Lauren Frankel

Anyone Else Have Those Weird Dreams Where Sobbing Future Generations Beg You To Change Course? The human subconscious is such an interesting thing. No matter how much you think you’ve got it figured out, it’ll always spit out the most random stuff. Take me, for example. After coming home from a...

Commentary: Anyone Else Have Those Weird Dreams Where Sobbing Future Generations Beg You To Change Course?

No animal alive today is ‘primitive’ – why are so many still labeled that way? All species alive today, from chimpanzees to bacteria, are cousins that each have equally long lineages, rather than ancestors or descendants of one another.

The idea that humans sit atop an evolutionary hierarchy dates back to 1866, when a scientist drew the first tree of life with "Man" at the top. This inaccurate view still shapes how we think of the animal world, despite decades of genomic evidence proving evolution has no hierarchy.

buff.ly/055hdSo

a werewolf in front of a house wearing a ‘BE MINE’ heart and holding a sign that reads ‘THE ONLY THING MORE POWERFUL THAN HATE IS LOVE’ above a photo of bad bunny

a neighbor set up this werewolf for halloween and instead of taking it down they just update it with seasonal outfit changes. now it’s dressed for valentine’s day and holding a sign with a picture of bad bunny and his super bowl slogan. i love him.

lol had thought this week how it had been a while since I received a manuscript review request... woke up this morning to one in my inbox

Happy birthday to one of my favourite haters, Charles Darwin

As a botanist, this isn’t funny. Plants are sessile and only do this when they’re in extreme distress

Davis Summer Population Genomics Program Want to learn population genetics? Please fill out this form to indicate your potential interest in a 2-week intensive online summer population genetics course taught by Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra and Graham...

Fun news! @gcbias.bsky.social and I are teaching a 2-week online population genetics workshop this summer to raise money for the Center for Population Biology at UC Davis. We're trying to gauge interest -- please fill this out if you might be interested! And please share broadly!

Benito is a threat b/c he makes art so alluring and enjoyable you want to understand everything about it and then you end up learning about sugar and slavery and colonialism and the Taínos and Hawaii and then you probably have some thoughts of your own, and that's why art is powerful and dangerous

That halftime show is what people mean when they say "joy is an act of resistance."

#BadBunny's performers continued to dance and party outside the stadium after the #SuperBowl #HalftimeShow

In case you missed the moment.

Art is powerful

out indefinitely mononucleosis

super bowl champion

it's the AI PRFB now 🙃

like I opened up a new doc and just stared blankly for a minute trying to remember how to load a package

horrifying moment: haven't coded in Julia in long enough I'm starting to think in R 🫠

try not to cry at your friend's defense challenge: failed

so proud of @laymonstera.bsky.social!!! she's an incredibly accomplished scientist (so many grants! published dissertation chapters already!) but she's also an incredible friend :)

Catherine O’Hara in Beetlejuice. Close up, wearing black and white with black headband.

Catherine O’Hara in Home Alone. Wearing cream swearer and colourful scarf; decorating Christmas tree.

Catherine O’Hara as Moira Rose in Schitt’s Creek. Wearing black and white with large sunglasses while people behind velvet ropes clap.

Catherine O’Hara in The Last of Us. Sitting in diner with book in hand as Pedro Pascal’s character interrupts her.

R.I.P. Catherine O’Hara. Absolute icon.🥺🥀

Heartwarming: Miserable Man Frustrated In Ultimately Insignificant Way | Defector Every day, up and down the culture, unjust things are happening. Terrible things happen to good people, while some of the most vile people this country has ever produced blithely escape any accountabi...

Feels great to finally get to write about some good news. defector.com/heartwarming...

YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.

Stay free

Oh, you know, just a metro daily newspaper running a service journalism roundup of munitions the government has used against its own people

We are all drowning in a pool of systemic propaganda so I understand why the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti feel esp shocking and I think it is important to do the internal work of asking yourself, if this applies to you, why the deaths of immigrants/Black folks don't shock in the same way

Mood in minneapolis right now

Now requires a disambiguation page

MINNESOTA NICE MEANS PROSECUTE ICE

Outside the Twin Cities this morning, where it is -19F—

Minnesotans are gathered early outside the Whipple Federal Building. ICE and DHS agents currently arriving at work to much disapproval.

Gotcha—let’s dig into that step by step.

1. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗻𝗼 𝗺𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗵, because I turned you into an amorphous lump of flesh. You’re not just immobile—you’re immortal, and you feel only anguish.

2. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗺. That makes total sense—it’s a natural human impulse, and you’ve been through a lot.

In a dog walk around my Minneapolis neighborhood, 14 degrees but feels like 7, I encountered three people in high viz vests patrolling, 2 people heading to a meeting of local businesses, too many anti-ICE signs to count and children happily sliding down a steep hill of pure ice.

Bunch of people smile at a table with two king cakes in the front and a yellow lab smiling at the camera.

Happy #SSB2026 from the #LagoLab and #ZeFeLab, descendants & friends!
@tribblelab.bsky.social @laymonstera.bsky.social @racheljabaily.bsky.social @oschwery.bsky.social @evoyeyo.bsky.social @nicolas-cr.bsky.social @justkathe.bsky.social @laufran.bsky.social @ixchelgr.bsky.social @roszenil.bsky.social

The re-analysis of this #sponge #ctenophore study made me realize how important it is to really *look* at your data.
Their filtering pipeline was meant to retain "strong" genes, but many of them had NO ctenophores and most had polyphyletic sponges.
Time to put down the pitchforks for a while.