Prof. Sharlene Santana

The Ranges Imaging Mini-Awards

Applications for the (final) 2026 Ranges Imaging Mini Awards are due on Jan. 7! This is a great funding opportunity for trait-based projects that rely on high resolution imaging. Focus on Western North American #mammals
Learn More/apply: ranges-network.org/awards/

An Integrative Perspective on Bat Evolution Bats are one of the most widespread, species-rich, ecologically and morphologically diverse mammal lineages, and the only mammals capable of powered flight. Due to their evolution within the constrain...

🚨🦇New paper alert! We integrate information across fields to highlight key traits associated with the diversification of #bats, their roles as evolutionary drivers, and their importance to global ecosystems:
An Integrative Perspective on Bat Evolution
www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

Collections Study Grants Collections study grants provide financial assistance for graduate students and post-doctoral researchers to study the collections of the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture (UWBM).

🚨Call for proposals for Collection Study Grants at the @burkemuseum.bsky.social!! Open to grad students and postdocs for collections-based research, including cross-disciplinary projects. Applications are due December 15, 2025. More information:
www.burkemuseum.org/collections-...

Functional microanatomy of nasal turbinals in bats Iodine-enhanced micro-CT (diceCT) scanning allows visualization of whole bat heads (a, showing Anoura geoffroyi) as well as internal structures such as nasal turbinals, including their mucosal coveri...

Probably more than you ever wanted to know about #bat turbinals, in our most recent paper – check it out!
anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

The #DireWolf is the talk of the town right now! But what exactly were these Ice Age predators? Alf Museum curator and dire wolf researcher explains! #FossilFriday

Inside me there are two wolves. One of them has a 15 genome edits the other 20 genome edits. Neither of them is a dire wolf.

‘My career is over’: Columbia University scientists hit hard by Trump team’s cuts The US government has begun slashing US$400 million in research grants at Columbia University over pro-Palestinian campus protests.

🚨This week, many Columbia scientists lost grants that funded over half their annual income. Others will no longer be able to do research that helps treat thousands of sick patients across the US.

"It hurts," they told me.

My story for @nature.com 🧪

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

NSF downsizes summer research program for undergraduates Many participants are from groups underrepresented in science

Devastating to hear from disappointed undergrads about all the summer programs being cut. NSF, NIH, and the complete cancelation of Mosaics in Science national park internship program focused on broadening participation. NSF REUs were crucial to my start in science www.science.org/content/arti...

It’s a bat 😉

Maybe we should all complain that the signs are still unclear just to see how much farther they would go with this absolute nonsense. I can’t tell if that’s a woman with short hair wearing pants, for example 😉

Remarkable thread offering guidance to current and prospective NSF grantees about how to navigate the times ahead — from an NSF program officer who was fired in yesterday's DOGE purge (!)

Were you fired by President Trump? | House Committee on Science, Space and Technology The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology

Please repost this government led survey to get this into every fired government employees hands! 🧪 democrats-science.house.gov/sciencefirings

National Science Foundation Fires 168 Workers on Trump’s Order The National Science Foundation fired 168 workers to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order, the latest in a series of layoffs throughout the US government as the Trump administration se...

The National Science Foundation fired 168 workers today.

The NSF was established by Congress to promote science, advance public health and contribute to the national defense.
@bloomberg.com
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Heartbreaking news… Tonight, many of our friends were let go, and tomorrow, even more will follow. Word is that all probationary employees at NPS will be let go. 😭

NIH doesn’t just support infectious disease research—it drives breakthroughs in cancer, childhood diseases, heart disease, diabetes & more.

Thanks to NIH, we have:
💉 Cancer immunotherapy
❤️ Cholesterol-lowering statins
🩸 Insulin for diabetes

Investing in NIH = investing in life-saving discoveries.

Thank you!

Robert J. Jones named 34th president of the University of Washington The University of Washington Board of Regents on Monday announced that Robert J. Jones, who is currently concluding a nine-year tenure as Chancellor of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, has...

Welcome, Dr. Jones, to the University of Washington as our 34rd President.

A grayscale illustration of a hyena skull on turquoise background, overlaid by letters and a network of circles that represent the complex interconnections of skull bones produced by macroevolutionary change.

New, NSF-supported research: Emergent network properties link phenotypic modules to ecomorphological divergence in carnivoran mammals doi.org/10.1016/j.is...

Also, check out the beautiful original artwork made by one of the co-authors for this study:

Bat genomes illuminate adaptations to viral tolerance and disease resistance - Nature A systematic analysis of 115 mammalian genomes, including 10 new bat genomes, reveals prevalent positive selection in immune genes in bats and shows key adaptations in the antiviral gene ISG15 that ai...

🚨 FINALLY OUT IN @Nature.

A tour de force effort. 🦇 10 new bat genomes, excess of immune gene adaptations, species specific adaptations in ISG15, and anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity of bat ISG15. @hillermich.bsky.social @batresearch.bsky.social #LZCI #Bat1K

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

IOB now in issue !

The Carnivoran #Adaptive Landscape Reveals Trade-offs among Functional Traits in the Skull, Appendicular, and Axial #Skeleton

Chris J Law, L J Hlusko, Z J Tseng

doi.org/10.1093/iob/...

#science #fossils #analysis #carnivores #ecology #topology #locomotor #mammalian

One of the most important things you can do today is your science. Knowing calculus/physics/genetics/chemistry etc. makes you rare and the world will need you to rebuild tomorrow. Practice your skills and pass them on. Keep the flame alive.
💚🌱🧪

The NIH Is literally prohibited by law from commenting on the new NIH restrictions. The NIH can't fight this fight for you. Scientists who want to help people, this has to be your fight.

Two surfers wait on a near-flat ocean, illuminated by sunbeams through a hole in the clouds.

Morning session, Coal Oil Point.

(If anyone knows who was out there on the morning of Saturday 18th, it would be cool to get it to them.)

Superstable lipid vacuoles endow cartilage with its shape and biomechanics Conventionally, the size, shape, and biomechanics of cartilages are determined by their voluminous extracellular matrix. By contrast, we found that multiple murine cartilages consist of lipid-filled c...

New paper! A long-ignored type of cartilage cells characterized by large lipid vacuoles is found in several mammalian structures (including #bat 🦇 ears) and may impart them with functional biomechanical properties:

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

New 🌱🦇 paper!!👇

Top panels: graphs showing increases in spillover events, extinction rates, and temperature anomalies over the last few centuries. Bottom panel: a map of 10 pandemics since the year 1900. Four were linked to agriculture, two to wildlife use, and one to climate change.

🚨😷🧪 NEW: A growing body of evidence shows that pandemics, biodiversity loss, and climate change are part of a broader polycrisis - but there are no simple solutions. A sweeping overview of "Pathogens and planetary change" for the first issue of @natrevbiodiv.bsky.social, out now 🔓 rdcu.be/d6lHl

Disability in ecology and evolution In this TrendsTalk series ‘Disability in ecology and evolution’ in Trends in Ecology & Evolution, we will be hearing from people about their experiences being disabled or having a chronic condition an...

I guess I hadn't posted this yet and didn't even know it had come out-- I was interviewed for (and co-wrote w/Daniel Rabosky) a Trends in Ecology & Evolution "TrendsTalk" article on "Disability in ecology and evolution" -- www.cell.com/trends/ecolo... #DisabledInSTEM #academicchatter #academia

This 👇

I am a climate scientist and this is correct ⬇️

A photo of Kory Evans, winner of the 2025 Carl Gans Award

Congratulations to Kory Evans @sternarchella.bsky.social, winner of this year’s @J_Exp_Biol sponsored Carl Gans Award at #SICB2025. His #biomechanics research examines the role of modularity in the evolution of the #fish skull. Don't miss his talk: 7 Jan at 13:30 in Marquis D

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