Funds to support student research! October 1 deadline for @nhm.org Student Collections Study Award. Get $$ for travel expenses to collect data in our collections. Open to: - current undergrad & grad students - *not* local to Los Angeles (international applicants welcome) nhm.org/student-coll...

The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology stands with the Academy of Natural Sciences (ANSP) staff, and preservation of the ANSP Museum. SVP urges our member community and anyone who enjoys and supports the natural sciences to speak up on behalf of the ANSP and their staff! #SaveTheAcademy

Please repost! Drexel announced that it will close the Academy of Natural Sciences public museum- the oldest nat history museum in the US. There are 2 petitions to support the academy. Please sign both & come to our rally Tues. actionnetwork.org/petitions/pe... www.change.org/p/the-academ...

fellowships.si.edu/opportunity/... Please reach out if you are interested in developing an independent application for this postdoc opportunity with myself and Michael Campana. We have a lot of great bear genomics data that could be leveraged!

Strongly recommend this excellent passage from the intro to The Mismeasure of Man's second edition on the cyclical surge to popularity of interest in race science. I actually forgot what a great writer Gould was

Agwamba et al. identify the western Iberian Peninsula as the primary source of American populations of house mice; divergence dates are consistent with post-15th-century European maritime expansion and settlement in the Americas 🔗 academic.oup.com/gbe/article/... #societyjournal #evolution #genome

Ecololgists!! This fall, the LEGO league's theme for their annual competition is ecosystems/biodiversity themed. We are going to need *a lot* of ecologists to help meet the demand. If you are willing to have a conversation with k-8 students about ecology, pls sign up here forms.gle/NbxitaXamK7B...

Got an email saying that @skypeascientist.bsky.social is especially in need of ecologists this year (to sign up to match with classrooms). I've been doing it for years and it's always a lot of fun (and a great reward: effort ratio), I very much recommend! Open to grad students too!

Skype a Scientist@skypeascientist.bsky.social · 2y ago

Hi! We're Skype a Scientist! We're a free program that matches scientists with classrooms, scout troops, libraries, & other groups for Q&As all about science. Get matched with a scientist for a virtual conversation! We have 30+ types of scientist & match weekly. www.skypeascientist.com/sign-up.html

have you voted! 🐌🪱🐝🦑 www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Crush-worthy cephalopods and beautiful bugs – vote for the invertebrate of the year

Of the 1.3m spineless wonders in the world, you told us your favourite. Now it’s time to pick the winner. Plus: a climate hero going to the bat for conservation

theguardian.com

Kappelhof et al. used WGS across all four Asian elephant subspecies to show that extreme variation in inbreeding, rather than subspecies-specific divergence, primarily drives differences in genome-wide diversity. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/... 📷 Sander van Iersel & Tim Visser #societyjournal #congen

first day at NMNH, this time as a historical/ancient DNA technician with the Laboratories of Analytical Biology. so excited to be back!! 🧑‍🔬🧬

Finally PhinisheD!!! Successfully defended my dissertation on Evolutionary Genomics of Channel Island Peromyscus this Wednesday 🐭🧬👩‍🔬 Enormously grateful for the support of my family, friends, labmates, collaborators, and amazing committee members for seeing me through the last 6 years!!!

big things happening: I'll be defending my dissertation next week on July 15! to procrastinate preparing, I will be posting a meme for each of my chapters until the big day. also, please DM me if you'd like a zoom link to attend my public defense, but be prepared for 45 minutes of mouse toe talk!

Mods are asleep. Post pinnipeds!

In the face of ongoing pressures and critique (including here by many), the public reaffirmation of the core mission of the National Academy of Sciences is a much-needed signal from incoming NAS President Neil Shubin. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

The enduring pursuit of science in America

Imagine an American organization that convenes scientific experts not to advance any ideology or interest but to provide the nation with a clear understanding of complex problems. Imagine this body wo...

science.org

First full day at #ASM2026 (mammals, not microbes)! I was so honored to give the Anna M. Jackson talk award this morning, going over [too] much of my dissertation work on Channel Island deer mice. Huge thanks to @mammalogists.bsky.social for the award and support throughout my graduate career!!

Not wanting to be snarky but this is true of every technological advance in science. My entire PhD in 1983 was the fitting and refinement of a single protein crystal structure. Today I could do the same within an hour - no AI required. Hyperbole does not help.

Research Professional News@resprofnews.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Artificial intelligence systems will allow a single PhD student’s output to match that of a whole laboratory, according to Demis Hassabis, a Nobel laureate for chemistry.

"AI is operating at a PhD level" oh, so it's replying 'sorry for the late response' to every email and complaining about its labor conditions?

amazing thread about our latest paper, out in Therya today!! really cool and unexpected find from my Channel Island mouse dissertation research. thanks @kaycebell.bsky.social for all your detective work in the collections!

Kayce Bell@kaycebell.bsky.social · 4mo ago

New paper out today! I had the good fortune to work with this crew, @mabscientist.bsky.social, Susette Castañeda-Rico and others, on a project that discovered previously unknown introduced mice on the Channel Islands in California.

Smithsonian NZCBI Center for Conservation Genomics is looking for a new center-head!! An awesome opportunity to work at the coolest lab around! 🧬🧑‍🔬🐘🐅🐢🐸🦜🦊🦉🐼🐿️ www.usajobs.gov/job/870869600

Supervisory Research Zoologist

The Smithsonian Institution is the worlds largest museum, education, and research complex, with 21 museums and the National Zoo. This position is located in Smithsonians National Zoo and Conservation ...

usajobs.gov

Art of the ancient Americas may not be your thing, but you have to love this earthenware crab vessel. I'm sorry, I don't make the rules. 🦀 This is going into our imaginary museum replica store, pronto. #LACMA Colombia, Calima style, Ilama period, ca. 1500 BCE-100 CE. 🏺 1/ 📸 me

I implore everyone to read this brilliant book review of Kathryn Paige Harden new book on the genetics of criminality. It cuts right through the bullshit to state plainly what Harden's project really is: eugenics bullshit and grifting lareviewofbooks.org/article/orig...

Natural Election | Los Angeles Review of Books

Kathryn Paige Harden’s new book offers a defense of a kind of Scientific Calvinism that converges with the eugenicist ideals of the contemporary Far Right.

lareviewofbooks.org

Squirrel of the Day for April 13, 2026 gazes at the fallen cherry blossoms and ponders the fleeting nature of life #sqrlpix

A star scientist showed that better genetics lessons could reduce racism. It was the death knell for his career The loss of Brian Donovan’s grants and job speak volumes about federal funding priorities — and academia www.statnews.com/2026/04/07/b...

The tech industry props up the richest people on the planet and pays far less than its fair share of taxes. It can absolutely afford its own R&D. But instead, it’s effectively hijacked our public science infrastructure because having more wealth than anyone could ever spend is still not enough.

Leslie Rissler@ljrissler.bsky.social · 5mo ago

I am shocked to see this language from the NSF. “The U.S. National Science Foundation's Fiscal Year 2027 Budget Request reflects a strategic alignment of resources in a constrained fiscal environment while eliminating woke and weaponized grant programs that previously funded radical DEI projects.”

MAMA HUMPBACK WHALE DEFEATS NILE CROCODILE! HUMPBACK WHALE is #2026MMM CHAMPION! Artwork by @veppart.bsky.social & @opellisms.bsky.social !!!

So, um... this is bad. Really bad. I looked at the letters that were translated by the AI, and the very first one I found was almost entirely hallucination. Thread:

Sarah E. Bond@sarahebond.bsky.social · 6mo ago

The new project mapping 7,000+ ancient letters is impressive: romanletters.org . The database & geolocation (although noting Pleiades rather than just AWMC would be nice) are great. But I absolutely cannot get over use of AI—however transparent—for translation. 🚨 Value human translators 🚨

Undergrad and graduate students! Could your work benefit from visiting one of the NHMLAC’s collections? Apply for our Collections Study Award, due Apr. 1. I’d love to have students make use of our Entomology collection! Details here: tinyurl.com/bdduefsy

Dental Formulas xkcd.com/3213/

🎉 Huge news for BHL: The Field Museum is taking over the hosting of BHL’s website, servers & infrastructure, ensuring long-term stability and access for its 63+ million pages of open biodiversity literature. Learn more: blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2026/02/tran... #BHLTransition #ILoveBHL 🌍 📚 🧪