science has made many a billionaire. While some are rising to meet the moment, the sheer number of those cowering has been astounding. At some point, I will name the names of those who made their money and then watched it all burn down.

Happy International Gibbon Day! #Primates

NEW STUDY PUBLISHED IN NATURE: People who got an mRNA COVID vaccine within ~3 months before or after starting immunotherapy for cancer lived longer overall than those who didn’t get the vaccine. www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025...

Anyone looking for an undergrad research assistant this coming summer? I have a truly phenomenal undergrad with expertise in genetic mapping, long read sequencing & bioinformatics who wants experience in another lab before grad school. She has been in our lab for 3 years & writing her first paper!

New paper on fear of novelty in birds: 129 collaborators, 82 institutions, 24 countries, and 6 continents! 5 from the lab of Dr @laurenguillette.bsky.social (also featuring Connor Lambert, Stefan Stanescu, Karen Yeung, and Dr Ben Whittaker) @ba-whittaker.bsky.social dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...

I want more people to care that SNAP benefits are being cut off on November 1. 40% of SNAP beneficiaries are children. This is callous and vile.

Very timely special issue! If you’re working on how human altered environments impact social cognition (social learning, decisions in a context, communication…) or how social cognition can help deal with the challenges and opportunities of human altered environnements, consider submitting!

Eliminating DEI & hiring your friends www.science.org/content/arti...

Heres @hankgreen.bsky.social explaining more about the election I’m spamming everyone about — Find your precinct: mvp.sos.ga.gov/s/ (x for video: www.instagram.com/reel/DQIPIrH...)

Happy Mole Day for all who celebrate

Food banks need money if you’ve got it. For everything else, contact them and ask—some can take donated meat by hunters or eggs from backyard flocks, some can’t.

Calling all artists! 🧑‍🎨🎨 We are running a t-shirt design competition - craft some primate artwork and submit it to us by the 1st October. The winning design will be sold on our online store, with generated funds used to support our work promoting primate conservation, research and captive care. See 🧵

Once again, EVERY R1 research university depends on federal funding for ~15-25% of its budget. You simply can't unplug the largest or 2nd-largest source of $$ of every R1 university & expect it not to have devastating consequences for graduate education, which will spill over to undergrad education.

Cancelled surveys, suppressed publications, hidden data: the Trump administration is continuing to hack and slash its way through the entire enterprise of science within the federal government. Here’s a snapshot of the attacks on science that we saw during September: