Rebecca Mosher

🌱 come join our lab 😀
🔬 PhD: small RNAs & plant stress (36 mo)
🧬CDD researcher: plant molecular biology (24 mo)
Apply 👇
PhD: emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/Docto...
CDD: emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/CDD/U...

#PlantScience #PhD #ResearchJobs#ERC#CNRS

I prosecute and defend the most serious sexual offences in our courts.

The overwhelming majority of offenders are British-born. Overwhelmingly the victim is someone known to them, either a partner or relative.

Anybody purporting to care about protecting women might start there.

say it again:

4 million people work in higher ed, the largest employer in 10 states, second largest employer in 10 more, and in 60 of the 100 biggest cities

demolishing higher education is economic sabotage

This was just called “summer” for me, my sister, and our cousin. But since Grammy was a school teacher, we also had story writing, drawing, and music lessons.

A fun reminder that a loss of 60,000 jobs in and around academia is ~50% more than all coal mining jobs in the entire country.

This includes a Director position at one of the world's leading #PlantScience institutes, the @mpipz.bsky.social.

Are you a top US-based scientist wanting to relocate to Australia? We are now calling for formal applications from both Australian and non-Australian citizens based in the US whose work is internationally recognised as exceptional.
📅 Applications close: Aug 29, 2025
🔗 science.org.au/gtap/?utm_so...

Guilty! I’m a sucker for the science pun

A day late but STILL IMPORTANT

Submissions - Longreads Thank you for considering Longreads for your work! Please read these guidelines on submitting and pitching to us. Nominate a story as an editor’s pick To recommend an already published story at anothe...

This is your periodic reminder that we're actively seeking pitches: essays of all types, reading lists, and reported features (oh my)! Details here: longreads.com/submissions/

Wow. Who could’ve guessed the party that’s led to country to a recession every time they’ve been in charge in the last 40 years would lead the country to a recession again?

Rerunning that old (now unfunny) soviet era joke:
Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev are on a train. Train stops moving.
Stalin: “shoot the engineer!” Train still stuck.
NK: “rehabilitate the engineer!” Still stuck.
Brezhnev, pulling down the window shades: “Comrades! The train is moving!”

🧬 Happy RNA Day! 🎉
A tiny molecule with a massive impact #RNA!
From translating genetic code to fighting diseases through mRNA vaccines, RNA is currently at the heart of innovation in science and medicine.

My department @utoronto.ca (www.utm.utoronto.ca/biology/) is hiring a molecular biologist in any field (e.g., ecology, evolutionary biology, etc.). Please encourage any excellent finishing PhD students, postdocs or assistant professor to apply here:
jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Mississa...

This would solve a number of other problems as well!

Full disclosure: I sometimes use these adjectives in letters, but only after a long description of research and intelligence.

Because people always ask: it’s not (only) about implicit biases the writer has; it’s about biases the *reader* has. You can argue “I don’t think hard-working, caring, etc are negatives, so I want to include them!” But do you know your reader feels the same way? (Spoiler: research says they don’t)

Exactly! This is why we need to be careful about word choice in letters of rec, too. “Hard-working” is a positive in men, but suggests lack of genius in women. csw.arizona.edu/sites/defaul...

Clearing out the lab freezer.
Why? WHY do students keep tubes labeled 1-12?!?!
I found an important box of tissue that has tubes labeled 1-5 and 5-11!!

Part of the problem is the conflation between generative AI (completely bollocks “spicy autocomplete” that’s killing the planet) and machine learning (the scientific uses to expose patterns in enormous data sets which can then be explored by humans)

Possible Horizontal Transfer of Drosophila Genes by the Mite Proctolaelaps regalis There is strong inferential evidence for recent horizontal gene transfer of the P (mobile) element to Drosophila melanogaster from a species of the Drosophila willistoni group. One potential vector of...

I need you, and I can't stress this enough, to read this paper by Margaret Kidwell et al. on horizontal transfer of P elements from mites to flies and back...from *1991*: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Saying this with as much love as possible, but please stop using AI generated graphics for activism. Plenty of artists willingly donate their time and work designing for activists, and always have. It's not necessary to step on an increasingly struggling group in order to promote worthy causes.

It is with deep sadness that we share that Professor Amy Marshall-Colon passed away over the weekend. Amy was a gifted scientist, generous colleague, and strong advocate for early career faculty. She will be deeply missed by our department and the wider plant biology community.

NYTimes headline reading "NYC Mass Shooting Was Nearly Impossible to Prevent, Experts Say"

Onion headline: 'No Way to Prevent This,' Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens'

THEY LITERALLY DID THE ONION HEADLINE

Another Pride and Prejudice remake on the way and still no Muppets version. When will the world get the Miss Piggy as Mrs. Bennet we deserve

An eloquent image:

Setting aside the content under the tarp for a moment, teens were asked to make art expressing what it is like to be a teen, and the end result was a mural wrapped in a tarp by adults.

I bet a lot of teens would find this expressive of their experience.

Helsinki goes a full year without a traffic death A city traffic engineer credits the success to lower speed limits and smarter design.

h/t @nniskanen.bsky.social

These reactions from Scotland give me life. The whole county, top to bottom, absolutely despise him and they are so creative about it.

I’m not sure I could do 3.5 hrs for a new LMS when feeling optimistic about my department!
I hope things turn around or you find a new path.

4% payline demoralizing for reviewers - review 9 grants each taking 3-4hrs (total reviewed by all is 90) flying to DC, a hotel conference room to discuss the top half of grants (45) 15 min each, 3x a year for 4 yrs. Paid $300. 4% = maybe 3/90, 0-1 that you reviewed funded. I couldn’t.