Me submitting yet another NSF proposal that is not going to get funded.

About to submit yet ANOTHER NSF proposal focused on taxonomy. It's the same proposal I've submitted over the past few years, dressed up different to satisfy reviewers who think that more data (aka genomes) actually means more resolution for understudied taxa...when it actually doesn't.

Yahtzee! Live trematode sporocysts squirming around inside the mantle of blue mussels collected in Rhode Island. With the amount of people who slurp up mussels raw, it's amazing that this species haven't added humans to their vertebrate host repertoire. #parasites #parasitology #seafood

Last year I wrote about northward return of screwworm, banishment of which was a USDA/US-C. America collab triumph. What has put that @ risk (w/a case just found in Texas)? Guess. Or read on. Plus you'll quickly grasp why we really, really don't want screwworm anywhere. www.salon.com/2025/04/28/w...

🧵 Public science in the US has taken some heavy hits over the last year, but the White House OMB is proposing a series of changes that will result in a TKO for science as we know it unless we fight back. Here's what's happening, and why it matters. 1/n

As a New Yorker I always held steadfast that we have the best #pizza in the country. And I think that claim still holds but since I moved to New England four years ago, the New Haven pies have seriously impressed me.

I like transparent and open datasets. I was able to discover a cool little nugget after replicating a research group's #popgen simulation on gene-flooding and its use in #invasive species control. That's science folks. #invasivespecies #genedrives onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

So I recently signed a publishing contract with Springer-Nature to put together a beginners guide textbook on using Python for Ecological Analyses...geared specifically towards undergraduates with no prior coding experience. I'm deep into chapter 1 and by god what did I get myself into 😬 #python

I understand eDNA is the hot and sexy thing to do in biodiversity research now. But so many of the papers I'm reading and grant proposals I'm reviewing have loads of exaggerated claims, inferential gaps and just flawed study designs. #eDNA #taxonomy #badscience

Received my NSF proposal reviews this morning (which was not funded....again). A panelist was concerned that relying solely on undergrads would hinder progress. How do I reframe my proposal to let these plebians know that undergrads have pushed my lab forward more than any grad student ever did?

My recent piece on the problem of relying too heavily on PCR for identifying parasites in a clinical context.

If you think parasites are cool and are the true rulers of our planet, I have a new book coming out that will solidify that argument. Unveiling my first popular science book due out in December. #parasites #parasitology #popularscience #SciComm cup.columbia.edu/book/puppet-...

Weakening the type concept and giving species names to genetically distinct clusters are not just cardinal sins of #systematics - it's bad science. Here, we argue why such a proposal that was put forward a few months ago, should be ignored. #DNAbarcoding #crypticspecies doi.org/10.1098/rsbl...

Yes our country is falling apart and yes these are terrible times. But a small inkling of joy: In June, my first ever novella, The Harvest, will be published by Black Hare Press. It's of the #horror genre, and my first ever work of fiction. :) blackharepress.com/products/the...

📉 FY2026 is worse. NIH has made 10,195 awards so far. NSF has made 613. Six hundred thirteen. Congress appropriated the money. The agencies are not spending it. Grant freezes. NOFO collapse. Staff RIFs. Review cancellations. You can win the budget fight and still lose the funding war.

Some scientists reflected on their values and said no. www.science.org/content/arti...

Obsessed with Punch the snow monkey? Me too! I spoke to @npr.org for their Short Wave science podcast about what's going on and gave some insight into snow monkey culture 💜🐒

I've been developing a new python package that I'm calling "Geneland". It takes DNA sequence data or a precomputed distance matrix (if using RAD-Seq) along with GPS coordinates and outputs an interpolated genetic landscape surface. Similar to Alleles in Space (but prettier). #popgen #evoldir #python

Clearly some cloud seeding has been going on. This is the most snow Rhode Island has ever received since the blizzard of ‘78. #oceanstate #wintryfun

Classes cancelled and Providence, Rhode Island is expected to get a hefty two feet of snow. Will be hunkering down with this beautiful lady for the next 48 hrs #winterstorm #oceanstate

What a week. But pleased to share new #fish #biogeography paper by PhD student Bryson Hilburn on southeastern stream captures (🐟not 🐿️) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

My recent piece in the Chronicle. I know many other faculty members and colleagues feel the same way. #academia #highereducation #actuallearning

The Natural History Museum Denmark seeks a Tenure-track Assistant Professor & Curator in Bryology. Applications due by Mar 23, 2026. More info: https://employment.ku.dk/tenure-track/?show=156070 #job

Environmental DNA is cool but to make a giant inferential leap from biodiversity monitoring to population-level inferences is fool's gold. Technological novelty is killing pure science. #popgen #randomthoughts

I know NSF has been gutted in terms of personnel but FFS...I didn't know how bad it was. Literally no one in the IT Help Desk can help me solve a simple problem with research.gov. SMFH...UGH.

In #popgen, I have students work with short DNA barcodes. They hate having to fetch them from GenBank using the "front door" and none of them code. So, I created a GUI that retrieves COI data for any species and compiles it into FASTA file. I'll be hosting the installer on my github account.

IYKYK

Woke up this morning to an email from IBM stating that my proposal was accepted. Essentially I get to analyze population genetic data on an actual quantum computer---and compare those results with what we find using classical computing. #popgen #bravenewworld #quantumcomputing

Chris Madel Republican candidate for Minnesota Governor: “I can’t look my daughters in the eye & say I’m running as a Republican, when they’re pulling over Hispanics & Asians because of the color of the skin — I did not sign up for that”

It's really too bad the United States Congress no longer exists.

Snowstorm, a cat and his favorite author #rhodeisland #sundaymorningblues

Another Gestapo murder in Minnesota. Six agents wrestle someone to the ground and then shoot him in the back www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

If you are considering doing genomic research on children... don't. We are not yet able to prevent significant harm to participants and society.

Remember that article that came out sometime last year in Frontiers in Psychiatry, where the author claimed that #parasites can cause heightened sexual aggression in humans? It moved around on social media even though it was nonsense. Here's my response: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

The lab looks like a pigsty which is clearly a reflection of my personality since all my research students are working on bioinformatics projects…so there is no reason to be on the bench. #springsemester #davinackmarineinvertebratelab

It’s been three years since I moved to New England and it’s still weird that people are still so freaked out about incoming snow. There are notifications everywhere warning people of wintry conditions. Like bro, it’s January….

These two furballs. #cats

For my #popgen nerds out there, I've finished building a Python package called hapnet - an easy to use, straight out the box tool for building #haplotype networks. Just plug your data in, run a single line of code and voila! A pretty color coded network. Still beta testing! pypi.org/project/hapn...

Upcoming preprint on arXiv. I've started applying quantum algorithms to population genetic data. Might be a dead end, might be something to it. Only one way to find out.

Angry seas in the #oceanstate today

It's rare to find me speechless but this morning I found out that my horror novella was accepted by an independent niche publisher. The story is called The Harvest, and is set in the Adirondacks. It's largely folk horror with a sprinkle of Lovecraftian imagery. #horror #lovecraft #firststory

Just signed my first book contract with Columbia University Press! It’s going to be a popular science book about #parasites. Details to come soon 🥳

We are cooked #nsf #dystopia

Fresh new preprint from the Davinack Lab. We tracked Polydora websteri infestation in eastern oysters for a year in an estuarine habitat with restricted tidal flow. #wormwednesday

Last week I helped lead an informative workshop on mud-blister disease and how it's affecting oysters on Cape Cape cod. Meeting with farmers and growers puts my research into a translational perspective, something that I have been focusing on much more recently. #polychaetes #aquaculture #newengland

We have overcome near-death experiences before. We shall overcome this one too. Not by denying we are in a constitutional crisis. We are. But we can and will prevail if we face the truth unflinchingly and never abandon the long twilight struggle against evil. open.substack.com/pub/roberthu...

Blustery day in Cape Cod, sampling Polydora infested oysters.

A number of federal agencies, from HHS to the USDA, have laid off employees only to rescind those terminations days later. An expert says it "suggests something about mismanagement of government."

The first university creditor bends the knee. ABET, the accrediting body for engineering programs, is removing DEIA (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility) standards from its accreditation requirements. 🧪 #AcademicSky www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-t...

My honors student and I are developing a mobile app to help Cape Cod oyster farmers estimate the level of Polydora worm infestation in their crops throughout the growing season based on water quality inputs. Our main issue is that we more data to train our model! #polychaetes #shellfish #diseases