Eclipse of reason: debunking speculative anticipatory behavior in trees Advancing plant behavior research requires robust experimental design, falsifiable hypotheses, sufficient replication, and stringent controls. A recent study claims that Picea abies trees collectively...

Did this paper need to be written? Unfortunately yes, it did. Trees don't collectively anticipate solar eclipses. Occam had something to say about this kind of problem. 🧪🌲🌳

And yet. It really happened 💔

EDM HARRY BEST HARRY

I think disappearing DNA is different than damaged DNA (which cells would try to repair). Without DNA to make RNA then proteins, cells would die a metabolic death. But great question to ponder!

This line graph illustrates the percentage change in agency staff levels from the previous year for nine major U.S. federal scientific and health organizations between the fiscal years 2016 and 2025. The agencies tracked include the CDC, Department of Energy, EPA, FDA, NASA, NIH, NIST, NOAA, and NSF. For the majority of the timeline between 2016 and 2023, the agencies show relatively stable fluctuations, generally staying within a range of +5% to -5% change per year. However, there is a dramatic and uniform plummet starting in the 2024–25 period. Every agency depicted shows a sharp downward trajectory, with staffing losses ranging from approximately -15% to over -25%. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows the most significant decline, dropping to roughly -26%, while the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) shows the least severe but still substantial drop at approximately -15%.

This is the most astonishing graph of what the Trump regime has done to US science. They have destroyed the federal science workforce across the board. The negative impacts on Americans will be felt for generations, and the US might never be the same again.

www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

Just saw oracs while on the ferry in Seattle. My first! Only crappy videos because I was using my binoculars the whole time 🥹

The final Calvin and Hobbes, which appeared in papers 30 years ago today.

Well bummer. Black on the Air podcast with Larry Wilmore aired its last episode. I always enjoyed his interviews.

Morning coffee realization: I actually have to WRITE that final exam for Friday.

The delta between what Biden did and how much anger he got for it and the absolute crickets Trump has gotten for making the student loan landscape *magnitudes worse than it was before* is absolutely one of the most enraging things about this entirely enraging era.

Furniture rearranging with mom and @awesomejuice.bsky.social while dad is in the hospital (but doing OK) is a fantastic 1am activity.

NEW: An analysis finds that NIH funding cuts have disrupted at least 383 clinical trials, affecting over 74,000 participants that were enrolled in studies that were testing treatments for conditions including cancer, heart disease and brain disease.

Just got served an IG Black Friday ad for whole genome sequencing 🧬🧬
Options range $300-$700 🤔

I was just about ready to get up and start my day.

🦣🧬🦣🤯💥We are pleased to share our new paper about ancient RNA expression profiles from the Woolly Mammoth, now published in Cell @cellpress.bsky.social

www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

If you want to know more, read the 🧵 below:

39,000 year old RNA.
RNA???!!!
Amazing.

Please read this on Jim Watson, by his most thorough biographer

James D. Watson, Co-Discoverer of the Structure of DNA, Is Dead at 97

This obit is appropriately critical and full of history. He had decades to learn from his own discovery, instead he clung to old racist ideas. (I recommend the 1980’s BBC movie staring Jeff Goldblum was Watson if you want a decently accurate retelling of the story.) www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/s...

RE LRT: I wouldn’t say most Franklin takes are stupid, but most of the details of her role in the discovery of the double helix are not widely known. The linked article brings them all to one place. Pretty good read.

If you believe either that Franklin discovered the double helix, and / or Watson and Crick stole her data, ask yourself how you know this. Then take a read of this article.

A lot of people think that every international student admitted means one fewer spot for domestic students, when the opposite is more likely true - the tuition revenue international students bring allows public universities to provide substantial discounts to domestic students, improving access.

An evergreen thread: Race/Ethnicity is *not the same* as genetics, and you can't use Race/Ethnicity as a sort of stand-in for genetics. These two concepts are connected via aspects like skin colour, but the connection is alot less profound and categorical than most people think.

Solved the NYT crossword with zero hints! It’s been a while 😜

Comic. [Building with large sign in front of it[ SIGN: Welcome to the *Biology Department* It has been [changeable sign: 3] days since we discovered something existentially horrifying about bugs that makes you question your whole reality

Biology Department

xkcd.com/3140/

Here is UW - Madison's budget. Our <largest> funder is the federal government. 25%. It used to be the state. Either way, the university in its current form ceases to exist if these federal cuts really happen. But The. Public. Doesn't. Know. This. And our leaders are absent from the public debate.

HHS cancels funding for Moderna to develop vaccines to combat bird flu The department cited Moderna’s use of the messenger RNA technology, which it said “remains under-tested,” for the cancellation of the funding.

There is a bird flu vaccine for vultures and condors. There is a bird flu vaccine in development for cattle (by Moderna, for one). But a bird flu vaccine for humans by Moderna has been cancelled by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS): wapo.st/43kxnVf (gift article).

[Person with ponytail wearing lab coat hands balloon to another person in front of a springboard, a magnet hanging from above, and then a target] PERSON WITH PONYTAIL to Person 2: Rub this balloon against your head, then go jump past that magnet toward the target on the wall. [caption] Before the bathroom scale was invented, the only way to weigh people was mass spectrometry.

Mass Spec

xkcd.com/3094/

Not going to repost but JD Vance is whimpering about the voting habits of professors over on Twitter.

It’s like “we said they were the enemy, we aimed to put them in trauma, we cut their salaries in half, we made their jobs impossible, and now they’re voting against us. I don’t get it.”

It’s Mary Anning’s birthday, so time to share @katebeaton.bsky.social’s brilliant cartoon again.

Four images to illustrate some prominent single-gene myths. Top left shows a photograph of a person deftly rolling their tongue into a U-shape. Top right shows a photograph of a person’s ear, highlighting the shape and features of the earlobe and cartilage. Bottom left shows a close-up photograph of a person’s eye, with a vivid blue colouration. Bottom right shows a photograph of a person poised to write with their left hand on the blank white page of a spiral-bound notebook.

Remember when you first learned about genetics at school? All those fascinating examples of human traits that are each apparently determined by just a single gene? Time to check in on some of your favourites to see how they’re doing. 🧬🧵🧪 1/n