message from MN

To my #protistsonsky and 🦑friends, I am co-organizing this meeting: "Midwater Science and Engineering Community" (MidSEC) Conference. If you work with or are interested in midwater protists (radiolaria, foram, deep water coccolithophores, etc) (or animals) it may be of interest to you! midsec.info

"A mathematical biologist is a machine for converting pop tarts into volleyball swings." - Erdös, probably. #AppliedMath #overlyhonestmethods

Spatial Proteomics Workshop for Protists (see more in thread below) Registration Early Bird Monday 22nd June 2026. Regular Monday 10th August 2026. There will be a conference dinner on day 1. To register visit protistology.org.uk/autumn-meeti...

guess who's back, back again. NSF PRFB! if you want to address interesting problems in global change biology and the ever thorny problem of what limits species' elevational ranges, and are interested in a postdoc, please do reach out. www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

Squeeeeeee

Extremophile alert! Registration is OPEN for the 2026 EMBO Archaeal workshop in Cambridge. Spaces are limited, so register soon with an abstract if you’d like to give a talk. If you can’t come in person, we are welcoming virtual attendees. So join us online where all talks will be screened!

We got the 6:30am Dolphin Splash wake up call 🐬💦🌅 #dolphinsplash #dolphin #miamidolphin #dolphinsofcoralcity #wakeupcall #sunrise #630am #coralcity #coralcitycamera #miami #coral #portmiami #biscaynebay

Umm... I still have some learning to do on this cat care thing I think. 🤣🤣🤣 #MeetCapone, the insatiable pit who finally lost his appetite approx. 500 treats later.

So many feelings, mostly that I miss living in a city. #Chicagoing

Thank you @mollyherring.bsky.social for the stunning showcase 😍 Like what you see? Come ExM with us! Let’s flood the internet with microbial marvels 🦠 #ProtistsOnSky #MicroEvoSky 🧪🔬🌍 @dudinlab.bsky.social @centriolelab.bsky.social @moorefound.bsky.social @embl.org @erc.europa.eu @embo.org

Suburban observers say ICE has only been more aggressive since Homan: “I think they’re getting angry that we’re winning and the country is rallying around us. We’re so organized and we act with such integrity. They don’t want to admit they feel threatened by us.” share.google/ei9giIFLsuEJ...

Comparative Genomics of Unicellular Eukaryotes (San Feliu, Spain): Abstract submission is open, with a short deadline! comparativegenomics2026.com Join us as we explore the most diverse, surprising, and still largely uncharted branches of the eukaryotic tree.

New paper out! Here's a puzzle: phototrophy, the ability to use light for energy, is one of life's great innovations. It evolved early and transformed the biosphere. But it evolved 2x. Why not just once, why not more? Our work suggests the answer is priority effects. www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Welcome to day 2 of the 'Curiosity-Driven Dialogue and Collaboration Between Experiment and Theory' workshop! Check out today's lineup of speakers, panels, and more at www.nitmb.org/curiosity-an...

YEEEEEEAAAAAAAAHHHHH! Thanks to all of you who called your representatives, and worked behind and in front of the scenes to keep biomedical science in America from being destroyed. Also: Do not underestimate how much labor went into keeping NIH functional in the face of massive staff cuts.

We’re excited to welcome all participants to the ‘Curiosity-Driven Dialogue and Collaboration Between Experiment and Theory’ workshop! Early-career researchers across disciplines will convene at NITMB today to inspire curiosity and reveal new avenues of collaboration 🔗 to today's schedule ⬇️

NSF GRFP applicants (and mentors): Was your application Returned Without Review and deemed ineligible despite fitting in the allowed topics? 1) Write NSF 2) Write your Congressperson 3) CC us at [email protected] so we can compile + follow up Details and template at grant-witness.us/grfp-letter

Anyway the real heroes of Minnesota are the countless volunteers doing boring shifts where nothing happens. The mom of three delivering food to 40 families in her kids’ school. The dad standing at the door of an elementary with a whistle for hours. The drivers endlessly looping, seeing nothing.

If you are a student whose NSF GRFP application was returned without review for vague 'eligibility' reasons: 1) Let your department chair & Graduate School know. Encourage them to contact NSF & congress 2) Write to your congressional reps. 3) Write to [email protected] to request re-consideration;

So far the theory of "all the invited people heard first thing, and the rest of us are being declined in alphabetical order by last name" is holding up nicely. 😇

Ecologists! Plz share! **ESA abstracts due Feb 19th this year - meeting is last week in July in Salt Lake City** This is a change from our normal first week in August bc this is rescheduled from COVID cancelled 2020 meeting. We're hard at work to prepare a great meeting for you.

How do lipids shape life? I explore this question in my recent talk for the Build-a-Cell 🦠 seminar series. Thanks to @kateadamala.bsky.social for hosting! Watch it here: youtu.be/JnF7hPCiSbI?...

I have a cursed R35 that's gone over a year without review due to messed up NIH policies and shutdown (supposed to be reviewed this week) and I'm still definitely onboard with shutting it all down to rein in DHS lawlessness

This tweet which NIH Director Bhattacharya retweeted raises some interesting points (although perhaps not the ones that they intended). The tweeter notes how AIDS was treated when he started medical school in the San Francisco Bay area in 1988. This is misinformed. Sorry for a long 🧵 1/19

I will stop here but some key points: (1) The early stages of the AIDS epidemic were a pubic health disaster with slow responses that led to many unnecessary deaths. 14/19

First paper acceptance of the year goes to #wundergrad Jonatan Kaare-Rasmussen (a.k.a. cubletito)! Excited to share his work on how fish behavior impacts cleaning station distribution when it's in press at Journal of Theoretical Biology!

Thousands of people filled the streets of downtown Minneapolis in protest of federal immigration enforcement for the second consecutive Friday. 📷️: Aaron Lavinsky

If you couldn't tell, teaching calculus to ecologists is a real joy. You should try it sometime. 🥰

My heart goes out to Priyanga Amarasekare. I don't see justice served with this one-sided Board decision. Is it right to have her reputation & career ruined for being a POC speaking out for equity? Academic freedom is worth protecting. 💔 dailybruin.com

Early Arthropods xkcd.com/3199/

Just Beautiful. 🥹🥹 #saytheirnames #pinks

Heather Cox Richardson giving some context and reminding us to “keep doing the next right thing.” It’s working. m.youtube.com/watch?v=cSC-...

Friends, please help spread the word about our microbiology REU program at Montana State University. www.montana.edu/mbi/reu/ Each student receives a stipend ($7000 for 10 wks). Travel compensation, room, and board are also provided. Details in the attached pic--Feb 14 deadline 🧫🧪🦠#microsky

There's a lot going on right now. But I just want to take a moment to celebrate the recent accomplishments of the truly incredible young scientists I get to work with on a daily basis in my lab. #proudPI Here are some of their recent accomplishments (a thread):

After 3 years working under Putin’s missiles and drones as our Ambassador to Ukraine, I resigned when Trump kept appeasing Putin. The America I proudly served for 28 years does not bow to dictators. It’s not who we are. But the Trump Admin keeps doing exactly that. 1/3

Ooh, now with fancy flyer. Zoom link usc.zoom.us/j/96588553185

Sorry but why did I once fall down a fjord in Norway collecting valuable functional group and carbon emission data if tech overlords were simply going to decide it was fine to hallucinate science into textable reality

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Stay free

Are you anywhere in the world (other than Canada) and want to do a PhD in my lab in Canada at Queen's University? We have a prestigious scholarship for 3-years of PhD funding. Get in touch, applications due early February. Must love plants and evolution! friedmanlab.ca

We're excited to be part of UCSB's efforts here and to finally *actually* work on acquired metabolism in the human gut microbiome! wellcomeleap.org/form/

His immense compassion and courage should remind us all what we owe each other. What an incalculable loss.

Are you looking at me? Are you looking at me? There's nobody else here, so you must be looking at me! #birds 🐣

I wrote about my childhood friend Alexi Pretti. Please read it and share it and remember him as a human being. @theverge.com

This hit so fucking hard today.

The people of Minnesota have executed one of the most impressive civil resistance campaigns I can remember: - Organized a city wide general strike - Maintained nonviolent discipline amidst violence - Mobilized 10,000s in subzero temps to protest and watch ICE - Flipped public opinion against ICE

Cause some pretti good trouble.

Some of you've heard me analogize models to art--e.g., saying I personally prefer sumi-e to photorealism, asking "what's the minimal number of equations I need to still see the essential parts of a system?" Today, Jace Miller showed me this excellent cartoon analogy: news.harvard.edu/gazette/wp-c...

Walz: "To Americans who are watching this, I've got a question for you: What side do you want to be on? The side of an all powerful federal govt that can kill, injury, menace, & kidnap its citizens off the streets? Or on the side of a nurse at the VA hospital who died bearing witness to such govt?"