Check out this lovely flag from Muchow, Germany, featuring a lovely fly! Why a fly? Well, in flag design there is a practice called "canting" where elements that sound like place names are used in the heraldry! In this case "Mucha" means fly! Seems like a place I'd want to visit... #FliesAreCool

Those of us doing research related to women’s health have been hit particularly hard by the govt’s sabotage of the NIH. I spoke to WaPo for this piece, as painful as it was to discuss the reality my lab is facing. www.washingtonpost.com/science/2026...

Where U.S. science has been hit hardest after Trump’s first year

The Trump administration has slashed the number of grants from the National Institutes of Health, with far fewer focused on women, cancer and mental health.

washingtonpost.com

Some first-rate science writing: For this story, @jdrakephd.bsky.social carefully read our recent paper and then we spent a very fun 90 minutes or so talking on zoom. His article that gets right to the heart of our model, explains it clearly, and then explores why it will matter in the future.

The System That Decides What Science Gets Published Is Breaking Down

The peer review system that validates scientific research is trapped in a self-defeating cycle. A new mathematical model shows why—and what comes next.

forbes.com

What a weird way to play pickleball

Only one of the 97 NSF awards made since end of February has been in biology. ONE.

Jeremy Berg@jeremymberg.bsky.social · 5mo ago

NSF Update through March 13, 2026 1/2

Coming out of the haze of grant-writing and looking forward to attending #Dros26 in Chicago. 🤩 Pls stop by posters from our lab (178T and 245F) where we use flies as a platform to study secreted effectors from intracellular bacteria. Looking forward to reconnecting and also meeting new fly peeps!

1/ ProPublica collected handwritten letters in mid-January from children held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, the same facility where 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was taken. Hundreds of kids are still detained. We’ll let the children’s words speak for themselves. 🧵

Excited to announce the upcoming 2026 Microbial Toxins and Pathogenicity GRC and GRS meeting taking place July 12 - 17, 2026 at Waterville Valley in New Hampshire. This meeting will be chaired by yours truly and co-chaired by @sunnyshinlab.bsky.social www.grc.org/microbial-to...

Feel free to use x

Are you an early-stage graduate student (2nd or 3rd year) or early-stage postdoc based in the US or Canada, working primarily in Drosophila? Would you like to help improve the experience of all trainees working in Drosophila research? If so, read on. (Please repost to reach a broad audience.)

You are not overly suspicious. This is a real possibility especially since there do not appear to be any search committees. But I don't want them to be able to say that they selected candidates when only 3 people applied (including their pre-selected candidate).

I realize that these timelines are absurd and wanting to take on one of these important positions under the present circumstances is problematic, but NIH needs qualified applicants to apply. Please consider applying, even if you are not sure you would accept the position if offered. 3/3

a man wearing a red shirt with the letter w on it says " who are we if we don 't even try "

ALT: a man wearing a red shirt with the letter w on it says " who are we if we don 't even try "

media.tenor.com

Required reading for cell biologists to get a sense of basic statistical principles! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Sometimes we’re unsatisfied with a thing we made because when it only existed in our head, we saw all the things it could have been and when it’s done we know all the things that it isn’t, but we can’t see the way it expands into a million new things when someone else unpacks it in their head. 🖊️🦑

We are hiring a lab technician! Join our group studying signaling networks in #Drosophila, with a possibility to carry out a research project. Please RT. Job posting: employmentopportunities.umb.edu/boston/en-us... Veraksa lab website: www.faculty.umb.edu/alexey_verak...

FlyBase needs your help! We ask that European labs continue to contribute to Cambridge, UK FlyBase, whereas US and other non-European labs can contribute to US FlyBase. For more information and how to donate: wiki.flybase.org/wiki/FlyBase...

Thanks to @isakoditomassi.bsky.social and the McClintock Letters Initiative who motivated me to submit this.

Fay: Cuts to research funding risk the collapse of U.S. science and technology

I started as an assistant professor of molecular biology at the University of Wyoming in 2001.

wyomingnews.com

Alexandria Declaration coming out from courageous NSF staff. www.importantcontext.news/p/national-s... I knew this was it in the works, but did not know the timing. Stay tuned...

National Science Foundation Workers to Issue “Alexandria Declaration” Decrying “Catastrophic Changes” Under Trump Administration

The new declaration echoes similar efforts from NIH and EPA.

importantcontext.news

Was reminded recently that the best way to feel good is to do good. Passing it along.

BREAKING: Scientists are staging a “science fair” in the lobby of a Congressional building to tell elected officials about the critical knowledge the US will lose because their research grants have been canceled.

Here's the end-of-workday update, on Day 1 of the United States of Science. A whopping 57% of the map has been covered in the first 24 hours which is *amazing*. Thank you to everyone who filled bubbles! The top 5 states are still open: CA, NY, PA, NJ, FL Fill a few bubbles! givebutter.com/USS2025

Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D.@sarahmackattack.bsky.social · last yr.

It’s that time again! Time for @skypeascientist.bsky.social’s 7th annual United States of Science Challenge! Each bubble on this map represents classrooms we marched w/scientists this year. $10 donations fill bubbles! The first region to fill in all of their bubbles wins! givebutter.com/USS2025

Whew, ok, with a few hours to spare, the 2025 classroom map is ready! The 7th annual United States of Science competition starts tomorrow. If you wanna get your region off to a head start, just between us night owls, here's that link 😘 givebutter.com/USS2025

A brutal analysis of Bhattacharya, his qualifications, and his role and performance as NIH Director www.panaccindex.info/p/jay-bhatta...

Jay Bhattacharya is Not the NIH Director

Seventy-Five Days of Embarrassing Ineptitude

panaccindex.info

Thanks to all who have expressed a willingness to support FlyBase. The wheels of bureaucracy are large and grind slowly. We expect to have a fee process in place by July. @flybase.bsky.social

🚨 BREAKING: Nearly 4 months the NIH cut its first grants, a judge has ruled that the directives and process that led to cuts are arbitrary and capricious. "The explanations are bereft of reasoning — virtually in their entirety... unsupported by [facts]." Each of them are VOID and ILLEGAL, he says.

🚨BREAKING: 300+ NIH employees call out the harm of censorship & politicized science in scathing email to Bhattacharya, demanding an end to political interference, a lift on funding freezes, & rehiring of fired staff whose work saves lives. This is historic - insiders are blowing the whistle. 🧵(1/5)

Hello Fly Folks. quick note FlyBase is under duress due to termination NIH$ to Harvard and intl collabs. The hardworking folks @flybase.bsky.social are doing their darndest to ensure access to current data. For US, there will soon be a new site to donate. Please spread the word, ideas and support 🪰💪

Marc Dionne@marcsdionne.bsky.social · last yr.

My lab studies bacterial infections. We spend a lot of time looking at (or for) species-specific genetic and genomic databases for hosts and microbes. FlyBase is the best of all—there is literally no comparison. Its existence is under threat. Please donate. www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-camb...

There was a recent e-Coli outbreak that killed 1 person & sickened nearly 90 people in 15 states linked to a single lettuce processor/ranch - the source of the contamination. BUT Trump & his Nazis didn't want you to know about it & buried a Feb. 11 internal FDA memo.

E. coli outbreak sickened more than 80 people, but details didn’t surface

Food safety inspections are being scaled back and the public was not notified after an investigation into E. coli contamination.

washingtonpost.com

Finally published in Science! www.science.org/content/arti...

Is a photo subversive? NSF staff overcome obstacles to 75th anniversary portrait

Management tried to quash outpouring of support for beleaguered agency

science.org