It’s mountain laurel season! Fun fact mountain laurel is the Pennsylvania state flower.

It’s very easy to feel hopeless these days but every so often the good guys win. We have to keep pushing back…

The Thermo Fisher situation keeps getting worse. We've now collected 450+ problematic images presented as verification data in TF's antibody catalog. This includes: 🖌️ Dozens more images with duplications or painting 🖨️ Hundreds of blots that all share the same background (behold slideshow below)

The Senate vote need to happen in the next week or the 60 days is up. I just called again today. My cats also let her thoughts on this atrocity be known in the background

Has any major scientific organization or company been doing meaningful work to try and rally the troops against the attacks on science in this country? I haven't seen it, but maybe I'm missing something...

Megathread about responding to new OMB grant funding rules (feel free to add/link more!) I was collecting these for me, but figured I'd round 'em up for everyone 🧪 What's the problem? arstechnica.com/science/2026... elizabethginexi.substack.com/p/summary-of...

Dearest shoalmates: Please consider posting a comment to the NIH regarding the Strategic Plan that includes reducing funding for animal research. Responses from the research community are currently greatly underrepresented compared w/ advocacy groups opposing animal experimentation. 🔗 below ⬇️ 1/2

Upsetting news from one of our Lehigh Valley neighbors.

Got to wear my new regalia for the first time. With an added accessory. Admittedly would take 50 and raining over 90+ and baking sun for graduation day any day.

Pennsylvania native species day seems a good day to share some more pictures of some of the #nativeplants in my yard

Glad to see there are still outdoors brands a gal can feel good about supporting while others disappoint (I'm looking at you REI)

Today is a good day to be at a college that uses Moodle as their course management site.

I wrote a letter to the editor to my local paper (the Morning Call) about speaking out for public lands, and it got published!!! If you'd like to speak out for Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument @protectwildutah.bsky.social has some great resources here: suwa.org/actions-you-...

"Regeneron will provide Otarmeni at no cost to clinically eligible individuals in the U.S. This may not necessarily reflect out-of-pocket costs for administration of this free therapy" investor.regeneron.com/news-release... #genetherapy @regeneron.com

Guessing we will see more and more of this in the years to come

Our campus alumni magazine did a piece on native plants!!! magazine.lafayette.edu/a-precious-t....

Earth day also seems a good day to share some photos of some of the April blooming #nativeplants in my yard.

It's Earth Day!!! Which seems a good day to try and protect Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. If you haven’t had the chance to visit this magical place you can read about why it is so special here: storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/fbdd...

some data on the shrinkage

Yesterday, by a vote of 50-49, the Senate used the Congressional Review Act to undo public lands protections for the first time in history, rolling back mining protections in National Forest Land right outside Boundary Waters National Recreation Area. (1/7)

Today’s important life lesson when calling the authorities to figure out how to get off the mountain that has caught on fire during your hike make sure they have up to date trail maps so when you tell them you are on the AT they know that’s leading you straight towards the fire and not safely down

If you know a graduating undergraduate looking for the chance to spend 1-2 years in a lab before graduate school, we're hiring! Our lab explores morphogenesis, defining how the cell adhesion & cytoskeletal machinery work together to allow cells to change shape & move tarheels.live/peiferlab/ 1/n RT

Didn’t have anything ready to present at MARZ this year but did get to see my former student Amanda presenting her work from her new lab

Not only did I finally get my mini split but it also seems I successfully convinced the school that my basement lab (where I often need to call facilities from when things fail) does indeed need a physical phone in it.

Back in 2018 I learned our campus shuts off power for a day every summer and started my efforts to try and get more things on backup power, including HVAC for my fish room. Through the years I've reached out to facilities and many an administrator over this on multiple occasions.

A the first nice day of spring. Which would be a wonderful day to sit and work outside if not for the fact that it seems every leaf blower the college owns is in operation.

I remember the excitement of reading about/teaching about the Huntington’s Gene Therapy trial in the fall. Now it’s been added to the list of trials the FDA has decided they no longer like and want rerun. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/h...

Got my tenure gift from the college. No more rentals!

Last year there was a lot of press over some grey wolves that were edited to have white coats as if it meant we could de-extinct animals. Meanwhile this actual meaningful de-extinction work seems to be getting hardly any press youtu.be/OnG0ChH1yN0?...

And this is why you stand up to bullies… If only more would.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a low cost amplifier for extracellular recordings that would be good for a teaching lab? We have been using the Grass Instruments P55 ones but they no longer appear to exist and we are running out of working ones. Sharing of this message would be appreciated.

About a month ago (it took me that long to sort through the pictures) I got to cross the Galapagos Islands off the bucket list.

I was in the room where it happened. Great talk on the importance of being true to your authentic self in your room. Teacher in me also appreciated the shoutout to process in your writing and importance of good mentors .

It seems Darwin is my spirit scientist.

I went before starting my postdoc and it was amazing. Highly recommend.

I was in Nature!! Admittedly because of one of my 1am trips to campus in my PJs complements of our HVAC system rather than my science, but hey take what you can get: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Did not enjoy clearing the snow last weekend, but did enjoy getting to break out the snowshoes to go play in it this weekend.

Was proud to see my former student Amanda already listed as an author on a preprint in her new lab.

For those like me feeling pretty hopeless in light of the news of the day 5 Calls has scripts up both to encourage voting against the DHS funding Bill: 5calls.org/issue/dhs-bu... and Stopping ICE's agressive attacks on citizens and immigrants: 5calls.org/issue/ice-ra....

Did this last year and am in the middle of preparing activities based on what I learned for the spring. Highly recommend bsky.app/profile/alle...

Our communications department did a feature on my research! Curious if everyone's communications department loves pointing as much as ours? news.lafayette.edu/2025/12/15/c...

The horrific tragedy at Brown University is the 389th mass shooting this year and the 230th gun incident on school grounds so far this year. This is not normal and we don't have to live this way. bradyunited.org @bradyunited.org

Its that time of year again when I wonder why the website we use to enter grades defaults to sorting classes by CRN and thus shows me classes I have taught over the last 4 years in no particular chronological order, rather than default sorting by the seemingly more useful "term"

I have accomplished what I set out to do in my gene editing FYS...

Shout out to Alex who did a great job presenting her summer research at our fall poster session

First concert in forever and forgot to bring hearing protection. Hair cell researcher fail.

It's PhD application season. If you are applying for a PhD in neuroscience or biomedical field or are mentoring someone who is applying, please check out our @storiesofwin.bsky.social episode with advice! www.storiesofwin.org/profiles/202...

If you use GMail, AI (Gemini) was turned on yesterday by default and now scans all of your content for machine learning. To turn off, go to Settings>General and scroll down. Uncheck the box for "Smart features." There's other "Smart" add-ons as well, but that's the one that reads your content.

Another fall in the books. It may not have been the most colorful ever, but it had its moments. Fingers crossed one of these years we get a nondrought fall. #FallFolliage

A wonderful letter to the editor from one of the board members of DeSales: bsky.app/profile/bach...