Rebecca D. Burdine, PhD

I’m thrilled to share that my PhD work has been just published in Cell. After a long and bumpy ride, we uncovered the core function of nuclear speckles -splicing of GC-levelled exons- and traced the evolution of this gene architecture and condensates themselves to amniotes.

Congratulations!!

Larry Summers Will Resign From Harvard After Jeffrey Epstein Revelations Mr. Summers, former president of the school, had stepped back from teaching after documents showed a closer relationship to Jeffrey Epstein than previously known. He will leave at the end of the academic year.

Breaking News: Larry Summers will resign from teaching at Harvard as the university reviews his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

Camsap2a regulates actomyosin flow and Rab5ab-mediated macropinocytosis in the yolk cell during zebrafish epiboly Summary: Analysis of mutant zebrafish reveals a previously unappreciated function for Camsap2a in the regulation of actin-dependent processes in the extra-embryonic yolk cell during embryonic morphoge...

Membrane dynamics are an important contributor to epiboly as shown in @dev-journal.bsky.social by @plotnikovlab.bsky.social and the Bruce Lab. “Camsap2a regulates actomyosin flow and Rab5ab-mediated macropinocytosis in the yolk cell during zebrafish epiboly” doi.org/10.1242/dev....

Worth watching and listening. Note @ashtonpittman.bsky.social has her second video and a written response from her in the replies to his original post sharing her video.

I'm always Ol' Cranky.

How it started - 8am Sunday - remnants of older snow still on the ground, but green grass evident. How it's going - 8am Monday over 16 inches of snow piled on everything.

Take 24 hours apart. Enjoy.

Five years on, the right’s Covid narrative has been turbo-charged into the mainstream | Laura Spinney Before the next outbreak, we need a serious conversation about how to cope – but first, the more strident, misguided voices must pipe down, says author Laura Spinney

Covid, 5 years on:
"The mRNA vaccines prevented millions of deaths. [...] Masks worked. And as with every pandemic in recent history, subsequent reviews have found that the advice to go early and hard with containment was correct."

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Pictures taken 24 hours apart (8am on Sunday, 8am on Monday).

Did Dandy dictate that post?

Agouti integrates environmental cues to regulate paternal behaviour - Nature Expression of agouti signalling protein in neurons in the medial preoptic area is increased by group housing and negatively associated with care, and overexpression of Agouti reduces care and enhances...

Why are some males caring toward infants while others are neglectful or abusive? I'm so pleased to share work that my colleagues and I @princeton.edu have just published @nature.com (an explanatory thread to follow!) (1/8)

Very sad news. Gail Martin (1944-2026) was a figure in developmental biology. She pioneered the field of ES cells.
A great colleague, a friend and a lovely person.

But, Tom! How would people go away for ski weekends with their families if we didn't have this school break?

Opportunism and moral rot. And especially the disconnect between GOP leaders - products of elite educations who aspire to elite institutions - and their voters, who will let them stay in DC as long as they pretend to believe that vaccines are evil and all that crap.

I have a set of high school friends (who were also grade school friends) I see and communicate with regularly. We meet every holiday when we all are close to our hometown. I don't know how odd that is, but we grew up together and we're still together.

We need your disruptive silliness more than ever. Stay the light in a dark world, Jorts.

Society for Developmental Biology logo Society for Developmental Biology 2026 Award Winners Edwin G. Conklin Medal Headshot of Lee Niswander Lee Niswander, University of Colorado Boulder Society for Developmental Biology Lifetime Achievement Award Headshot of Alexandra Joyner Alexandra Joyner, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Viktor Hamburger Outstanding Educator Prize Headshot of Roberto Mayor Roberto Mayor, University College London Elizabeth D. Hay New Investigator Award Headshot of Jeffrey Farrell Jeffrey Farrell, National Institutes of Health Society for Developmental Biology Trainee Science Communication Award Headshot of Nicholas Desnoyer Nicholas Desnoyer, The Sainsbury Laboratory

Congrats to the 2026 SDB Award Winners!
Conklin Medal: Lee Niswander
SDB Lifetime Achievement Award: Alexandra Joyner
Hamburger Outstanding Educator Prize: Roberto Mayor
Hay New Investigator Award: Jeffrey Farrell
SDB Trainee SciComm Award: Nicholas Desnoyer
bit.ly/4afnjiC

"Abolish ICE" was submitted 9,200 times for Chicago's snowplow naming contest, records show. blockclubchi.co/3ZAnDTZ

YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.

Stay free

One of my favorite people from the other place. Making the world better for some amazing cats with amazing moves.

Thanks for your defending of fundamental research and sorry about the grant. :(

One of my favorite people from the other place. Making the world better for some amazing cats with amazing moves.

I'm tired of how many times this administration is rendering me speechless.

Americans still have more confidence in scientists than many other groups in society

Full survey results show American public have high levels of confidence in scientists while revealing some partisan differences (including on how to fund science), but statements asserting lost trust should be read instead as intentional efforts to degrade trust.

www.pewresearch.org/science/2026...

Among the cartoonists I know, Scott Adams was always a cautionary tale. Obsessed with his own perceived intelligence, he panicked when his popularity began to ebb, and leaned into hate to regain that rush of relevancy. I'd thank him for serving as a lesson if he hadn't done so much actual damage.

I also have a cat that gets into the tub and turns into a killing machine (in his head). What is it with the bathtub and felines?

GLP-1 agonists (eg Ozempic) are showing promise to reduce alcohol drinking and perhaps opioid use. This is, of course, a potential therapeutic success which arises from the random walking of science, not an “efficient” directed research program.