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Blue Eyed Grass @blueeyedgrass.bsky.social · 6h

And so if anybody sees this has a recommendation on good graduate programs in soil sciences...

Blue Eyed Grass @blueeyedgrass.bsky.social · 6h

It's a good point, science keeps going, scientists keep coming. My son graduates this coming spring. Dual major physics and environ sci. Wants to do grad school in physical aspects of soil dynamics. He's been doing experiments in that area since 5th grade science fairs. You have to be who you are.

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Blue Eyed Grass @blueeyedgrass.bsky.social · 1d

I''m sure risky but have to say that looks like a fun day at work.

Blue Eyed Grass @blueeyedgrass.bsky.social · 1d

Case in point. I remember in Jan I think it was that HHMI hard stopped its IE3 program. I was like seriously, you're just going to put your tail between you legs and run? And I still don't get it, not really, why chicken out like that? Such a cool program.

Blue Eyed Grass @blueeyedgrass.bsky.social · 1d

Which begs the question of who does run universities, and why.

Blue Eyed Grass @blueeyedgrass.bsky.social · 1d

I'll take the liberty to suggest that "scientific establishment" should be defined more concretely. People who do not know how the sausage gets made will not get what that term encompasses. And It matters for this discussion. As always, thanks for what you're doing.

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Blue Eyed Grass @blueeyedgrass.bsky.social · 1d

TFW you see a leopard eat its own face.

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Reposted by Blue Eyed Grass

American Society for Cell Biology @ascbiology.bsky.social · 2d

💡 Kudos to Lara Goudsouzian, DeSales University, on receiving ASCB’s 2025 Innovation in Education Award! This honor celebrates a novel educational accomplishment in the past 3 years that advances ASCB’s mission. #ASCB #CellBiology

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Blue Eyed Grass @blueeyedgrass.bsky.social · 2d

Let their dreams be filled with monsters of their own making.

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Blue Eyed Grass @blueeyedgrass.bsky.social · 3d

Free of context, still words to aspire to and live by.

Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 3d

Tweet less; research more.

Blue Eyed Grass @blueeyedgrass.bsky.social · 3d

This is a great read on Forster. I've been skimming back over Abbey's "Monkey Wrench Gang". Two pre-internet contemplations of technology, isolation and authoritarianism.

“We are caught...in the iron treads of a technological juggernaut. A mindless machine. With a breeder reactor for a heart.”

Greg Olear @gregolear.bsky.social · 3d

"In 1909, Forster foresaw the Internet, Zoom calls, bleeping notifications, well-honed HVAC systems, tech worship, globalization, Reddit boards, Yelp reviews, Spotify, YouTube, environment-destroying pollution, shitty automated customer service, psych issues involving physical isolation, and more."

Sunday Pages: "The Machine Stops"

A novella by E.M. Forster

gregolear.substack.com

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Blue Eyed Grass @blueeyedgrass.bsky.social · 3d

Yes I suppose with changes to publication it will still come down to what counts and how much.

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Blue Eyed Grass @blueeyedgrass.bsky.social · 3d

Beautiful. I can see quilting like that and cryo-EM running in parallel lanes. Particle averaging somehow.

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Blue Eyed Grass @blueeyedgrass.bsky.social · 4d

Oh and of course funding mechanisms as an even more upstream gatekeeper. Heh..

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Blue Eyed Grass @blueeyedgrass.bsky.social · 4d

Thanks 4 linking. Bypass gatekeepers to speed things up. But there's the faster not always better viewpoint-speed vs quality control. And review at increased scale. I wonder if conferences as effectively fill the need for rapid communication of research before publication that they used to.

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Blue Eyed Grass @blueeyedgrass.bsky.social · 4d

The skits are an incredibly effective pedagogical technique. Like we should really do more to teach science this way. Watch the vid and 2 months from now if someone asks "why stripes on zebras" you'll remember.

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Blue Eyed Grass @blueeyedgrass.bsky.social · 4d

who amongst us has not willed themself to evolve a story line?

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Blue Eyed Grass @blueeyedgrass.bsky.social · 5d

The "feedback to increase mutant gene expression" part. Certainly there are broad cellular stress responses that modulate genetic programs. But there can also be more specificity. Like here's a paper from 2019 you might find interesting. doi: 10.1038/s41586-019-1064-z. From chaos emerges order.

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Blue Eyed Grass @blueeyedgrass.bsky.social · 5d

My read of "buffering" in that context: structural analysis predicts a missense mutation will reduce function. But no apparent phenotype. Why? "Buffering" is a bit of a hand wave. That protein may not contribute to a polygenic network relevant to those conditions. Or its function is redundant.

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Blue Eyed Grass @blueeyedgrass.bsky.social · 5d

Last several days have been on meetings with faculty around the country on different things. On various issues there seems to be this remarkable mistrust of higher admin by rank and file. Always some of that of course. But can't recall ever being quite uniformly like this.

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Blue Eyed Grass @blueeyedgrass.bsky.social · 6d

Maybe a reflection of lack of internal coordination. All the relevant agenda pushers aren't on the same page yet. No matter; this is an opening salvo. If these univs bite they'll be back asking for more.

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Blue Eyed Grass @blueeyedgrass.bsky.social · 6d

Right now there's a suit against UC's about dropping SAT/ACT as part of holoistic review. Allegation is this disadvantages rich white kids getting accepted. "No SAT = DEI"; now part of the canon of the conservative think tank/Fox news universe. Suspect that's why that's in there.

Blue Eyed Grass @blueeyedgrass.bsky.social · 6d

Gotta give lecture 15 min whose synthetic point is role of cholesterol in Lo domains and lipid rafts. But only words rattling in my head:

"When finally the bottom fell out

I became withdrawn

The only thing I knew how to do

Was to keep on keepin’ on like a bird that flew

Tangled up in blue."

Blue Eyed Grass @blueeyedgrass.bsky.social · 7d

Master of the Telecaster, RIP. Saw him at a little place in Boulder like circa late 1980s. It was up close and personal and he blew the lid off. In those days a lot of blues acts were coming through in the winter-playing in boulder and up in Evergreen at the Little Bear.

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Blue Eyed Grass @blueeyedgrass.bsky.social · 8d

If you would like I can find an academic review...but seems like your doctor should be able to help. For our daughter (age 12, she's on Concerta) she does an ER in the AM and then was doing a smaller "booster" dose at lunch. But the booster was suppressing her appetite too much so discontinued.

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