Rachel Lense is Professionally Curious

Year 2, Week 9 Feb 21-27, 2026 - ready, steady

Each Friday night, I cover what happened in US science & higher ed. 🧪

Year 2, Week 9: Feb 27 - on "epistemic vigilance" and
- precipice of war
- travesties in leadership (NIH director now also CDC head)
- surgeon general confirmation hearing
- NASA warnings & more

buttondown.com/liminalcreat...

This is Hippo. He's visiting Scotland for the first time. Had no idea they made squeaky toys for humans too. 14/10 (TT: kelseydarragh)

After 5 days of laying we have our 5th eastern bluebird egg. Mom should start sitting on them and they'll hatch in 12 to 14 days. Will update once we have hatchlings.
#birds

If you’ve never heard a donkey braying, George has a special message just for you.

From my new essay: A yard from me, the baby stands on its back legs, makes eye contact, and extends its left hand, as if offering an invisible toy. I crave to reach out but resist. @sciwritermag.bsky.social www.thesciencewriter.org/borders-stor...

Worksheet titled: "Evolving from Eel-less Language" and it includes a column titled "Instead of" with a red X, and a column titled "Say this" with a green checkmark. The "Instead of" column includes sayings like "You're doing it wrong" and "Look at those used condoms in the water!" The "Say this" column includes sayings like, "You're grabbing an eel by the tail" and "Hey! Manhattan eels!" I don't have the space here to list all of them. But each expression in the "Say this" column is a bonafide (read that in a Wharvey Gal's accent) historical eel metaphor. We'd all be better off if we talked more about eels.

We're all trying to be careful with our language, so as not to offend, or not to lose federal funding for talking about paragraph transitions.

To help you out, here's a worksheet to guide you in swapping out troublesome phrases for real, historical eel expressions.
🗃️🧪

This week's cover @thelancet.com

it really is shocking how much self deprecation is seen as a cultural requirement for 'serious art.' 'real' artists are not allowed to exalt their work and must present it publicly as a sort of 'i dont think this is very good but maybe you will get around to it.' HECK THAT. love yourself

cover of NOT POUNDED BY THIS T-REX ON THE USA MEN’S HOCKEY TEAM BECAUSE IT TURNS OUT HE’S A MAGA DORK featuring a t-rex in a red USA hockey uniform on the right he has a stick in his hand. on the left is a ladybuck giving a thumbs down with a frown. they are in a hockey rink

please enjoy brand new tingler NOT POUNDED BY THIS T-REX ON THE USA MEN’S HOCKEY TEAM BECAUSE IT TURNS OUT HE’S A MAGA DORK out now. get it here www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQ7YSVDF or on tingleverse patreon www.patreon.com/posts/not-po...

This is Beau. He is a textbook example of a golden retriever. They really will try to be friends with anyone. 13/10 for both (IG: beaugoesoutside)

Children’s Fun Fact Science Corner

😺😺😺 CANDY CORN 😺😺😺

Beautiful 7 year old cat looking for her forever love!!

Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter
(516) 785-5220
3320 Beltagh Avenue , Unit
Wantagh, NY 11793

❤️😺❤️😺❤️😺❤️😺❤️😺❤️😺

✨🏳️‍🌈🫶🏳️‍🌈✨

Happy International Day of Women and Girls in Science!

Follow these awesome women ocean scientists, many of whom I'm proud to call colleagues and delighted to call friends.

🧪🦑🌍🐟

go.bsky.app/7MdiLgo

💙💙💙 AUGGIE 💙💙💙

this senior baby should be home surrounded by love. Let's help this dog out. Please read and repost his bio.

Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter
(516) 785-5220
3320 Beltagh Avenue , Unit
Wantagh, NY 11793

👇💙💙👇💙👇💙👇💙👇
www.petfinder.com/dog/auggie-f...

We have a wind warning here in Maryland today--gusts up to 60 mph setting the wind chill at fifteen below zero. Nobody out here has been prepared for the last two weeks this winter has wrought. And it's probably also due to climate change. 🙃

Year 2, Week 6 Jan 31-Feb 6, 2026 - bureaucromancy

Each Friday night, I write about what happened in US science & higher ed. 🧪

Year 2, Week 6: Feb 6
- civil servants face Schedule F
- NSF disappoints on pre & postdoc research fellowships
- Oklahoma ends tenure
- Dept of Ed Civil Rights Office fails

& much more - buttondown.com/liminalcreat...

Ooh, that's a fun way to grift the grifter

Don't worry, I won't. But I might visit just to interview some of the folks who work there--get to know their backgrounds a bit. A story based on a character that works at a Bible "museum" could be interesting to explore.

In less than a week the Kennedy Center has effectively closed and our local DC paper has been gutted, both by billionaires.

I don’t think immigrants are our problem in this country.

Part of me wants to get this job just to fuck shit up from within
www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/43...

Does anyone sell subatomic sized violins?

Return of the Baud (circa 1995)

This whole thread 👇

Science News Agencies in science communication: an exploratory index for evaluating and enhancing public interest in mass-distributed press releases Scientific press releases are reaching the public directly through press reproduction and institutional dissemination. Science News Agencies (SNAs) mediate this process, distributing texts to thousand...

I teach a science media literacy module in all my courses.

It includes knowing the difference between a press release and a reported news story.

Here's a really interesting new research paper about public understsanding of that difference! #SciComm 🧪

jcom.sissa.it/article/pubi...

Looks fantastic!! ✨🏳️‍🌈✨

Winter Birds! When you’re a woodpecker that lives on the treeless prairie, I guess you make do on what you can peck! A Downy Woodpecker pecks dried Cattail stems looking for a meal on the Dakota prairie.
www.prairiewanderlust.etsy.com #photography #birds #nature #northdakota #minnesota #montana

The Third Self: Mary Oliver on Time, Concentration, the Artist’s Task, and the Central Commitment of the Creative Life “The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time.”

Whenever I take time to read @themarginalian.org.web.brid.gy, I'm always glad I did. So thankful for all the edification over the years. 💕
www.themarginalian.org/2026/01/29/m...

What Americans Lose If Their National Center for Atmospheric Research Is Dismantled - Eos Five ways dismantling NCAR will cost the American people, and two ways to save it.

eos.org/opinions/wha...

Pics from 4 of the 5 biggest geomagnetic storms so far from Solar Cycle 25. Alas, it was midnight sun season and cloudy during the biggest storm of the cycle in May 2024.

As solar maximum wains, we will see less big displays, but I bet we have a few shows left.
#northernlights #aurora #iceland