What was the hardest part of grad school for you? Was it having a kid, the thesis defense? I told them nope, it was being the only & the first. The only Inupiaq at UW Madison for most of my years there, one of 250 Natives on a campus of over 40K, the first Native to earn a PhD in my program🧵

"World's first potential trillionaire has killed 600,000 people, including 400,000 children" is the only headline that anyone should ever read about Elon Musk

There is something deeply broken about an economy that creates trillionaires while people get buried under the cost of living and 42 million go hungry. The ultra-rich should realize that my Billionaires Income Tax, aimed at ensuring they pay their fair share, represents the moderate path forward.

Great to see this finally published! Metalog: curated and harmonised contextual data for global metagenomics samples now out in @narjournal.bsky.social academic.oup.com/nar/advance-...

Me finding out @zohrankmamdani won. Captured by the great Faraz Ansari

Poop happens 🤣

And today in Microbiome News: "there is a “high potential” that fecal matter and disease-causing organisms have entered the town’s infrastructure." www.sfgate.com/renotahoe/ar...

Best audiobook I have listened to in ages. I had read the book many times but not recently. The book is so good …

He looks like a natural pitcher.

Right now this is my favorite @inaturalist.bsky.social observation www.inaturalist.org/observations...

OH MY GOD WHAT A PLAY

I love Guerrero's reaction to that working out. Woohoo! #GoJays

Fun: Calif. woman was on brink of death after swallowing toxic Lake Tahoe water, per claim www.sfgate.com/bayarea/arti...

I encourage you to read the replies to this post, even — especially — if you did not know Zara.

Updated the helmet a bit ...

I bet you Caan keep at it all day. I think I heard you say "you can't make me quit"...

Truth

"Jonathan, there's one thing you ought to know, and nobody's said it, but I'm sure of it. They're afraid of you, Jonathan. All the way to the top, they are." - Cletus, in Rollerball

I am indeed Jonathan E

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.

Took a series of pics from to make a panorama of a collection of curlews in Woodland, CA. I then stiched them in Adobe Lightroom, exported the panoramic pic to iMovie, & used the "Ken Burns Effect" to make this video from the pic. youtu.be/ZJmsxBXcxng?... #birds

Was at Moss Landing for a project on sea otters. More on that later. I also took tons of pics of terns and I kept just missing them catching food. Or so I thought. I got back this afternoon and discovered this series. I never knew this was in their diet. #Birds

And here's the pics separately. Forster's tern catching a squid at Moss Landing, CA.

Glad you got multiple pictures, Jonathan. One good tern deserves another.

Was at Moss Landing for a project on sea otters. More on that later. I also took tons of pics of terns and I kept just missing them catching food. Or so I thought. I got back this afternoon and discovered this series. I never knew this was in their diet. #Birds

Glass Sponge and shrimp commensalism at 1500m

Are you fucking kidding me? Freedy Freeman again.

Kinda pumped for pitching by the center fielder, ngl.

Well you are certainly getting a heaping serving of it tonight!

I LOVE BASEBALL

Being very mindful of things that bring me joy and optimism, and this is for sure one of them. A huge day for @ucdavis.bsky.social: research.ucdavis.edu/andrea-c-alf...

. @cnn.com is telling its "reporters" to stop talking about the fact that the president has destroyed the East Wing to build a ballroom most Americans will never benefit from. Doesn't matter that it's huge news, they don't want them talking about it, presumably because it reflects badly on Trump.

Bobcat at Pt Reyes Wednesday ...

That merely being “under review” by a Nature family journal is offered as a quality proxy for a paper is a tragic illustration of the extent to which academia is addicted to brands and outsources evaluation

Enjoyed reading this. Just FYI, @explore.org has a GRACE gorilla (Eastern DRC) live cam, which is currently on highlights, but still informative and interesting. Best of luck on your work with Gorilla Doctors.

24 hours in Marin County where Gorillas led me to a Bobcat So - I had an incredible 24 hours from Tuesday about noon to Wednesday about noon and going to provide some details here. First, I went in to Marin County on Tuesday AM. I headed there because there was a reception in the evening for…

Go @ucdavis.bsky.social ucdavisaggies.com/news/2025/10...

How adorable (complimentary), the Blue Jays have a special home run jacket. And oh they need it again just as I’m typing!

Bobcat at Pt Reyes Wednesday ...

My earlier substack on this: drkev.substack.com/p/uc-gives-a...

The kids love visiting the campus lammas and other animals. We often visit them on sunday morning walks at the oak grove.

The journal Science covers the UC spyware saga. The UC administrators’ policy assurances are like saying one does not have to lock one’s car because it is illegal for someone to steal the car or its contents. #highereducation 🧪⚛️🔭 #academicsky www.science.org/content/arti...

I am hiring! - looking for a Staff Scientist to co-run my research group with me. Staff Scientist is a senior professional scientist role at EMBL. Please forward to people you might know who could be interested! embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/EMBL/j...

This whole thread! Super accurate reflections on how hard and disincentivizing most #Scicomm is. And we don’t train science students in these strategic comms skills either, but we should!

Lunch today halfway around the world in Hangzhou and met a new asst professor who was very thankful for this resource. Please help out folks like them and other early career scientists with examples of job apps. Submit yours! github.com/RILAB/statem...

I wrote an opinion piece about parental/family leave at UConn. I’m only ~75% happy with it but … something needed to be said. Many things actually. Loudly. Repeatedly. And with as many voices as possible. “This is UConn: Zero paid family leave for professors” ctmirror.org/2025/10/21/t...

My colleague @sarahhird.bsky.social has been fighting for family care leave for over a year now. So impressed with her leadership! ctmirror.org/2025/10/21/t...

For population genetics and evolutionary biology folks in the Bay Area: the next BAPG will be hosted by Stanford CEHG and the Petrov lab at Stanford on 12/6. Registration is free but required. The deadline for talk submission is Nov. 16. Hope to see you soon! Pls RT! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

My life changed when I first read "The Sea Around Us." Rachel Carson's words captured my 13-yr old sense of wonder for a place I barely knew but felt for so deeply, the ocean. Honored to speak to her legacy @agu.org and grateful to my colleagues for the nomination 🌊💙 www.whoi.edu/press-room/n...