Jennifer Biddle

Austria is a gorgeous place and the University of Vienna’s CeMMS one of the top places in the world to do microbial ecology.

Cartoon bacteria with black side swept bangs, converse, black square glasses to look “emo” with the caption “SspA wasn’t just a stationary phase, Mom”

A conference requested an image that represents my work for an invited talk…. I give you Emo. coli.

Also check out the paper: doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

🧪🧬🧫🦠

Research is HARD. Academia is HARD. Life is HARD. There's nothing wrong in leaning on those around you. We all need it. So long as it's not a one-way street, we're all making each other better. 3/3

Trainees: If you haven't already, learn the value of implementing the Bat Signal with your peers. When you're stuck and need a body double, a review, a brainstorm, an escape... this can be game-changing. Don't worry about being a bother, instead: pay it forward. We all need it a some point. 1/3

Thanks for posting - this reminds me how my husband picked up a bone on a walk recently and brought it home to ID it - problem is I have no idea where he left it....we found it on the beach and he thought it was a dolphin, but maybe not.

Why Don't We See More Dead Animal Remains While Strolling in the Woods? Learn more about nature’s quick, efficient, and fascinating process for cleaning up dead animals in the woods.

www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth...

the USA built a system of higher education so good that smart/rich people from across the world came here, spending billions to learn here, subsidizing education for Americans while spending money to live in our cities and towns. our government arbitrarily decided we should stop doing that

Hang in there. Grief is a process. He was so lucky to have had you by his side.

#MicrobialEnthusiasts: when I teach micro, I hand out 3D printed glow in the dark tags. Each student has a #MicrobialPal to write about. This fall (my LAST time teaching here), I have 20 not 16 students. So PLEASE suggest additional candidates so I can really impress my new #Micronauts?? Please RT?

Someone posted that no one builds a massive ballroom if they expect to move in 3 years and I can’t stop thinking about that.

Sorry not sorry we spread it thru the AEM GRC group chat 🦠

Yikes … we got like 350+ applications for one bioinformatics position open on my team in 1 week. Never seen this happen in my entire career! This is going to take some effort to sort out.

Will be interesting to see the response to a second, slightly more senior biofx one opening up next week.

No AP News alerts, no Union-Tribune alerts or articles, no emails from UC either. I work at a UC and I would not know that UCLA lost all grant funding last night if I wasn't on Bluesky or in union group chats.

Self-preserving silence and general complacency are becoming more common.

Without question the thing Trump benefits from more than anything else is being able to do stuff that would've triggered Watergate-level media outrage and turn it into a nothing burger you barely hear about

I don’t know if it brings hope, but I tell my students that no matter how bad people get the Cyanobacteria were certainly worse.

To put it into perspective, Cyanobacteria have permanently F’d the planet and they did it first. #bringbackanoxia

Trump, Claiming Weak Jobs Numbers Were ‘Rigged,’ Fires Labor Official

News like this reminds me why tenure was created www.nytimes.com/2025/08/01/b...

Me three months ago:

Hopefully they launch today!!! 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

Things no one prepares you for in aging.

I just needed reading glasses to make sure my toenail polish was completely off 🤦🏻‍♀️

Wtaf. I thought microbe would be safe since ASM CUE is primarily teaching and there’s so much education focus at the meeting. I’m sorry you experienced that. Those people are jerks.

This is totally an employable skill. Keep it up!

They ended cancer research for this.

The first step is acknowledging the game has changed. Second step is aligning your efforts with your values. Once those are aligned the motivation is easy. Also if people say comments about non R1 they are just assholes. It’s about them not about you. You’re doing great.

Bummer. Weather scrub.

Better safe than sorry.

She earned the title "wundergrad" by the end of the semester

About 18 years ago, my Postdoc advisor dropped an undergraduate student in lab and asked me to teach her. I asked her career plans. She said she was going to be an astronaut. I glibly replied “ok well let’s work on your plan B”. She’s about to blast off into space in an hour.

Cell surface differences within the genus Methanosarcina shape interactions with the extracellular environment | Journal of Bacteriology Methanogenic archaea, including Methanosarcina, play crucial roles in biotechnology and climate processes, impacting wastewater treatment, carbon capture, and greenhouse gas emissions. Methanosarcina ...

The latest minireview from my lab, “Cell‑surface differences within the genus Methanosarcina shape interactions with the extracellular environment,” is now online in the Journal of Bacteriology. Read the open‑access article here: journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/....

Are you an early-career biologist or ecologist who would benefit from an invited seminar? Would you like to come to UMaine next fall or spring to give a talk? Leave a brief comment with some info about what you do. I'm co-hosting our seminar series again, and am filling out our rosters.

Just gave a talk to our group of summer interns and at the end, I got a ton of questions about stability of science funding and how to communicate with the public.

I want an award for not breaking into tears.