Matt Biegler 🪺🧬

after a lifetime of constituents being furious at them for doing nothing the democrats have decided to do something the one time everybody begged them to do nothing

11.11.2025 03:44 — 👍 498    🔁 52    💬 1    📌 1

Amazing tool. I’ve already done this with all my manuscripts it is a must try.

15.10.2025 11:32 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

The US town that pays every pregnant woman $1,500: ‘We’re not OK with our babies being born into poverty’ Infants in Rx Kids in Flint, Michigan, saw lower rates of prematurity and other issues, saving millions in NICU visits

A program in Flint, MI, gave $1,500 to any/all pregnant people and $500/month for the first year of their infant’s life.

Among the benefits, those babies experienced lower rates of prematurity and low birth weight, which resulted in fewer NICU admissions, saving the city of Flint $6.2 million/year.

17.09.2025 14:34 — 👍 2065    🔁 746    💬 31    📌 109

Constraints on chromosome evolution revealed by the 229 chromosome pairs of the Atlas blue butterfly The genome of the Atlas blue butterfly contains ten times more chromosomes than most butterflies, and more than any other known diploid animal. Wright et al. show that this extraordinary karyotype is ...

How many chromosomes can an animal have?

In our paper out now in @currentbiology.bsky.social we show that the Atlas blue butterfly has 229 chromosome pairs- the highest in diploid Metazoa! These arose by rapid autosome fragmentation while sex chromosomes stayed intact.
www.cell.com/current-biol...

11.09.2025 15:21 — 👍 210    🔁 99    💬 4    📌 6

The last passenger pigeon died 111 years ago today and not a day goes by that I don't think about how their flocks numbered in the *billions*, that their roosts covered 100+ square miles, that they collapsed trees with their nests. America is incomplete without them

01.09.2025 20:27 — 👍 542    🔁 145    💬 8    📌 6

I know the eggs aren’t black (unlike the photo), but I’ve always wanted to know when they start to get their color in development-wise…

26.06.2025 00:33 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

There have been people less than helpful in my journey here. I wanted to acknowledge those too, bc I know I am not unique in this experience. No thank you to the physics study assoc that made me sing songs about how women couldn't study physics without sleeping with the professor, the day I stepped into university life. No thank you to the 5th year physics student that decided to assign me a stripper name within the first minute of meeting me in the physics coffee corner in my first year. No thank you to the technician that was responsible for onboarding me on the use of the cluster in my third year who raised his eyebrows and asked me if that meant I was some sort of computer girl. No thank you to the senior researcher that sent me utterly inappropriate texts after a conference, then proceeded to apologise months later by telling me they had not been meant for me anyway so no hard feelings remain hopefully And no thank you to him for attending every conference I've been to since. No thank you to the people who told me that it was surprising that I was doing a PhD since I was a girl. No thank you to the man who mistook me for a coffee lady at a conference, and after having to correct him two times that I did not work there, responded with you should consider it. No thank you to the researcher that asked me what I was wearing underneath my outfit during a conference. No thank you to the physicist who declared to a room full of other physicists that biologists don't know how to design an experiment. No thank you to the people who have called me scary instead of strong and intimidating instead of intelligent. And finally, no thank you to the exec board of the TU Delft, whose knee-jerk reaction to being held up a mirror about the social safety at the university, was to sue the party holding up the mirror instead of looking at the problems they highlighted. ... You have made me feel like I do not belong in science & I cannot forgive you for that.

A friend included this anti-acknowledgement section on her PhD thesis. She also added the proposition: “Systematic bullying and undermining of girls and women in STEM starts early on and is the reason why they do not stay in science and related fields.”
Absurd we still need to go through this
🧪👩‍🔬

06.03.2025 16:40 — 👍 6570    🔁 2352    💬 122    📌 332

With all the recent uncertainty about research funding in the US, I don’t take for granted how lucky I am with this opportunity. Here's hoping the future continues to inclusively value and support a diversity of ideas, perspectives, and projects from early career scientists.

18.02.2025 15:25 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

So many were incredibly generous with time and resources in the application process - I'm grateful to all my peers, mentors, collaborators, and especially my spouse for encouragement and support. I am hoping I can return the favor to those looking at similar opportunities!

18.02.2025 15:25 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

A male zebra finch on a twig - photo courtesy Roy Beckham

After my twitter departure I've been a bit quiet with the socials. But I wanted to start here with a bit of positive news that I was awarded a K99 from NHGRI this past month. I'm very excited to begin a new project exploring the songbird germline-restricted chromosome (GRC)!

18.02.2025 15:25 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0