If, like me, today’s horrors left you feeling more untethered than usual, read this. It will ground you.

Trump cuts and uncertainties regarding the operation of the UNOLS oceanographic fleet headlines story of unraveling of decades of investment in Earth observations and research and loss of US scientific leadership. Gift link: wapo.st/4jcO6Qp

A new paper out with @oahern.bsky.social (@mblscience.bsky.social) and @julesdeep.bsky.social (@whoi.edu) examines how energy dissipation can be used to predict food web structure of microbial communities. A short description and a link to the paper can be found here: www.mbl.edu/news/energy-...

I’ll likely have to take cough breaks to sip my tea & blow my nose, as the plague & I are @agu.org but I hope you’ll join me at 1030 Wednesday for my lecture. I’ll talk about Carson’s impact on science & my career, subseafloor life, microbial ecosystem services, & science storytelling! #AGU25

The best way to spread deep-sea cheer is by sending tubeworm videos to those you hold dear. 🎁 Tubeworms like these Oasisia alvinae are abundant at hydrothermal vents at depths of 3,700 meters (12,140 feet) in the Pescadero Basin, located off the east coast of Mexico’s Baja California.

Job Opening **ASSISTANT PROFESSOR MARINE ECOLOGY**, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Rhode Island. jobs.uri.edu/postings/15960

Winogradsky Columns after 8 weeks of growth showing nice development of purple and green (yellowish here) sulfur bacteria that are anaerobic phototrophs. The columns are used in the microbial methods course taught in the Semester in Environmental Science Program @mblscience.bsky.social

Congratulations to WHOI's @julesdeep.bsky.social, who was recently selected to deliver the prestigious @agu.org Rachel Carson Lecture. The award recognizes women whose work in ocean science is both cutting-edge and deeply relevant to today’s societal & environmental challenges: go.whoi.edu/Huber

Fantastic news! Julie Huber @julesdeep.bsky.social was just awarded the prestigious Rachel Carson Lecture by @agu.org! Not only well deserved, but also a fitting tribute. Rachel Carson was one of Julie’s childhood heroes that guided her path. Congratulations Julie!! 🎉🙌 www.whoi.edu/press-room/n...

SES students got to measure bacterial production in their Winogradsky Columns using radioactive 14C-Leucine yesterday! My favorite lab! ☢️🦠❤️

The GRFP lives!! (due end of October) www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

A beautiful day for a field trip to Little Sippewissett Marsh for the annual construction of Winogradsky columns for the Microbial Methods course in the Semester in Environmental Science program @mblscience.bsky.social Purple sulfur bacteria at low tide 🦠💜

After learning it would be evicted from its current headquarters and left in limbo about its future home, the National Science Foundation appears headed to new digs just down the street—and soon. https://scim.ag/4p1zzto

Interesting. If you're a scientist who publishes, your papers are likely in the database.

Beyond the Second Law: Darwinian Evolution as a Tendency for Entropy Production to Increase www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/27... or, to a faster heat death of the universe, use life!

Our opinion piece is hot off the presses! Cutting science funding has profound implications for STEM education & training & will negatively impact the San Diego region. TAKE ACTION by calling your congressional reps & demand no cuts to science funding! #StandUpForScience 🧪 tinyurl.com/ywxkvv25

I chased this all day: UCLA research grants suspended after Trump administration faulted campus for antisemitism calmatters.org/education/hi...

Check out "the deepest and the most extensive chemosynthesis-based communities known to exist on Earth" - methane seeps along Russia's NE coast, down to a depth of 9500 meters! 😮 It's amazing that such incredible ecosystems remain to be found in the deep sea... www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Superb!

A quick update re NIH and NSF terminated grant tracking: Grant Watch has a new name! We're now called **Grant Witness** You can find us at grant-witness.us Please update your bookmarks and spread the word! 🙏 (And no, this wasn't our preference, but trademarks are a thing. 🤦‍♂️🤷‍♂️)

Anyone know someone, or a company, that can analyze brackish pond water (0.3%) samples for simple substrates (specifically, glucose, xylose, acetate, ethanol, and methanol) in the 0 to 200 micromolar range? The number samples is between 15 to 100 depending on cost per sample.

Excellent piece on keeping US as maritime leader and ocean science is vital to national security. 🧪🌊https://wapo.st/4kMAcUs

There is a new, rather detailed and annotated "Statement of Solidarity and Support" out called "The NASA Voyager Declaration" regarding the current state of affairs at #NASA. It is modeled after similar efforts by employees at #EPA and #NIH nasawatch.com/activism/the...

Preaching to the choir here, but if you've been living under a rock, this👇 "In the past six months, the Trump administration has systematically and recklessly undermined federal science. Read the new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists here:" act.ucsusa.org/Trump6Months

reminder of amazing fellowship opportunity!

This was a very scary but incredibly positive experience for me-connecting to the deeply personal, funny, & scary parts of our scientific journeys. I encourage you to listen as intended- full long form radio, with host @jayall.bsky.social & live music. Links at end of article. #stemstories @prx.org

Some personal news…

NASA ROSES-2025 released today science.nasa.gov/researchers/...

Under Trump, NOAA ran the most recent competition for their highly prestigious postdoc program in climate and global change — but funded no one, wasting huge amounts of applicant and reviewer time. It gets a lot worse. Now current postdocs in the program are going unpaid.

From @lauraatran.bsky.social in The Scientist-- www.the-scientist.com/fantastic-mi...

The Lucky Engine: Probabilistic Emergence and Persistence of Near-Maximum Dissipation States "... there are simply more numerous quasi-steady microstates ... that are near the maximum ... dissipation rate ... than there are far from it, and so it is more probable..." doi.org/10.3390/e270...

good take on the current state of the State attack on scientific infrastructure by @joshuasweitz.bsky.social joshuasweitz.substack.com/p/on-sticks-...

WTF!!

#AcademicSky 🧪

Breaking news: The National Institutes of Health has ceased terminating grants on politically sensitive topics after a federal judge ruled last week that the cancellations were illegal. scim.ag/4l9MO8Y

👇🏿👇🏿👇🏿👇🏿👇🏿👇🏿

One of those magical clips that somehow gets funnier on each successive viewing. The doofus riding on top; the "important" guy walking alongside the tank; the half-empty grandstands; the wheels squeaking along on an otherwise silent street. You might not like it, but this is ART.

Make sure to attend a No Kings March this Saturday near you!! You can find out where here (Stop this coup!) www.nokings.org

To the 🐐 of hydrothermal vent microbiology! Happy Birthday Julie!! aka @julesdeep.bsky.social Now blow out those black smokers and make a wish! Hope you have a great day! 🌊🌋🦠🎂❤️ "Celebrate the good stuff"

The Ecosystems Center @mblscience.bsky.social celebrates its 50th anniversary! Great to see and catch up with old friends and colleagues! www.mbl.edu/news/mbl-eco...

TIME's annual Ocean issue is now live! Our cover story visits fishing communities in the Philippines confronted with a changing relationship with the sea. Read here: time.com/7289533/phil...

NSF: "Biology, engineering, and education will all be slashed by over 70 percent..." "The fleet of research ships [UNOLS] will essentially become someone else's problem" Contact your representatives, even in blue states, as these cuts can still be stopped! arstechnica.com/science/2025...

In response to the 'skinny' #NASA FY2026 budget the Surface Biology and Geology development team at NASA JPL has been given a stop work order: all travel, subcontracts, & development is to cease. Hearing also that Mars Odyssey and Juno teams will also be getting a stop work order soon.

New report released today on marine carbon dioxide removal #OOSC covering scientific, MRV, environmental, social & governance issues and role of governments in responsible #mCDR R&D 🌊 High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy & WRI oceanpanel.org/publication/...

Join us at 3pm eastern today for a webinar with Vicki Ferrini about seafloor mapping! #seafloor #mapping #NSFFunded #COBRA cobra.bigelow.org/cobra-webina...

Sign the letter here actionnetwork.org/petitions/op...

Support for Ph.D. studies: Simons Graduate Fellowships in Ecology and Evolution Due 31-Jul-2025 "...research that jointly considers processes on both ecological and evolutionary timescales, or that links studies of ecology and evolution to other STEM fields" www.simonsfoundation.org/grant/simons...

Taking the Winogradsky Column on its daily constitutional through the streets of Woods Hole and it wanted to stop by Rachel Carson to wish her a Happy Birthday. Happy birthday Rachel Carson! 🦠👋 #rachelcarson #winogradskycolumn #birthday @mblscience.bsky.social @whoi.edu

Lab's first preprint! #newPI We show that viruses are active agents that recycle carbon fixed by productive chemoautotrophs, shaping our understanding of carbon cycling in redox-active ecosystems. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... @julesdeep.bsky.social @gtrubl.bsky.social @mepjoe.bsky.social

A powerful piece by Daniel Malinsky on why scientists must resist Trump’s authoritarian agenda: “In these times … scientists have a duty to dissent.” We completely agree. Ready to act? Join the #SummerFightForScience now (1/2)➡️ www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...