Very excited to get to update my signature today!

Another monarch sighting!

Do these stats look reasonable?

So for folks who have published in open access journals, what a reasonable vs unreasonable publication fee? They all seem super expensive to me.

How I imagine I'm going to feel when all my revisions are done, lol.

Defense presentation: Done! 😅 Orals: Unconditionally passed! 🙌 Thanks to all the support of my lab mates, committee, friends, and family!

Current state of my upcoming talk:

1) it’s true!! 2) I know many of you, like me, desperately wish for a house/yard for this but ✨ you can container garden native plants ✨ if sun ever touches your apt patio/porch/area outside your door that people will begrudgingly accept you using OR guerrilla garden nearby disturbed land patches

WE HAVE A MONARCH CATERPILLAR ON OUR MILKWEED!

Not sure who made this but thank you because I laughed so much

Lots of people on my feed are concerned about the destruction of NOAA by the Trump administration and Elon Musk, but much of what I’ve seen people post about is the national weather service. That’s vital, but NOAA does so much more than that! My latest, for @ucsusa.bsky.social 🧪🌎🦑🐠

"Postdoctoral Position in AbioticStress Tolerance at University of Nebraska Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA" Read more here: https://arabidopsis.org/news/jobs/view?file=Nebraska_4-30-25.pdf #PlantSciJobs

Harmful algal blooms are preceded by a predictable and quantifiable shift in the oceanic microbiome www.nature.com/articles/s41... #jcampubs 🌊

Maybe someone just got the wrong memo and though the Declaration of Independence was a to do list and the Constitution a list of complaints? Can someone in Congress correct this mistake?

New article by @greenphilly.bsky.social covers some Philly area folks using social media for the greater good (Skype a Scientist is in there!) Read all about it here greenphl.com/lifestyle/tu...

Nice writeup in @cenmag.bsky.social about WashU's bird flu sensor. Still looking for farming partners to help fund stress tests on the device! #AgSky #AvianFlu 🩺 🧪 It needs to holdup in the dirty dirty air found in animal housing. cen.acs.org/analytical-c...

Please enjoy part 3 of my series with @brettfavaro.bsky.social on speaking to journalists as a scientist. Today we focus on press releases, their role in the science-media ecosystem, and your role as a scientist in writing and approving them. Please share. 🧪 #SciComm

Here's part two of my series with @brettfavaro.bsky.social on tips for speaking to journalists as a scientist, this week focusing on things every scientist should know about how interviews work (and do not work). Please read and share! www.southernfriedscience.com/advice-for-t... 🧪#SciComm

Please enjoy part 1 of a series of blog posts written by myself and @brettfavaro.bsky.social offering our advice on how scientists can effectively speak with jouranlists about our areas of expertise. Part 2 is coming next week. Please read and share! www.southernfriedscience.com/advice-for-t... 🧪

This satirical blog post I wrote is still so relevant and amusing. Lots of linguistic "Easter eggs" for the discerning reader, too. biologistsgarden.net/2018/03/27/c...

Basic science FTW

Details on the science march in Raleigh!

The National Science Foundation benefits communities in every state.

Are any of my NC colleagues participating in this?

So has *anyone* heard back about NSF Post-doctoral Research Fellowships in Biology? Mine is still listed as "pending". I'm trying to figure out if I haven't heard because I'm out of the running, or simply because the NSF is a hot mess right now.

If your boss or company tells you to do something unethical: don't say yes. Make them write it down.

Dr. Gloria McCutcheon is a retired professor of #entomology; Dr. McCutcheon studied pests of soybean and other vegetable crop pests and human health disparities! kaltura.clemson.edu/media/t/1_79... #28DaysOfBlackSTEMResearch #BlackHistoryMonth

Boosting to #SciArt #Invertebrates #BugSky

I wrote about NASA, its people and the mission to connect us. slate.com/technology/2...

Hello, internet! Things are bad for our trans & queer friends in the US, so I teamed up with bsky's nature artists to create this pack containing 80 wallpapers and growing. 1. Donate to one of the two orgs below 2. DM me your receipt 3. I'll give you a download link Valid til the end of the month

Hey if anyone is considering backing up any datasets for some reason today, the Open Science Framework has free storage up to 5G/private repository, and up to 50G/public repository. (The OSF is run by a 501c3 (Center for Open Science), so if you do this you might also consider making a donation.)

One chapter of my dissertation off for revision by my committee, three (or four) more to go!

This is a fun idea for a way to learn plant taxonomy!

3D print files to build plant and animal cells for teaching and demonstration: www.printables.com/model/51034-...

I managed to do a bit of "home microbiology" over the holidays in the form of attempting homemade pineapple vinegar. Current status: it smells like a boozy pirate ship.

Five years ago, I made an ocean Advent Calendar, inspired by @drcraigmc.bsky.social ’s post about marine animals with holiday-ish names. I posted this thread on the social-that-shall-not-be-named, so here it is again in all its crafty glory #craftsky

Build instructions for DIYNAFLUOR, a $40 fluorimeter for DNA quantification - uses 3D printed filter cube, LED source, TSL2591 sensor, cheap 10mm square bandpass filters - with full protocols for SYBR Safe dye measurements github.com/traulab/DIYN... and www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Today was a day ups and downs. The elevator broke and I had to carry my cart and all my gear down the stairs, but I harvested the last of a LOOOONG series of experiments on ISS-level eCO2 and microgreens.

Happy Solstice!

Algae use the underwater light spectrum to sense depth #marineecology #Phytoplankton www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Please like and repost this so @hankgreen.bsky.social has to give @garlab.bsky.social a shout out for #GarWeek (we love you Hank)

I should add that the end goal is 16S sequencing of the root community. I don't want to waste money sequencing samples with no/poor bacterial DNA. Please, share to widen the range of folks who might be able to give advice.

I extracted bacterial DNA from Arabidopsis roots and did a 16S PCR. I got very strong clear bands on my gel, but they 150 pb too small. I'm worried that these bands are actually plastid or mitochondrial DNA from the plant root tissue. Any advice from #plantbiology or #microbiology folks?

This is the content I come here for.

Late-breaking job ad: The Department of Plant and Microbial Biology at North Carolina State University (Raleigh, NC, USA) is hiring a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Plant Evolutionary Biology!!! More details below. Please repost!

Solid dissertation writing advice:

This is so cool!

In one year, I genetically engineered the boring Arabidopsis into a beautiful ornamental flower 🧬🌹 Here is how and why I gave this model organism a visual upgrade 🧵(1/7)

To celebrate the closing of my first year as a PI, I present the drastically miss-sized things I have ordered next to what I was trying to order, a thread. #sciencesky #neuroskyence #neuroscience Up first...Rosie the wrench. Silver lining torque is amazing and we now have a lab mascot.