Annika Barber
@annikabarber.bsky.social
Drosophila enthusiast. Assistant Professor of Mol Bio and Biochem at Rutgers U. Runner. Uses brain to think about brains. All around curious person.
Obviously, I already think my students are pretty great. Then application season rolls around and I get to read their full personal statements and I'm always gobsmacked at how accomplished they are outside of lab and how much they invest in their families, service, and community. 🤩
November 26, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Obviously, I already think my students are pretty great. Then application season rolls around and I get to read their full personal statements and I'm always gobsmacked at how accomplished they are outside of lab and how much they invest in their families, service, and community. 🤩
Reposted by Annika Barber
We @uam-umd.bsky.social won. Faculty packed town halls, talked to their colleagues and collected hundreds of petition signatures. Now UMD is coughing up $8.75m, during a deficit, to fund faculty whose research is under attack. Not enough, but a helluva thing for a union the state calls illegal.
$8.75M Investment Supports ‘Research Resilience’… | Maryland Today
UMD, MPower Funds Combine to Help Preserve Institutional Capabilities, Lab Operations and More
today.umd.edu
November 25, 2025 at 2:32 PM
We @uam-umd.bsky.social won. Faculty packed town halls, talked to their colleagues and collected hundreds of petition signatures. Now UMD is coughing up $8.75m, during a deficit, to fund faculty whose research is under attack. Not enough, but a helluva thing for a union the state calls illegal.
Reposted by Annika Barber
#OnThisDay in 1859, Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species was first published.
Much of the original manuscript was used as scrap paper by Darwin's children. On the back of this painting of a house is an original manuscript page from Origin!
#CambridgeUniversityLibrary (DAR 185)
Much of the original manuscript was used as scrap paper by Darwin's children. On the back of this painting of a house is an original manuscript page from Origin!
#CambridgeUniversityLibrary (DAR 185)
November 24, 2025 at 11:26 AM
#OnThisDay in 1859, Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species was first published.
Much of the original manuscript was used as scrap paper by Darwin's children. On the back of this painting of a house is an original manuscript page from Origin!
#CambridgeUniversityLibrary (DAR 185)
Much of the original manuscript was used as scrap paper by Darwin's children. On the back of this painting of a house is an original manuscript page from Origin!
#CambridgeUniversityLibrary (DAR 185)
Check all the NIH review deets for deadlines during the shutdown here! 🧪
Updated guidance on NIH grant application due dates (10/1/2025-12/5/2025), along with some other Info. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...
NOT-OD-26-012: Updated Guidance on Reopening of NIH Extramural Activities Following the October 1, 2025 - Lapse in Appropriations
NIH Funding Opportunities and Notices in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts: Updated Guidance on Reopening of NIH Extramural Activities Following the October 1, 2025 - Lapse in Appropriations NOT-...
grants.nih.gov
November 24, 2025 at 6:04 PM
Check all the NIH review deets for deadlines during the shutdown here! 🧪
My student @sergiocrespo.bsky.social brought me one back! I’m framing it to hang on the wall. Purple *and* axolotls??? I think the Mexican treasury had me in mind! 💜
A lot of axolotls: the amphibian-themed banknote Mexicans don’t want to spend
Nearly 13m people are hoarding millions of dollars’ worth of the stylish 50 peso note, featuring Mexico’s cutest critter
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
Nearly 13m people are hoarding millions of dollars’ worth of the stylish 50 peso note, featuring Mexico’s cutest critter
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
A lot of axolotls: the amphibian-themed banknote Mexicans don’t want to spend
Nearly 13m people are hoarding millions of dollars’ worth of the stylish 50 peso note, featuring Mexico’s cutest critter
www.theguardian.com
November 24, 2025 at 4:00 PM
My student @sergiocrespo.bsky.social brought me one back! I’m framing it to hang on the wall. Purple *and* axolotls??? I think the Mexican treasury had me in mind! 💜
Tbh I’d just eat mac and cheese and yams. Which are suspiciously absent!
with charity and goodwill, i must here part ways with rolls.
November 24, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Tbh I’d just eat mac and cheese and yams. Which are suspiciously absent!
Reposted by Annika Barber
It’s blowing my mind that schools, universities, public services would run headlong into this. We spent 15 years documenting black boxes. This is a black box in a black hole!
I don't understand how anyone can watch how blatantly Grok is manipulated to answer the way ownership desires it to and then act like the other LLM chatbots couldn't possibly be similarly but less obviously compromised to produce responses in whatever way corporate interests and priorities dictate.
November 23, 2025 at 11:16 PM
It’s blowing my mind that schools, universities, public services would run headlong into this. We spent 15 years documenting black boxes. This is a black box in a black hole!
“Does this sweater make my head look big?” ~Goose 🐶
November 23, 2025 at 6:08 PM
“Does this sweater make my head look big?” ~Goose 🐶
In third grade I learned about space and decided to be an astronaut. When I was 12, I interned in a biology lab to decide if I wanted to be a pilot or a mission specialist and I’ve been in lab ever since.
November 22, 2025 at 11:46 PM
In third grade I learned about space and decided to be an astronaut. When I was 12, I interned in a biology lab to decide if I wanted to be a pilot or a mission specialist and I’ve been in lab ever since.
Reposted by Annika Barber
I wanna invent time travel and then require every high school student to take a class called "All The Shit We Fixed Before You Got Here" where they tour smog-filled US cities, polio wards, pre-vaccine hospitals, buildings with no safety regulations, kids working in mines, etc.
November 19, 2025 at 7:32 PM
I wanna invent time travel and then require every high school student to take a class called "All The Shit We Fixed Before You Got Here" where they tour smog-filled US cities, polio wards, pre-vaccine hospitals, buildings with no safety regulations, kids working in mines, etc.
Wildly expanding my horizons at the Labor Education Action Research Network collective bargaining training. Really bending my scientist-brain! 🤯 Academics - go join your union! #AAUP #unionstrong #academicsky
November 19, 2025 at 6:48 PM
Wildly expanding my horizons at the Labor Education Action Research Network collective bargaining training. Really bending my scientist-brain! 🤯 Academics - go join your union! #AAUP #unionstrong #academicsky
Goose likes to sit on a blanket. He’ll count almost anything as a blanket. A paper towel. A piece of dirty laundry. He even prefers to be on a small blanket on top of larger blankets.
November 15, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Goose likes to sit on a blanket. He’ll count almost anything as a blanket. A paper towel. A piece of dirty laundry. He even prefers to be on a small blanket on top of larger blankets.
Amazing seminar day at NJIT Center for Injury Biomechanics, Materials, and Medicine! They’re doing fascinating and lifesaving work on blast injuries in a wide array of model systems.
November 14, 2025 at 10:43 PM
Amazing seminar day at NJIT Center for Injury Biomechanics, Materials, and Medicine! They’re doing fascinating and lifesaving work on blast injuries in a wide array of model systems.
Prohibiting mentorship of Chinese students even as Trump says he wants to bring in more Chinese students. Make it make sense. www.cnn.com/2025/11/10/p...
November 14, 2025 at 2:03 AM
Prohibiting mentorship of Chinese students even as Trump says he wants to bring in more Chinese students. Make it make sense. www.cnn.com/2025/11/10/p...
I just love the phrase “sponge sisters.” But I’m also happy being sister to a comb jelly. 🧽 🪼 👯♀️
November 13, 2025 at 8:26 PM
I just love the phrase “sponge sisters.” But I’m also happy being sister to a comb jelly. 🧽 🪼 👯♀️
Even with the gov't open, study sections won't be able to instantly restart. Apart from rescheduling, sections scheduled to meet in the next week or two would have been paralyzed by the shutdown with reviews not yet assigned, reviews not yet come in, discussion order not set, etc. 🧪
While the government was shut down, 379 NIH study section meetings (containing 24,380 grant applications) were postponed. NIH is committed to getting these reviewed, but please be patient and understanding with staff, as this is a complex and heavy lift.
November 13, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Even with the gov't open, study sections won't be able to instantly restart. Apart from rescheduling, sections scheduled to meet in the next week or two would have been paralyzed by the shutdown with reviews not yet assigned, reviews not yet come in, discussion order not set, etc. 🧪
Reposted by Annika Barber
counterpoint: medieval manuscript
November 12, 2025 at 3:06 PM
counterpoint: medieval manuscript
I didn’t know this and now I need someone to put together a musca depicta fine art traveling exhibit to come to my city!!! 🪰
"Musca depicta ("painted fly" in Latin; plural: muscae depictae) is a depiction of a fly as a conspicuous element of various paintings."
WHY IS THIS A THING
WHY IS THIS A THING
November 12, 2025 at 3:11 PM
I didn’t know this and now I need someone to put together a musca depicta fine art traveling exhibit to come to my city!!! 🪰
Up to 323 cancelled CSR study sections. That's more than the 204 sections cancelled earlier this year. Rescheduling is going to be a hot mess with NIH staff reductions and study section members heading into finals and holidays that limit availability. 🧪
Been a rough year for federally funded scientists, and I hate to add another tab to this spreadsheet. So far, the shutdown has resulted in cancellation of 161 CSR study sections. 🧪https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lLEx14q7HKrlYahQYJaN6aHKpMqSMJwX4aenyL5g_ZU/edit?usp=sharing
2025 Study section tracking
docs.google.com
November 11, 2025 at 9:44 PM
Up to 323 cancelled CSR study sections. That's more than the 204 sections cancelled earlier this year. Rescheduling is going to be a hot mess with NIH staff reductions and study section members heading into finals and holidays that limit availability. 🧪
So glad I was raised on phonics. Still have snippets of some of the phonics poems carved into my synapses..."boiled or broiled, baked in tinfoil, unavoidably they'll be disappointed."
ever since I learned about three-cueing I've developed infinitely more patience for replies on social media. mfers literally do not know how to read. people are walking around conjuring random meanings into words they don't know, and they don't know a lot of words. it's crazy
November 11, 2025 at 7:04 PM
So glad I was raised on phonics. Still have snippets of some of the phonics poems carved into my synapses..."boiled or broiled, baked in tinfoil, unavoidably they'll be disappointed."
#medalmonday for the three of us in the lab who ran the Princeton Half Marathon! A successful first half marathon for @keisukefukumura.bsky.social and grad student Sergio! 🏃♀️ 🏃 🏃♂️
November 10, 2025 at 11:58 PM
#medalmonday for the three of us in the lab who ran the Princeton Half Marathon! A successful first half marathon for @keisukefukumura.bsky.social and grad student Sergio! 🏃♀️ 🏃 🏃♂️
Me, meal prepping every Sunday in Autumn. It’s black bean soup this week. #soupseason
November 9, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Me, meal prepping every Sunday in Autumn. It’s black bean soup this week. #soupseason
Similar to my family. Generally someone must die for the dish assignment to change - that’s how I got mac and cheese. Which is a big deal, since we host my husband’s Black extended family on holidays! Lotta pressure to not fck it up. 🧀
sharing what my family does because it is kind of crazy:
1. for each big holiday you have a semi-permanent dish. you bring that every year
2. if you want to try something new it must be in addition to your usual
3. if you are a new adult, you make deviled eggs until the next person comes of age
1. for each big holiday you have a semi-permanent dish. you bring that every year
2. if you want to try something new it must be in addition to your usual
3. if you are a new adult, you make deviled eggs until the next person comes of age
are potluck thanksgivings not the norm?
my family is so big that if one person tried to host our family dinner it would be like $1,000 dollars
my family is so big that if one person tried to host our family dinner it would be like $1,000 dollars
November 9, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Similar to my family. Generally someone must die for the dish assignment to change - that’s how I got mac and cheese. Which is a big deal, since we host my husband’s Black extended family on holidays! Lotta pressure to not fck it up. 🧀
Princeton Half Marathon in 1:48:16! Beating last year’s time by four minutes on a very hilly course (watch says 719 feet 🥵)! 🏃♀️ #sundayrunday
November 9, 2025 at 2:14 PM
Princeton Half Marathon in 1:48:16! Beating last year’s time by four minutes on a very hilly course (watch says 719 feet 🥵)! 🏃♀️ #sundayrunday
Reposted by Annika Barber
It's irritating that they describe the effects of his racism as limited to causing controversy within science and reputational consequences for himself rather than giving an immeasurable boost, false veneer of legitimacy, and idiot-friendly prestige to modern scientific racism and eugenics.
James D. Watson died on Thursday in East Northport, N.Y., on Long Island. He was 97.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/s...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/s...
James Watson, Who Helped Discover the Structure of DNA, Is Dead at 97
www.nytimes.com
November 7, 2025 at 7:42 PM
It's irritating that they describe the effects of his racism as limited to causing controversy within science and reputational consequences for himself rather than giving an immeasurable boost, false veneer of legitimacy, and idiot-friendly prestige to modern scientific racism and eugenics.