Julie Johnston

Voting NO on the DHS funding bill is the bare minimum.

Backing Kristi Noem’s impeachment is the bare minimum.

Holding law-breaking ICE agents legally accountable is the bare minimum.

ICE is beyond reform. Abolish it.

A husky dog sitting in the snow next to a waterfall that is frozen over

Ava and I visiting “Woes Hollow” aka the tallest waterfall in the world. RIP innie Irving who died almost a year ago today.

(It’s Awosting Falls in Minnewaska State Park If you don’t get the Severance references)

I really want ppl w/o Minneapolis connections to understand

You might've heard that Mpls public schools went hybrid bc so many families are in hiding. Well, a coworker just told me that today, during his kid's hybrid class, a kid's apt building was raided onscreen

*Everyone has stories like this*

We couldn‘t make it to the Times Sq protest today. What are the next NYC places to express opposition to the US coup in Venezuela?

Feel free to also post anything happening in the Twin Cities (where most of my networks are) or anything especially good anywhere that can be a model.

Horrific times.

A good, informative, and sobering interview. A tiny handful of powerful owners of things run so much, and that certainly includes the New York Times.

Extending application deadline to early January so still time to get your applications in! #DisabledInSTEM

How do you approach teaching courses to students outside your major?

My students are often interested in plants, environmental science, medicine, chemistry etc. I am trying to piece together "why my class is still fun and important" within their multitudes of studies. I would love to hear from you!

I put “lab work” on my to do list 3 times this past week and kept scratching it off thinking it meant chemical analysis, dna extraction, helping a student project… instead of going to the lab to get my blood drawn.

I’ll run the events if you can oversee coffee/drinks/food

omgosh the amount of students getting sick the last week of the semester.

Ava had a very good week running around campus
@weratedogs.com

A block of text that says “publishers marketplace deal report. Nearby nature by sarah mcanulty imprint:storey squid biologist and founder of Skype a scientist sarah mcanulty phd’s NEARBY NATURE, an illustrated guidebook on observing and caring for the natural world found right in our backyard from building bat houses to growing native plants to welcoming possums, to Kristin Hewitt at storey in an exclusive submission for 2027 by Eric Smith at neighborhood literary

Big news: I’m writing a book!!

I’ll be writing & illustrating a beginner’s guide to appreciating wildlife in cities/suburbs, & how all of us can make our neighborhoods better for those animals.

Thank you to my book agent @ericsmithrocks.bsky.social & the folks at Storey for believing in this book!

lowkey disappointed that my holiday break read is only about mushrooms and not The Secret Life of FUNGI as advertised.

I can't wait to be able to run RT-qPCR in my lab!!!

Eagerly awaiting my Pocket qPCR to arrive. I can finally use my 50k units of reverse transcriptase I got from Gene and Cell Technologies a few years ago.

gaudi.ch/PocketPCR/in...

A giant pile of potatoes garlic and rice

A small pile of potatoes garlic and rice (garlic and rice have not changed amounts. Only potatoes).

A dog who looks very full and pleased with herself.

Before and after grocery shopping. I did NOT buy any potatoes. They were stolen.

Facilitation-competition tradeoffs structure microbial niches and nitrogen cycling www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #jcampubs

Hot and Bothered, Bees’ Gut Microbiome Shifts Under Thermal Stress and Pathogen Infection. Understanding bumble bee gut health is imperative as these vital pollinators are subjected to pathogenic infections and thermal stress from climate change. The gut microbiome serves as an indicator fo...

First preprint as a professor and it’s… not wastewater but bees?!?!??

Lovely collab with my colleague Dr. Jennifer VanWyk. the middle authors are all the undergrads who took my bioinformatics course last spring and analyzed novel data www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Photo of fire trucks outside the bushnell theater in Hartford

Seeing Hamilton in Hartford with my niece and nephew!

We got the extra interactive version where the British set fire to the stage and force everyone to evacuate (we are all fine and the show quickly resumed)

Zara Weinberg passed away earlier this week. She joined my lab earlier this year when her postdoc lab formally closed.
She was a brilliant scientist, supportive mentor, dear friend, avid music fan, rabid believer in public transit, open science champion, and above all just an amazing human.

Yes, some people's legacies are complicated. For example, Watson. After all, though he was racist, don't forget his other traits. For example, he was also sexist. And also anti-semitic. And a data / idea thief. So let's not forget all the different facets.

Zara Weinberg was a brilliant, loving, and beautiful woman. She inspired everyone who she interacted with, and always strived to make the world a better place for everyone. Tho the world is a little less bright today without her, her memory will always be a blessing.

She was truly one of the best.

Candid photo of Zara Weinberg. She has short red hair, bangs and glasses. She is laughing.

The Leading Edge Fellows gathered this week to celebrate Zara Weinberg, a beloved member of our community. Our 7th cohort of Leading Edge Fellows (2026) will be named in her honor.

The Zara Weinberg Leading Edge Cohort application is now open! Due Feb 2.

www.leadingedgesymposium.org/apply/

Ava a husky dog on a green couch

Trying to explain daylight saving to a hungry dog who doesn’t know why it’s not dinner time.

Conference badge with my name and fuck Exxon mobile along the badge lanyard

Had fun time giving a keynote to the upcoming LGBTQ chemical engineers at #AIChE!!!

We have to absolutely hammer this home: Science suffers without the values embedded in DEI 🧪

Your ability to eat should not depend on your productivity

Your ability to get healthcare should not depend on your productivity

Your ability to get housing should not depend on your productivity

Saying “be more productive!” To those who are struggling devalues human life.

It aids fascism.

Class hanging out at a leafy river bed with a dog

Student in a river wearing waders to get a measurement

Dog splashing in the river

Last week was water quality sampling but one overly enthusiastic member of the team kept messing up our turbidity measurements by splashing everywhere.

Promotional graphic for the DisabledInSTEM 2026 Mentorship Program. The background is a dark blue gradient with flowing wave-like patterns in blue and gold. At the top, white text reads: “DisabledInSTEM 2026 Mentorship Applications Now Open.” Below, a yellow box with black text says: “Seeking Disabled Mentees and Dedicated Mentors to Champion Inclusion in STEM.” At the bottom, white text states: “Applications due December 5th.” In the lower right corner, there is the DisabledInSTEM logo.

It's that time of year again... time for #DisabledInSTEM 2026 Mentorship applications! I'm so excited to be running this program for the sixth year and seeing the growth over the years!

Mentee form: forms.gle/um5DvYnBi3tn...
Mentor form: forms.gle/BvaxnQm8uhUR...

Applications due December 5th!

Cows in a field

Ava the husky on a wagon ride

Winogradsky columns growing at farm fest

Cows, wagon rides, and winogradsky columns.

a list of events for Farm Fest including Egg race, pumpkin carving, cider pressing and.... make your own Winogradsky Column.

One of these things is not like the others... I just wanted to be included in Farm Fest.