Dan Stoebel
@profstoebel.bsky.social
Prof of Biology, Harvey Mudd College. Studies how bacteria regulate their genes in response to stress, and how these systems evolve. (he/him)
Reposted by Dan Stoebel
And at least in California, once the financial aid packages from these spectacular small colleges come in, you’ll see they often line up exactly with that cost of attending a UC (with class sizes an order of magnitude larger).
As parents are helping their kids consider colleges, this is my perennial reminder that state schools often have lower price tags, yes, but private schools, including many small liberal arts schools, often have better aid packages, and are thus often cheaper in the end (but may be more competitive).
December 10, 2025 at 12:33 AM
And at least in California, once the financial aid packages from these spectacular small colleges come in, you’ll see they often line up exactly with that cost of attending a UC (with class sizes an order of magnitude larger).
Reposted by Dan Stoebel
"there's a new serif in town"
Marco Rubio ordered diplomats to return to using Times New Roman font in official communications, calling his predecessor's decision to adopt Calibri a “wasteful” diversity move
Rubio Stages Font Coup: Times New Roman Ousts Calibri
The secretary of state called it a "wasteful" diversity move, according to an internal department cable seen by Reuters.
www.huffpost.com
December 10, 2025 at 1:06 AM
"there's a new serif in town"
Reposted by Dan Stoebel
"are you enjoying duo mobile" does a hamburger enjoy being made of quarks. does a fish enjoy linear time. does the mountain enjoy the first taste of a cup of hot chocolate when you get back to the ski lodge. your question means nothing to me. i couldn't enjoy duo mobile even if i tried
December 3, 2025 at 7:36 PM
"are you enjoying duo mobile" does a hamburger enjoy being made of quarks. does a fish enjoy linear time. does the mountain enjoy the first taste of a cup of hot chocolate when you get back to the ski lodge. your question means nothing to me. i couldn't enjoy duo mobile even if i tried
Reposted by Dan Stoebel
This. There is no longer any excuse for vaporware.
…but this dovetails in an interesting way with the idea a grant has to be half completed in order to get funded.
…but this dovetails in an interesting way with the idea a grant has to be half completed in order to get funded.
Preprint your manuscripts folks. Way more impactful to cite a preprint (that the reviewer can look at if they so choose) than to say "manuscript submitted."
December 1, 2025 at 7:23 PM
This. There is no longer any excuse for vaporware.
…but this dovetails in an interesting way with the idea a grant has to be half completed in order to get funded.
…but this dovetails in an interesting way with the idea a grant has to be half completed in order to get funded.
Reposted by Dan Stoebel
Apologies to xkcd...
November 30, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Apologies to xkcd...
Reposted by Dan Stoebel
@jbyoder.org - I’m losing track of how many times I’ve posted a link to this blog post in a review. A national landmark!
www.molecularecologist.com/2024/08/13/f...
www.molecularecologist.com/2024/08/13/f...
FAQ: Should I invent an acronym?
“Moveable type” (Flickr, David DeSandro) Q. I’m writing a research article, and the text frequently mentions the biological process that is the subject of the article. I’m a…
www.molecularecologist.com
November 25, 2025 at 3:49 AM
@jbyoder.org - I’m losing track of how many times I’ve posted a link to this blog post in a review. A national landmark!
www.molecularecologist.com/2024/08/13/f...
www.molecularecologist.com/2024/08/13/f...
Reposted by Dan Stoebel
Random thought, but what's the process the people designing the spaces that will be purposefully caught on fire for turkey or christmas tree PSAs use? Is it "this is the average American home" or is there room for "I saw this gadawful pillow at Target, let's burn this fucker"?
There is a post circulating on Bluesky encouraging the moving of a frozen turkey straight into a pot of hot oil. We are combating this misinformation the best way we know how - through the power of dance music.
November 23, 2025 at 11:44 PM
Random thought, but what's the process the people designing the spaces that will be purposefully caught on fire for turkey or christmas tree PSAs use? Is it "this is the average American home" or is there room for "I saw this gadawful pillow at Target, let's burn this fucker"?
Reposted by Dan Stoebel
published in 2018 and meanwhile seven years old(!), but still a highlight: wiggling 𝘝𝘪𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘰 𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘦 competence pilus catching DNA for uptake/transformation. found during the repair of our archive. written by @racheldiner.bsky.social . #MicroSky
Shining a light on Vibrio DNA uptake
by Rachel Diner — Vibrio cholerae is "kind of a big deal" in the bacterial world and a popular topic here on STC. Beyond being the causative agent for the disease cholera, it's a model bacterium f…
smallthingsconsidered.blog
November 19, 2025 at 5:53 PM
published in 2018 and meanwhile seven years old(!), but still a highlight: wiggling 𝘝𝘪𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘰 𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘦 competence pilus catching DNA for uptake/transformation. found during the repair of our archive. written by @racheldiner.bsky.social . #MicroSky
Reposted by Dan Stoebel
people are actually very susceptible to just-so stories about human origins because listening to bullshit helped us survive on the savanna
November 18, 2025 at 1:48 AM
people are actually very susceptible to just-so stories about human origins because listening to bullshit helped us survive on the savanna
Reposted by Dan Stoebel
Are you an early-stage graduate student (2nd or 3rd year) or early-stage postdoc based in the US or Canada, working primarily in Drosophila? Would you like to help improve the experience of all trainees working in Drosophila research? If so, read on.
(Please repost to reach a broad audience.)
(Please repost to reach a broad audience.)
November 12, 2025 at 4:49 AM
Are you an early-stage graduate student (2nd or 3rd year) or early-stage postdoc based in the US or Canada, working primarily in Drosophila? Would you like to help improve the experience of all trainees working in Drosophila research? If so, read on.
(Please repost to reach a broad audience.)
(Please repost to reach a broad audience.)
Reposted by Dan Stoebel
Do you teach #rstats? Do your students complain about how lame and old-fashioned dplyr is? Don't worry: I have the solution for you: github.com/hadley/genzp....
genzplyr is dplyr, but bussin fr fr no cap.
genzplyr is dplyr, but bussin fr fr no cap.
GitHub - hadley/genzplyr: dplyr but make it bussin fr fr no cap
dplyr but make it bussin fr fr no cap. Contribute to hadley/genzplyr development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
November 6, 2025 at 11:25 PM
Do you teach #rstats? Do your students complain about how lame and old-fashioned dplyr is? Don't worry: I have the solution for you: github.com/hadley/genzp....
genzplyr is dplyr, but bussin fr fr no cap.
genzplyr is dplyr, but bussin fr fr no cap.
Reposted by Dan Stoebel
Every tech company eventually either reinvents the bus or reinvents phrenology
bro are you fucking kidding me
November 6, 2025 at 7:05 PM
Every tech company eventually either reinvents the bus or reinvents phrenology
Reposted by Dan Stoebel
My lab at Indiana University is searching for a *postdoc* and *technician* to contribute to our work studying the evolution of social behavior using fruit flies as a model system. Details below, feel free to email me with any questions! More info on our research: saltzlab.com
November 5, 2025 at 4:56 PM
My lab at Indiana University is searching for a *postdoc* and *technician* to contribute to our work studying the evolution of social behavior using fruit flies as a model system. Details below, feel free to email me with any questions! More info on our research: saltzlab.com
Reposted by Dan Stoebel
parents, be sure to check your kids’ candy this halloween. I just found a novel phage defense system inside this snickers
October 4, 2023 at 7:32 PM
parents, be sure to check your kids’ candy this halloween. I just found a novel phage defense system inside this snickers
Reposted by Dan Stoebel
“Bonferonni correction”, an invaluable method in #statistics, refers to the act of repeatedly correcting misspellings of the word Bonferroni at multiple places in a draft manuscript.
#science #academia
#science #academia
November 11, 2024 at 2:52 PM
“Bonferonni correction”, an invaluable method in #statistics, refers to the act of repeatedly correcting misspellings of the word Bonferroni at multiple places in a draft manuscript.
#science #academia
#science #academia
Reposted by Dan Stoebel
Not great, but, alas, his seems so appropriate for 2025.
October 28, 2025 at 11:30 PM
Not great, but, alas, his seems so appropriate for 2025.
Reposted by Dan Stoebel
Despite decades of effort, scientists have still not discovered a foolproof way to evaluate colleagues’ work that doesn’t involve reading the paper
But what if there are two co-first authors and the first-first author is actually also co-corresponding author with the last author but the second-first author isn’t?
October 27, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Despite decades of effort, scientists have still not discovered a foolproof way to evaluate colleagues’ work that doesn’t involve reading the paper
Reposted by Dan Stoebel
Reposting this just in case anyone who is interested missed it. We’ll be reviewing applications on Nov 1st, so there is still time to apply for this position this week! Great position for people who want to do both research and teach at a high level with undergraduates!
Interested in a tenure track position teaching and doing research with undergrads at a PUI? We are looking for a broadly-defined microbiologist who can teach Med Micro and Immunology. Apply at universityofscrantonjobs.com/postings/8308. Pls share widely to feeds (& on twitter if you still tweet)! 🦠
October 26, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Reposting this just in case anyone who is interested missed it. We’ll be reviewing applications on Nov 1st, so there is still time to apply for this position this week! Great position for people who want to do both research and teach at a high level with undergraduates!
Reposted by Dan Stoebel
"New Far Side comics" was definitely not on my bingo card for this week. They're not bad!
www.thefarside.com/new-stuff/
www.thefarside.com/new-stuff/
October 16, 2025 at 6:58 PM
"New Far Side comics" was definitely not on my bingo card for this week. They're not bad!
www.thefarside.com/new-stuff/
www.thefarside.com/new-stuff/
Reposted by Dan Stoebel
Administrators: look at how your “peer institutions” are reacting. You wouldn’t want to sign it and mark yourself as needing special favor and so a tier below, would you?
No to the Compact.
1 - MIT
2 - Brown
3 - Penn
4 - U. of Southern California
5,6,... -
we-are.usc.edu/2025/10/16/u...
1 - MIT
2 - Brown
3 - Penn
4 - U. of Southern California
5,6,... -
we-are.usc.edu/2025/10/16/u...
October 17, 2025 at 1:28 AM
Administrators: look at how your “peer institutions” are reacting. You wouldn’t want to sign it and mark yourself as needing special favor and so a tier below, would you?
Reposted by Dan Stoebel
Glucose capping of 5'-mRNAs in E. coli 😱, presumably is installed during transcriptional initiation #MicroSky #RNASky www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
www.pnas.org
October 14, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Glucose capping of 5'-mRNAs in E. coli 😱, presumably is installed during transcriptional initiation #MicroSky #RNASky www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Reposted by Dan Stoebel
Pls share: Hofstra University is looking for a Tenure-Track Microbiologists!
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We are seeking a microbiologist with a research focus on a non-pathogenic bacterial model system.
hofstra.peopleadmin.com/postings/6542
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We are seeking a microbiologist with a research focus on a non-pathogenic bacterial model system.
hofstra.peopleadmin.com/postings/6542
Assistant Professor of Microbiology
hofstra.peopleadmin.com
October 10, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Pls share: Hofstra University is looking for a Tenure-Track Microbiologists!
-----
We are seeking a microbiologist with a research focus on a non-pathogenic bacterial model system.
hofstra.peopleadmin.com/postings/6542
-----
We are seeking a microbiologist with a research focus on a non-pathogenic bacterial model system.
hofstra.peopleadmin.com/postings/6542
Reposted by Dan Stoebel
it's wild that R, the ubiquitous statistical computing language, was co-created by a Māori prof (Ross Ihaka) — and yet the vast majority of scientists who use R don't know
this is like inventing the toaster. possibly the largest impact of a single member of an indigenous community on modern science
this is like inventing the toaster. possibly the largest impact of a single member of an indigenous community on modern science
December 14, 2023 at 10:35 AM
it's wild that R, the ubiquitous statistical computing language, was co-created by a Māori prof (Ross Ihaka) — and yet the vast majority of scientists who use R don't know
this is like inventing the toaster. possibly the largest impact of a single member of an indigenous community on modern science
this is like inventing the toaster. possibly the largest impact of a single member of an indigenous community on modern science
Reposted by Dan Stoebel
My mother calls these conjugate nouns: I have folklore, you have superstition, they have witchcraft.
October 8, 2025 at 2:48 PM
My mother calls these conjugate nouns: I have folklore, you have superstition, they have witchcraft.