Max Heiman

"But a herring's not green!"
"You could paint it green."

"But it doesn't hang on the wall!"
"If you nail it there, it will hang on the wall."

"But it doesn't whistle!"
Theoretician shrugs: "So, it doesn't whistle."

Theoretician says to experimentalist, "I've got a riddle for you! What's green, hangs on the wall, and whistles?"

Experimentalist thinks for a long time and says, "I give up. What's green, hangs on the wall, and whistles?"

Theoretician says, "A herring!"

As usual, March has come in like a lion and hopefully it will go out like a lamb. But did you know that's not how it is in other countries? In the Malay peninsula, March comes in like a worm-eating fernbird and goes out like a worm-eating fernbird.
Source: amthenfm.wordpress.com/tag/john-bel...

I've had that experience! But I think even at seminars it tends to be the exception, and a lot of the productive comments tend to be from people who come up to say something privately to the speaker afterwards.

Email is fine! I think as a community we tend to follow the rule of "give praise in public, criticism in private."

fwiw, Development is $0 and fully ok to submit the accepted ms yourself to PubMed

Latest in #GENETICS: Ragle et al. discovered key functions and regulatory mechanisms of MLT-11, a putative protease, in #Celegans apical extracellular matrix assembly during cuticle synthesis and molting. buff.ly/MYAd56l

Nematode eggshells: A new anatomical and terminological framework
This paper revisits decades of confusion in nematode eggshell anatomy, corrects errors in the literature, and proposes a practical hexalaminar framework with clearer terminology. 🧪
doi.org/10.1051/para...

They came to Massachusetts to cure disease. Now they’re packing up their labs. - The Boston Globe In a first-of-its-kind survey, the Globe asked hundreds of scientists about the impact of federal funding cuts.

One Boston Children’s Hospital researcher said, “This is like asking, how do you think dropping an atomic bomb on New York City will affect the future of Broadway musicals? This is a generational loss of innovation, technology, and economic power.” www.bostonglobe.com/2026/02/09/m...

A pilot study for whole proteome tagging in C. elegans https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.09.704846v1

Cell-specific roles for the conserved Galpha chaperone RIC-8 in cilia biology https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.07.704597v1

but curly quotes still break SciENcv

To be fair, I have been hallucinating references since before AI. "I know I saw this somewhere -- I can picture the figure!"

Experience-dependent reconfiguration of thermoreceptors regulates neuronal response plasticity Harris, Dutta, et al. find that experience-dependent plasticity in the activation threshold of the AFD thermosensory neurons is mediated by modulating warm and cold thermoreceptor levels at the sensor...

Our first 2026 paper is out @currentbiology.bsky.social!
👏 to @nathancsharris.bsky.social (now Asst Prof, GA State) and PD Priya Dutta.

Here we show how transcriptional and trafficking pathways coordinate thermoreceptor levels to precisely modulate response plasticity
www.cell.com/current-biol...

Friends! I am so happy to share our new preprint!

Hydrogen peroxide has been the most common reactive chemical threat to life forms since the Great Oxygenation Event 2.5 billion years ago.

How do animals like C. elegans sense it fast and escape?

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Thread 1/

do you know the answer? again, please correct me if I'm wrong, but my impression is it was probably a combination but mostly not something she felt at any point that she needed

and -- correct me if i'm wrong -- all this WITHOUT bothering to get a PhD! just a genuinely curious person who is wired to make connections across fields.

good day for an electric heated birdbath!

"The law allows NIH/HHS to grant a single 180-day extension to members' terms."

Could Congress change this law, eg add an exception that extends terms indefinitely while fewer than X members remain on the council?

Opposing roles for lipocalins and a CD36 family scavenger receptor in apical extracellular matrix-dependent protection of narrow tube integrity Summary: Lipocalins and SCARBs are lipid transporters that influence susceptibility to infection and disease. This study shows that lipocalin and SCARB mutations affect the organization of a protectiv...

Lipocalins and Scavenger Receptors affect the luminal matrix that prevents narrow tubes from collapsing - now in press in Development! #aECM #Celegans

journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

For what it's worth bioRxiv already posts AI summaries for every preprint. In my experience, for our own preprints, they do not have value.

Untitled Goose Game -- A+++

RNA-binding proteins function through network effects, coordinately binding and weakly regulating many transcripts – or don’t they? Read our new preprint on how LIN28 controls developmental timing through only two targets, one mRNA, one miRNA. doi.org/10.64898/202...

Yes gramps but did you calculate the area under a curve by cutting it out and weighing it?

#aECM club

sundaramlab.com/blog/aecm-cl...

YouTube video by Boxy Brown Three Amigos - Mail Plane

youtu.be/gnMUvrspd7I?...

good stuff!

"Before we were born did you already make unfunny jokes, or did you only start when we were born because then they're dad jokes?"

How do cells fabricate nanoscale extracellular matrix structures? Inagaki, Hayashi et al. @riken-bdr.bsky.social show that the ER network stimulates complex remodeling of the plasma membrane, thereby patterning nanoscale cuticular pore formation in insect sensilla. rupress.org/jcb/article/...

In #GENETICS, @inechipurenko.bsky.social and colleagues studied the effects of mutations in the GNAI1, a G protein–coupled receptor gene, identifying their effects on ciliogenesis in human cells and #Celegans. buff.ly/MF1bSVn