New book "A Primer for Experimental Evolution" with coauthors Michael Rose, Margarida Matos, and Joe Graves. www.worldscientific.com/worldscibook... A compact primer for students and colleagues interested in planning and designing experiments to address questions in evolutionary biology.

It remains very weird to me that in a world of actually useful technology -- photovoltaic power generation, mRNA vaccines, maglev trains, smart phones, etc -- the tech sector has gone so all-in on bullshit generators and plagiarism machines.

I'm heartbroken to report a devastating loss of a great friend and young scientist. telliamedrevisited.wordpress.com/2026/04/09/a...

I don't understand why groups design plasmids, publish protocol papers centered on their use, and then not deposit them to Addgene. Open, reproducible science should be our North Star, not an afterthought (or worse, never considered at all).

Thrilled to share our paper that just came out in PNAS! We asked a deceptively simple question: What happens when S. aureus adapts to vancomycin, a critical first-line antibiotic? 1/5

🚨 Microbiologists! We are recruiting Assistant / Associate Professors in 3 collaborative areas of our U. Pittsburgh School of Medicine. 1) MMG (my dept): fundamental research in med micro 2) Peds ID / I4Kids institute 3) Center for Vaccine Research 🔗 to all 3 w/info: www.linkedin.com/posts/vaughn...

Faculty Professor Associate - Full-Time | Vaughn Cooper

We are recruiting Faculty microbiologists in three (3) different, complementary, and collaborative areas at the University of Pittsburgh associated with the School of Medicine. 1) Fundamental researc...

linkedin.com

Sharing the most significant work from my group, led by the @evolvingstem.bsky.social team. Come for the discoveries of how Pseudomonas adapts in biofilms, stay for the story of how they were discovered by thousands of young scientists in grades 9-12. 🧪🧫🧬🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Student-led experimental evolution reveals novel biofilm regulatory networks underlying adaptations to multiple niches

We established a research-education partnership known as EvolvingSTEM that provides secondary school students the opportunity to conduct authentic research experiments centered on microbial evolution....

biorxiv.org

Another day of reminding everyone of Carl Sagan’s eerily accurate warning about the dangers of not being able to ask skeptical scientific questions to those in power or authority.

You and millions of other people rely on the NPR Network for trustworthy journalism. NPR’s editorial integrity and independence are non-negotiable. It’s a promise we make to you – a promise we will fight to keep. Now, we need your support. Donate today: n.pr/3EYClNR

NIH's work saves lives—& Trump is gutting it. Straight from D.C. I headed to Seattle Children's to hear from researchers & patients alike about the importance of NIH funding—it's not just about lines in a budget, it's about lifesaving discoveries. We ALL need to speak up to save it.

Bezos plans to sell ~$4.8 billion of Amazon stock. That's only 2.5% of his holdings in the company. That sale roughly equals the proposed ~50% cut to NSF. IOW, with modest endowment-level growth of Amazon, Bezos could fund the entire NSF shortfall into perpetuity. www.cnbc.com/2025/05/02/j...

Given today's onslaught on HHS, I'm resharing my OpEd in @elife.bsky.social. You are not alone, and you do have an important voice! Many colleagues remain unaware that the foundation of US biomedical research is crumbling under attack. Tell them! Full text 🔗 elifesciences.org/articles/106...

About fifty years ago, NASA strapped a message in a bottle to a rocket and flung it into the deep dark It wasn’t supposed to go this far, but it did. Long past its mission, it’s still out there so far away now that a simple hello takes a day to reach it, and another day to hear if it says hello back

We're standing up for science in Columbus, OH

TODAY IS THE DAY! 🧪☀️⬇️ Join us at the Lincoln Memorial or your local site to Stand Up for Science!

Happy 37th birthday to the LTEE! the-ltee.org/history/

Happy 37th birthday to @relenski.bsky.social long term evolution experiment. Here's a beautiful summary: the-ltee.org/history/

How my Monday is going so far: I wanted to speed up permutation test code. So, I parallelized it and looped it 10,000 times but forgot that the original code was already being looped. What should've been 30,000 total permutations turned into (30,000)^2 = 900 million. Classic.

a cartoon cat is standing in a hallway looking at something .

ALT: a cartoon cat is standing in a hallway looking at something .

media.tenor.com

Under fascism, no one is safe. Universities stayed quiet as the admin targeted DEI & foreign aid, censored research, etc. Now, they face devastating cuts to indirect cost rates, threatening research & operations. Silence won’t protect institutions. It won’t protect people; it never does.

I’ve been seething and grieving since yesterday’s Friday Night Massacre of NIH overheads, a seeming bit of bureaucratic trivial that will in fact destroy the US university system if unchecked. But I want to get away from budgets and rate breakdowns and F&A percentages for a moment. Humor me?

Another assault on US competitiveness at a time when biomedicine is roaring with innovation, an own-goal in a high-stakes international tournament. Of course the real losers are American people needing medicines and cures. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

NIH cuts billions of dollars in biomedical funding, effective immediately

The move halts a large slice of money for most universities and research institutions virtually overnight, imperiling vital research in everything from cancer to heart disease.

washingtonpost.com

Many of us, and especially early-career scientists, are facing huge challenges now. However, one of the joys of science is to delve into thinking about research. In that spirit, I offer this blog post on starting a microbial evolution experiment. telliamedrevisited.wordpress.com/2025/02/08/h...

Interpretation for the non-scientists: When faculty get NIH grants, the University gets some extra cash to make sure the research is supported. NIH just cut that $$ by a LOT. That means Unis are less likely to support research. Most research in the US is done at Unis, so... it's bad 🧪

Tim Mosca (he/him)@drosophilosophy.bsky.social · 2y ago

Oh. My. God. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

🚨BREAKING. From a program officer at the National Science Foundation, a list of keywords that can cause a grant to be pulled. I will be sharing screenshots of these keywords along with a decision tree. Please share widely. This is a crisis for academic freedom & science.

"The President’s remarks today suggesting the deadly crash of Flight 5342 may have been the fault of public servants with disabilities are irresponsible, disparaging, and wrong." www.aapd.com/disability-o...

Leading Disability Organizations: President Trump’s Blame of Deadly Plane Crash on Disabled Federal Workers Is Baseless, Irresponsible - AAPD

For Immediate Release: January 30, 2025 Contact: Jess Davidson, jdavidson@aapd.com; 202-465-5528 WASHINGTON D.C. – In remarks today at the White House, President Trump cast potential blame for the tra...

aapd.com

I am confident that scientific societies will play an unusually important role in the coming years. If you are a microbiologist of any kind, please consider joining @asm.org if you haven't already. There are many ways to get involved, including advocacy. To learn more: asm.org/About-ASM/Vo...

American science and medicine has been thrown into chaos and uncertainty over the past week. Here are some stories to get up to speed. 1/12

Congratulations to @vscooper.micropopbio.org on his election to become the next president of the @asm.org! asm.org/Press-Releas...

Today we're thrilled to announce our 2024 #HannaGrayFellows! Please join us in welcoming and celebrating these outstanding early career scientists!