Finally PhinisheD!!! Successfully defended my dissertation on Evolutionary Genomics of Channel Island Peromyscus this Wednesday 🐭🧬👩‍🔬 Enormously grateful for the support of my family, friends, labmates, collaborators, and amazing committee members for seeing me through the last 6 years!!!

big things happening: I'll be defending my dissertation next week on July 15! to procrastinate preparing, I will be posting a meme for each of my chapters until the big day. also, please DM me if you'd like a zoom link to attend my public defense, but be prepared for 45 minutes of mouse toe talk!

Mods are asleep. Post pinnipeds!

In the face of ongoing pressures and critique (including here by many), the public reaffirmation of the core mission of the National Academy of Sciences is a much-needed signal from incoming NAS President Neil Shubin. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

The enduring pursuit of science in America

Imagine an American organization that convenes scientific experts not to advance any ideology or interest but to provide the nation with a clear understanding of complex problems. Imagine this body wo...

science.org

First full day at #ASM2026 (mammals, not microbes)! I was so honored to give the Anna M. Jackson talk award this morning, going over [too] much of my dissertation work on Channel Island deer mice. Huge thanks to @mammalogists.bsky.social for the award and support throughout my graduate career!!

Not wanting to be snarky but this is true of every technological advance in science. My entire PhD in 1983 was the fitting and refinement of a single protein crystal structure. Today I could do the same within an hour - no AI required. Hyperbole does not help.

Research Professional News@resprofnews.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Artificial intelligence systems will allow a single PhD student’s output to match that of a whole laboratory, according to Demis Hassabis, a Nobel laureate for chemistry.

"AI is operating at a PhD level" oh, so it's replying 'sorry for the late response' to every email and complaining about its labor conditions?

amazing thread about our latest paper, out in Therya today!! really cool and unexpected find from my Channel Island mouse dissertation research. thanks @kaycebell.bsky.social for all your detective work in the collections!

Kayce Bell@kaycebell.bsky.social · 2mo ago

New paper out today! I had the good fortune to work with this crew, @mabscientist.bsky.social, Susette Castañeda-Rico and others, on a project that discovered previously unknown introduced mice on the Channel Islands in California.

Smithsonian NZCBI Center for Conservation Genomics is looking for a new center-head!! An awesome opportunity to work at the coolest lab around! 🧬🧑‍🔬🐘🐅🐢🐸🦜🦊🦉🐼🐿️ www.usajobs.gov/job/870869600

Supervisory Research Zoologist

The Smithsonian Institution is the worlds largest museum, education, and research complex, with 21 museums and the National Zoo. This position is located in Smithsonians National Zoo and Conservation ...

usajobs.gov

Art of the ancient Americas may not be your thing, but you have to love this earthenware crab vessel. I'm sorry, I don't make the rules. 🦀 This is going into our imaginary museum replica store, pronto. #LACMA Colombia, Calima style, Ilama period, ca. 1500 BCE-100 CE. 🏺 1/ 📸 me

I implore everyone to read this brilliant book review of Kathryn Paige Harden new book on the genetics of criminality. It cuts right through the bullshit to state plainly what Harden's project really is: eugenics bullshit and grifting lareviewofbooks.org/article/orig...

Natural Election | Los Angeles Review of Books

Kathryn Paige Harden’s new book offers a defense of a kind of Scientific Calvinism that converges with the eugenicist ideals of the contemporary Far Right.

lareviewofbooks.org

Squirrel of the Day for April 13, 2026 gazes at the fallen cherry blossoms and ponders the fleeting nature of life #sqrlpix

A star scientist showed that better genetics lessons could reduce racism. It was the death knell for his career The loss of Brian Donovan’s grants and job speak volumes about federal funding priorities — and academia www.statnews.com/2026/04/07/b...

The tech industry props up the richest people on the planet and pays far less than its fair share of taxes. It can absolutely afford its own R&D. But instead, it’s effectively hijacked our public science infrastructure because having more wealth than anyone could ever spend is still not enough.

Leslie Rissler@ljrissler.bsky.social · 4mo ago

I am shocked to see this language from the NSF. “The U.S. National Science Foundation's Fiscal Year 2027 Budget Request reflects a strategic alignment of resources in a constrained fiscal environment while eliminating woke and weaponized grant programs that previously funded radical DEI projects.”

MAMA HUMPBACK WHALE DEFEATS NILE CROCODILE! HUMPBACK WHALE is #2026MMM CHAMPION! Artwork by @veppart.bsky.social & @opellisms.bsky.social !!!

So, um... this is bad. Really bad. I looked at the letters that were translated by the AI, and the very first one I found was almost entirely hallucination. Thread:

Sarah E. Bond@sarahebond.bsky.social · 5mo ago

The new project mapping 7,000+ ancient letters is impressive: romanletters.org . The database & geolocation (although noting Pleiades rather than just AWMC would be nice) are great. But I absolutely cannot get over use of AI—however transparent—for translation. 🚨 Value human translators 🚨

Undergrad and graduate students! Could your work benefit from visiting one of the NHMLAC’s collections? Apply for our Collections Study Award, due Apr. 1. I’d love to have students make use of our Entomology collection! Details here: tinyurl.com/bdduefsy

Dental Formulas xkcd.com/3213/

🎉 Huge news for BHL: The Field Museum is taking over the hosting of BHL’s website, servers & infrastructure, ensuring long-term stability and access for its 63+ million pages of open biodiversity literature. Learn more: blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2026/02/tran... #BHLTransition #ILoveBHL 🌍 📚 🧪

Defunding science on the lowdown. Even while the budget “looks” stable.

Javi Ibarrondo@jibarrondo.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Musical-chairs leadership shakeup planned for science agencies | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti... 🧪

The genome isn't a blueprint. But what is it? I originally imagined this as a reported feature on metaphors of the genome, but it ended up being an essay. And at the end I share the metaphor I personally ended up landing on. If you want to tell me why it is wrong, you'll need to read the story ;)🧪

Pioneer Works@pioneerwork.bsky.social · 6mo ago

“Chop off a Hydra’s head, and you’ll have two new animals instead of one dead one.” @elisecutts.bsky.social on immortal freshwater polyps, and what they reveal about where complexity comes from. pioneerworks.org/broadcast/ge...

Happy birthday to one of my favourite haters, Charles Darwin

There’s a wolf in LA for the first time in 100 years. A collared gray wolf entered the mountains of north Los Angeles County yesterday. Known as “BEY03F” she traveled hundreds of miles from her pack in Plumas County crossing highways, mountains, creeks and valleys. www.latimes.com/environment/...

A wolf has come to Los Angeles County for the first time in more than a century

Around 6 a.m. Saturday, the 3-year-old female arrived in the mountains north of Santa Clarita, as tracked by a GPS collar.

latimes.com

More than 10,000 Ph.D. scientists were fired by the Trump administration last year. Grant cuts affected more. "A few dozen got jobs in other countries" is not a serious solution. There are not enough jobs in the whole world. The result will be less science, not the same science just elsewhere.

Dozens of researchers will move to France from US following high-profile bid to lure talent

Large proportion worked at Columbia University, which had its grants cut and frozen by the administration of US President Donald Trump.

nature.com

Hot take: folks are too focused on the AI emphasis of the PRFB & missing the most concerning part of the solicitation. The heavy emphasis on bio-AI integration for “technological advances” is a concerning degradation of NSFs mission to fund basic biological research.

it's the AI PRFB now 🙃

Colin Carlson@colincarlson.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Holy shit: it's an RFP for the NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology (PRFB). Hello old friend www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

This is the most astonishing graph of what the Trump regime has done to US science. They have destroyed the federal science workforce across the board. The negative impacts on Americans will be felt for generations, and the US might never be the same again. www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

The National Science Foundation sign on our Eisenhower Av building is now gone. The NSF mural in the foyer is removed and torn off in sheets. We were supposed to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the agency in May 2025. That never happened.

metro rewind >>>>>> spotify wrapped metrorewind.com/rewind/

You will be visited by three spirits

D. C. Fitzgerald @dcfitzgerald.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Australian Pelicans (Pelecanus conspicillatus)... holds the world record for the longest bill of any living bird. The largest one ever recorded was a huge 50 centimeters (nearly 20 inches), which they're hiding in the pic. #birds #nature #biology #photography