Deming Yang

Hey folks out there who ❤️ to #CTscan things and ❤️ museums! the @amnh.org is hiring a Laboratory Manager for their Microscopy and Imaging Facility, a.k.a. the CT lab 🧪

careers.amnh.org/postings/4550

New Publication Alert!
Dr. Jieun Kim, Dr. Erin Leslie, and Dr. Hadiah Kedwaii (DO, MWU alumnus) have a new paper out in Forensic Science International.
"Breaking the 50+ Barrier: Cortical Speed of Sound via Quantitative Ultrasound as a New Age-at-death Estimator in Older Adults"

The MWU Anatomy Department in Downers Grove welcomes our newest faculty member, Dr. Deming Yang! Dr. Yang earned his Ph.D. and M.A. from Stony Brook University and completed postdoctoral research fellowship at the American Museum of Natural History.
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A couple photos from the 2025 CGS Picnic, where the Anatomy Department retained our BEAST trophy for another year, thanks to Tyler Speer (CCOM '28) and Dr. Deming Yang!

RealClimate: The Endangerment of the Endangerment Finding? RealClimate: The EPA, along with the "Climate Working Group" (CWG) of usual suspects (plus Judith Curry and Ross McKitrick) at DOE, have just put out a document for public comment their attempt to res...

AI in the DOE report? This ref (p29) is fake:

Lee, S., Byrne, M. P., Loikith, P. C., & O’Dell, C. W. (2024). Zonal contrasts of the tropical Pacific climate predicted by a global constraint. Climate Dynamics, 62(1–2), 229–246. doi:10.1007/s00382-023-06741-7

www.realclimate.org/index.php/ar...

Pass this on. I've signed up.

This is what this is about:
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/31/c...

Anthropology collections manager job at the AMNH @amnh.org in New York! Additional info: A PhD (or PhD candidacy) is required to apply. Prior training in collections management and databases is essential. This is not a research position. Salary range $93-98k/year. careers.amnh.org/postings/4509

Congratulations!

Exasperated leopard seal

Waking up excited hearing that Antarctica is mentioned in international news.

Reading the news: “Antarctica and sub Antarctic islands are the safest place for humans to flee to during WW3”.

Impacts of climate change on global agriculture accounting for adaptation - Nature Analysis of data on six stable crops, capturing two-thirds of global crop calories, allows estimation of agricultural impacts and the potential of global producer adaptations to reduce output losses owing to climate change.

Most staple food crops are expected to experience substantial production losses due to climate change, even when mitigation measures to limit the impact of climate change are considered, according to a study in Nature. The study finds that only rice might avoid substantial losses. 🧪

Trump’s Cuts to N.I.H. Grants Are Illegal, Federal Judge Rules The judge accused the Trump administration of discriminating against minorities and L.G.B.T.Q. people and ordered the government to restore much of the funding.

A federal judge on Monday declared the Trump administration’s move to cut hundreds of grants issued by the National Institutes of Health illegal, accusing the government of discrimination against minorities and L.G.B.T.Q. individuals. nyti.ms/4jSIjOG

US Global Change Research Program funding summary. GEO programs would lose $325M (-97%) in FY2026 compared to FY2024. OPP would lose $148.6M (-92.6%).

So who are the winners? Very clearly AI takes the cake.
$22M more would be added to AI programs in GEO (>1100% incr) [who really asked for this?]

In contrast, the Global Change cross-cutting program would drop from $335M to $10M (-97%). OPP would drop from $161M to $12M (-93%).

Argh. The P4CLIMATE program solicitation will be archived (the program website itself hasn't been updated) www.nsf.gov/geo/updates/...

Exclusive: NSF faces radical shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions Changes seen as a response to presidential directives on what research to fund

This is an absolute disaster. If we don't stop this, they will turn NSF into a pawn of the Trump administration. There will be no research on climate, biodiversity, or anything that isn't eugenics or AI or how to more efficiently destroy the planet for profit.

This cannot be allowed to happen.

Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month + AGU logo

Happy Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month from Eos!

Thank you, Chris! It is always wise to learn from Paleontology :)

Strontium isotope mapping of elephant enamel supports an integrated microsampling-modeling workflow to reconstruct herbivore migrations - Communications Biology Comparisons of 87Sr/86Sr data from the tusk and molar enamel of a zoo elephant suggest that a microsampling-modeling workflow is the best practice strategy for geospatial reconstructions of seasonal m...

20 years ago, on April 22, 2005, Misha the zoo elephant was moved from Vallejo, CA to Salt Lake City, UT. Her relocation inspired a suite of studies about isotope turnover, including my recent one published in @commsbio.bsky.social Learn more about the study here: www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Trump seeks to end climate research at premier U.S. climate agency White House aims to end NOAA’s research office; NASA also targeted

BREAKING from @science.org: The Trump admin is seeking to kill nearly all climate research at NOAA, its climate science agency.

Its near-final budget proposal would end all NOAA research labs, academic institutes, and regional climate centers. And it wants to fully end the NOAA Research division.

NSF has awarded almost 50% fewer grants since Trump took office The reasons aren’t clear—and the agency’s director claims the president’s policies haven’t slowed grant awards

NEW: The number of new grants handed out by the National Science Foundation since President Donald Trump took office has fallen by nearly 50% compared with the same 2-month period 1 year ago. | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

Misha the elephant lived in zoos, but her tooth enamel helps reconstruct wildlife migrations Teeth recovered from a beloved zoo elephant that died in 2008 are helping University of Utah geologists develop a method for tracking the movements of large herbivores across landscapes, even for animals now extinct, such as mastodons and mammoths.

Geologists are using strontium isotope analysis from a zoo elephant's teeth to track large herbivore migrations, offering insights into both ancient and modern wildlife movement patterns. doi.org/g87t9p

Trump order could wipe out federal support for U.S. science museums Institute of Museum and Library Services now run by Department of Labor as part of proposed dismantling

IMLS, the primary source of federal support for U.S. libraries and museums, is one of seven independent agencies that President Donald Trump wants to dismantle because he believes what they do is “unnecessary.” scim.ag/4iryNlY

Strontium isotope mapping of elephant enamel supports an integrated microsampling-modeling workflow to reconstruct herbivore migrations - Communications Biology Comparisons of 87Sr/86Sr data from the tusk and molar enamel of a zoo elephant suggest that a microsampling-modeling workflow is the best practice strategy for geospatial reconstructions of seasonal m...

The KSL also reported on our recent work published in @commsbio.bsky.social and what Misha can teach us about forensics and paleoecology: kslnewsradio.com/utah/misha-h... Our original paper: www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Misha lived in zoos, but the elephant’s tooth enamel helps reconstruct wildlife migrations - @theU Utah geologists show how strontium isotopes found in teeth or tusks reveal where large plant-eating animals have roamed.

The University of Utah @utah.edu wrote a great article about our recently published paper in Communications Biology. The link to the article here: attheu.utah.edu/facultystaff...
The link to our original article here: www.nature.com/articles/s42...

AABA Workshop in Baltimore: What happens to my grant proposal? Peek into the process through mock review! This workshop introduces early career scholars to the grant review process through mock review exercises with experienced panelists and representatives from Leakey and Wenner-Gren. Date and Time: Marc...

Ever wondered what happens to your grant proposal once you submit it? Join a hands-on “mock review” workshop to learn about review processes at The Leakey Foundation and the Wenner-Gren Foundation. March 12 at #AABA2025. Registration is limited so act fast! @bioanth.org bit.ly/4havY78

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Postdocs and PhD students hit hard by Trump’s crackdown on science As US federal grants remain frozen and budget cuts loom, anxiety and fear grip early-career researchers.

The Trump administration's efforts to slash research funding have US graduate students, postdocs and other early-career scientists fearing for their careers. Some might leave the country -- or abandon research altogether.

https://go.nature.com/43ao2zq

Strontium isotope mapping of elephant enamel supports an integrated microsampling-modeling workflow to reconstruct herbivore migrations - Communications Biology Comparisons of 87Sr/86Sr data from the tusk and molar enamel of a zoo elephant suggest that a microsampling-modeling workflow is the best practice strategy for geospatial reconstructions of seasonal m...

Read the original paper using the link below www.nature.com/articles/s42...

How a zoo elephant helps us understand megaherbivore migrations In September 2008, a well-loved African elephant named Misha fell ill and had to be put down at the Hogle Zoo of Salt Lake City Utah. It turns out that Misha had quite a story to tell, about her epic ...

Happy to share some behind-the-scenes stories @kpodkovyroff.bsky.social, about our recent paper in @commsbio.bsky.social. Our loyal participant Misa, a @hoglezoo.bsky.social 🐘 , has a lot to tell about her #epic #journey from #sanfrancisco to #saltlakecity, preserved in her 🦷 go.nature.com/438Ugey

BITS: A Bayesian Isotope Turnover and Sampling model for strontium isotopes in proboscideans and its potential utility in movement ecology Strontium isotope ratios (87Sr/86Sr) of incrementally grown tissues have been widely used to study movement ecology and migration of animals. However, the time scale of 87Sr/86Sr incorporation fro...

This study uses a similar #Bayesian framework (BITS) that we published 2 years back! besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... Thanks to the funding agencies NSF and @natural-history.bsky.social for the fellowship in supporting this research!

Strontium isotope mapping of elephant enamel supports an integrated microsampling-modeling workflow to reconstruct herbivore migrations - Communications Biology Comparisons of 87Sr/86Sr data from the tusk and molar enamel of a zoo elephant suggest that a microsampling-modeling workflow is the best practice strategy for geospatial reconstructions of seasonal m...

🚨New article🚨Our #research on #elephant🐘and #strontium #isotopes in #teeth🦷is published with
@commsbio.bsky.social
We show how Sr is recorded in teeth and how we use such records to help reconstruct migration. @kevinuno.bsky.social @kpodkovyroff.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s42...