Sara Blumer-Schuette

Border Czar Tom Homan was caught by the FBI accepting bribes - on camera - to deliver government contracts in exchange for $50,000 in cash.

Pam Bondi knew.

Kash Patel knew.

Emil Bove knew.

And they made the investigation go away.

A corrupt attempt to conceal brazen graft.

Structure of a functional archaellum in Bacteria of the Chloroflexota phylum - Nature Microbiology Bona fide gene clusters for archaella are widespread across a bacterial phylum and encode functional motility machinery.

#NewResearch

Structure of a functional archaellum in Bacteria of the Chloroflexota phylum

@archaellum.bsky.social @sgribaldo.bsky.social & co

#microsky 🧪🦠

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

It is really telling that billionaires have enough to buy anything they want and the thing they want is fascism.

I knew wild turkeys could fly, but nothing prepared me for the sight of seven chicken-sized turkey chicks flying up into our oak tree. Also, the sound of female turkeys clucking at their chicks is like being in Jurassic Park

@tomtomorrow.bsky.social @rubenbolling.bsky.social
First they come for the comedians, then the cartoonist. Kings fear being laughed at. We have a funny bone to pick with/without a smile on our faces #Colbert #Kimmel #SethMeyers #DailyShow

Having just spent a few months reading accounts of CBS’ grotesque cowardice during the 1950s McCarthy-era blacklist, it’s nice to see that The Tiffany Network respects its traditions

Travelers to the US must pay a new $250 'visa integrity fee' — What to know The fee will be at least $250, is on top of other visa fees, and may be reimbursable.

Do not organize conferences in the US with an expectation to invite international scientists.

www.nbcnewyork.com/news/busines...

MSE seminar today on “Viral Entry: Lessons from Pathogens to Improve Human Health”

Events will be hosted January - December, 2025, on the last Wednesday of every month, 12:00 - 14:00 pm ET. Presented over Zoom. After each talk, we will continue the discussions in an informal social meeting with…

Lab-kept bumble bees roll small wooden balls around for no apparent purpose other than fun, a 2022 study reveals.

Learn more on #WorldBeeDay: scim.ag/4dAwCuD

Gee, what could have possibly happened 95 years ago.. 🤔

Figure 2 from linked paper. Relative abundance of archaeal orders and bacterial phyla found using Archaea-Specific and Universal PCR primers. Relative abundance of archaeal orders and bacterial phyla from Anna’s Hummingbird, Canada Goose, Ruddy Turnstone, and Saltmarsh Sparrow was found using Archaea-Specific (top) or Universal (middle and bottom) PCR primers.

Our lab’s latest paper just came out & I ❤️ it. Look at all the Archaea in wild bird poop that Universal primers miss. Amazing job by @thunterbio.bsky.social!

#birds #archaea #AcademicSky

Archaeal diversity in the microbiomes of 4 wild bird species. Check it out —>
journals.asm.org/eprint/3VYAS...

Elephants hate bees – here's why that's good news for Kenyan farmers In Kenya, farmers are turning bees into unexpected helpers to keep elephants off their crops

Two things I have in common with elephants:
1) we’re both mammals, and
2) we both do not like buzzing stinging insects

Digging up old bacterial genetics papers to figure out where synthetic promoters and plasmids come from makes me feel like an archaeologist unearthing long forgotten tombs

“Why did they build it that way? Oh, that makes complete sense given what you could do in 1985”

This is figure 4, which shows renewable biosynthesis of two PEAs from glucose as a sole carbon source.

A paper in Nature Chemical Biology presents a system that uses E. coli bacteria to create biodegradable plastics. The system may help in the production of plastics with desirable thermal and mechanical properties, using renewable resources. https://go.nature.com/4hEOaGc 🧪

Meet the Microbiologist: Manuel Martinez Garcia, Ph.D., a professor of microbiology at the University of Alicante in Spain, analyzes genomic signatures of microorganisms frozen in ice cores collected from the Filchner–Ronne Ice Shelf in the Antarctic. asm.org/Podcasts/MTM...

A screenshot of a legal document from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. The case is Nicolas Talbott, et al., Plaintiffs, v. United States, et al., Defendants, with Civil Action No. 25-cv-00240 (ACR). The document is titled "MEMORANDUM OPINION" and discusses Executive Order No. 14183 issued by President Donald J. Trump, which focuses on "Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness." The text states that the military’s mission is to protect the American people and that service by transgender individuals is considered "inconsistent" with this mission. It references the implementation of the order by Secretary of Defense Peter B. Hegseth on February 26, 2025, and mentions the disqualification of transgender troops from service without exemption. Footnotes clarify that the executive order does not explicitly use the word "transgender" but applies to individuals whose gender identity diverges from their biological sex. The document is formatted in a standard court opinion style, with citations and references to legal filings.

BREAKING: A federal court blocked Trump’s military ban on transgender service members, ruling it unconstitutional. The court found no evidence supporting claims of reduced readiness, citing the honor & excellence of trans troops.

ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show...

Picture of plastic bright green toy crocodile. His long snout is open showing a pink interior and rows of white teeth. The toy is lightly crushed so the eyes are squinty and look like he's rolling them, his mouth is curved downwards in a toothy grimace. The caption reads "Things that make you go..."

How was your day today?

🥸 Forgetting ID card in laptop & having to register as a visitor during a DOGE invasion

🤨 Being told to take cybersecurity training while DOGE bros are hacking secure gov systems

😤 Getting a no-gambling-during-March-madness email while president suspends anti-bribery laws

The anaerobic bacteriologist tendency to accept blame for every sulfurous smell in our building (it wasn’t us!)

A collaboration with the German Aerospace Center @dlr-en.bsky.social by Erika Muratov et al published in @biofilmjournal.bsky.social - the paper is dedicated to the memory of Ralf Moeller

The biofilm matrix protects Bacillus subtilis against hydrogen peroxide

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Echinacoside reduces intracellular c-di-GMP levels and potentiates tobramycin activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm aggregates - npj Biofilms and Microbiomes npj Biofilms and Microbiomes - Echinacoside reduces intracellular c-di-GMP levels and potentiates tobramycin activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm aggregates

Echinacoside reduces intracellular c-di-GMP levels and potentiates tobramycin activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm aggregates

NPJ Biofilms and Microbiomes by Yu-Ming Cai et al from @tcoenye.bsky.social
with Jacob Malone at @johninnescentre.bsky.social

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

How do you raise a son? Monday discussion

"In a world that hates women, teaching a daughter to be more masculine is easier than teaching a son to be more feminine."
@lyz.bsky.social

open.substack.com/pub/lyz/p/ho...

Team “non-model microbes” all the way! Need to pump those thermophile numbers up

A vaccine would be amazing! Friendly reminder that alcohol-based hand sanitizer doesn’t inactivate norovirus, and it takes only a few viral particles to start an infection. Wash those hands with soap and water!

We found that a #biocontrol rhizobacterium responds to the #auxin indole-3-acetic acid by modifying its #transcriptome, increasing toxic compounds resistance, altering c-di-GMP levels and affecting #phage infection. @asm.org @csic.es

t.co/zpz0IInXBa

If you’re consolidating power while under the guise of cutting “fraud” and making government operate more efficiently, it’s inconvenient to have folks around who can credibly explain that’s not what you’re doing.

Reported by a follower (unverified at this moment): Alaska Science Center Grace Hall in Anchorage which houses the Alaska Volcano Observatory and ASC servers is on the chopping block. Moving the server room would cost upwards of $1.5 million.

We apologize to our Ukrainian supporters. We are embarrassed by how our president and vice president have behaved. We are fighting to redeem the soul of America. 🇺🇸

Um, who let him in the Oval Office? Not somewhere you just accidentally walk in.

European perspective for Americans.

Seal of the US embassy in juba south Sudan

Among the more inhumane things Trump/Musk have done this week, DOGE cut off food, water, & fuel to the US embassy in South Sudan. They are living on what power the generator can provide. The country has no potable water & there's a cholera outbreak in the country.
These Americans are in real danger.