I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA 10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)

Kicked off a series on #Drosophila TE discovery and naming. The first post covers elements that predate the term "mobile element", and more. artemilin.dev/posts/te_nam...

We created a story about what the dodo looked like and how it behaved, and that story wrong was very wrong; which version of the dodo will #ColossalBio model their #Deëxtinction efforts on, v1 or v2‽ What if there is an even more accurate v3? 🦤 🧪 www.bbc.com/future/artic...

News reporting on the screwworm fly threatening Texas livestock focuses on cattle, but if it arrives here the pest will mostly likely first be seen on wildlife like deer. Texas A&M has assembled a useful guide:

Our labs are making strides in cancer research that were unimaginable even a decade ago. Their work is irreplaceable in the fight to find a cure. We talk often about Trump’s anti-science admin endangering lives now, but the impact of defunding research will reverberate for generations to come

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

Bummer of a week in Seattle—we are losing both an awesome coffeeshop, and one of the few open past 5pm (Distant Worlds) and an amazing toy store (Clover). You have until the 31st for both of these if you have never been. Support the things you want to see in the world and in your neighborhood!

The stupidity of the phrase "PhD-level intelligence" aside, maybe the most important thing that distinguishes undergrad from PhD training is learning to say "I don't know" when you do not know, rather than bullshitting a string of semi-coherent jargony words and hoping for partial credit.

Please share: @UBCScience is searching for 15 TT faculty in diverse areas of expertise science.ubc.ca/about/careers. Included are 2 positions in Quantitative and Environmental Science as part of a hiring cluster for black faculty; you will join 6 current UBC faculty science.ubc.ca/blackscholars.

We are so proud of our sea star wasting work that came out today. This interactive article is very complete and includes beautiful videos. Unmasking the Sea Star Killer www.biographic.com/unmasking-th...

BUSCO v6.0.0 has been released. busco.ezlab.org

Deadline for applying for this #postdoc has been extended. You'll work with Erika Burioli, as well as @metzgerm.bsky.social and me, on long reads and Hi-C data of mussel transmissible cancers. Contract is for 18 months, but possibility of extension. #PopGen #MarEvol euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/333894

Someone seriously needs to invent a topoisomerase for garden hoses.

My latest for American Scientist Magazine helps give scientists the tools to fight back against politicized charges that our research is silly or pointless- tools that will work whether you’re asked “why are we funding this” from your asshole uncle at Thanksgiving or an asshole US Senator. 🧪🌎

ICYMI: After years of hearing complaints that it's hard to get good career advice in marine biology, I assembled an expert panel to answer your questions about graduate school, where to find jobs, what skills are needed, and much, much more. 🦑🧪🌎🦈🐟

This does look like a really great opportunity! Spread the word to anyone applying to grad school this year in ecology and evolution!

Sharing a really exciting postdoc opportunity to work on genomic analysis of transmissible cancers in bivalves with an awesome group in Cambridge (the one not in the US). Adrian is an excellent scientist and he will be a great mentor on a really fascinating project! www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/51236/

A strong statement about the importance of NIH on @cbsnews.com.web.brid.gy Sunday Morning (Part 1)

Minor issue, but does anyone know if NCBI is still indexing bioRxiv preprints? They used to automatically show up but one from April never did (and the bioRxiv does list NIH funding)...

Spineless in Seattle! What a great lineup to be part of for @seattleaquarium.bsky.social Lightening Talks with @vikingbooks.bsky.social. #spineless, #invertebrates, #nudibranchs, #crabs, #seastars, #sponges, #marinelife, #tidepools, #aquanaut www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVAp...

Anyone interested in a postdoc with any lab in Washington State should apply to the WRF postdoc fellowship! Applications due June 26, so there is still time! www.wrfseattle.org/grants/wrf-p... please repost and spread the word

We don’t always know what questions will change the world. But public science has a way of answering them anyway. Federal science funding isn’t just lines in a budget. It’s a vote for progress, for possibility. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/16/s...

If you’ve ever wondered about the statistical significance of differences among mutational signature profiles, check out our new Aggregate Mutation Spectrum Distance (AMSD) preprint co-led by Sam Hart and @alisonfeder.bsky.social with @nalcala.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

1. Over the past four months I've talked with many foundation directors about science philanthropy during Trump 2.0. Two things come to the fore every time. i) The most important they can do is maintain the pipeline of talent ii) With the federal govt pulling out, ROI is higher now than ever.

KJ, a baby born with a rare genetic disorder, is now thriving thanks to the world’s first personalized gene-editing treatment. Doctors used base editing—a method invented by HHMI Investigator David Liu—to correct the single-letter mutation behind his illness. More on the science: bit.ly/4kqgkXy

In talks and in our online course thebullshitmachines.com, I worry about how the extremely high cost of training LLMs concentrates power in the hands of the very few to shape our information environment. Grok going off the rails with talk of White Genocide is a striking example.

New report from Bernie Sanders, ranking member on the HELP committee www.sanders.senate.gov/wp-content/u... Lots of substance in here. Some highlights... 1/n

THIS is what NIH funding means for real people, and why we can't lose it. I sat down with Emily & her daughter Charlie to discuss how NIH-funded clinical trials at Seattle Children's led to a cure for Charlie's cancer. This is why we have to speak up, this is who we're fighting for.

NIH's work saves lives—& Trump is gutting it. Straight from D.C. I headed to Seattle Children's to hear from researchers & patients alike about the importance of NIH funding—it's not just about lines in a budget, it's about lifesaving discoveries. We ALL need to speak up to save it.

#PostDoc in #Montpellier on mussel transmissible cancers #TransCan These weird cancers have undergone genome doublings and aneuploidisation You will play with PacBio and Nanopore data Join the #HyperCan team in a joyfull environment. #MarEvol #PopGen #MusselsAreCool euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/333894

"Ecologist Katharyn Boyer must shutter the beloved marine research center she manages on the San Francisco Bay’s shores — unless she can raise millions of dollars by next week. Scientists, conservationists and community members statewide have rallied to save the Estuary and Ocean Science Center..."

@katrinamillerphd.bsky.social & I took a look at over 400 active National Science Foundation grants that got killed in the past few days. Here's our story (gift link) nyti.ms/4jp4aOx

1. The DOJ has sent threatening letters to several medical journals, focused around whether these journals are spreading misinformation that harms the American people and suppressing alternative viewpoints. I study how the norms and institutions of science facilitate discovery and self-correction.

Support your local places, or they won’t be there! If you are in north Seattle, and looking for coffee and/or space filled with sci-fi style, go to Distant Worlds. Awesome place and of the few coffee hangouts open kinda late in Seattle. www.distantworldscoffee.com

Per source, NIH has been instructed to hold off from issuing ALL awards to Harvard, Cornell, Columbia, Brown, and Northwestern (including med schools) Agency staff have also been instructed to not speak about this funding freeze to grantees and applicants

'Return' of dire wolf is not a conservation solution, experts warn

This is type of cool and quiet science that excites me. In 2023, #H5N1 hit California condors hard: >21 birds dead. Just ~560 remain globally. Researchers asked: could a poultry vaccine help? They ran a trial that might change wildlife conservation & save the species.🧪 wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/...

Join our next webinar with professional ecologists in different fields! *Exploring Career Opportunities in Ecology* returns 4/15 with Rese Cloyd from @doee-dc.bsky.social and @aerinj.bsky.social with @ncccnc.bsky.social, 2:00 PM ET esa.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

NEW: NOAA scientists are cleaning office bathrooms and reconsidering critical experiments after the Commerce Department failed to renew contracts for hazardous waste disposal, janitorial services, IT and building maintenance. By @lisalsong.bsky.social

Congrats to awesome tech and future grad student, Sydney Weinandt, for joining the illustrious Honorable Mention streak that we currently hold in the lab!

Wow. This would be a scientific disaster, especially to scientists without reliable access paywall journals or to libraries with physical journals. For government-sponsored research we are required to, and have an obligation to, make our data publicly available.

With the data from NIH Reporter from yesterday, I can now look at the loss of funding up to April 1st budget start dates. It totals $1.62 B for non-competitive renewals. This is less than last month as some more awards have been made (late). 1/n

I've already had two federal grants terminated and face a 33% pay cut due to future terminations. It's painful, but not as painful as the conversations I'm having every day with brilliant trainees in graduate school and postdoctoral positions who see little future for themselves in US science.

I keep seeing the same questions asked in marine biology career advice groups. So along with some colleagues, I'm trying to compile a bunch of common questions and answer them all at once. Please share widely with anyone who might have questions! Submit ?s here: forms.gle/LEd4egJgvfGf... 🦑🧪🌎🐟

I am frustrated to see articles coming out saying scientists will all just move to Europe. And then they cite a uni giving $1 million or something to recruit one lab. Sure, a few will be moving to other countries, but if the NIH cuts continue, most of the science will just NOT BE DONE.

"This will go down as one of the darkest days in modern scientific history." Story on the decimation of NIH by @maxkozlov.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/d41...?

“This will go down as one of the darkest days in modern scientific history” 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Just looked at the full list and saw that the training grant that made it possible for me to do a postdoc with Steve Goff on retrovirology at Columbia has been killed. (It was called Cancer Biology back in 2012, but it looks like the name switched to Molecular Oncology in 2016)