Brian Lovett
@lovettbr.bsky.social
Upstanding Scientist | Insect Pathologist | Entomologist | Mycologist | He/Him/His | Skies are my own
Pinned
Brian Lovett
@lovettbr.bsky.social
· Oct 1
Today is bittersweet for me, as I have now officially retired from the USDA-ARS.
It is still difficult for me that the doors to the Lovett Lab have closed.
I am so grateful for the community and science we were able to stir up as a research scientist at the USDA.
It is still difficult for me that the doors to the Lovett Lab have closed.
I am so grateful for the community and science we were able to stir up as a research scientist at the USDA.
So what’s next for me?
I am standing up for science full time at @standupforscience.bsky.social. I am so pleased to support their vision and urgency in this moment.
As I tend to, I wear a few hats, but I am happy to still be using data to tell the best stories possible. 💻 📈 🗞️ ✊
I am standing up for science full time at @standupforscience.bsky.social. I am so pleased to support their vision and urgency in this moment.
As I tend to, I wear a few hats, but I am happy to still be using data to tell the best stories possible. 💻 📈 🗞️ ✊
Reposted by Brian Lovett
🧵Congrats to @standupforscience.bsky.social activist and leader @cdelawalla.bsky.social for being named one to watch in science by Nature. The world’s leading science journal!
Well deserved!
www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
Well deserved!
www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
December 9, 2025 at 3:13 AM
🧵Congrats to @standupforscience.bsky.social activist and leader @cdelawalla.bsky.social for being named one to watch in science by Nature. The world’s leading science journal!
Well deserved!
www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
Well deserved!
www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
Reposted by Brian Lovett
I taught Genetics again this year. We need to include discussion of the problematic history of our field, especially as the claims of eugenics are once again centered in our political discourse. Last year I wrote this piece, explaining my reasoning and approach 🧪 1/n
www.cell.com/trends/genet...
www.cell.com/trends/genet...
December 8, 2025 at 12:37 PM
I taught Genetics again this year. We need to include discussion of the problematic history of our field, especially as the claims of eugenics are once again centered in our political discourse. Last year I wrote this piece, explaining my reasoning and approach 🧪 1/n
www.cell.com/trends/genet...
www.cell.com/trends/genet...
Reposted by Brian Lovett
Here’s the thing, emerging scientists aren’t going to flee to do science elsewhere…they just won’t do the science.
We will lose at least one, if not two generations of knowledge if we don’t get this shit sorted out immediately.
We will lose at least one, if not two generations of knowledge if we don’t get this shit sorted out immediately.
My teen, who had dreamt of being an astrophysicist, just told me he wants to go to law school because, “Science isn’t going to be a priority in the US in the future…I don’t want a job where I’ll be constantly worried my funding will be taken away.”
Gutting. How many future scientists have we lost?
Gutting. How many future scientists have we lost?
December 7, 2025 at 3:22 AM
Here’s the thing, emerging scientists aren’t going to flee to do science elsewhere…they just won’t do the science.
We will lose at least one, if not two generations of knowledge if we don’t get this shit sorted out immediately.
We will lose at least one, if not two generations of knowledge if we don’t get this shit sorted out immediately.
Reposted by Brian Lovett
Okay I’m finally all caught up with this post (yay) for #ArtAdventCalendar day 6! One of about a gazillion beetle-inspired manicures I’ve done over the years. This one is Calligrapha beetle elytra! Sadly in real life they’re not shimmery and shifty like these ones, but they deserve the glow-up.
December 6, 2025 at 9:45 PM
Okay I’m finally all caught up with this post (yay) for #ArtAdventCalendar day 6! One of about a gazillion beetle-inspired manicures I’ve done over the years. This one is Calligrapha beetle elytra! Sadly in real life they’re not shimmery and shifty like these ones, but they deserve the glow-up.
Reposted by Brian Lovett
This is tragic news. Further evidence that our scientific funding has collapsed under political pressure.
Verena was an inspiration: equal parts innovation and impact. They focused on questions that really mattered and pushed the boundaries on how to ask those questions and share their work.
Verena was an inspiration: equal parts innovation and impact. They focused on questions that really mattered and pushed the boundaries on how to ask those questions and share their work.
Yesterday, we sent this message to the @viralemergence.org team, bringing a (hopefully temporary) end to our project three years into what started as a decade of planned work. /1
December 6, 2025 at 1:43 PM
This is tragic news. Further evidence that our scientific funding has collapsed under political pressure.
Verena was an inspiration: equal parts innovation and impact. They focused on questions that really mattered and pushed the boundaries on how to ask those questions and share their work.
Verena was an inspiration: equal parts innovation and impact. They focused on questions that really mattered and pushed the boundaries on how to ask those questions and share their work.
This is tragic news. Further evidence that our scientific funding has collapsed under political pressure.
Verena was an inspiration: equal parts innovation and impact. They focused on questions that really mattered and pushed the boundaries on how to ask those questions and share their work.
Verena was an inspiration: equal parts innovation and impact. They focused on questions that really mattered and pushed the boundaries on how to ask those questions and share their work.
Yesterday, we sent this message to the @viralemergence.org team, bringing a (hopefully temporary) end to our project three years into what started as a decade of planned work. /1
December 6, 2025 at 1:43 PM
This is tragic news. Further evidence that our scientific funding has collapsed under political pressure.
Verena was an inspiration: equal parts innovation and impact. They focused on questions that really mattered and pushed the boundaries on how to ask those questions and share their work.
Verena was an inspiration: equal parts innovation and impact. They focused on questions that really mattered and pushed the boundaries on how to ask those questions and share their work.
Reposted by Brian Lovett
Sec. Kennedy must appear before the HELP Committee to explain why his vaccine advisory committee, in strong disagreement with the medical & scientific community, voted to end a decades-long recommendation that newborns receive the hepatitis B vaccine.
This vaccine saves lives.
This vaccine saves lives.
Breaking News: A federal vaccine committee voted to end the decades-long recommendation that all newborns be immunized at birth against hepatitis B, a highly infectious virus that leads to chronic liver disease in most infected children.
An End to Hepatitis B Shots for All Newborns
A federal panel voted on Friday to recommend halting the at-birth shots for all infants, in a step toward Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s goal of upending the nation’s vaccine policy.
nyti.ms
December 5, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Sec. Kennedy must appear before the HELP Committee to explain why his vaccine advisory committee, in strong disagreement with the medical & scientific community, voted to end a decades-long recommendation that newborns receive the hepatitis B vaccine.
This vaccine saves lives.
This vaccine saves lives.
Incredible characterization of an important pre-lethal effect from fungal infection in mosquitoes! Well done all!! 👏
Our latest research: 👉 doi.org/10.1186/s130...
The fungus Metarhizium pingshaense reverses insecticide resistance in malaria mosquitoes by depleting energy reserves and suppressing detox genes.
Congrats to #LucienLamy for leading this work and to the team #IRSSBurkinaFaso and @sbohvm.gla.ac.uk
The fungus Metarhizium pingshaense reverses insecticide resistance in malaria mosquitoes by depleting energy reserves and suppressing detox genes.
Congrats to #LucienLamy for leading this work and to the team #IRSSBurkinaFaso and @sbohvm.gla.ac.uk
Metarhizium pingshaense infection reverses insecticide resistance in Anopheles gambiae sensu lato by altering energy reserves and gene expression - Parasites & Vectors
Background Entomopathogenic fungi like Metarhizium are emerging as effective biopesticides against malaria vectors. They reduce mosquito survival, fecundity, and flight ability, and reverse insecticid...
doi.org
December 1, 2025 at 11:10 AM
Incredible characterization of an important pre-lethal effect from fungal infection in mosquitoes! Well done all!! 👏
Reposted by Brian Lovett
2 HONEY 2 CRISP
November 29, 2025 at 9:29 PM
2 HONEY 2 CRISP
When a guy who masturbates in front of women without consent reënters the culture, The New Yorker stands ready to lionize them. 🙄
When a cancelled performer reënters the culture, we expect them to offer us a great work, channelling their newfound clarity into the finest art they’ve ever made. With his new comedy show and début novel, has Louis C.K. met the bar?
www.newyorker.com/culture/crit...
www.newyorker.com/culture/crit...
Louis C.K.’s Next Chapter
In a new standup special, and a début novel, the comedian navigates murky, post-#MeToo terrain: not quite exiled, not quite welcomed back.
www.newyorker.com
November 29, 2025 at 8:52 PM
When a guy who masturbates in front of women without consent reënters the culture, The New Yorker stands ready to lionize them. 🙄
Reposted by Brian Lovett
IMPORTANT reminder for when you print zines:
Set your printer to "Scale: 100%"
Many printers automatically resize to 94% or something, which will shrink the image and give you weird borders when you fold the zine.
Scale: 100%.
Set your printer to "Scale: 100%"
Many printers automatically resize to 94% or something, which will shrink the image and give you weird borders when you fold the zine.
Scale: 100%.
November 29, 2025 at 4:35 AM
IMPORTANT reminder for when you print zines:
Set your printer to "Scale: 100%"
Many printers automatically resize to 94% or something, which will shrink the image and give you weird borders when you fold the zine.
Scale: 100%.
Set your printer to "Scale: 100%"
Many printers automatically resize to 94% or something, which will shrink the image and give you weird borders when you fold the zine.
Scale: 100%.
“Back in my day, we ignored basic safety precautions” may not be the silly story you think it is. ☺️
Thanksgiving made remember the time in grad school when we used the autoclave to cook a turkey.
It was good1
It was good1
a cartoon character with its mouth open and the words nom nom nom below it
ALT: a cartoon character with its mouth open and the words nom nom nom below it
media.tenor.com
November 29, 2025 at 12:59 AM
“Back in my day, we ignored basic safety precautions” may not be the silly story you think it is. ☺️
Ultimately, this is an ethics issue. You should have these conversations to learn ethics of new collaborators.
Ethical use of AI requires full disclosure of prompts and use of a closed environment. Full disclosure to collaborators is a no brainer, but it should be disclosed to readers too.
Ethical use of AI requires full disclosure of prompts and use of a closed environment. Full disclosure to collaborators is a no brainer, but it should be disclosed to readers too.
I was chatting to a collaborator about this only last week. We think you need to have a chat with every collaborator and coauthor at the beginning of a research project about whether or not they use LLMs, how (if so) and to be clear if any words have been prepared by LLM.
November 28, 2025 at 8:55 AM
Ultimately, this is an ethics issue. You should have these conversations to learn ethics of new collaborators.
Ethical use of AI requires full disclosure of prompts and use of a closed environment. Full disclosure to collaborators is a no brainer, but it should be disclosed to readers too.
Ethical use of AI requires full disclosure of prompts and use of a closed environment. Full disclosure to collaborators is a no brainer, but it should be disclosed to readers too.
Reposted by Brian Lovett
The amazing community of current and former federal workers organizing to preserve our agency missions in service of the American people.
November 28, 2025 at 1:30 AM
The amazing community of current and former federal workers organizing to preserve our agency missions in service of the American people.
May the odds ever be in your thermodynamic favor.
PSA - if you cook Turkey for your Thanksgiving meal, despite its unfortunate name, spatchcocking a Turkey is one of the most thermodynamically favorable ways to cook it. 🧪 🧵
November 27, 2025 at 4:20 PM
May the odds ever be in your thermodynamic favor.
Reposted by Brian Lovett
If any of the allegations are true, Nuzzi covering for RFK Jr. directly played a role in the gutting of America's public health infrastructure, the defenestrating of the CDC and the promotion of the lie that vaccines causing autism.
If the Nuzzi blast radius doesn't impact both the new editor of VF and the NYT profiler, then something wrong. Holy shit.
November 26, 2025 at 11:28 PM
If any of the allegations are true, Nuzzi covering for RFK Jr. directly played a role in the gutting of America's public health infrastructure, the defenestrating of the CDC and the promotion of the lie that vaccines causing autism.
Reposted by Brian Lovett
As someone who purchased three copies of this book for friends, I will say this: it’s a wonderful book and you should buy one for yourself and one for someone else. Mindy is a super talented storyteller! Supporting hardworking writers & artists is not only important but it also makes you feel good!
Do you like zombies + science? I wrote a book about that! It's perfect for anyone who's ever wondered what it takes to mind-control a cockroach, reprogram a spider's web-spinning, or make a cricket jump into water to drown 🧪
And it's 40% off at @hopkinspress.bsky.social, now through 12/7 (HHOL25)!
And it's 40% off at @hopkinspress.bsky.social, now through 12/7 (HHOL25)!
November 26, 2025 at 11:16 PM
As someone who purchased three copies of this book for friends, I will say this: it’s a wonderful book and you should buy one for yourself and one for someone else. Mindy is a super talented storyteller! Supporting hardworking writers & artists is not only important but it also makes you feel good!
Reposted by Brian Lovett
DOGE was not a money-saving effort. It was an effort to chase down and prove right-wing conspiracy theories. They went after USAID to prove conspiracy theories about foreign aid. Then they went after SSA to, again, pursue conspiracy theories about Dems paying "illegals" to vote. 1/2
All DOGE accomplished was purging critical government staff, handing private data to outsiders, and sentencing thousands in developing countries to death by gutting USAID.
I don’t say this lightly: if there were any justice in this world, the people responsible for this devastation would be in jail
I don’t say this lightly: if there were any justice in this world, the people responsible for this devastation would be in jail
DOGE 'doesn't exist' with eight months left on its charter
U.S. President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency has disbanded with eight months left to its mandate.
www.cnbc.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:47 PM
DOGE was not a money-saving effort. It was an effort to chase down and prove right-wing conspiracy theories. They went after USAID to prove conspiracy theories about foreign aid. Then they went after SSA to, again, pursue conspiracy theories about Dems paying "illegals" to vote. 1/2
Reposted by Brian Lovett
There's a classic joke list of how different programming language handle shooting yourself in the foot.
In the spirit of that, I'm going to make a collection of how the current media landscape would handle Trump shooting himself in the foot.
I encourage you to submit your own.
In the spirit of that, I'm going to make a collection of how the current media landscape would handle Trump shooting himself in the foot.
I encourage you to submit your own.
www.eecs.yorku.ca
November 26, 2025 at 7:10 PM
There's a classic joke list of how different programming language handle shooting yourself in the foot.
In the spirit of that, I'm going to make a collection of how the current media landscape would handle Trump shooting himself in the foot.
I encourage you to submit your own.
In the spirit of that, I'm going to make a collection of how the current media landscape would handle Trump shooting himself in the foot.
I encourage you to submit your own.
my favorite thing about Thanksgiving is that people stop emailing me for a few days
November 26, 2025 at 8:11 PM
Reposted by Brian Lovett
“I woke up with the energy of a thousand Dolly Partons!”
TN Democrat Aftyn Behn on learning a new poll has her within clear range of flipping a deeply Republican House seat in 12/2 special election that could deal a huge blow to the GOP.
Read this exclusive interview with @aftynbehn.bsky.social:
TN Democrat Aftyn Behn on learning a new poll has her within clear range of flipping a deeply Republican House seat in 12/2 special election that could deal a huge blow to the GOP.
Read this exclusive interview with @aftynbehn.bsky.social:
Can Aftyn Behn Stun the GOP in Tennessee Next Week?
The Democrat has a real chance to flip a deep-red congressional seat. In an exclusive interview, she explains why her bid is shaking up the politics of 2025 (and maybe 2026).
www.thenation.com
November 26, 2025 at 6:25 PM
“I woke up with the energy of a thousand Dolly Partons!”
TN Democrat Aftyn Behn on learning a new poll has her within clear range of flipping a deeply Republican House seat in 12/2 special election that could deal a huge blow to the GOP.
Read this exclusive interview with @aftynbehn.bsky.social:
TN Democrat Aftyn Behn on learning a new poll has her within clear range of flipping a deeply Republican House seat in 12/2 special election that could deal a huge blow to the GOP.
Read this exclusive interview with @aftynbehn.bsky.social:
And yet, AI has made many aspects of life demonstrably worse.
Still have yet to see AI make my life better in any way
November 26, 2025 at 12:36 PM
And yet, AI has made many aspects of life demonstrably worse.
Everyone should enjoy a good late season puffball smashing to help spread the spores, just be sure to avoid inhaling the cloud as doing so can potentially result in something called Lycoperdonosis, a respiratory disease caused by inhalation of large quantities of warty Lycoperdon spores. #Mushrooms
November 26, 2025 at 11:22 AM
It’s easier to date Kash long distance apparently.
Alexis Wilkins has suddenly found fame as FBI Director Kash Patel’s boo, but the aspiring country singer was working in Washington as recently as January.
Keystone Kash’s Girlfriend’s Closest Held Secret Revealed
Her country “career” has taken her to Nashville but it turns out Alexis Wilkins is really a Swamp Creature, our must-read newsletter reveals.
trib.al
November 25, 2025 at 11:27 PM
It’s easier to date Kash long distance apparently.
We can do better than comparing people to arachnids/insects. I hate seeing insects used in this way.
DOGE is not gone, just embedded like ticks in every agency and following orders from Russell Vought
DOGE is not gone, just went a little undercover. But hundreds of thousands of civil servants are gone.
November 25, 2025 at 2:00 PM
We can do better than comparing people to arachnids/insects. I hate seeing insects used in this way.