Sara Beck, Ph.D.

New York City Predicted Record Tourism. Then Came Trump.

New York City is expected to welcome 400,000 fewer tourists this year than it did in 2024, a decline primarily driven by negative sentiment toward the United States among foreign travelers who have reconsidered their vacations.

That’s awesome! I love that clip and I’m going to use this article in my Municipal Engineering class. :)

For those attending #BCWWA2025 in Victoria this week, look forward to seeing you!

I'll be presenting our rainwater disinfection research for Paul Onkundi Nyangaresi on Tuesday afternoon (3:30 pm) in the Small Water and Wastewater Systems session (Lecture Theatre).

2025!

Apply now: Eawag Postdoctoral Fellowship 📢💪

The Eawag postdoctoral fellowship is designed for outstanding early-career researchers with innovative ideas

👉 www.eawag.ch/en/about-us/...

WATCH: “This is a tragedy for the free world. But first and foremost a tragedy for the United States.”

This 8 minute speech by French Senator Claude Malhuret on Trump siding with Putin and what it means for the world is worth your time.

Full: www.instagram.com/reel/DG9Lj0F...

National Science Foundation fires roughly 10% of its workforce NSF fired 168 employees, leaving the agency less equipped to fund a wide range of scientific research.

Yesterday was the darkest day of my professional life so far. Many of NSF’s best and brightest people fired indiscriminately. The terms of their firing cruel. My colleagues matter, they are valued and they make a difference. I have no words. www.npr.org/2025/02/18/n...

A large group of people gathered to protest next to the U.S. Capitol building. A headline reads: "How Federal Employees Are Fighting Back Against Elon Musk" Photo by Samuel Corum for The New York Times

“The unknown was not as scary as being complicit and not speaking up.” Some federal employees, both in public and behind closed doors, are resisting Elon Musk’s orders using whatever means they have. nyti.ms/3D4V7T2

“Your work is your rebellion”

It’s been buried in all the news today, but every scientist in the US should pay attention to this:

Mike Lauer went out on a limb for us all, sending out a memo saying institutes should start awarding grants. And it looks like Trump/Musk fired him for that. 🧪

White House budget proposal could shatter the National Science Foundation “This kind of cut would kill American science and boost China.”…

White House budget proposal may slash NSF funding from 9 billion to 3 billion a year.

Biomedical research as we knew it in this country is cooked. The repercussions will be deep and long-lasting.

Lovely week to finish the year for the @mossi-lab.bsky.social lab. @aidanfoo.bsky.social doing fantastic work at his viva and Ana Pitol securing a lecturer position @lstmnews.bsky.social!

Our lab was in the news this week with a news release on our rainwater project in Kenya and then Paul Nyangaresi's Mitacs Inclusive Innovator of the Year award. This article has a nice 1-min video about the project:

research.ubc.ca/two-ubc-rese...

There is a concerted effort underway to download and preserve as many federal geoscience data sets as possible.
The fact that this has to happen at all is a blistering warning of the massive threat posed to #science by the GOP and Trump.

🙋‍♀️ Would love to be added. Thanks for starting this!

Here is a great summary of genomic visualization tools: cmdcolin.github.io/awesome-geno...

Image shows gloved hand wiping across a non-porous (glass) and porous (wood) surface to disinfect from monkeypox virus.

Using a microfiber cloth soaked in disinfectant and wiping one time at a constant pressure, we tested 6 disinfectant solutions on 6 surfaces. We found that 0.05% sodium hypochlorite or 70% ethanol with 1 min contact were sufficient to inactivate MPXV on clean nonporous and porous surfaces.

Efficacy of Disinfectants for Monkeypox Virus Inactivation on High Touch Surface Materials in Low-Resource Settings Disinfection efficacy tests were conducted on surface carriers inoculated with the monkeypox virus (MPXV) by applying six disinfectant solutions (and three controls) on six surfaces common in low-reso...

Proud to share our latest paper on monkeypox virus disinfection on high-touch surface materials by Ana K Pitol and @siobhanrich.bsky.social from the @mossi-lab.bsky.social in collaboration with @who-global.bsky.social
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Efficacy of Disinfectants for Monkeypox Virus Inactivation on High Touch Surface Materials in Low-Resource Settings Disinfection efficacy tests were conducted on surface carriers inoculated with the monkeypox virus (MPXV) by applying six disinfectant solutions (and three controls) on six surfaces common in low-reso...

Great work from Ana Pitol and @siobhanrich.bsky.social in collaboration with WHO and @realsarabeck.bsky.social for their work examining MPOX disinfection on different surfaces.

pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....

UBC researcher brings clean water home to Kenyan school - UBC News For Dr. Paul Onkundi Nyangaresi, a postdoctoral researcher at UBC’s faculty of applied science who led the project, it’s more than a professional achievement; it’s personal.

Great article about our rainwater treatment project in Nyamesocho Village (southwest Kenya), in the home community of our postdoc, Dr. Paul Onkundi Nyangaresi. We used biosand filtration and UV LEDs to treat water for 365 students and staff:
news.ubc.ca/2024/11/ubc-...

I've had dengue. It was dintinctly unfun. If you needed another reason to do what you can to limit climate change, well this is a good excuse ...
www.npr.org/2024/10/22/n...

"LA is seeing cases of dengue, the range of which may be growing due to climate change"

Tiny beauty: how I make scientific art from behind the microscope Steve Gschmeissner images tiny creatures and viruses to show the public an unseen world

Fabulous and fascinating, using electron microscope images to make art. Gorgeous. www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

Happy to share our latest paper in Water Research:

Many studies have shown that applying UV-A before UV-C causes a synergistic effect; we traced that effect to damage to the transfer RNA, which plays a critical role in protein synthesis:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

free download at https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4268044version for 10 µL pipet tips here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4256563 3D printable pipette tip sorting device 'Elster' for 200 µL pipet tips

Where was this when I was an undergrad and had to refill tip boxes as my lab job?!?!??

Kids these days have all the cool toys.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx8f...

Employment Opportunity: Postdoctoral Associate in Microbial Ecology Stroud Water Research Center is searching for a postdoctoral associate to study molecular microbial ecology in aquatic and terrestrial environments.

We're #hiring! Apply today to come work with world-class freshwater scientists. We're seeking a postdoctoral associate to study molecular microbial #ecology in aquatic and terrestrial environments. Check it out! stroudcenter.org/jobs/postdoc...

Double rainbow, all the way, over the Vancouver skyline.

Happy two-year anniversary of the Vancouver double rainbow! 🌈🌈 all the way.

‘It’s Like Our Country Exploded’: Canada’s Year of Fire Endless evacuations, unimaginable smoke and heat, 45 million acres burned — is this the nation’s new normal?

By the end of September, more than half of the world’s countries could fit inside the land burned this year in Canada.

“I can’t think of any analogy for the extent to which the modern records were not only broken but destroyed here,” says climate scientist John Abatzoglou.

Read more:

We have a PhD vacancy. Structural and functional protein bioinformatics, with a focus on bacteria-phage interactions lu.varbi.com/en/what:job/...