Ben Ewen-Campen

Shoot me an email at benforward3 at gmail and ill forward you the best I’ve got!

Eyes On the Street: Somerville Builds Gardens In the Street to Improve Safety While Also Reducing Water Pollution - Streetsblog Massachusetts The new 'green infrastructure' helps calm traffic and improve safety while also absorbing stormwater during rainstorms.

The @cityofsomerville.bsky.social's Spring Hill sewer replacement project provides a great example of how "green infrastructure" can improve safety *and* reduce water pollution *and* do it all while looking fabulous:

mass.streetsblog.org/2025/07/30/e...

An aerial view of what the Gaza City area looked like this week. Taken from a Jordanian military aircraft, by our colleague Heidi Levine.

mRNA vaccines for HIV trigger strong immune response in people Results from early-stage trial show that 80% of participants who received one of two HIV vaccine candidates produced antibodies against viral proteins.

Two vaccine candidates using mRNA technology elicit a potent immune response against HIV

go.nature.com/4ov7WZI

RENT CONTROL NOW 📣 ‼️ CLVU, Homes For All Mass, union leaders, homeowners, healthcare leaders are rallying in the State House because working families deserve stable, affordable homes — Beacon Hill, ACT NOW — pass S.1447 / H.2328 to lift the statewide ban on rent caps 🏡 #MaPoli #RentControlMA

Part-time Project Assistant - City of Somerville - Career Page Apply to Part-time Project Assistant at City of Somerville in Somerville, MA.

Somerville City Council is hiring a part-time Project Assistant (intern) - spread the word! cityofsomerville.applytojob.com/apply/sMbEOi...

Me and my son with a small Palestinian flag

While our own government is fully supporting the unfathomable mass starvation of millions of men, women, and children in Gaza, I am very thankful of the huge numbers of people in Somerville standing in solidarity with Palestine and refusing to be quiet

“Death by starvation in Gaza is not the collateral, unintended consequence of an obscure, anonymous, amorphous crisis. It is the results of deliberate policy on the part of Israeli government, bent on using the resources of a highly sophisticated state to render Palestinian life in Gaza impossible.“

Chartbook 400: Murder not crisis - Why Israel's starvation of Gaza is exceptional in a global context. For many months, it has been beyond reasonable doubt that the Israeli government, the Israeli military, sections of Israeli politics and society as well as their aiders and abetters abroad, have been ...

The man who invented the term “genocide” viewed mass starvation as a central concept of the genocide.

Woah, fresh curry pan coming to the neighborhood!

🚨HUGE🚨 After a ~decade as a vacant storefront, a new bakery is OPENING SOON! at the corner of Prospect and Webster. bakerycafekomugi.com

🫨

Spring Hill Sewer Separation Project Largely developed during the 19th century, Spring Hill is served by a combined sewer system that collects both wastewater and stormwater runoff in the same pipes. The City is currently working to upgr...

It’s part of this voice.somervillema.gov/springhillse...

Yes

It is a granite curb

Understandable!

That is in fact a granite curb, not paint but go off

Good morning to networks of bike lanes that are convenient, connected, and safe enough for four-year-old people to use.

Like the Wu-Tang Clan, Somerville Engineering is for the children. 🚲🚸

Truly extraordinary to think of how the next generation is growing up with a bike network that was unimaginable when I was a kid.

Today for the first time, our 4-year old biked the whole way to daycare, on brand new protected bike lanes!

The dream of a Somerville Bike Network that is “safe for all ages and abilities” is one step closer to a reality. 

🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

Another Doctor Is Dead in Gaza In February, Marwan Sultan showed me the wrecked hospital where he worked. In July, an Israeli missile killed him.

“…a row of dialysis machines whose screens had been smashed in. Upstairs in the I.C.U., he showed me numerous other pieces of equipment that had been destroyed with bullets. He shook his head, speechless, with his palms turned up.”

Another Doctor Is Dead in Gaza www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...

Me and Brian the crossing guard smiling on Highland Ave

🚸HALLELUJAH! At long last, a crossing guard is now stationed at the Highland Ave crossing in front of the High School. We ♥️ Somerville Crossing Guards

The Drosophila proventriculus lacks stem cells but compensates for age-related cell loss via endoreplication-mediated cell growth The Drosophila proventriculus is a bulb-shaped structure at the juncture of the foregut and the midgut, which plays important roles in ingestion, peritrophic membrane synthesis, and the immune respons...

New paper: Ben Ewen-Campen, Weihang Chen, Sudhir Gopal Tattikota, Ying Liu, Yanhui Hu, Norbert Perrimon The Drosophila proventriculus lacks stem cells but compensates for age-related cell loss via endoreplication-mediated cell growth
doi: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

"My inescapable conclusion has become that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people. Having grown up in a Zionist home, lived the first half of my life in Israel, served in the I.D.F. as a soldier and officer and spent most of my career researching and writing on war crimes and the Holocaust, this was a painful conclusion to reach, and one that I resisted as long as I could. But I have been teaching classes on genocide for a quarter of a century. I can recognize one when I see one."

"My inescapable conclusion has become that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people.

Having grown up in a Zionist home, lived the first half of my life in Israel, served in the I.D.F...this was a painful conclusion to reach."

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/15/o...

The IRS Is Building a Vast System to Share Millions of Taxpayers’ Data With ICE ProPublica has obtained the blueprint for the Trump administration’s unprecedented plan to turn over IRS records to Homeland Security in order to speed up the agency’s mass deportation efforts.

SCOOP: The IRS Is Building a Vast System to Share Millions of Taxpayers’ Data With ICE www.propublica.org/article/trum...

Flyer for clear corners program

Somerville is rolling out our 2025 “Clear Corners” efforts, based on safety and crash data. This programs uses paint & posts to prevent parking too close to a corner, which is dangerous for all users. This year includes Summer St (from Belmont to Cutter) and Medford St. (from Walnut to Partridge.)

Somerville prepares for next winter with funds for warming center upgrades for the unhoused - Cambridge Day Planning ahead to protect unsheltered families next winter, city councilors approved $800,000 to make Somerville’s winter warming center more accessible to people with disabilities and to upgrade plum...

“Somerville prepares for next winter with funds for warming center upgrades for the unhoused.” Pleased to say the City is inverting in improvements to it the overnight warming center, learning from what worked last year and what needs to be better.