John Higgins

If I remember it right, the key is in the timing...the cuckoo eggs get slipped into the nest just before they're ready to hatch, so they're not around long enough to learn the password.

Here's the one I was thinking of about increased teaching effort: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Superb Fairy Wrens teach their young a password when they're still in the egg that hatchlings must give to prove they're not a cuckoo. That teaching intensifies if there are a lot of warning calls that cuckoos are around (can't cite the research off the top of my head).

Political Violence and the Reality Distortion Field Sadly, we’ve always had violence in America; what’s different today is the aftermath, and the battle to define political opposition amid violence.

To be clear, I was quoting this article, and I agree: prospect.org/politics/202...

This Shutdown Fight Has Life-or-Death Consequences At the heart of the fight over the government shutdown is the fate of health insurance for millions of Americans who may soon face an impossible choice: accept a significant increase in their premiums...

Millions of Americans--especially those who work for or own small businesses, live in rural areas, or retired early--will be forced to make tough choices if enhanced subsidies for ACA plans expire. The health of the nation will suffer for it. My latest @opinion.bloomberg.com (gift link):

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center Fred Hutch is dedicated to the elimination of cancer and related diseases as causes of human suffering and death.

Looking for your next step in fly genetics? The Rajan Lab at Fred Hutch is hiring a staff scientist + postdoc for projects on fat–brain signals, immunity, and brain aging. Stable, long-term role in a collaborative lab. Apply: careers-fhcrc.icims.com/jobs/30062/j...

Woodstein!

"This effort to amp up your political side in times of extreme emotion, to not just condemn the individual act but to slander all your political opposition at once, is the kind of thing you see in societies in open civil warfare."

Neat trick, but but but ..the skin is so tasty left on the fish, fried in a cast iron pan or on a cedar plank over a grill.

If you're wondering about the business model that destroyed newspapers, this is (partly) it: monetize the ancient pitchforks and torches impulse for the Internet and rake in the $$$

AI useful tool when you need to efficiently extrapolate from a few knockouts because tissue samples are short-lived and in small quantities, but humans must still confirm with the tried-and-true toolkit.

Such an important point. Writing as diagnostic. Where it's muddled, where the tension is slack,the rhythm off, there lies the thing that is difficult to think or feel...the real gold that doesn't glitter until you put the words down.

Such a privilege and joy to tell some of the incredible story that is this place and these people, always striving to do hard things.

You don't always have to kill your darlings!

Or is it a Next Gen X thing?

25 for us this month, too

This all day and twice on election day.

We're glad to see this new, free resource, which curates some of @theopennotebook.bsky.social's instructive essays, features, and interviews on science journalism craft into a "101" curriculum that anyone can use — from university professors to independent journalists.

This is worth sharing far and wide. Federal Employees and contractors oral history project. Im not involved in this. Just got the link, idea seems to be to create a record of the assault on the American Repuvlic after Jan 2025. www.fecohp.org

There is little in life that isn't improved by walks with dogs.

Moment of bliss from the Pando aspen grove near Fish Lake, Utah, The detour from I-70 was soooo worth it.

My Irish sweater and jaunty wool cap await!

Rapid Response: Reinvesting in Racial and Indigenous Health Equity Research The purpose of this call for proposals is to meet the current moment by supporting timely, actionable health equity research that has been interrupted by shifts in federal funding.

The @rwjf.org Rapid Response Research funding is available to applicants who have received federal funding for their health equity research, but have had it partially or fully rescinded due to federal administrative actions. Deadline is 10/1/25. Details in the link:
www.rwjf.org/en/grants/ac...

This is such cool work. In a story for Hutch News last year, I likened the RBD up/down motion to a submarine's periscope - up for cell attack, down for stealthy escape from antibodies. www.fredhutch.org/content/www/...

Near Jerome, Idaho

This is the site of an American concentration camp. The National Park Service has done a terrific job here, sharing the stories of survivors of WW2 incarceration. Extremely relevant for our troubled times.

"Don't be alarmed, folks...."

It always begins with the most vulnerable but it never ends with them. Once it gets rolling, it becomes a self-sustaining force with an ever widening net.

So true. Thanks, Katie and all the other smart, creative and talented folks I follow on this still decent platform.

Terrific contrast and color