@alanrkay.bsky.social
Neurobiologist, osmo-electro-diffusion & other stuff. Views are my own.
Just saw it in Prairie Lights Books in Iowa City, and it's beautiful! Thank you Christian Sardet @cellsandplankton.bsky.social
04.12.2025 21:43 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Tomorrow, 20 Escucha Mi Voz members have ICE check-ins in Cedar Rapids, the largest single-day group all year. When numbers spike like this, detentions usually follow, unless our community shows up. Join us at 7:45am to protect our families and demand no one is taken? - Iowa City Catholic Worker
02.12.2025 03:13 — 👍 12 🔁 7 💬 0 📌 3
www.icbp2026.org
01.12.2025 17:36 — 👍 19 🔁 12 💬 1 📌 0
A newly discovered archaeal cell has a tiny genome and can’t metabolize biomolecules. It’s upending biologists’ definition of a living thing. “These types of organisms have been found before, but not as extreme as this,” said microbiologist Thijs Ettema.
30.11.2025 21:04 — 👍 52 🔁 23 💬 0 📌 1
Hawkeye WR Seth Anderson showed up BIG - donating 30 turkeys to the Iowa City Catholic Worker! Defensive backs Kael Kolarik and Koen Entringer jumped in to help distribute them to volunteers who’ll roast & share them with immigrant families across our community. That’s what teamwork looks like ! 🏈🙌
24.11.2025 20:38 — 👍 9 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 0
A painting of a house by one of Charles Darwin's children. We see a simple outline of a house with a pitched roof, two chimneys and some lead-paned windows. We see the kitchen fire, with a clock on a mantle, and some cast iron pots on a window sill. In a window at the stop of the house we see a cat, or possibly a squirrel!
A hand-written page of Charles Darwin's original manuscript for the Origin of Species. There are many ink blots and crossings out, and some foxing consistent with its age.
#OnThisDay in 1859, Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species was first published.
Much of the original manuscript was used as scrap paper by Darwin's children. On the back of this painting of a house is an original manuscript page from Origin!
#CambridgeUniversityLibrary (DAR 185)
It is actually an incredibly frustrating time to be a theoretical neuroscientist right now imo, for this reason
17.11.2025 01:23 — 👍 135 🔁 24 💬 9 📌 1Who’s putting it at risk, @sfn.org ?
This passive voice stuff has got to stop. We have to name the people destroying US leadership in science.
(Hint: Trump. Vought. Bhattacharya. RFK. Say their names.)
Beautifully done history of dialysis
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDDC...
There will also be great music!
Catfish Keith – Iowa’s own world-renowned blues legend
Jim Swim – Hip-hop grooves that move the crowd
Jeffrey Morgan – Folk storytelling with heart
Pigs and Clover – Americana harmonies and grassroots fire
JP Claussen – Acoustic truth and community rhythm
Armistice Day Observance
Tuesday 11th November 2025, Iowa City
Veterans for Peace, chapter #161
Sunday Night Community Event
“Growing Up in the Shadow of Jim Crow and the Light of the Civil Rights Movement”
📅 Date: Sunday, November 9, 2025
⏰ Time: 6:30-8pm
📍 Location: Zoom (online) - posted by Iowa City Catholic Worker
✅ RSVP: us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
No Kings, Just Neighbors: Fill-A-Truck Food Drive
Saturday, Nov 15 🕙 10 AM – 1 PM
Downtown Iowa City
Join us for a day of music, food, & community as we come together to fill a truck with groceries & personal care items for families in need.
www.mobilize.us/mobilize/eve...
NEW: The Director of the National Institutes of Health, Jay Bhattacharya, accepted an award over the weekend from an old ally who, just weeks earlier, had been the subject of a Politico story revealing how he’d left his previous job amid sexual harassment allegations.
05.11.2025 14:45 — 👍 61 🔁 15 💬 5 📌 0
Sad postscript to this. She has an account on the other site -
03.11.2025 16:41 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
The work of Marthe Gautier should be more widely known.
She had to fight for recognition after a male colleague took credit for her work in identifying an extra chromosome as the cause of Downs syndrome.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/30/h...
Thanks - perfect for my animal physiology class
29.10.2025 16:28 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Curious to hear from semiconductor chip boffins if this has any legs. The work is being supported by Peter Thiel, who has claimed that the rational approach to solving problems has failed, so why not try the opposite of that, the irrational.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/28/t...
This is super relevant to all US academics - it's on Today!
27.10.2025 17:41 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0I want to go to Canada. Love the videos Canada is making. Y’all saw the one w Reagan narrating the video? #canada
24.10.2025 21:48 — 👍 1072 🔁 442 💬 63 📌 60
Essential viewing for all peaceful civil resistance warriors Erica Chenoweth @chenoweth.bsky.social talking to Paul Krugman @pkrugman.bsky.social
paulkrugman.substack.com/p/talking-wi...
Local Governments: Pass the Due Process & Safety Resolution Now!
This simple, common-sense resolution will help protect students, residents, workers, schools, & visitors from harmful ICE raids in our community. Contact your local elected officials today.
secure.everyaction.com/38K0P3bF5U6R...
New Cover for The @newyorker.com
For more go to www.christophniemann.com/detail/nyerc...
Hyperlapse from the No Kings rally in Iowa City. Our town has a population of about 80,000 and this is a tiny sliver of the march. #nokings
18.10.2025 22:55 — 👍 239 🔁 63 💬 0 📌 2
Kudos to this Iowa City protester, who not only elevated the level of discourse, but also provided a source for the quote! "Truthfulness has fallen in desuetude." - Stereolab
@iowacityoflit.bsky.social
#NoKings
Dear Director Bhattacharya: I saw your announcement about the appointment of Dr. Kyle Walsh as Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. It is hard for me to express how disappointed and saddened that I am with this turn of events. This has little to do with Dr. Walsh or his qualifications. Instead, my concerns are based on the damage that this appointment, with the complete lack of any reasonable process, does to the NIH and the ability of this agency. which matters so much to the American people. to recruit and retain the best people for the 13 institute and center director positions that are now vacant.
Happy "No Kings" Day!
I just sent this email to Director Bhattacharya regarding the recently appointment of a new NIEHS Director.
A university that signs the “compact” is one that acknowledges its own inability to compete and succeed based talent and merit. It would signal insecurity and mediocrity to current and future students and faculty. Say no. Recruit the best people, protect their freedom and support their hard work.
18.10.2025 00:05 — 👍 258 🔁 86 💬 0 📌 6
