🪰 Big news! 🪰 My first paper is officially published in The American Naturalist! We found that female Drosophila melanogaster can copy mate choices using only chemical cues - no need to witness mating, just sniff out the pheromones left behind~ doi.org/10.1086/736329 #Drosophila #BehavioralEcology

Additional images from last Friday, a thread:

I had an absolutely wonderful time with the UofM bio graduates tonight! Many of us gathered to search out and identify sp. for the iNaturalist City Nature Challenge~ 😁

When you’re in a rush but your file won’t save. 😬

Hi Bluesky! 👋🏻 Today is Trans Day of Visibility, and I’m a trans nonbinary scientist studying mate choice copying in #Drosophila at the University of Memphis! #TDOV

NEW #DrosLife lab preprint from #FlyLumni/#AlumFly Emily Rakosy, Sanduni Talagala & myself exploring whether egg-laying decisions by #Drosophila females are influenced by social cues made by demonstrators of different degree of "relatedness"! doi.org/10.1371/jour...

First adult progeny have eclosed! One step closer to oenocyte-free #drosophila!

And so the crosses begin. Anyone wanna bet on how quickly I accidentally kill these #drosophila? 😅

Exciting things to come in our little #drosophila lab~

A federal judge ordered the CDC to restore some pages that the Trump admin deleted. The pages were restored today, but they removed terms like transgender and nonbinary, and pinned this discriminatory note to the top of the pages.

Happy v-day from me and the Jimmies.

Shoutout to @sse-evolution.bsky.social for their amazing email “Supporting our Community and our Mission” where they state: “The deletion of public data and reports from governmental websites amounts to book burning and cannot be tolerated.”

Wow, what intricate patterns!!

Ants cooperate selflessly. Here, Eciton burchellii army ants use their bodies to plug “potholes” in their colony’s path. This improves ant traffic flow, as it allows thousands of their sisters to run smoothly overhead.

Unfortunately, leaving the country just isn’t possible for us at the moment. We are pivoting back to our original plan to get my wife and daughter to a sanctuary state. We have located an apartment that is reasonably priced. Will update moving costs soon. #trans #nonbinary #queer #gofundme

Somewhere between these two, my spirit lies.

The individuals that I am posting about accomplished more than I can fit into a single Bluesky post. Please read their wikis or do independent research to learn more.

Happy #blackhistorymonth! “Alice Augusta Ball was an American chemist who developed the "Ball Method" for making ethyl ester derivatives of chaulmoogra oil, which were used as a treatment for leprosy during the early 20th century.” en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_B...

Happy #blackhistorymonth! “Dr. Jane C. Wright was a pioneering oncology researcher and professor of surgery. She discovered methotrexate, and developed a chemotherapy protocol that increased skin cancer patient lifespans by up to ten years.” en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_C....

Happy Black History Month! “Dr. Wangari Muta Maathai became the first African female recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. She is renowned for her dedication to conservation of the environment and human rights. [She] founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977.” en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wangar%...

Happy Black History Month! “Katherine Johnson was an American mathematician whose calculations of orbital mechanics as a NASA [aerospace technologist] were critical to the success of the first and subsequent U.S. crewed spaceflights.” en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katheri...

The leafcutter ants at Brackenridge field lab in Austin are busy this afternoon. #ant

The last few weeks have felt like a haze. I am a trans person married to a trans woman with a trans daughter. How am I supposed to care about academics when I fear for my family? Academics, what is your advice? #trans #graduateschool #academics

It’s a real scary time to be a trans scientist.

Post your current read: Bitch: On the Female of the Species by Lucy Cooke

Collaborating with @rin-krichilsky.bsky.social and Kanako Shimizu, we put together what's basically a top-ten list of ways to help foster trans inclusivity and awareness within our scientific and academic communities and would love if you could help share the guide!

Applications for the next round of Graduate Student Research Awards (GSRAs) are now being accepted! More info here: systbio.org/graduate-stu... Apply here: app.smarterselect.com/programs/985... Deadline is Feb 28, 2025 by 17:00 PM US EST.

First experiments of the semester completed, introducing more questions than answers. 😅 #gradlife #PhD

Day 27483837363 of writing data notes anywhere but where they should be. #gradlife

We are 1wk from the start of the Spring semester at the University of Memphis and my 4th semester as a PhD student. As they say, time flies when you’re tending, well, um…flies! 🪰

Have you ever seen a stink bug flip itself over?

“Conservation is a cause that has no end. There is no point at which we will say our work is finished.” —Rachel Carson

Happy Holidays from all of us in the Kohlmeier Lab at UofM!! May in the new year we be filled with curiosity, wisdom, discernment for our research, and a deep appreciation for the wonders of the natural world. ⭐️