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 🧵)

Applications are now welcome for the 2026 Venom Evolution, Function and Biomedical Applications GRC & GRS. Before we highlight the amazing programme of speakers we are beginning to put together, we’d like to introduce our organising committee.

Our science photo book The Radiant Sea is out Sept 2nd!! 30 years of research, 10 years of "we should", and a year of collating pix and writing. Sönke and I show (mostly for the first time) images of how organisms produce, use, and interact with light in the sea. #bioluminescence #fluorescence 🦑🧪🌊

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

First, first-author paper alert! “Shedding Light on Patterns of Unconventional Expression of Opsin Genes in Hydra vulgaris” is out and open access in @sicbjournals.bsky.social academic.oup.com/icb/advance-... Keep reading for some highlights in the thread below! 🦑🧪

Good news! KU's IRACDA program was reinstated! We are now taking applications for postdocs. Please spread the word. sjobs.brassring.com/TGnewUI/Sear...

The #StowersGrad Class of 2025 is here! ✨ Hear from our newest graduate students about why they chose our #PhD program and what excites them most about the journey ahead. #gradschool 🔗 bit.ly/45HJ0FC

The lost jellyfish art of Ilona Richter, from Anita Brinckmann-Voss's 1970 book on jellyfish of the Mediterranean Sea... 🪼🧪🌿🌊

After many months and tears, my final thesis chap is in print! I found two really distinct pictures of a cnidarian microbiome, one from the body cavity and one from the external mucus layer :D journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

A little snail fur hydroid (Hydractinia) close up for #ToxinTuesday. This female colony has tons of eggs developing across multiple reproductive polyps (called gonozooids). 🪼🧪🪼 #Hype4Hydrozoa @stowersinstitute.bsky.social @sicb-diz.bsky.social

This sea anemone holds some serious stinging power around their mouth! 📷 Transgenic Nematostella where green marks developing and mature stinging cells, which are densely packed around the mouth. 🪸🧪🪸 #StunningStella #ToxinTuesday @stowersinstitute.bsky.social

Hey everyone! @sicb-diz.bsky.social is now here! Follow them for all your invertebrate science needs! 🧪🦑🌎

A single-cell ATACseq atlas of our favourite sea anemone, Nematostella vectensis! By @aelek.bsky.social @martaig.bsky.social

📢 The #BiodiversityHeritageLibrary is entering a bold new chapter – and we need your help! Today we release our official Call for Support. We’re seeking new hosts for BHL’s staff, infrastructure, and services. Learn more: blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2025/06/tran... #BHLTransition #ILoveBHL

States that need $50 or less to close: Utah Nebraska Maine Alaska Louisiana North Carolina Rhode Island Fill those bubbles! givebutter.com/USS2025

When I caught this itty bitty jelly last night, I knew I had something weird. What I didn't realize was that this little medusa is believed to only live for minutes, just long enough to pop off and spawn. I put it aside and texted Claudia Mills. Minutes later, I was bolting back to lab... 🐙🦑🪼

Online now: What is animal venom? Rethinking a manipulative weapon

Calling all lovers of Non-bilaterian EvoDevo!!💙 Our incredible invited speaker for the Non-Bilaterian Satellite symposia at the #PASEDB2025 Paulyn Cartwright @pcart.bsky.social University of Kansas Organizers: Athula Wikramanayake, Bill Browne & @natclarke.bsky.social

I am looking for a new postdoc to join the lab. Interested in pluripotency, germ cells, and in investigating these in a genetically tractable cnidarian? Get in touch! We offer a long-term contract, excellent research environment, and a lovely city #Galway. www.urifranklab.org

New Nematostella transgenic slowly but surely on the way! Any guesses? #StunningStella @stowersinstitute.bsky.social

Meet @stoilovamarina.bsky.social (eeb.ku.edu/people/stoil... ) ICB submitting author Have you ever seen #jellyfish eyes? Here we have to two #Cladonema sp. medusae full of orange brine shrimp after feeding. If you look closely at the base of their tentacle bulb, you can see their tiny eye spots.

🎆🧬 Fireworks in the making! At 3 days, Nematostella vectensis is already producing stinging cells across its body. These genes (🩷💛💙) cluster in the tentacle tips and across the sea anemone juvenile body 🪼✨ image provided by @gelatinoussting.bsky.social #FluorescenceFriday #DevBio

I was lucky to also have an opportunity to talk about my research on jellyfish venoms 🪼and sea anemone stinging cells 🪸 for “Science over Spirits” with a wonderful group, sharing how my basic research has lead to unexpected discoveries. #Hype4Hydrozoa #StunningStella @stowersinstitute.bsky.social

Stowers Fellow Nelson Hall gave an engaging talk at Baldwin City Distillery, sharing his #research with curious minds outside the lab at 'Science Over Spirits', an event organized by @planaria1.bsky.social Lab postdoc Anand Sasidharan. 🔬 🥃

(2/2) Hear more. 🪸⬇️

Long shot, but do I know any folks specializing in weird ocean non-animal blobs? What are these? 🌊🧪

And in an unlikely turn of events, jellyfish are just floating underwater bird feeders In the Arctic, baby fish seek cover inside the stinging tentacles of jellyfish, but birds, having figured out the bit, now swim underwater, through the tentacles, & eat them 🧪 www.science.org/content/arti...

IT'S FINISHED! The Art of #InverteFest April 2025 Edition A digital art book showcasing the work of 86 artists from around the world, in celebration of overlooked invertebrate fauna. Thank you to the human artists who contributed to our art book! Download here drive.google.com/file/d/1JvEx...

The Spencer Foundation is offering rapid response bridge funding for those who lost NSF research grants. www.spencer.org/grant_types/...

This is one of the most urgent concerns with money stopping from NSF. Universities get reimbursed for grant expenditures, but the money from NSF directly pays NSF postdoc fellows, so they have to deal directly with these even as vulnerable as they are already.

Mexican cannonball jellies is so surreal they look almost fake, with a chandelier-like mouth and deep blue color. But this species is also the target of an active & largely unregulated fishery, which collapsed around 2017. But recent posts from citizen scientists provide hope of a blueberry comeback

Why is the U.S. National Science Foundation important? Please share your stories! Use the hashtags #WithoutNSF or #WithoutScience

The deadline to Register for the 8th International Cassiopea Workshop (6/6-6/8) is one week away (5/1)! We have many exciting talks, tutorials, and events planned! Find out more information at: Cassiopeabase.org/2025-workshop/

A lovely hydrozoan jelly, Crossota millsae seen today on teh wreck of the USS Yorktown #okeanos #saveNOAA >4000 m I think?

In this review, I write about why it is important to study synaptonemal complex protein evolution and highlight this with a few key examples of conserved features and unique adaptations.

A #deepsea bottom living jelly, Ptychogastria likely 1215 m #okeanos #saveNOAA Solide seamount!

A hermit crab with a multi-zoanthid in place of its shell! 1182 m #okeanos #saveNOAA Solide seamount

NOAA just announced a long list of datasets that are going away🧪⚒️🌊: www.nesdis.noaa.gov/about/docume... Download what you need asap and send comments to: [email protected]

show off your science tattoos if you got em! #SciArt

A venus flytrap anemone, genus Hormathia 1066 m #okeanos #saveNOAA Voldoor seamount

Hermit crab with sea anemone replacing the "shell" which it uses for protection, 1589 m Valador Seamount, #okeanos #saveNOAA

also looking for more jellies! corals! worms! and whatever little weirdos people have never heard of before!

Young Sanderia jellies (ephyrae) enjoying the sunset. These jellies are too young to eat, and actively swim “up” in whatever container they are in. 🪼🧪🪼

Applying to STEM grad programs? 🎓 Sign ups are ✨OPEN✨ for #GSMI2025! 🤩 The GSMI program supports applicants through 1-on-1 mentorship, fee waivers, professional development, and community building! Applications accepted on a ROLLING basis until 5/31! cientificolatino.com/gsmi MORE INFO in 🧵 1/

“The programs also help pay for the undergrads’ tuition; for many of them, they’re the reason they’ve been able to stay in college.” HT @needhibhalla.bsky.social lawrencekstimes.com/2025/04/04/k...