Alex Meyers

Former UVA president Jim Ryan, who resigned over the summer due to pressure from the Trump Administration, just shared this 12-page letter with the Faculty Senate, detailing his experience with the Board of Visitors and DOJ.

It's a surreal--and troubling--read.

drive.google.com/file/d/1Is6x...

How Inventors Find Inspiration in Evolution (Gift Article) Soft batteries and water-walking robots are among the many creations made possible by studying animals and plants.

There's a word for learning from evolution's inventions: bioinspiration. Here's my interactive story on the way animals and plants fuel technological creativity. Gift link: nyti.ms/4otNQyl

GBE | Structural Rearrangements and Selection Promote Phenotypic Evolution in Anolis Lizards

@raularayadonoso.bsky.social @kenrokusumi.bsky.social @anthonygeneva.bsky.social et al. compared the genomes of Anolis species, finding evidence of structural variation and signatures of selection associated with phenotypic diversity.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf196

#genome #evolution #anolis

Thank you, Virginia! It is the honor of my lifetime to be elected your next Governor.

Warning. ⚠️ If you are writing an NSF GRFP, new this year, you need official transcripts to apply. Beware. They will not review applications without official transcripts. ‼️

Genome Biology and Evolution | November 2025 cover

The November cover of Genome Biology and Evolution features @raularayadonoso.bsky.social @kenrokusumi.bsky.social @anthonygeneva.bsky.social et al., who studied how structural rearrangements and selection promote phenotypic evolution in Anolis.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf196

#genome #evolution

US PhD admissions shrink as fears over Trump’s cuts take hold Some doctoral programmes are admitting no students at all amid uncertainty about federal science funding.

Fewer grad students means less science, but many STEM PhD programs in the US are cutting back on admissions this year due to federal funding uncertainties. Words by me for @nature.com:

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

@emsque.bsky.social @ucsdcooperlab.bsky.social @julieposselt.bsky.social 🧪

‘With Their Hands, This Place Was Made’: Davidson College Dedicates Memorial to the Enslaved and Exploited Hundreds of people gathered as Davidson College dedicated With These Hands: A Memorial to the Enslaved and Exploited on Oct. 23. Renowned artist Hank Willis Thomas designed the bronze sculpture in col...

Hundreds of people gathered as Davidson College dedicated With These Hands: A Memorial to the Enslaved and Exploited on Thurs., Oct. 23. Visit the story to hear from the descendants of those whose labor helped build the college & listen to a poem written by author Clint Smith '10 for the dedication.

BREAKING: UVA rejects the Trump Administration's Compact.

Jane Goodall, ethologist and conservationist, has died. She was 91

This only happens to you once

Censorship Is the Authoritarian’s Dream The right to free expression must include the right to say horrible and evil things.

"More professors in the United States have been fired for controversial views in the past week than any other week in all of American history."
www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...

UVA President James Ryan Caved to MAGA—and They Forced Him Out Anyway Ryan had not fought Trump on DEI and other matters. His forced ouster proves that no capitulation is enough.

I wrote:

“Jefferson dreamed of forging a grand, vibrant Athens on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. Instead, in its third century, the United States seems a lot more like Sparta.”

newrepublic.com/article/1973...

Image of a "virtual fencing" device to reduce roadkill by warning wildlife of approaching vehicles. Foreground: green plastic post with translucent plastic housing attached to the top. Housing contains small solar panel, flashing light and audible signal. Background: two approaching vehicles.

Saw today for the first time a seriously brilliant way to cut wildlife roadkill: virtual fencing! These devices, installed every 25m for $10K km warn wildlife by detecting approaching vehicles and emitting a flashing light and a beep. Has cut deaths by 90%! #WildOz
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06...

Proposed cut to NSF Biology budget is 70%.

70%. Seventy.

Call your senators & reps nonstop. Give them numbers on NSF impact for state/district. tableau.external.nsf.gov/views/NSFbyN... explain this will decimate the economy if their districts, especially if it has a major research univ. 🧪

Trump’s Order to Sanitize Black History Meets Institutional Resistance

Great article about the stakes facing museums and other public entities telling inclusive narratives. Free article for you. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/06/u...

Go Dr. Baran! 🧪🐣

Nature Isn’t Binary: Discovering the World’s First Intersex Southern Right Whale • The Revelator What you think you know about the world depends on how you’re looking.

Nature Isn’t Binary: Discovering the World’s First Intersex Southern Right Whale

What you think you know about the world depends on how you’re looking. Check out the latest from @the-revelator.bsky.social ⬇️

Trump team cites wolf ‘de-extinction’ as it seeks to cut endangered species list The interior secretary hailed a biotech company’s claim to have brought back the dire wolf, while the administration and GOP push to roll back species protections.

Bad media science takes can kill off whole species.

Gene edited puppies are NOT actually dire wolves, any more than an especially hair mouse is a mammoth.

Endangered Species Act is NOT rendered moot by this publicity stunt

www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

Trump seeks to end climate research at premier U.S. climate agency White House aims to end NOAA’s research office; NASA also targeted

BREAKING from @science.org: The Trump admin is seeking to kill nearly all climate research at NOAA, its climate science agency.

Its near-final budget proposal would end all NOAA research labs, academic institutes, and regional climate centers. And it wants to fully end the NOAA Research division.

the cover of Time Magazine, with the headline "Extinct" crossed out in red above the text "This is Remus. He’s a dire wolf. The first to exist in over 10,000 years. Endangered species could be changed forever." by Jeffrey Kluger, and the photo of a white dog-like wolf-like animal

Colossal didn't make a dire wolf. This is not a dire wolf! Stop saying it is!! I feel like I'm going mad!!!

“De-extinction” is to biodiversity loss what “Mars colonization” is to climate change—wishful thinking that is at its core impossible but nevertheless sucks up attention and resources from actual solutions to these crises (which, ultimately, might be the whole point)

It’s 9am TFT time here, and citizens are already gathering to protest Tariffs by the United States. Our plain clothes Officer Penguins are attempting to maintain calm, but unfortunately we keep losing them in the crowd.

@moxie: There are so many great reasons to be on Signal. Now including the opportunity for the vice president of the United States of America to randomly add you to a group chat for coordination of sensitive military operations.

Signal's founder

My Obituary of Elisabeth Vrba—out today in Nature in read-only format:

rdcu.be/ediyO

Scientist in a lab coat holds a sign saying 'Sex & gender are NOT binary! I'm a neuroendocrinology (ask me about it)

Protest sign that reads 'Let's use all 100% of our brains!" With drawings of a pair of zebra finches, a human brain and cichlid fish.

A little late to the party... It was great to attend the Raleigh #standupforscience march. Great turn out and it was nice to see all the support and great signs!

Thank you! So excited!

Thank you!

Alex in a grey UVA sweatshirt

I am thrilled to announce that I have committed to @uvabio.bsky.social's PhD program for Fall 2025!

I am so grateful for this opportunity to develop my research interests, further my education, and contribute to a vibrant scientific community (now more than ever)! 🧪🌍🔬🦎 #PhDSky

48 Scientific Societies Representing Almost 100,000 Scientists Ask Congress to Protect the Future of Science 48 scientific societies representing almost 100,000 scientists signed on to a letter asking Congress to protect the future of science

Today, a broad coalition of scientific professional societies who represent over 92,000 scientists are speaking out against the politicization and demonization of Federally funded science and government scientist jobs.

It was an honor to help the Union of Concerned Scientists with this! 🧪🌎