Chessie Craig

If you put two NYT stories together you do get “man allegedly completely strung out on drugs uses the US government to kill 300,000 people”

Hi hello here’s my next ocean themed knit of 2025, calling it the abalone sweater. I dyed yarn with the inside of abalone shells in mind, and then knit the sweater up (free handing the pattern!). Obsessed with it but was also very sweaty taking these photos lol

I signed this, and I’d encourage my scientist colleagues to sign it as well

🧪🦑🌎

Look at this resilient CA round ray cosplaying as a mobula! The bite seemed to be completely healed over and the ray seemed to be doing well despite missing lots of its face!

We live in hell.

The act of writing can serve many purposes. It can be used to inform. It can be used to resist. It can be used to heal. Jasmin Graham & I wrote an essay about our terminated NSF grant, and hopefully, it accomplishes some of those goals.

www.advancejournal.org/post/3147-gr...

If your NSF grant has been terminated recently, please report it here ⤵️

airtable.com/appGKlSVeXni...

We're tracking these terminations to organize, advocate, and possibly litigate.

And please spread the word!

faves

The largest science crowdfunding platform, experiment.com, claims to have disbursed about $12 million to about 1,300 projects over the last decade.

$12 million is less than a quarter of 1 percent of the annual NSF budget. It's simply ridiculous to suggest that this can fill the gap.

looking for a social scientist who works on the integration of science and art to potentially collaborate with! reply to this or shoot me a dm!

largest torpedo ray I have ever seen today on the boat! female, caught close to shore by otter trawl, Long Beach CA

I’ve been working on a special knitting project this past month, the california ray diversity sweater. It’s going to feature a butterfly ray, bat ray, and round ray, and I am about 1/4 of the way through knitting up the pectoral fins

lots of baby Cabezon out in San Pedro right now!!

highlight of fish surveying in San Diego bay the past two weekends, a giant pacific seahorse! My first wild seahorse! A non pregnant male.

because if the grant funding crisis, I have lost my full time position. Please share opportunities if you know of them. I am hoping to use this time to make a big push to apply for PhD programs.

Sci-Commers Join the conversation

I just created a Sci-Commers Starter Pack! Science Communication is CRITICAL right now, and there is more than one way to do it! Get some inspiration (+ fun!) from a variety of different sci-commers from various backgrounds (although there may be a bit of a marine bias here 💙). go.bsky.app/NMCFMcj

It’s a Mary Maxim pattern! I am working on a stingray pattern of my own though! just have to finish a current wip and then I’m going to start knitting it up!

recently finished this marine bio inspired knit 🧶 🌊

Once again I am suggesting that you break some rules for practice. Get comfortable with breaking rules. When the rules are hurting other people, the right thing to do is break them. We need people who follow their moral code over the rules of their society, university, employer, and government.

Valentine's Day card featuring a Giant Sea Bass (Stereolepis gigas) that says "My feelings for you are giant!"

Valentine's Day card featuring an artificial reef made of pier pilings that says "My love for you isn't artificial!* *but often artificial things can be good! Artificial reefs help support underwater ecosystems!"

Valentine's Day card featuring two male California Sheephead (Bodianus pulcher) and a surf grass covered seascape with many Blacksmith (Chromis punctipinnis) and a few Garibaldi (Hypsypops rubicundus) that says "I fish you could be my valentine"

Valentine's Day card featuring giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) that says "I can't kelp that I have a crush on you"

Happy Valentines Day, from the VRG to you ...

but feel free to fill in your own names on our custom templates!

(artwork, text, and original absurdity by @chesseea.bsky.social)

🐙Angelique- the author of this project and a PhD student studying octopus brains. Being a black women in science is challenging at times, and can lead to moments of feeling like I don’t quite belong in this system, but it can also be incredibly warm and rewarding thanks to my close community.

a few more 🧪

I have work to do but I'm distracted by watching US scientific progress & leadership being irreversibly undermined because a few unelected malcontents are penalizing researchers for following legal requirements set out by congressional orders to augment basic research with benefits to society.

made some silly lil valentines so you can say it with sea creatures 🌊💘

Here’s a thread of words that result in the National Science Foundation rejecting grants under the Trump administration’s bigoted and anti-intellectual executive order.

Among other things, about every shark paper I’ve ever written has included the word “female” referring to *FEMALE SHARKS*

Just got a story approved to run on Monday on the crisis happening at the NSF.

If you are an NSF-funded scientist and have been personally impacted by the funding pause this week, I'd love to hear from you.

Reach me securely on Signal: 3162958947

each time I feel myself starting to panic about this godforsaken country, I try to take action. The action itself brings calm, proving to my body that hope is a verb, etc.

calling my reps takes minutes, for instance, & the 5 calls app makes it especially easy:

apps.apple.com/us/app/5-cal...

All these people in Congress
and media were like “Trump could never enact his most extreme plans, he’d be checked by Congress and media. So it won’t be that bad.” And then he got in office and immediately enacted his most extreme plans, and the people in Congress and media just didn’t react at all.

Just want to express gratitude today to our federal workforce, especially in science. 🧪

There is a lot happening now that will affect them and their work. It’s a good time to remember that these are folks who swore an oath to serve, and through that service to help make people’s lives better.

Things are bad. Be the freak your neighborhood deserves, ya know?