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"captain's log supplemental:

This week I have submitted my tenure packet, proposal (NIH resubmission), and a manuscript (for review)

The holographic doctor tells me that I may be experiencing some elevated fatigue and should better take care of my sleep schedule."

But yes to productive week!!

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...

Angry Arne Slot 😬😡

For last 10 years - we have worked with thousands of organizations around the world helping support them in integrating foldscope programs.

To bring in a new cohort of organizations - we are re-launching “fast and curious” 2025 edition - apply and get a Foldscope trainer and Foldscopes for free!

One day, nearly 2000 years ago, a cat dashed across some drying tiles, somewhere near Hadrian's Wall.

It's immortality of a kind, isn't it?

Credit to team members (Ena, Jaimie, Maro, Helen, and Roquel) thankful to each of them. And also @robthehoosier.bsky.social for all his support.

This is our first step 🩴 in the project 🐙 🔬and have a long (and exciting) way to ahead!

2 main take aways
(A) Hydra - vulgaris specifically is really great at surface attachment.

(B) At high volumetric flow rates (high shear) polyps (again vulgaris in particular) aligns with the flow direction.

Happy to share our new pre-print using microfluidics to look into flow response of Hydra.

Will this is a really cool and creative approach.

Congrats to you and the team.

Critical and unmet biomedical need + also many other applications (food, cosmetic products).

Our latest preprint on medRxiv: Identifying counterfeit medications using a $4 optical sensor meant for use in toy robots. 🧪💊🤖

www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

I really think we need (physical) thank you or congrats notes to send all the researchers - specifically for folks early in their research careers (for example grad students).

We have been talking about a way to do this (communications) activity in a course. But haven't fully figured it out yet.

Here's a fun bit of science history for you: Back before we could just download PDFs, if you wanted a paper and it wasn't in a journal in your library, you wrote to the author for a copy.

So universities made these nice little post cards for requesting article reprints.

System of Down also used it in their hidden track Arto (toxicity 2001)
m.youtube.com/watch?v=qNG7...
Which is based on the famous chant
That Serj Tankian is singing here
m.youtube.com/watch?v=Qwrz...

Wow engineering is 0.
We should fix that.

For PhD students in my network, NVIDIA is now accepting applications for our graduate fellowship program. If you are working on topics across AI, life sciences, healthcare and HPC - consider applying.
blogs.nvidia.com/blog/applica...

Our new company, K2 Therapeutics, is off to the races to develop new antibody drugs that target multipass membrane proteins. We are hiring so check us out! www.k2-tx.com/home#careers

My team has updated our free database of POSTDOC fellowships.

This database contains 286 entries. For each entry, we provide a link, short description, deadline, amount, and eligibility criteria.

Download this updated and expanded database here: research.jhu.edu/rdt/funding-...

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Another great (cat-centric) paper 😸
I love figure 6.

Teaching this fall?

Here is a handy webpage that will help you generate a list of the days your course(s) meet:

wcaleb.rice.edu/syllabusmake...

Call for contributions to our symposium on animal collective movement in complex environments at SICB 2026 in Portland, OR! Submit your abstract to our complementary sessions and join us for two days of fun discussing and exchanging research on the biomechanics and energetics of animal movement!

One of the most fun papers (brief) I have read this year

www.cell.com/action/showP...

Cats prefer to sleep on their left side.
Also they sleep 12-16 hrs/day.
😸💤

Fascinating new work on mechanics and tube feet dynamics during starfish locomotion, which reveals a robust, decentralized strategy for locomotion on challenging terrain involving modulation of foot-substrate contact time in response to mechanical load: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The Biology Department at CSU Long Beach is now advertising for an Assistant Professor of Elasmobranch Biology. Refer to the attached flyer for details. @uwsafs.bsky.social @uwmarinebiology.bsky.social @misselasmo.bsky.social @whysharksmatter.bsky.social @official-bweems.bsky.social