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Morgan Carter

@morgancarterphd.bsky.social

2.3K followers 1.2K following 1K posts

🌿 Asst Prof. #NewPI. Molecular host-bacterial-fungal interactions. NCSSM/NCSU/Cornell alum. Y'all means all. Views are my own. she/her

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Morgan Carter @morgancarterphd.bsky.social · 21d

Please check out our updated version of this preprint - now with even more transposable elements! 🧬🦠

No really, we added in a few more analyses about TEs and further compared Mycetohabitans to related bacteria, plus other treats. @bhuwanabbot.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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LaBella Lab @lablabella.bsky.social · 16h

Some days I wish I had gotten a PhD in "Canvas Administration"

Nothing says professor like standing in a classroom full of students and not knowing how to unlock a module properly

a man sitting in front of a dell monitor

ALT: a man sitting in front of a dell monitor

media.tenor.com

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JL Weissman @jlw-ecoevo.bsky.social · 16h

Stony Brook is hiring an Assistant or Associate Professor in Marine Molecular Ecology (assistant encouraged, molecular broadly defined, includes microbial omics!): apply.interfolio.com/174869

Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio

apply.interfolio.com

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Reposted by Morgan Carter

Kathleen Rhoades, PhD @kathleenrhoades.com · 18h

I get questions a few times a year about why fruit & nut trees will drop a bunch of immature fruit well before ripening, depending on the crop it's usually the June Drop or August Drop or whatever month. When I say it's likely an entire PhD project to figure out I get surprised reactions

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Alan McNally @alanmcn1.bsky.social · 1d

After being with the journal since its very inception, the time has come for me to step back from Microbial Genomics. This is a wonderful opportunity to have a leadership role in one of the leading journals for microbial genomics research

microbiologysociety.org/news/society...

<i>Microbial Genomics </i> Deputy Editor-in-Chief: Call for Expressions of interest

microbiologysociety.org

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Noah Fahlgren @noahfahlgren.bsky.social · 1d

Deadline for our 2nd cohort of the Pivot to Plants program at the Danforth Center is Oct 15th. Excited to identify 5 participants for a 1-year NSF-funded internship. Hands-on research experience in cutting-edge #plantscience, #imaging, #datascience, and more! www.danforthcenter.org/our-work/edu...

Pivot to Plants: Training Program for Plant and Data Science | Danforth Plant Science Center

The Pivot2Plants Fellows Program is a 1-year training program for people interested in pivoting to a career in plant science or data science but have limited research experience.

www.danforthcenter.org

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Reposted by Morgan Carter

Jarrett Byrnes @jebyrnes.bsky.social · 21h

Heeeeey #Microbial #Ecology folk! My department has a job opening for a tenure track Microbial Ecologist! Feel free to DM me with questions. Come join our awesome supportive whip-smart & kind crew in the Biology Department of @umassboston.bsky.social! employmentopportunities.umb.edu/boston/en-us...

The ISC - your new home at UMass Boston?

The view of Boston Harbor from front of campus

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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 1d

14/14

The federal workers involved in the various dissent declarations weighed the harm to the missions of their agencies and to our chosen form of democratic government against personal risks, including loss of their livelihoods, and decided to stand up for all of us. One of the mantras of these staffers is “Courage is Contagious”; I hope more of this spreads to more of the scientific establishment and soon.

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Dr. Kat Napaaqtuk❄️ @napaaqtuk.bsky.social · 1d

I have a fabulous undergrad who has a lot of experience with QIIME2 & using R to analyze microbiome data. She is looking for a job starting in January. Would love to learn more bench and field skills (will be getting some in her last 2 months). Open to academic, industry, government jobs in the US.

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Morgan Carter @morgancarterphd.bsky.social · 1d

Returned to the lab for 15 minutes. Fixed a scale and got bleach on my shirt. That checks out.
#NewPI 🧪

Reposted by Morgan Carter

American Phytopathological Society (APS) @plantdisease.bsky.social · 1d

Coming soon: Plant Health Rewind! 👀 Couldn’t attend #planthealth2025 or catch every session in Honolulu? Soon you’ll be able to revisit the groundbreaking science, posters, plenaries, and more from the meeting.

Stay tuned! https://bit.ly/3VJKJpv

planthealthrewind

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Artologica aka Michele Banks @artologica.net · 2d

Still available, but why? It can be yours #sciart

Artologica aka Michele Banks @artologica.net · 14d

I've been in a mitochondrial groove lately. Check out these brand new beauties. All original paintings, one of each #Sciart artologica.etsy.com/listing/4374...

watercolor of mitochondria in rainbow colors

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Reposted by Morgan Carter

Jon Phillips @jowiph.bsky.social · 2d

There needs to be a term like "brassicanization" for the conceptual opposite of carcinization. One being the tendency of all life, no matter how diverse in origin, to tend towards one shape, the other being the tendency of closely related groups to diversify wildly

Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 2d

What the fuck? Mustard is also a brassica???

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TR Cavallaro @trcava.bsky.social · 5d

As a University of Arizona alumnus, I strongly encourage Arizona’s administration to LISTEN to their wonderful faculty. Don’t give in to the bully!!

Tim Steller @timsteller.bsky.social · 5d

The University of Arizona faculty are slamming the deal offered by the Trump administration and demanding that it be rejected.
tucson.com/news/local/e...

Faculty chair slams 'dirty compromises' White House asks of University of Arizona

White House asks the U of A and eight other universities to pledge support for President Trump's political priorities in return for priority access to federal funds.

tucson.com

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Morgan Carter @morgancarterphd.bsky.social · 6d

Click the video, it is actively open for smelling currently

Morgan Carter @morgancarterphd.bsky.social · 6d

Starting spooky season with a corpse flower blooming on campus 🥀

Morgan Carter @morgancarterphd.bsky.social · 12d

Who needs a panda cam, when you can have a corpse flower cam!?

Love this from the UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens - their newest bloom in the beautiful McMillan greenhouse. 👃🌹
#PlantSci 🧪

www.youtube.com/live/a8o3Pxh...

"Cadavera" Bloomstream - UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens

YouTube video by videoadmintest

www.youtube.com

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Drug Monkey @drugmonkey.bsky.social · 6d

yep. You can't make a 'better case' that convinces tyranny of the value of science since knowledge is tyranny's kryptonite.

Science Vs @sciencevs.bsky.social · 6d

This moment from our latest episode with science writer @edyong209.bsky.social is 🔥

We asked Ed — how do we talk up the benefits of science in the face of government cuts? He told us that's the wrong approach. 🧪

Listen wherever, or watch on Spotify 👇

open.spotify.com/episode/7Evh...

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Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 10d

I realize many people don’t quite get that not every single professor in every single university teaches computer science and might actually be trained in and invested in teaching other things, like let’s say, history? Or poetry.
Or sociology.
It is not our job to teach students how to use AI.

matt94250.bsky.social @matt94250.bsky.social · 10d

If you don’t teach your students how to use AI, you’re doing them a huge disservice because they won’t have jobs in the future.

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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 6d

People think they’re taking down a rich intellectual sinecure but they’re mostly terrorizing committed public servants who make $58,000 a year after 15 years of experience at a school that has to budget creatively so students can access textbooks.

Emily Farris @emayfarris.bsky.social · 6d

This new column by @tressiemcphd.bsky.social makes me think about when I recently had to talk to the police for yet another safety plan, I tried to “lighten” the mood by saying that we all knew this wasn’t my first rodeo. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/01/o...

For at least the past 15 years, my colleagues in academia have grappled with angry letters to university officials for doing their jobs. They have weathered campaigns for their firing. They have contended with an internet army obsessed with doxxing them, their parents, their kids. I’ve been contacted by the F.B.I. more than once in my career. Not because I hold any important state secrets or know a biker gang but because one of my colleagues has lived with so much sustained harassment from right-wing “activists” that it has become a matter of federal concern. Watch lists (one of which was constructed by Kirk’s organization) do not distinguish between public intellectuals at wealthy enclaves and hoi polloi who teach popular classes at cash-strapped schools. In either case, an army of trained provocateurs stands ready to destroy their lives to prove their bona fides as conservative activists.

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Morgan Carter @morgancarterphd.bsky.social · 6d

We are seeing that students in class mostly cite articles from predatory journals because so many papers are published in them and they are open access!

They come up quickly in their searches and are immediately accessible.

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Morgan Carter @morgancarterphd.bsky.social · 6d

One of the reasons I believe strongly in open access is that my R1 university doesn't have subscriptions to many key journals in my field.
If I can barely get these articles, it's even harder for folks at PUIs, journalists, students who know less about inter-library loan options, etc. 🧪

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Jenna Norton @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social · 7d

This is particularly galling when federal workers experience retaliation under claims of violating the Hatch Act for lawfully exercising their first amendment rights while off duty.

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 7d

The coordinated Hatch Act violations by the White House confirm the lawlessness of this administration.

They believe they can ignore the law and Constitution with impunity and the lawless Supreme Court will sign off on it.

Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 7d

SCOOP — The White House instructed all federal agency leadership on Tuesday to send out a mandatory message to workers blaming the impending potential government shutdown on House Democrats, The Handbasket was first to learn. Absolutely no modifications to the email were permitted.

My story:

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Morgan Carter @morgancarterphd.bsky.social · 7d

I don’t love the reality where I have to carefully consider what I teach to 100 students but these damaging shenanigans happen 🫠

Morgan Carter @morgancarterphd.bsky.social · 7d

This timeline is exhausting. Trying to be an empathetic, reasonable, functional adult while seeing stuff like this is exhausting. So unserious.

NPR @npr.org · 7d

Federal employees across the government reported seeing similar messages. Experts say the messages may violate ethics laws meant to keep partisan politics out of day-to-day governing.

Trump administration uses taxpayer dollars to blame Democrats for government shutdown

Federal employees across the government reported seeing similar messages. Experts say the messages may violate ethics laws meant to keep partisan politics out of day-to-day governing.

n.pr

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 7d

That's quite the chart annotation.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

A chart of "Major concerns of PhD candidates." The top text says, "Financial pressures top the list of concerns faced by PhD candidates, but concerns differ among the sexes. Those studying in the United States rank the political landscape as their main worry." The chart shows that in the full survey, political landscape is the biggest concern for about 20% of students (a bit higher for women than men) but there's an annotation saying "In US PhD students, this rose to 64%". Overall, the highest-rated concern was financial pressures at around 40%.

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Craig Kaplan @triggerloop.bsky.social · 7d

I think the R01 is basically a non-starter at NIGMS now. Data from NIH Reporter for new and competing awards, comparing number of R01s issued relative to R35s (MIRA). This has major ramifications for basic science and basic science investigators that are not yet in the MIRA pool

Graph showing total R35+R01 awards issued by NIGMS from 2020 to 2025. R01 in black showing a steep decline. R35 showing an increase. Total awards in 2025 slightly up from 2024 but these years are lower than 2020-2023

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