I’ve been using a monocular microscope. To get a good image with an iPhone you have to suspend it over the eyepiece at just the right distance. It’s not easy. My son made me this contraption. This picture is really old (dated by the iPhone!) but it might give you an idea of what I mean.

I’m kind of the neighborhood pest inspector with my 65 year old microscope and Lego camera mount.

I think accepting myth as scripture is more about what you accept the gods can do than what you believe really happened

You don’t have to be so certain always, you were made to grow in the fog of ignorance for a day

you should have to be a philosopher before you can get a driver’s license, and a poet before you can get a gun

Just saw a kid carrying his scoliosis brace in O'Hare. I told him that was me at his age, and to keep it up 💪 because my brace probably made me a few inches taller. His dad thanked me, and I shared how hard it'd been on my dad to strap me in to mine 🥺... Grateful for every part of this journey 🥹.

What if an embryo made immune cells before it finished building the tissue they usually come from? In our new preprint, we show that annual killifish embryos specify neutrophils before germ layers are fully resolved. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Huge thanks to my PI, @ohnolog.bsky.social ! 🧵

Early immune cell development precedes gastrulation in annual killifish

During embryogenesis, cell types arise in a predictable order because developmental regulators act sequentially. But how evolutionary changes in morphogenesis reshape the signaling environments that a...

biorxiv.org

‘Father’ and ‘dad’ are synonyms. ‘Figure’ and ‘bod’ are synonyms. But, a ‘father figure’ and a ‘dad bod’ aren’t exactly the same thing…

When your plot axis is so unintelligible that you unintentionally invent a new CAPTCHA

This Restaurant Stopped Charging for Food. And Profits Are Up. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/08/d...

This Restaurant Stopped Charging for Food. And Profits Are Up.

nytimes.com

I just learned that OMB is required to respond to every comment on the anti-peer-review rule. So that means our comments really matter, at the very least by gumming up the gears. Send your comment today.

@bowprow.bsky.social · 2mo ago

PLEASE submit a public comment opposing this rule change during the comment period. Do not let this go unchallenged. Urge your friends and associates to do the same. www.npr.org/2026/06/03/n...

Vought et al would like to have science pass a political purity test. It’s time to stand together for scientific independence and integrity or all get knocked down. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/02/u...

White House Seeks to Impose Political Test on Billions in Federal Grants

nytimes.com

I’m hunger striking in solidarity with hunger striking ICE detainees. lataco.com/detainee-ade... I’m not eating from 6AM today to 6AM tomorrow. How to do an extended strike: www.wikihow.com/Go-on-a-Hung...

Congratulations to all of my amazing students who were honored at the @ucdavis.bsky.social College of Biological Sciences award ceremony! Two of our 🤩 undergrads, Veda and Catherine, were awarded CBS Dean’s Circle summer research fellowships and Tess Leathers received a graduate mentoring award! 💫🏆

Join an Ongoing 500 person hunger strike inside ICE detention centers. Protesting deaths, lack of medical treatments, physical abuse, retaliation for the strike, illegal detention. 6AM 5/31 to 6AM 6/1 www.instagram.com/p/DY8C9LKy5MJ/

I cannot wait for the crackdown of them parking in bike lanes.

Qasim Rashid, Esq.@qasimrashid.com · 2mo ago

Jeff Bezos went on TV to whine about Zohran Mamdani to stop demonizing billionaires. The very next day Mayor Mamdani responded by forcing Amazon to pay $9M in fines accrued by Amazon delivery trucks for illegally idling. This is what happens when we elect a mayor for the people—not the corporations

The bigger challenge is we have a handful of sociopaths who can circumvent and undermine democracy. We have no bigger challenge.

NBC News@nbcnews.com · 3mo ago

Amazon executive chair Jeff Bezos accuses U.S. politicians of villainizing the ultra-wealthy and using tax policy as a political wedge issue to distract from bigger challenges facing the country.

ProPublica used leaked tax returns to calculate that through complex tax avoidance schemes, Jeff Bezos pays a tax rate of 0.98% www.propublica.org/article/the-... So if we doubled the taxes he pays, that would mean he'd still be paying less than 2%.

The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax

ProPublica has obtained a vast cache of IRS information showing how billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Warren Buffett pay little in income tax compared to their massive wealth — sometimes, ev...

propublica.org

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 3mo ago

Bezos on CNBC: "You could double the taxes I pay, and it's not gonna help that teacher in Queens. I promise you."

Thousands descend on Alabama to protest attack on Black Americans’ political power open.substack.com/pub/phillewi...

Thousands descend on Alabama to protest attack on Black Americans’ political power

The rally is a response to the GOP-led states in the South rushing to redraw their congressional maps.

open.substack.com

This This and This ... are not 3 things... they are one thing

Remember: Wealth cannot be separated from power. We're seeing in real time how the extreme concentration of wealth is distorting our politics, rigging markets, and granting unprecedented power to a handful of people. Taxing the rich isn't just an economic issue, it's a defense of our democracy.

Just talked to a federal science agency program officer about why no money is going out the door despite congressional appropriations. To award funding, they have to publish a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO). Those aren’t being approved. And funding over $100k has to be approved. They aren’t.🤬

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TING!!! How can you go wrong with a bit of sun and a Mitchell’s ice cream cone? Great choice, Ting!

I'm thrilled to take on this role at a time when I think we're doing some of the best local reporting in the country, with far fewer resources than other newsrooms I've learned more than I can say from Lydia, Joe E. & the rest of the crew—very thankful for the mentorship

Mission Local@missionlocal.org · 4mo ago

We have some news: Joe Rivano Barros is our new executive editor! He will run the newsroom alongside the other editors. “Joe is so goddamn competent he has almost made me rethink my position on Stanford University. Almost,” said Joe Eskenazi, a Cal grad. missionlocal.org/2026/04/miss...

While the world’s eyes are on fashion’s biggest night, we’re turning ours to the garment, retail, and warehouse workers who keep the industry running. From true love found on the picket line to a free tailoring school out of a Brooklyn basement — meet the New Yorkers who make it all possible.

What would a typical worker earn today if their wages had grown as fast as CEO pay over the past 50 years? Take a guess and watch this video to find out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lPPsrAMtTI

This Graph Exposes Our Rigged System

What would a typical worker earn today if their wages had grown as fast as CEO pay over the past 50 years? Take a guess

youtube.com

Which is the backwards country now, United States?

Simons Graduate Fellowship Applications are open! If you're applying to Ph.D. programs in ecology and/or evolution this year, or if you're an incoming Ph.D. student who won't start your degree program until Fall 2026 or later, apply! www.simonsfoundation.org/grant/simons...

Simons Graduate Fellowships in Ecology and Evolution

The purpose of these awards is to provide support for students entering U.S.-based Ph.D. programs with a plan to perform research in ecology and evolution. While we will consider all projects in ecolo...

simonsfoundation.org

I, uh, never thought about the speed of a void. This is kind of amazing. [Reader mode on to avoid the annoying ads] 🧪 ⚛️

Physicists witness pinpricks of darkness moving faster than the speed of light ‪—‬ without breaking the laws of relativity

For the first time, researchers measured singularities in combined light and sound waves moving faster than the speed of light. The findings have implications in fluid dynamics, optics and many other ...

livescience.com