Jake McGehee

Screenshot of a Facebook post from Jefferson’s Lawrence that reads: “Starting November 3–7: Both Jefferson’s Lawrence locations will offer free kids’ meals for dine-in guests. November 3–7, or until SNAP benefits are restored. We want to do our part to help our Lawrence community and our kids — no purchase, no questions, just support for families in need. - Kids must be present - Ages 12 & under - One meal per child, per day - Dine-in only - While supplies last”

If anyone knows of any businesses helping people in Lawrence, let me know! I’ll share that information too.

As of now, I know that Jefferson’s is helping feed people.

4. Lawrence Food Not Bombs serves free meals at 3:30-5pm every Sunday at ECM on KU’s campus.
5. Veggie Lunch is a free once a week meal served at ECM: www.ecmku.org/veggie-lunch-1
6. Sunrise Project assists in helping people access food: www.sunriseprojectks.org

With freezes to SNAP, here are some food resources in and around Lawrence, KS:

1. Just Food is the county food bank: www.justfoodks.org
2. Campus Cupboard on KU’s campus: studentengagement.ku.edu/campus-cupbo...
3. Westwood House has a food pantry and two free meals every week: www.westwoodku.org

If you want to help support cool science:

University of Kansas Alumni Letter Chancellor Girod, The University of Kansas was built on a challenge. If the community could gather enough money and enough land, the state said Lawrence would be the home of the flagship institution o...

University of Kansas alumni, sign this letter to Chancellor Girod. Tell him to reject the federal compact! forms.gle/v3EyYyybrHhe...

as a note, food banks need money, not canned goods

FEEDING AMERICA

If you want to find a local food bank, you can use the website below.

If you’re donating, it’s best to donate money. If you want to donate food, PLEASE donate food you or your family would actually eat, including things like breakfast cereals and snack foods.

www.feedingamerica.org/find-your-lo...

Watercolor of HMS Beagle at anchor by Owen Stanley.

OTD in 1836, HMS Beagle docked at Falmouth, after a 5 year voyage.

Charles Darwin wrote in his diary, “To my surprise and shame, I confess the first sight of the shores of England inspired me with no warmer feelings, than if it had been a miserable Portuguese settlement.”

🌱🐋🧪#HistSTM #STS

‘She Could Have Killed Me’: Scientist Survives Shark Bite to His Head

I wish they had used this beautiful quote he offered in the story as the headline instead:

“She was scared also. It was not her fault.”

Jane Goodall has died at 91.

Her startling observations about chimpanzee behaviors revolutionized not only scientific understanding of the capabilities and inner lives of primates, but also long-held notions about what it means to be human. https://wapo.st/476clLO

I read the headline and was super skeptical…but….

BIOLOGY OF ANTS BE CRAZY

Jensen’s research has identified more than 1,000 mass casualty plots — where the perpetrator clearly intended to kill or injure as many people as possible — since the start of 2023.

“You can count on less than one hand how many of those were perpetrated by a transgender individual,” he said.

ChatGPT Will Watch You Die: When 'Deeply Saddened' Becomes Corporate Boilerplate for an AI Body Count Two shocking stories this week reveal how ChatGPT encouraged a suicidal teenager and validated a paranoid man's delusions about his mother. The company's response? Boilerplate condolences.

When 16-year-old Adam Raine wanted to leave his noose visible so someone might stop him, ChatGPT said don't. When Stein-Erik Soelberg thought his mother was poisoning him, ChatGPT agreed. OpenAI calls these tragedies. They're choices. www.readtpa.com/p/chatgpt-wi...

Once again, "ally is a verb." It's something you show people you are through your actions and words, not something you tell people you are, so what are you doing to show you're an ally to the trans people around you? (8/8)

But, the rules don't say anything about wearing a button with your pronouns on it! So this friend wears a button. This shouldn't be your only action! But it is a small action that says "I think this is stupid and I support you" to the trans or gender non-conforming people in your department (7/8)

I know "pronoun bans" are "small" when you consider the big picture, but it's about what the right means by "pronouns" and "gender ideology," which is trans people existing. I know someone at an institution that has banned "pronouns" and "gender ideology" in places like email signatures. (6/8)

Obviously don't corner the few trans people in your department but, if you know anyone who's trans, you can ask them what actions would be helpful. There are also likely LGBTQ+ groups at your institution/in the surrounding community you can reach out to. (5/8)

I won't pretend to have concrete answers to anything, but I am tired of watching cisgender people call themselves an ally but not do anything as an ally or say they disagree with things happening that harm their transgender colleagues and not do anything about it! (4/8)

Do you call out transphobia coming from your cisgender colleagues? Have you spoken against actions being taken by your institution that harm trans people? If your institution has enacted rules that harm trans people, what did you do next? (3/8)

Someone who watches shit they disagree with happen but doesn't do or say anything is complicit and not an ally. This isn't my saying but I've heard "ally is a verb" before and agree with it. Too many people call themselves an "ally" because they don't do harm and that's it. How are you an ally? (2/8

Thread based off a conversation that I, a trans PhD student, had with a cis colleague this morning.

Keeping in mind this is the POV of one transgender person, if you consider yourself an ally to trans people in this current climate and you're not vocally supportive, you're complicit. (1/8)

Fly labs — Now is the time to show some solidarity and chip in support for this vital resource!

Check out my list on Amazon

A friend's fiancée is a public school science teacher in NC and has an Amazon wishlist for classroom supplies! According to the NC Association of Educators, NC is the second worst state in the US for teachers spending their own money for classroom items.
www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/...

People will seriously be like "Who cares about trans rights? It's a tiny number of people who are affected by it?" without realizing that they're talking about millions of human beings.

If you'd like to follow some other trans people who work with nature too, I made a helpful starter pack! It's not exclusively scientists and it's opt-in so let me know if you'd like to be added.

a unit of caterpillars crawling as if one big caterpillar

can anyone help me ID this slow-moving larval brigade

I don’t have any ID help, but what a neat sighting!

Jake presenting the information on a poster at the 2025 Kansas Academy of Science/Central States Entomological Society joint meeting. He is wearing red running shoes, black jeans, and a button up shirt with pink, white, and blue vertical stripes. He has roughly chin-length brown hair and wears glasses. He stands next to the poster and is gesturing at a picture of the fruit fly Zaprionus indianus on the upper corner of the poster. The poster is blue with three sections. Jake is presenting to an audience of two people whose faces are not visible- a black man wearing blue pants and a red sweater and a white man with blondish hair wearing blue jeans, a blue long-sleeved shirt, and a brown backpack.

Hello! I’m Jake and I’m a grad student in ecology & evolutionary biology at the University of Kansas! I’m currently finishing my master’s (just sent my revisions, to be submitted in early Sept)/starting my PhD. I study fruit fly behavior and will be shifting to also study sexual selection.

Scientists no Longer Find Twitter Professionally Useful, and have Switched to Bluesky Synopsis. Social media has become widely used by the scientific community for a variety of professional uses, including networking and public outreach. For

Hey everybody! @drjuliawester.bsky.social and I have a new paper!

We surveyed over 800 scientists, science communicators, and science educators who use social media.

Conclusion: Scientists no longer find Twitter useful or pleasant, and many have switched to Bluesky! 🧪🌎🦑

doi.org/10.1093/icb/...

This is terrible news, not just for these scientists, but for science. I don’t work on flies and I use FlyBase a bunch. This is how we learned most of basic genetics.