I’m excited to share that, alongside 3 other Duke DSCB Ph.D. students, we’re starting a podcast! Our show Benchside Broadcast will cover the people, history, and cutting edge research in our local community and beyond. Tune in every other Thursday at 7pm at wxdu.org (or FM 88.7 if you’re local)! 🧪

The US National Science Foundation will award about 30% fewer new research grants this fiscal year than in the last one, Nature has learnt. go.nature.com/3UcGoNW

Exclusive: NSF set to issue lowest number of new grants in four decades

The US science-funding agency is withholding $1 billion of its budget so that the money can go to a special White House project.

go.nature.com

Congrats we just made it impossible to come here for a PhD www.bostonglobe.com/2026/07/16/m...

Trump administration limits student visas to four years, changing longstanding policy - The Boston Globe

The new rule, which also restricts the international students’ ability to transfer schools or change majors without approval in their first year, will go into effect in mid-September.

bostonglobe.com

Russell Vought is working to advance a key part of his Project 2025 agenda by giving political appointees unprecedented authority over federal science funding decisions. Fight back by leaving your public comment by visiting this link: zurl.co/hdmlB Article: zurl.co/ijSUz

Trump administration proposal would all but end scientific merit in grant funding, critics say

Proposed in late May, the rule would give political appointees unprecedented control over federal grants for research, education and infrastructure.

zurl.co

First pre-print from the lab, a collaborative effort led by Jess Bourn @bournsupremacy.bsky.social, a fantastic PhD in my group. We resolve a key problem in development + evolution: how do we quantify heterochrony and link temporal variation to phenotype? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Quantitative mapping of heterochrony to species-specific phenotypes

The genetic program of animal development is conserved, but its rate of execution varies across species. Heterochrony, shifts in the relative timing of developmental events, generates phenotypic varia...

biorxiv.org

🧵 Public science in the US has taken some heavy hits over the last year, but the White House OMB is proposing a series of changes that will result in a TKO for science as we know it unless we fight back. Here's what's happening, and why it matters. 1/n

If you're reading this, my cat and I have boarded a one-way flight out of the United States. The Trump administration wrongfully denied my work permit renewal; after months of demanding that they follow the law, we have run out of legal recourse, and I have no choice but to leave the country. (🧵)

Support Alex's Emergency Relocation + Next Steps on Give In May

Alex is leaving the US after his work permit renewal was wrongfully denied by Trump's USCIS.

giveinmay.org

Our latest piece from @jessicaoros.bsky.social covers how informative archives can be and how important digitalization efforts are for increasing access to them—an effort being led by archivists like Madeline Schill at @arnoldarboretum.bsky.social. Check it out below!

How We Talk About Science@howwetalkabtsci.bsky.social · 5mo ago

In the dusty boxes of museum storage rooms lies information that could be useful for present-day researchers—but what happens if it never sees the light of day? Read about botanical archivist Madeline Schill’s digitization efforts and the importance of making data accessible to all. 🌿 #scicomm

More details on the firing of the National Science Board. The NSF now has no director, deputy director, or board. They have issued almost no new awards in 2026. The plan appears to be to completely destroyed the agency. The details are horrifying and have Russ Vought written all over them.

Board Ouster Raises Further Concerns About NSF’s Future

The White House axed all members of the board overseeing the National Science Foundation Friday, leaving the agency with no board, director or deputy director. It finally provided a reason Monday afte...

insidehighered.com

Today, our #SCIMaP team released an impact analysis of the White House proposed FY 2027 NIH and NSF budgets. Bottom-line: if enacted, cuts to science and medical research would lead to $35B in economic losses and 150,000 lost jobs in communities all across the US. scienceimpacts.org 🧵

Excited to share that @socdevbio.bsky.social has a new and improved merch store! Rep your fav model organism in one of the Society’s new original designs 🤗 sdb-official-merch.printify.me

🚨 Why can’t mammals regenerate limbs like frog tadpoles or salamanders? In our new paper in @science.org , we show that species-specific oxygen sensing acts as a gatekeeper for initiating limb regeneration 🐭🐸 🔗 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #EvoDevo

A trio of #Postdoc job openings in the #WeinsteinLab at NIH 🐟🔬 Epigenetics of development: zfin.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/... Vascular-associated tissues & organs: zfin.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/... Angiogenesis & Lymphangiogenesis: zfin.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/... h/t @zfinmod.bsky.social 🧪

Slaughtering our golden goose: massive budget cuts for US science proposed again by Trump administration www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Massive budget cuts for US science proposed again by Trump administration

Budget proposal would also curb federal payments for scientific publishing.

nature.com

While Washington wages war on science, NASA just sent humans to the Moon's vicinity for the first time since 1972. Bravo #TeamNASA — proof that public science, when it's funded and trusted, still does extraordinary things.

Alondra Nelson@alondra.bsky.social · 6mo ago

🚀🚀🚀 #ArtemisII

🐟!JOB ALERT!Duke, Durham, NC!🐟 We are looking for a research tech (our current tech is starting grad school this Fall (Yay!)). The candidate will contribute to our ongoing research projects on tissue morphogenesis using zebrafish. Please RT🙏 www.munjallab.com/join-us

$2.45 billion NIH grant cuts and ~2300 terminated active research grants were DOGE'd in early 2025 Who were most affected? www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.... Early career and women researchers

Congratulations to Michael Wen and Andrew Gillis on this exciting paper out today! Shared competence forms the basis of gill arch and paired fin serial homology | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Shared competence forms the basis of gill arch and paired fin serial homology | PNAS

The origin of paired fins is an unresolved controversy in vertebrate evolutionary biology. Karl Gegenbaur famously proposed that paired fins evolve...

pnas.org

A heads down approach will not save science. We need to speak up, live our values, and demand integrity. www.statnews.com/2026/03/12/n...

I’m an NIH whistleblower. The scientific community cannot afford to avoid politics

“Scientists are often encouraged to avoid politics. But this advice is outdated, if it was ever correct in the first place,” writes Jenna Norton, NIH whistleblower.

statnews.com

Condensates are powerful ways to break symmetry and cells do remarkable things with them. Here we show that in a multinucleate fungus, a condensate regulates translation of a cyclin and a formin in distinct locations. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

RNA-specific local translation is patterned by condensates for multinucleate cell growth - Nature Cell Biology

Geisterfer, Jalihal et al. show spatially distinct effects of Whi3 condensates on target translation in Ashbya syncytia. In vitro, translation is enriched at condensate–solute interfaces but repressed...

nature.com

Had a great time at the Stand Up For Science event in Chapel Hill yesterday! Thanks to the organizers and speakers for putting this together — it’s so important to use our voices, especially now! @standupforscience.bsky.social

White House stalls release of approved US science budgets: The administration has not yet released funding Congress allocated to multiple research agencies, so they cannot provide it to funded entities/people - including NIH and NASA. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

White House stalls release of approved US science budgets

The US Congress rejected sweeping cuts to science agencies. But the NIH, the NSF and NASA have had their spending slowed.

nature.com

Excited to have started my new lab in Human Genetics at Pitt Public Health! We study wound healing in diabetes & aging using adult zebrafish. Check out this movie showing neutrophil dynamics after injury. Now recruiting research staff, grad students, and postdocs. DM me if interested.

1 year ago at the @standupforscience.bsky.social rally, scientists, students, advocates, & community members joined in cities nationwide. Now we're returning to the streets in nearly 30 cities & towns o demand scientific integrity, strong public health protections, & democratic accountability 1/n

It’s not often a paper makes my jaw drop, but this study from @nbellono.bsky.social‘s group absolutely blew me away! Check out our latest post on the lettuce sea slug and how it steals and houses chloroplasts from the algae it eats—come for the sea slugs, stay for the endosymbiosis! 🧪

How We Talk About Science@howwetalkabtsci.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Not all partnerships are made in heaven! This Valentine’s Day, read our latest on a study from researchers at Harvard University, which characterizes a mischievous sea slug and its ability to steal cells from its algae prey. 🤯 #scicomm

New paper alert!🤩Super proud that our story led by superstar postdocs @liujinghui.bsky.social and @nerlielisa.bsky.social is finally out! We found how electrical signals are key for promoting organ regenerative growth!!! A thread 🧵https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aec0687

Injury-induced electrochemical coupling triggers organ growth

Organ repair and growth rely on coupling tissue-wide membrane depolarization with intracellular proliferative signaling.

science.org

I’m recruiting new members to the Farrell Lab this summer. We will have space for 1 postdoc (since Abhinav is leaving to start his own lab at U Arizona!!) and 2 postbacs, since my current two will leave for PhD programs at the end of the summer. More details in thread:

Applications are now open for the #ChooseDevelopment! Summer Undergraduate Research Program. U.S. citizens or permanent residents enrolled full-time as undergrads at a college or university in the U.S. are eligible. bit.ly/3FwHqYp Deadline: February 1, 2026 #devbio

So stoked to cover this work led by @cagricevrim.bsky.social from @karalmckinley.bsky.social ‘s group! It’s always such a thrill to see how researchers continue to push the boundaries of their field and develop new tools. Read about it below! 🧪

How We Talk About Science@howwetalkabtsci.bsky.social · 10mo ago

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a… mouse? Check out our latest piece on the X-Mens, a genetically inducible mouse model for the study of menstruation that was recently developed by researchers at Harvard University. #scicomm 🐁

Interested in cell adhesion, evolution of multicellularity, or developing tools for emerging marine models? My lab at UM is hiring a postdoc, and the application is now open: 🔗 tinyurl.com/28jvu4aa If you know anyone looking for a postdoc, please pass this along!

Post Doctoral Associate - Biology

Current Employees: If you are a current Staff, Faculty or Temporary employee at the University of Miami, please click here to log in to Workday to use the internal application process. To learn how to...

tinyurl.com

Nat Clarke@natclarke.bsky.social · last yr.

🚨 My lab is hiring at all levels! Interested in animal origins & evolutionary cell biology? I'm recruiting a postdoc, PhD students & a research assistant to study the molecular evolution of cell adhesion using marine invertebrates + comparative genomics. 🔗: clarkelab.com/join/ Please repost!