@shannonfarris.bsky.social
Neurobiologist, boy mom, new here. Assistant Professor @ Virginia Tech. We study the molecular basis of memory. Dendritic localization of mitochondria and RNA. http://labs.vtc.vt.edu/farris/
“The University of Illinois Just Released a Popcorn So Good It Doesn’t Need Butter
A crop scientist and two brewers spent nearly a decade breeding a better popcorn — and you can taste the difference.”
Excerpt From:
apple.news/A-iMFrAidRDS...
Tariffs are always passed on to the consumer. Sometimes indirectly.
Most often, directly.
Josh Siegle and I are thrilled to be chairing the first workshop on "Bridging the gap between cell types and spike trains"! We see this as the key link between population-level descriptions of dynamics and real mechanistic understanding from cell types.
celltypestospikesworkshop.github.io/2026/
I was in a 2 hour briefing today on the Iran War. All the briefings are closed, because Trump can't defend this war in public.
I obviously can't disclose classified info, but you deserve to know how incoherent and incomplete these war plans are.
1/ Here's what I can share:
"US federal government’s science workforce lost nearly 95,000 employees, 11.9%, between September 2024 and December 2025, according to a new analysis from the Partnership for Public Service."
Daylight savings time is stressful for the brain - every year, a transient risk of accidents and illness. We should consider doing away with it.
Put this neuroscientist in Congress and we’ll take it up.
Sam Wang for Congress: secure.actblue.com/donate/sam4nj
🧪March is #WomensHistoryMonth
Today is #InternationalWomensDay
Some highlights of women’s contribution in science.
Of note:
Kizzmekia Corbett was the scientific lead of the team that developed the Moderna COVID-19 mRNA vaccine.
@jackiebrenner on IG
#Pinks
Kudos to @nature.com for this article highlighting women supporting other women. I opened it thinking it would be a male cast of award winners highlighting women 🫣. Happy to be wrong!
🧪 #resist #resistrfk #defendresearch #standupforscience
#StandUpForScience
For #InternationalWomensDay I’m sharing my ongoing series of women in science through history. I’m now at 79.
Here’s to the day a scientist’s sex is no longer remarkable in any field.
Since last year I have added these 12 #linocut prints.
🧪🐡👩🔬🧮🔭🎢🔬
Kids, chickens and ducks out in force for #StandUpForScience_WA #StandUpForScience #Science
"I've seen better cabinets in IKEA" --Rep. Suzanne Bonamici 👇 Stand Up For Science Rally in Portland, OR! #standupforscience #rally #Portland #March7
Always remember, he was hired to RUIN the NIH, not run it.
More than 2000 demonstrators gathered on the National Mall yesterday for a rally organized by the advocacy group Stand Up for Science. Speakers criticized Trump regime policies & called for the ouster of RFKjr👇
Every gay person you know, they were a child once. At some point in that childhood, they found out what homosexuality was.
You can't stop either of these things happening and I don't know what you hope to achieve by intentionally making these things difficult, confusing and lonely.
Stand Up for Science at Philadelphia, the original American city of science. #standupforscience # Philadelphia
Happy International Women's Day to everyone, but especially trans women.
Good news today: @standupforscience.bsky.social is organizing rallies for science. 💪
Bad news:
Funded science is way down.
This is why I said wks ago the budget bill was “bad because it doesn’t go far enough.” How the science agencies are governed matters!!! This is killing labs. 🧪
The data is in: the NIH goalposts have shifted.
What were once almost certain fundable scores have become coin flips and what used to be likely grants have become aspirational, leading to fewer awards.
Another manifestation of how HHS policies have led to fewer awards and less science.
What happened after the weird Sept 2025 White House press conference on autism?
📉 Tylenol use in the ED dropped >10% among pregnant patients
📈 leucovorin rx jumped 93% among kids 5-17 immediately afterwards
new @thelancet.com today with @jeremyfaust.bsky.social
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
I wonder... 🤔🤔🧪 #chemsky
a) what program did the authors use to make the original (left) figure in the paper? Wild guess, ChatGPT
b) how such high school science level of disgrace pass peer review in @nature.com?
Note this was Fig.4.a NOT in SI
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
...the money you pay society journals to publish at least partially goes into conference costs, fellowships, workshops, seminar series, community projects like Plantae, preLights, etc.
These are two strange arguments. How are society journals not the clearly better option here?
#SciPub
Hey DORKS! Are you attending your local Saturday, March 7th National Day of Action rally?
Not sure where your nearest rally is? Visit standupforscience.net/march7 to find your local rally!!!
#March7
#standupforscience
#science
#rally
I’m still in disbelief that Capitol Police and a Republican senator broke the arm of a Marine in full dress uniform because he was voicing opposition to sending troops to Iran. Horrifying.
With this war on Iran costing $1B per day, we are now at 4$B, an amount that would fund 3,200 five year NIH biomedical research grants.
The Senate has (finally) voted to reauthorize the small business SBIR/STTR program.
Not reauthorized yet, but this was likely the biggest hurdle.
