Morning coffee realization: I actually have to WRITE that final exam for Friday.
December 10, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Morning coffee realization: I actually have to WRITE that final exam for Friday.
Reposted
The delta between what Biden did and how much anger he got for it and the absolute crickets Trump has gotten for making the student loan landscape *magnitudes worse than it was before* is absolutely one of the most enraging things about this entirely enraging era.
Congrats again to the people who continuously said Biden did nothing about student loans for four years! www.cnbc.com/2025/12/09/s...
Trump officials move to end student loan payment pause for millions of borrowers
The Trump administration announced a proposed joint settlement with Missouri that would soon force millions of student loan borrowers into repayment.
www.cnbc.com
December 9, 2025 at 4:18 PM
The delta between what Biden did and how much anger he got for it and the absolute crickets Trump has gotten for making the student loan landscape *magnitudes worse than it was before* is absolutely one of the most enraging things about this entirely enraging era.
Furniture rearranging with mom and @awesomejuice.bsky.social while dad is in the hospital (but doing OK) is a fantastic 1am activity.
November 30, 2025 at 7:38 AM
Furniture rearranging with mom and @awesomejuice.bsky.social while dad is in the hospital (but doing OK) is a fantastic 1am activity.
Reposted
NEW: An analysis finds that NIH funding cuts have disrupted at least 383 clinical trials, affecting over 74,000 participants that were enrolled in studies that were testing treatments for conditions including cancer, heart disease and brain disease.
November 17, 2025 at 7:55 PM
NEW: An analysis finds that NIH funding cuts have disrupted at least 383 clinical trials, affecting over 74,000 participants that were enrolled in studies that were testing treatments for conditions including cancer, heart disease and brain disease.
Just got served an IG Black Friday ad for whole genome sequencing 🧬🧬
Options range $300-$700 🤔
Options range $300-$700 🤔
November 17, 2025 at 7:47 PM
Just got served an IG Black Friday ad for whole genome sequencing 🧬🧬
Options range $300-$700 🤔
Options range $300-$700 🤔
I was just about ready to get up and start my day.
November 15, 2025 at 5:28 PM
I was just about ready to get up and start my day.
Reposted
🦣🧬🦣🤯💥We are pleased to share our new paper about ancient RNA expression profiles from the Woolly Mammoth, now published in Cell @cellpress.bsky.social
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
If you want to know more, read the 🧵 below:
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
If you want to know more, read the 🧵 below:
November 14, 2025 at 4:08 PM
🦣🧬🦣🤯💥We are pleased to share our new paper about ancient RNA expression profiles from the Woolly Mammoth, now published in Cell @cellpress.bsky.social
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
If you want to know more, read the 🧵 below:
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
If you want to know more, read the 🧵 below:
39,000 year old RNA.
RNA???!!!
Amazing.
RNA???!!!
Amazing.
Scientists have extracted the oldest RNA molecules out of a wooly mammoth, gaining a snapshot into the processes at work in the extinct mammal's body just before it died. n.pr/4patABW
Scientists pull ancient RNA from a wooly mammoth's body
Scientists have extracted the oldest RNA molecules out of a wooly mammoth, gaining a snapshot into the processes at work in the extinct mammal's body just before it died.
n.pr
November 14, 2025 at 6:55 PM
39,000 year old RNA.
RNA???!!!
Amazing.
RNA???!!!
Amazing.
Reposted
Please read this on Jim Watson, by his most thorough biographer
Okay, here are some first reflections on Watson.
Watson's life is a tragedy, really of Shakespearean proportions. He did not, as most bios will tell you, do one great thing when he was young and then collect laurels for it for the next 60 years. His career arc was unlike any in science.
Watson's life is a tragedy, really of Shakespearean proportions. He did not, as most bios will tell you, do one great thing when he was young and then collect laurels for it for the next 60 years. His career arc was unlike any in science.
November 9, 2025 at 12:24 AM
Please read this on Jim Watson, by his most thorough biographer
This obit is appropriately critical and full of history. He had decades to learn from his own discovery, instead he clung to old racist ideas. (I recommend the 1980’s BBC movie staring Jeff Goldblum was Watson if you want a decently accurate retelling of the story.) www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/s...
James D. Watson, Co-Discoverer of the Structure of DNA, Is Dead at 97
www.nytimes.com
November 8, 2025 at 6:28 PM
This obit is appropriately critical and full of history. He had decades to learn from his own discovery, instead he clung to old racist ideas. (I recommend the 1980’s BBC movie staring Jeff Goldblum was Watson if you want a decently accurate retelling of the story.) www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/s...
RE LRT: I wouldn’t say most Franklin takes are stupid, but most of the details of her role in the discovery of the double helix are not widely known. The linked article brings them all to one place. Pretty good read.
November 8, 2025 at 6:27 PM
RE LRT: I wouldn’t say most Franklin takes are stupid, but most of the details of her role in the discovery of the double helix are not widely known. The linked article brings them all to one place. Pretty good read.
Reposted
If you believe either that Franklin discovered the double helix, and / or Watson and Crick stole her data, ask yourself how you know this. Then take a read of this article.
If I see one more stupid Rosalind Franklin take I'm going to lose my mind. Thank god for @matthewcobb.bsky.social and @nccomfort.bsky.social. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
What Rosalind Franklin truly contributed to the discovery of DNA’s structure
Franklin was no victim in how the DNA double helix was solved. An overlooked letter and an unpublished news article, both written in 1953, reveal that she was an equal player.
www.nature.com
November 8, 2025 at 7:32 AM
If you believe either that Franklin discovered the double helix, and / or Watson and Crick stole her data, ask yourself how you know this. Then take a read of this article.
Reposted
A lot of people think that every international student admitted means one fewer spot for domestic students, when the opposite is more likely true - the tuition revenue international students bring allows public universities to provide substantial discounts to domestic students, improving access.
September 29, 2025 at 8:18 PM
A lot of people think that every international student admitted means one fewer spot for domestic students, when the opposite is more likely true - the tuition revenue international students bring allows public universities to provide substantial discounts to domestic students, improving access.
Reposted
An evergreen thread: Race/Ethnicity is *not the same* as genetics, and you can't use Race/Ethnicity as a sort of stand-in for genetics. These two concepts are connected via aspects like skin colour, but the connection is alot less profound and categorical than most people think.
August 29, 2025 at 10:13 AM
An evergreen thread: Race/Ethnicity is *not the same* as genetics, and you can't use Race/Ethnicity as a sort of stand-in for genetics. These two concepts are connected via aspects like skin colour, but the connection is alot less profound and categorical than most people think.
Solved the NYT crossword with zero hints! It’s been a while 😜
September 17, 2025 at 2:09 AM
Solved the NYT crossword with zero hints! It’s been a while 😜
Reposted
![Comic. [Building with large sign in front of it[ SIGN: Welcome to the *Biology Department* It has been [changeable sign: 3] days since we discovered something existentially horrifying about bugs that makes you question your whole reality](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cz73r7iyiqn26upot4jtjdhk/bafkreigvmzverlrjgqp4mazbkhm43fpvv2hdbkd2t2646dhihozrwdcy24@jpeg)
September 11, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Reposted
Here is UW - Madison's budget. Our <largest> funder is the federal government. 25%. It used to be the state. Either way, the university in its current form ceases to exist if these federal cuts really happen. But The. Public. Doesn't. Know. This. And our leaders are absent from the public debate.
March 8, 2025 at 8:47 PM
Here is UW - Madison's budget. Our <largest> funder is the federal government. 25%. It used to be the state. Either way, the university in its current form ceases to exist if these federal cuts really happen. But The. Public. Doesn't. Know. This. And our leaders are absent from the public debate.
Reposted
There is a bird flu vaccine for vultures and condors. There is a bird flu vaccine in development for cattle (by Moderna, for one). But a bird flu vaccine for humans by Moderna has been cancelled by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS): wapo.st/43kxnVf (gift article).
HHS cancels funding for Moderna to develop vaccines to combat bird flu
The department cited Moderna’s use of the messenger RNA technology, which it said “remains under-tested,” for the cancellation of the funding.
wapo.st
May 30, 2025 at 2:30 AM
There is a bird flu vaccine for vultures and condors. There is a bird flu vaccine in development for cattle (by Moderna, for one). But a bird flu vaccine for humans by Moderna has been cancelled by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS): wapo.st/43kxnVf (gift article).
Reposted
![[Person with ponytail wearing lab coat hands balloon to another person in front of a springboard, a magnet hanging from above, and then a target] PERSON WITH PONYTAIL to Person 2: Rub this balloon against your head, then go jump past that magnet toward the target on the wall. [caption] Before the bathroom scale was invented, the only way to weigh people was mass spectrometry.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cz73r7iyiqn26upot4jtjdhk/bafkreid7lnvd7afmasx3nxi6anxmyhbatpaw54za3kiw3eaoclrf722faq@jpeg)
Reposted
Not going to repost but JD Vance is whimpering about the voting habits of professors over on Twitter.
It’s like “we said they were the enemy, we aimed to put them in trauma, we cut their salaries in half, we made their jobs impossible, and now they’re voting against us. I don’t get it.”
It’s like “we said they were the enemy, we aimed to put them in trauma, we cut their salaries in half, we made their jobs impossible, and now they’re voting against us. I don’t get it.”
May 25, 2025 at 1:20 AM
Not going to repost but JD Vance is whimpering about the voting habits of professors over on Twitter.
It’s like “we said they were the enemy, we aimed to put them in trauma, we cut their salaries in half, we made their jobs impossible, and now they’re voting against us. I don’t get it.”
It’s like “we said they were the enemy, we aimed to put them in trauma, we cut their salaries in half, we made their jobs impossible, and now they’re voting against us. I don’t get it.”
Reposted
It’s Mary Anning’s birthday, so time to share @katebeaton.bsky.social’s brilliant cartoon again.
May 21, 2025 at 11:31 AM
It’s Mary Anning’s birthday, so time to share @katebeaton.bsky.social’s brilliant cartoon again.
Reposted
Remember when you first learned about genetics at school? All those fascinating examples of human traits that are each apparently determined by just a single gene? Time to check in on some of your favourites to see how they’re doing. 🧬🧵🧪 1/n
May 2, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Remember when you first learned about genetics at school? All those fascinating examples of human traits that are each apparently determined by just a single gene? Time to check in on some of your favourites to see how they’re doing. 🧬🧵🧪 1/n
Reposted
Not to be too pro technocrat, but it is astounding how much this country depended on the selflessness of like a few hundred thousand highly educated public servants who, for peanuts, made sure our food and medicine and environment etc were safe. And in return these servants were demonized.
“When it comes to .. raw milk, I want to be free to form a relationship with a local farmer, look him in the eyes, pet his cow, and then decide if I feel safe to drink the milk from his farm.”
— Casey Means, Trump’s latest surgeon-general nominee.
www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
— Casey Means, Trump’s latest surgeon-general nominee.
www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
Trump Picks a ‘MAHA’ Movement Leader for Surgeon General
The president said he would nominate Dr. Casey Means, a California doctor and wellness influencer, to be the next surgeon general.
www.wsj.com
May 8, 2025 at 1:42 AM
Not to be too pro technocrat, but it is astounding how much this country depended on the selflessness of like a few hundred thousand highly educated public servants who, for peanuts, made sure our food and medicine and environment etc were safe. And in return these servants were demonized.
Reposted
Just two months after OpenAI launched ChatGPT in January 2023, a survey of 1,000 college students found that nearly 90 percent of them had used the chatbot to help with homework assignments.
Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College
ChatGPT has unraveled the entire academic project.
nymag.com
May 7, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Just two months after OpenAI launched ChatGPT in January 2023, a survey of 1,000 college students found that nearly 90 percent of them had used the chatbot to help with homework assignments.
Reposted
This is part of what’s so insane. As they talk about re-shoring and manufacturing they are actively trying to destroy an entire us manufacturing industry that already exists.
Billions of dollars in clean energy projects have been canceled since Donald Trump took office again — leaving thousands of jobs and the shift to clean energy in doubt.
A stunning number of electric vehicle, battery factories are being canceled
Billions of dollars in clean energy projects have been canceled since Donald Trump took office again.
www.washingtonpost.com
April 4, 2025 at 9:57 PM
This is part of what’s so insane. As they talk about re-shoring and manufacturing they are actively trying to destroy an entire us manufacturing industry that already exists.