I just got a call from my rheumatologist. Because of the changes to Medicaid, which no longer reimburses telemedicine appointments, I can either pay out of pocket or drive two hours away every three months, which is not possible for me most of the year due to my work schedule.

Yep, and I've been writing back to tell folks this in the nicest way I can think of (e.g., Prospective advisors want to hear *your* words; that's the only way we can help you figure out if this lab/program is good fit).

New: After a long wait, the GRFP solicitation is live! Deadlines have been extended to early November, so applicants have a bit over a month to submit. www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

Unsolicited listicle: My list of the most criminally underused/underappreciated phylogenetic comparative methods. Note, I am not involved in ANY of these methods; but I see them as things people are often asking of comparative data but have been surprised at how infrequently they have been cited.

Now seeking associate editors for 2026! AEs receive free membership in SSE and free registration to the annual Evolution meeting. Indicate your interest in this short form by September 30: forms.gle/JwAmeM4YV9Fv...

I’ve done this for 2 weeks now and it *absolutely rules*. Best class discussions I’ve ever had. Best engagement with readings. They write in this worksheet for 15 minutes, then talk about their responses in groups of 3-4, then groups share with the whole class, and *then* we talk about the readings

We have just cross the $10,000 mark. Let's keep pushing to make that $15K goal! Thanks everyone for standing up for the botanical sciences! #ADayforBSA

🌿 'A Day for BSA' (day-for-bsa.botany.org/2025) is this Wednesday!

Join us as we celebrate 130+ years of advancing botanical science, and then help us reach our campaign goal of $15,000 raised for the BSA Endowment with a gift of any amount.

Give today!
crm.botany.org/civicrm/cont...

#ADayforBSA

The Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Oregon State University is Hiring!

We are searching for a Director of the Oregon State University Herbarium and applications are welcomed at the ranks of assistant, associate, or full professor.

Big news! We are recruiting a postdoc to work on tomatillo evolution: jobs.colorado.edu/jobs/JobDeta.... The clade containing tomatillos and its allies (ca 300 spp) has evolved lantern fruits at least 25 times - we want to know why! Join us @rociodeanna.bsky.social & @caschenck-bio.bsky.social

Oh we were the lucky ones to work with @ixchelgr.bsky.social!! And now we are more confident than ever that the nightshade berries are OLD, not like Eocene old, but Cretaceous Dinos-ruled old. Makes sense though, there are over 2K (some times delicious) species in the berry clade!

The #AppsPlantSci special issue "Advances in analyzing and engineering plant metabolic diversity" is online!

Thanks to editors @kiratiedge.bsky.social, Gaurav Moghe, @iochromaland.bsky.social & Federico Roda

Check out the intro: bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... #PlantMetabolism

A little belated but I've started a faculty position at Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology department at @ucsantabarbara.bsky.social. I'm absolutely stoked! I'll be recruiting at all levels and will be at #Botany2025

Reach out!

www.martinezgomezlab.com

🧪 UPDATE: All 63 House appropriators will meet **this Thursday** about science funding levels.

They'll deliberate on the proposed multi-billion dollar cut to NSF's budget ($9.0B --> $7.0B).

If you think that's bad for our country, here's who to call: appropriations.house.gov/about/member...

I'm back home with my dad and have thoughts about being an Indigenous scientist and academic. I'm writing this in real time so it might get disrupted and will have typos.

I am fairly successful by academic standards. I have a tenure track job, wrote papers, have grant funding, mentor students.

We identified a novel location for acylsugars, on the fruit surface, widely distributed across the Physalis genus. Paves the way for understanding the cell types and regulation responsible to fruit-surface localized acylsugars in collab with @iochromaland.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Please share! Our lab is recruiting a PhD student to join us starting fall 2026. Our group is broadly interested in plant molecular evolution and comparative genomics. More info about our lab and grad programs at Colorado St. is available on our lab website.

sites.google.com/site/danielb...

🧪 BREAKING (good news): Senate subcommittee says NO! to Trump's proposed slashes to NASA & NSF funding.

Today, the subcommittee said to keep NASA + NSF funding at $33.9 billion, the same as in FY24.

See 7:15 below. Full Senate appropriations committee meets tomorrow about it.

🧵 1/3

North Carolina Botanical Garden (Chapel Hill, NC) is recruiting for a Conservation Botanist!

🎓 Relevant post-Bacc degree req'd
⌛ full time, 2.5-year grant funded position contingent upon additional funding
📨 apps due 7/18

unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/303...

#botanyjobs #plantconservationjobs

Four review requests in my inbox this morning. The one I accepted? Society journal.

Our Societies consistently reinvest in our communities in ways the glossies never will. And that makes me invest in them.

Crockett: How is it that you can explain that we still are running up the credit card and we have nothing to show for it except for the fact that we won't have food on the tables and we won’t have health care.

So, here it is. Thanks to a new state law that was NEVER DEBATED, Indiana University has committed itself to abolishing majors in African-American/African Diaspora Studies: American Studies; Art History; French; Italian; Religious Studies etc. DOZENS of majors. www.ipm.org/news-section...

In short, no wonder fungal infections are so hard to treat. If selection pressure favors resistance, they seem to have multiple ways to do it.