Stop by #ESA2026 late-breaking posters 102, 210, and 237 to hear some great science from #Pitt students @gsw14.bsky.social @dipaolorose03.bsky.social @jljones98.bsky.social! Great collaborations w/ @technaturalist.bsky.social @kevindkohl.bsky.social @skunkcabbages.bsky.social @athalya-j.bsky.social

In a new pub with @asuddaby.bsky.social and @emilyahardison.bsky.social, we highlight small, standing water bodies (ponds) and their resident aquatic organisms (tadpoles) as powerful systems to understand host-microbe-environment interactions. 💧🐸🌾🦠 academic.oup.com/icb/article-...

Caught one of the last mayapple flowers at a field site yesterday. Spring is moving into summer! 🌱🌾🌿

Forgive the title, but it's time we talk about it - 🐘🐣💩🦠 The elephant (bird) in the room: unknown mechanisms and unresolved impacts of low DNA yields in avian microbiome research link.springer.com/article/10.1...

The elephant (bird) in the room: unknown mechanisms and unresolved impacts of low DNA yields in avian microbiome research - Animal Microbiome

To holistically understand the biology of animals, we must unravel the complexities and specificities of host-microbe interactions across animal taxa. Birds represent enigmatic and scientifically comp...

link.springer.com

My recent visit to the American Chemoreception Society was fascinating 👅 , and a great getaway! 🐚

For lab meeting, we all tried to draw the holobiont - as art, diagram, or in between. It was surprisingly useful practice to guide some conceptual discussion! #ArtScience 🎨🦠

Make Art, Not War I’ve been experimenting with assembling music playlists, DJing, and overlaying spoken audio. Excited to share this new set for children of the internet! 🎶 💻 🤖 on.soundcloud.com/IC3Lp6UmFTDm...

www dot

surfin' the interwebs

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Timeline cleanse in the form of a recent collage made from random cards, journal images, and office desk scraps #art

after millions of views and shares of my Portland Frog art. (thank you all🙏🏾) I got requests to highlight priests, and chickens, and Chicagoans, and T-Rexes, and more… all of us who refuse to bend the knee. so this is for US. 𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚃𝚊𝚕𝚕. 𝚆𝚎 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚆𝚒𝚗.

“When I was in the military, they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one.” - Leonard Matlovich

New music Friday - courtesy of DJ PacKRat 😅🐭✨🎶 Since my sabbatical, I've been dabbling in mixing various styles of house music and adjacent - and my debut set is posted! soundcloud.com/packratpgh/f...

First Contact

a trip to the stars

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Beach combing in the Anthropocene: a provider of art materials?

Pleased to share new work tinkering with and testing the concept of the holobiont @isme-microbes.bsky.social "Experimental evolution of a mammalian holobiont: bank voles selected for herbivorous capability evolved distinct and robust gut bacterial communities" 🌾🐭🦠 academic.oup.com/ismecommun/a...

Experimental evolution of a mammalian holobiont: bank voles selected for herbivorous capability evolved distinct and robust gut bacterial communities

Abstract. According to the “hologenome” theory of evolution natural selection and evolution can act through a conglomerate biological unit, the “holobiont”

academic.oup.com

Our night blooming cereus is ready to go tonight!

"The dynamic gut" is a hugely flexible organ and environment! In this paper, we provide an updated review on how animals modulate this organ to meet energy and nutritional demands, with implications for the microbiome journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...

The dynamic gut: the vertebrate gastrointestinal tract and associated microbiome exhibit physiological flexibility and adaptations to diet

Summary: This Review covers morphological, functional, molecular and genetic adjustments in vertebrate gastrointestinal tracts and resident microbiota to different diets, and interprets these within t...

journals.biologists.com

New ink to share 😅 Diogenes the Cynic, who rejected cultural conventions and embraced the ways of the natural world - especially dogs 🐶 Often depicted with a lantern during the light of day, searching for an “honest man” - a statement on the rarity of authenticity amid society’s hypocrisy 🕯️

How consistent are dietary effects on gut physiology and the microbiome? In a pair of papers ⬇️, we show that 3 different rodent species have distinct responses to dietary protein and fiber. Clearly, we still have a long way to go in understanding host-microbe interactions across species!

Congrats to Dr. Denise Dearing on being awarded the Utah Governor's Medal for Science for her collection of work on the ecology and evolution of mammalian toxin tolerance!! 🐭🌿⚠️☠️

U of U's College of Science@uofu-science.bsky.social · last yr.

Biological Sciences Distinguished Professor Denise Dearing is this year’s recipient of the prestigious 2025 Utah Governor’s Medal for Science and Technology in the Academia/Research category. The Governor's Medal is the state’s highest civilian award.

If you build it 🌳🏡 They will come 🐿️

Using museum specimens for microbiome analyses? We tested it out - and it seems these samples could be an untapped resource for understanding host-microbe interactions! ⬇️

Samantha Fontaine@samanthafontaine.bsky.social · last yr.

SO excited to share my work w/ @kevindkohl.bsky.social and collabs on the gut microbiome of fluid preserved hosts! Species-specific microbiomes were retained despite preservation across vertebrates 🫙🐟🐸🐍🐀I hope this will increase use of valuable museum specimens in research! doi.org/10.1111/1755...

Delivered a symposium talk met with many good questions and feedback, but one comment is replaying: “It’s amazing how many questions your work opens while not answering any.” We went back and forth on the importance of both mechanisms and emergent outcomes.. but not sure we came to an agreement 🫠

Malicious compliance. Utah bans the flying of pride and non-offical flags, Salt Lake City moves to make these alternate versions of their official flag official.

Carter Williams@cwilliams.ksl.com · last yr.

If approved, SLC would have 4 flag designs. It's current, as well as one tied to Progress Pride, Juneteenth and Transgender designs as seen here #utpol:

A bright day, with two new amazing PhDs launching into the world! 🎓🐭🧬🦠 Congrats to @karenyperalta.bsky.social and @zoomingbio.bsky.social 🎉

STEAM Saturday outreach 🧬 We taught 5th graders about urban adaptations. And I’m in love with the new animals they made - adapted to the bridges, rivers, and potholes of Pittsburgh!

The @pghglasscenter.bsky.social has an amazing exhibit - Glass Lifeforms, an international competition of biological glass artwork Inspired by Rudolf and Leopold Blaschka’s 19th century glass biological models made for Harvard All entries here: glasslifeform.org/p/38/2025-Ex...

The talent and resulting artwork from these high school students is amazing! 🤩 Thanks to @mothpotato.bsky.social and @americanbeetles.bsky.social for this great sci-art outreach opportunity

KevinDKohl@kevindkohl.bsky.social · 2y ago

Broader Impacts in action! ⚡️ Today, we had students from a rural charter school specializing in the Visual Arts ( 🎨 ✍️ 🖼️ 📸 ) visit the Invertebrate Zoology collections at Carnegie Museum. They’ll now work to create scientifically accurate and informative artwork!

Today’s STEAM Saturday outreach event focused on adaptations in animal color and I’m in love with the coffee filter beetles our 5th graders made 🐞🪲😍

Look what arrived in the mail today! ✨📘 Excited to dig into the perspective of @ambikamath.bsky.social and Melina Packer to learn about how our understanding of animal behavior has been shaped by our own human lens and approaches

I have my sign ready for tomorrow! 🪧🌿🧪 #StandUpForScience

There is an amazing inter-city Rustbelt Queer community. I’m in absolute disbelief of this news of our Buffalo NY family.. These two will always serve as inspirations of Queer Joy 💫🌈 www.wbfo.org/2025-03-05/p...

Prominent artists and advocates killed in Allentown double homicide

A friend of the couple went to their home on St. Louis Place Tuesday afternoon after one of them didn't show up for work. Police say that's when the friend noticed a random man in the house with a kni...

wbfo.org