Cameron Stern

What is CRISPR? 🧬

In this episode of #BioBasics, Victoria Hassebroek, Ph.D., Head of Genome Engineering, breaks down how this powerful tool allows scientists to make precise changes to #DNA.

Learn more:
bit.ly/49Yx6ta

From lab bench to classroom. 🧪📚

Ian Freed, a postdoc in the Li Lab, studies how gut cells shape immune responses — and mentors the next generation through the @stowersgrad.bsky.social Summer Scholars program, university lectures, and local #STEM programs.

🔗Learn more: bit.ly/4rMTbC9

👂Today is #WorldHearingDay. How do we hear? The answer starts with tiny sensory cells called hair cells.

These cells allow us to detect sound and maintain balance, but once lost in humans, they don’t grow back. But, #zebrafish can regenerate theirs. 🐟

Learn more in this #BioBasics: bit.ly/402Sid3

This summer, why not create habitat for caterpillars in your garden?

Ours is now full of Scarlet Tiger moth caterpillars! 🐛

We encourage them & many other species by maintaining their host plants - bramble, comfrey, nettle, blackthorn, etc. alongside our ornamental plants & veg.

I love following this conservation program

A white board showing totals of the 2026 kākāpō breeding season. Credit: Lydia Uddstrom

#kakapo breeding "fridge" update.
Good news: 9 chicks hatched, and 123 fertile eggs in total - including all three 4 year old females having fertile clutches!
Bad news: a few egg deaths in the last couple of days.
Kākāpō breeding seasons are a roller-coaster! #kakapo2026 📸: Lydia Uddstrom

Kākāpō Files II podcast Following the next breeding season of the world’s favourite parrot.

Following the #kakapo breeding season and want more detail? Don't forget to check out the "Kākāpō Files" #podcast from Radio NZ with the wonderful Alison Ballance. #kakapo2026 #conservation #parrots #birds www.rnz.co.nz/podcast/kaka...

Exciting times on Anchor Island as we check #kakapo nests for hatching. We’re letting eggs hatch in nests to reduce management intensity. Last night I found these two newly-hatched chicks in Konini’s nest, along with a fertile egg I carried back under a lunar eclipse. #kakapo2026 #conservation

Female #kakapo are utterly focussed on their chicks. Stella came back to the nest while I was checking her very young chicks two nights ago. Apparently unconcerned by me being there, she jumped in and started brooding them in front of me. #conservation #parrots #birds #kakapo2026

When assessing #kakapo chicks we weigh them, check their respiration rate and hydration. We usually do this twice in the first four days (this chick is less than a day old), and then every 5-7 days. The frequency of checks depends on their genetic priority. #kakapo2026 #conservation #parrots

A female Kākāpō on a nest with a young chick. Credit: Andrew Digby

Eva at her nest tonight on a very wet Pukenui/Anchor Island. Her chick Evohe-A2 is doing ok and her foster egg underneath her is about to hatch. #kakapo #conservation #kakapo2026 #birds

We also have stickers! Bumper stickers (3x8 in) and matte vinyl stickers for inside or outside (2.5x4 in)

SquidFacts.net

Potted rhododendron in a greenhouse covered top to bottom in orange flowers, the greenhouse light is altering the flower color, in real life the look more brick red-orange

Close up of the Rhododendron kiusianum flowers, this picture is more color accurate showing their brick red petals and magenta flare

Rhododendron kiusianum doing its best to impress an audience of one in the greenhouse today
#bloomscrolling

Meet an animal that makes even me shudder: Cone Snails. #LetsChangeThat

a slide introducing GA, when the researchers found the GA mutant, they called them "foolish seedling". Then on the right corner I inserted Kagura from Gintama saying "お前ら　馬鹿ですか”

Successfully inserted anime in my plant bio lecture! 💅 Throwback to the good old time that I transcribed subtitles for many anime for two years at the end of my undergrad, now I'm telling a room of undergrads the plants and anime that I love. I love my job! #ib103 #anime #plantjoy

Even at a few days old, these sea anemone planulae are already covered in stinging cells! The stingers of these young Nematostella are marked with a fluorescent green.

@stowersinstitute.bsky.social
#StunningStella

🧬 What once took 4 years can now take less than 1. With doubled haploid technology, breeders can develop pure inbred lines faster—accelerating the creation of high-performing hybrid varieties for farmers. @cimmyt.bsky.social

The spawning has begun #frogspawn

IT’S SPRING!

Time for Spring Ring. Limited Edition signed & numbered prints available to buy now. 322mm x 297mm Giclée prints. £45 + P&P. Hit me up if you want one. #Spring #Art #illustration

There’s 26 easter eggs to find. One for every letter of the alphabet.

White House stalls release of approved US science budgets The US Congress rejected sweeping cuts to science agencies. But the NIH, the NSF and NASA have had their spending slowed.

Congress rejected massive cuts to US science budgets for 2026, but much of the money still isn’t flowing to researchers.

The culprit? The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is quietly slow-walking the release of funds. 🧵👇

Checking on 1 day old #kakapo chick Waa-A3-2026 in Waa's nest on Pukenui/Anchor Island. We check the chicks twice in the first 4 days, and then less frequently as they get older. #kakapo2026 #conservation #parrots

A female kākāpō looking out of a nest, with one small chick showing. Credit: Andrew Digby

Female #kakapo Kohengi on her nest with a newly-hatched chick and an egg (unseen). We removed the egg from underneath her and gave it to another female (Phoenix) who had infertile eggs. We're trying to ensure each female on Anchor Island has 1-2 fertile eggs to hatch. #kakapo2026 #conservation

Pokémon turns 30 — how the fictional pocket monsters shaped science The Japanese media sensation has inspired generations of researchers in fields as diverse as evolution, biodiversity and research integrity.

I can say with full confidence that engaging with Pokemon games as a child laid the foundation for my interest in the living world, of exploring biological systems, and curration of living collections. I am who I am today in part due to this game.

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

I realised that wherever I go, whatever I’m doing, there’s a very high chance that I will find a giant mantis to hold

4 photos from 4 countries:
Italy, Uganda, South Africa, PNG

Happy Birthday to Charles Darwin! 🎉
Thank you for creating the field of evolutionary biology.

My insect highlight of the day is this absolutely adorable 1mm long parasitic wasp

Today’s insect highlight is this hyperparasitoid wasp: It parasitises other parasitoid wasps which parasitise aphids!

If my ID is correct, it is from the subfamily Charipinae.

#natureisamazing

The 🌽maize🌽 crew from @rdplab.bsky.social representing at the Maize Genetics Meeting in Köln 🇩🇪

Great discussions, inspiring science & valuable time with the international maize community.

Proud of this team and the contributions we’re making to advance maize reproduction 🌱

The US is broadly a country that likes to invest in science. Even among Republicans this is true. But we are governed by an administration that is opposed to science, and is using procedural tools to limit spending and increase political control over the process.