Don't use LLMs for ANYTHING. Not your grants, not your papers. NOTHING. You were hired because of your mind. Use it for god's sake

In retrospect, rolling over at 5 am without investigation when I heard the 4yo quietly wandering around turns out to have been a mistake 🤦‍♀️🫠

the economic success of the U.S. is significantly built on the land grant universities and in particular their excellent agricultural science tradition.

I so miss Baltimore and the characters that live there. Buzz is a hero.

This is so, so cool. Vibrio cholerae reaching out and grabbing environmental DNA.

If the sandwich don’t split, you must acquit

Someday I will not have to write about Sarepta Therapeutics and their ineffective drugs that never should have been approved by the FDA in the first place. This is not that day.

Did not expect one of the best paragraphs I’d read about baseball would come from an Irish newspaper www.irishexaminer.com/sport-column...

Good morning from Seattle, apparently we are already in winter sunrise season.

Ohtani killing it and the Dodgers losing is basically a perfect game

Out at my favorite pub with just my 7yo, watching the World Series (though he’s cheering for the Dodgers… ). Radiohead playing on the stereo, cold sour in hand. This is the parenting I signed up for and a grand evening. Go Jays 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🙌🙌🙌

The Maldives 🇲🇻 became the first country in the world to eliminate mother to child transmission of: -HBV -HIV -Syphilis #IDSky www.who.int/news/item/13...

NEW learning module on Syphilis in Pregnancy/Congenital Syphilis from the UW-hosted National STD Curriculum - excellent learning, free CME… #IDSky #MedSky www.std.uw.edu/go/comprehen...

I like this. Since under RFK Jr, Covid shots are now for people with underlying conditions that put them at risk, Michigan’s chief medical executive Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian states that not having the most recent Covid shot constitutes such an underlying condition. www.michigan.gov/mdhhs/inside...

It just gets more embarrassing every day.

“Treatment with one dose of 2.4 million units of benzathine penicillin G was noninferior to treatment with three doses with regard to serologic response 6 months after treatment.” NEJM keeping the focus on syphilis. www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

After 20 years, I’ve never been this ambivalent heading back to America, never been so demoralized or anxious. I’m so grateful to have been able to recenter. …Think I’ll go out to Alberta/ the weather’s good there in the fall….

“You are here to learn to ride a bicycle, not to invent a bicycle.” 🚲🧪 Read my story in Science Magazine on how I dealt with my "Mid-PhD Crisis". www.science.org/content/arti... @science.org @sciencecareers.bsky.social #ScienceWorkingLife #AcademicChatter #AcademicTwitter #ScienceTwitter

Possibility of locally acquired malaria. In the PNW. I think I’ve hit my infectious disease news limit today already.

🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ Measles capital of the developed world. “The percentage of 7-year-olds who had been fully vaccinated against measles in Alberta dropped to 72 percent in 2024 from about 80 percent in 2019. The province has a distinct culture that emphasizes personal freedom.” www.nytimes.com/2025/08/07/w...

Just stood outside my local bookstore in the rain until it opened so I could get a copy before it even made it onto the shelves. Can’t wait to spend some time reading and bearing witness on this 80th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.

Gates Foundation pledges $2.5 billion to women’s health initiatives www.statnews.com/2025/08/04/b...

WSJ story about OMB blocking NIH spending and grant making www.wsj.com/politics/pol... 1/n

Instant classic. Trey Parker and Matt Stone deserve a Pulitzer. www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv...

Always such a literal breath of fresh air to get home.

Living a few blocks from Seward Park, there is nothing more chilling on a summer afternoon than the sirens of the fire dept racing down to the lake. *Please* wear a life jacket….

Fantastic postdoc position at Sanger developing new techniques to study syphilis and develop a vaccine. Applicants from outside the UK encouraged. Cutting edge cell biology, microscopy and genomics. Can personally vouch for this being great science with absolutely terrific people.

In "Doonesbury," Andy Lippincott died 35 years ago, on May 24, 1990. Andy was not only the first openly gay character in newspaper comics but also the first one to die of AIDS. Here is that strip and the ensuing sequence:

An example of the disruption to science caused by the NSF’s 15% overhead dictate: At the University of Washington, all newly awarded NSF grants are now on hold indefinitely with no advance spending allowed.

Also they canceled the NIH AVIDD grants that were……. Developing new antivirals to RNA viruses, including the measles virus 🤯🤦‍♀️

Truly the cherry on top of Carney’s win.

Just the best news. I’m now a die hard @brucefanjoy.bsky.social fan. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

CDC contracts to develop novel, much-needed #syphilis point of care tests have been suspended.

A patient with poorly controlled HIV infection was found to have two different strains of 𝘛𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘮𝘢 𝘱𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘥𝘶𝘮. Careful evaluation showed evidence for recombination between these two organisms. Read the full correspondence: nej.md/3Y03J4w #MedSky #IDSky #Genetics

The story of a patient with uncontrolled HIV and widely disseminated syphilis caused by two recombining Treponema pallidum strains. /1 www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

Even accepting the premise that AI produces useful writing (which no one should), using AI in education is like using a forklift at the gym. The weights do not actually need to be moved from place to place. That is not the work. The work is what happens within you.

The elimination of the CDC National STD Reference Laboratory has been horrific. We have lost the ability to monitor antimicrobial resistance for gonorrhea, which has become hesitant to nearly all treatment options. We need this lab to keep America healthy. www.change.org/p/protect-th...

ASTDA statement on elimination of the CDC STD Reference Laboratory: “These abrupt and unexplained cuts in the absence of a clear plan to address the resulting gaps will have significant negative consequences for the American people.” www.astda.org/statement-fr...

Well this seems like a fantastic plan. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/04/h...

This version has the historical narrative to open, and celebrates the role of Woody and the song in preserving the memory. Includes a recitation of the names of those lost, previously “just deportees”. www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxsP...

The opening lines to Springsteen's next album.

🧵1/ With rising STI rates across the U.S., the very programs that protect us were slashed. Cuts to CDC’s Division of STD Prevention gut a system built to stop syphilis, gonorrhea, HIV, and more. Here’s what we’re losing and why it matters to everyone. #IDSky #PublicHealthSky

I work with this group. They are indispensable and need to be reinstated immediately.

“A lot of people perceive scientific research as prestigious — the smartest minds working under pristine conditions with seemingly limitless resources. In reality, it’s grueling work fueled almost entirely by devotion.”

The antiviral programs have had stunning success developing drugs for a range of RNA viruses. How unbelievably short sighted. What a waste.

#standupforscience excellent turnout Seattle 🙌🔥🔥🔥

Just received a very, VERY well-timed paper acceptance. 🎉🎉🎉 Grateful to be able to celebrate some good news amid the ongoing dumpster fire.

I will never forget the photo of Zelenskyy’s face after he saw Russia’s war crimes in Bucha in 2022. He seemed to age years in an afternoon. Watching him constantly cross the world asking for aid that should have been thrown at him is one of the deepest shames of our age.

Really pleased to share our new method developed @sangerinstitute.bsky.social in collaboration with colleagues at NICD (South Africa) and BRTI (Zimbabwe) which offers a potential solution for genomic surveillance in low-resource settings. www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...