Let’s play “Someone’s embarrassing nickname or totally unnecessary product?”
Andy Murdock
@andymurdock.bsky.social
Writer, editor, fern pointer-outer from Alameda, CA, former home of nuclear wessels. Mostly posting about science communication, plants, travel, soccer, and pie. Comms Director at @innovativegenomics.bsky.social
Say, hypothetically, that you wanted to name a chicken after an #NWSL player. Would it be: 1. Olivia Poultrie 2. Feathers O’Reilly 3. Hendis Jónsdóttir 4. Ashley Hatch
Q: Doug, did you spend months researching the cultural history of salted caramel? A: Sure did. Here's 3,000 words on this oddly fascinating subject!
The long, sticky rise of salted caramel
Investigating a modern candy’s origins and evolution from Brittany to Blumenthal to your local candy aisle
snackstack.net
Wait, are normal shorts horizontal or vertical? Worn them all my life and I couldn’t tell ya
The Verge@theverge.com · last wk.HBO Max is putting on vertical shorts
Unreasonably happy about Malawi winning and the double-Chawinga domination #wafcon
Another reminder that biology will always have more surprises in store
Jeff Groh@jeffgroh.bsky.social · last wk.Avocados come in 2 varieties - A-types start each day female and switch to male midday. B-types do the reverse. In work just published from the last chapter of my PhD, we show this system evolved 40+million yrs ago and is regulated by alleles of 1 transcription factor www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
This is just to say I have OCRed the text thet was in tne arch:ve and whicb yov were prabaldy seamhing for "breahtast" Fargme ms fheg mem debo:w5 sb ?mccf mmb 5c oc1b
Getting a new water heater installed and it’s taking every drop of energy I have to stop myself from saying to the plumber, “Whew, that’s a tankless job.”
Political reporters, NOW is finally the time to go interview some diner patrons
Melody Schreiber@melodyschreiber.com · last wk.Between this, and 19 million salmonella eggs, and cyclospora greens.... Diners are suffering right now
The Hadestown movie was good fun, but I’ve never seen a longer and weirder set of trailers before a movie. Drummer Boy…appears to be a jingoistic Revolutionary War Christian Pop musical shot like a Creed video.
I know there will be many takes on Katie Porter leaving politics to be a book influencer, but I’d rather have that than the alternative
The Onion@theonion.com · 2w agoCobweb-Covered Skeleton Gripping Senate Desk Expected To Seek 15th Term
Is it too much to ask for us to return to an era when US Senators wrote homages to beans?
My feelings about AI broadly are... complex. But its impact on science is undeniable. In this paper out today, colleagues at @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social used an AI-assisted approach to design gene editors beyond what can be found in nature, active in humans, plants & bacteria. 🧬🖥️🧪
Innovative Genomics Institute@innovativegenomics.bsky.social · 3w agoOut today in @science.org, Doudna lab researchers describe an #AI-assisted method for designing enhanced genome editors, testing close to 2000 in lab. Read more: innovativegenomics.org/news/ai-desi...
It's fun how over time espresso drinks have gotten closer and closer to being identical yet there are entire subreddits dedicated to people arguing about the differences
Botany friends: cool job alert. We're searching for a new Director for the UC & Jepson Herbaria here at UC Berkeley. Share with nice people. aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05405 🌿🌺🌵
Associate/Full Professor- Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics- Integrative Biology, and Director- University of California Berkeley Herbaria
University of California, Berkeley is hiring. Apply now!
aprecruit.berkeley.edu
I relate to Argentina because this is also the only way I can get work assignments done
“Officially, we exist in complete opposition to processed food, small explosives and uncomplicated patriotism,” said local historian Glenda Bivot. “But secretly they’re all we want.” www.marinlately.com/marin-reside...
Marin Residents to Consume Annual Hot Dog
All part of festivities marking the birth of the nation to which they nominally belong
marinlately.com
Say what you will about Airbnbs, but you’d never find a room in a Hilton with a pair of these
Now I can finally analyze the disappearance of ham from American restaurants
Jacob Grier@jacobgrier.bsky.social · last mo.Very cool new archive online: 5,000 historic American restaurant menus, searchable by location, year, and other settings. One Portland menu supposedly featured "Mount Tabor owls, roasted" (possibly a joke?) which may be a challenge to recreate for contemporary chefs! pudding.cool/2026/06/menu...
“How much is a magical world worth?” A beautiful thread about Cabo Verde, the Peace Corps, and the World Cup:
She is playing with her jewelry, she is putting up her hair, she is
Stephen Wild@stephenjwild.bsky.social · last mo.Moving the needle and circling back