Dave Baltrus 🦦
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surtlab.bsky.social
Dave Baltrus 🦦
@surtlab.bsky.social
7.8K followers 3.1K following 1.7K posts
Professor at UArizona interested in genome rummaging, microbial evolution, and occasional tales about having backyard farm animals.

“I’m something of a scientist myself”

Baltrus(at)Arizona.edu
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surtlab.bsky.social
For Christmas, Kyle made me a trucker hat with a picture of me in the lab…having set myself on fire (I have set myself on fire a couple of times)

Best gift ever
Drawing of me in lab on fire, and says “watch me not set myself on fire”
January 5, 2026 at 10:42 PM
surtlab.bsky.social
Shot of a tweet saying “the last decade has been the democrats clinging onto the rule book going “but a dog can’t play basketball!” While a dog fucking dunks on us over and over
January 3, 2026 at 4:41 PM
surtlab.bsky.social
Impeccable logic sir! Surely nothing is fundamentally wrong or biased with this at all!
= NATIONAL REVIEW Jan. 2,2026 Randall explains why that would matter: An SAT score isn't the same thing as being able to write an interesting book or discover something interesting in a lab. But a standardized test score isn't a bad proxy for student merit in undergraduate admissions, and it isn't a bad proxy for faculty merit in the hiring process. If the public and policymakers can see that a faculty search had 300 applicants, that the standardized test scores dropped during each round of the selection process, and that the person who got the job had a lower SAT score than 290 other applicants, then they can see that something is wrong. This is a very good idea.
January 2, 2026 at 5:14 PM
surtlab.bsky.social
The dogs ate our Elf on the shelf and I thought I was finally done with it…but my son made an Elf out of Lego and so we’re right back where we started, but now with two elves
December 18, 2025 at 5:54 PM
surtlab.bsky.social
December 18, 2025 at 4:54 PM
surtlab.bsky.social
Woman with a nervous face and laughing asking “what the fuck?”
December 15, 2025 at 3:41 PM
surtlab.bsky.social
Birthday + being in Denver means Casa Bonita!
Big pink Mexican restaurant
December 13, 2025 at 2:32 AM
surtlab.bsky.social
Worst person you know picture from the onion
December 9, 2025 at 3:02 PM
surtlab.bsky.social
It’s escalated to the vice President of public affairs at Harvard!
Same fishing email, just with new signature
December 8, 2025 at 7:30 PM
surtlab.bsky.social
This fishing email *almost* got me….its that time of year when semester is almost over and weird stuff happens and tired profs are almost the perfect targets here
Fishing email saying that a student has filed a report for my class
December 8, 2025 at 5:20 PM
surtlab.bsky.social
Question for those more math inclined than myself…is squiggly N a symbol people actually use???
Math equation with weird squiggly N
November 27, 2025 at 10:50 PM
surtlab.bsky.social
Top panel is a man saying “am I wrong?” Bottom panel is the man saying “no, it’s the Pope who is wrong”
November 26, 2025 at 8:26 PM
surtlab.bsky.social
Here’s a new one…an annual membership to a spam journal! Exclusive!
Spam email promising annual membership to submit journal articles
November 26, 2025 at 3:04 PM
surtlab.bsky.social
Meet the fockers movie poster
November 23, 2025 at 8:22 PM
surtlab.bsky.social
Like, come on
Muppet ghost of Christmas past
November 23, 2025 at 3:28 PM
surtlab.bsky.social
Godzilla sticking up both middle fingers and saying “nope”
November 6, 2025 at 1:34 PM
surtlab.bsky.social
Just in case you were wondering…we’re about to polarize my kids 4th and 6th grade classmates with a dissection demonstration
Cow. Eyeballs.
November 4, 2025 at 10:30 PM
surtlab.bsky.social
Leave it up to my kid to dress up as Phineas Gage for his report on a historical figure

(Bonus, tiny dog sleeping on gigantic dog)
Boy with fake pipe through his head And tiny dog sleeping on gigantic dog
October 27, 2025 at 3:45 AM
surtlab.bsky.social
Contrails are water vapor, it’s not complicated.

Pictured below, also therefore geoengineering:
Water vapor coming off hot head in cold weather
October 23, 2025 at 7:09 PM
surtlab.bsky.social
University of Arizona (kind of) rejects the Trump compact

I’m not super happy but I’m not super disappointed…we kinda half assed the reaction here
As a result, the university has not agreed to the terms outlined in the draft proposal, but instead submitted a Statement of Principles to the Department of Education that I am sharing with you. I encourage you to review the response letter and the University of Arizona's Statement of Principles articulated in the letter which were informed by the feedback from hundreds of U of A stakeholders and partner organizations.
October 20, 2025 at 8:56 PM
surtlab.bsky.social
James Franco saying “first time” while noose is around neck. Above that it says “grant deadline and a government shutdown”
September 23, 2025 at 10:21 PM
surtlab.bsky.social
Everyone celebrates promotions in different ways…we built a backyard batting cage
September 20, 2025 at 5:51 PM
surtlab.bsky.social
Lucy pulls football away from Charlie Brown
September 12, 2025 at 5:54 AM
surtlab.bsky.social
Hope, I feel what I think is hope again
Mets five young pitchers from the 2010s
September 4, 2025 at 4:42 PM
surtlab.bsky.social
Pretty sure one of our horses (or the donkey) just killed a rattlesnake without getting bit
Smushed rattlesnake
September 1, 2025 at 5:19 PM