Tristy Vick-Majors

NSF plans abrupt end to lone U.S. Antarctic research icebreaker Imminent termination of the RV Nathaniel B. Palmer shocks polar scientists

The National Science Foundation plans to abruptly end operation of the RV Nathaniel B. Palmer, the sole U.S. research ship capable of braving the farthest reaches of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. scim.ag/4mB8LOX

Are you an early-career biologist or ecologist who would benefit from an invited seminar? Would you like to come to UMaine next fall or spring to give a talk? Leave a brief comment with some info about what you do. I'm co-hosting our seminar series again, and am filling out our rosters.

Read the entire thread for extra fun.

Really helpful thread on today’s NSF Division of Earth Sciences webinar.

A researcher collecting water samples from a Niskin bottle on a boat on Lake Erie.

A buoy on a boat on its way to Lake Erie.

Our @noaa.gov funded team is getting after it on Lake Erie this week, with PhD student An leading sample collection like a pro. Great Lakes, great carbon, great microbes, great students!

I am sadly not at the @iaglr.bsky.social conference this week, but thanks to colleagues got some great photo evidence of my students sharing their posters!

Today on #World Environment Day, we’re launching 3 FREE courses on water sustainability: i) Climate change impacts on ice; ii) Indigenous relationships to water, and iii) Big data analytics. Enrol here: www.yorku.ca/research/wat...

Thank you to all of our contributors for sharing their expertise!

the quote "Research that MISG funds is critical to understand Great Lakes ecosystems and the life they support" over an image of Pictured Rocks cliffs

"Research that MISG funds is critical to understand Great Lakes ecosystems and the life they support."

For 50+ years, Michigan Sea Grant has provided science-based info, educational programs, and much more. Sign this letter to show your support for our continued federal funding: buff.ly/CerVNTt

Unsplash image of the Earth, mostly the nightside with a tracery of city lights on every continent.

OK, this is wild.

In September 2023, geophysicists across the world started monitoring a very odd signal coming from the ground under them.

It was picked up in the Arctic. And Antarctica. It was detected everywhere, every 90 seconds, as regular as a metronome, for *nine days*.

What the HELL?

1/

YouTube video by Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense 2025 State of U.S. Biodefense Address

The State of Biodefense is beleaguered but resilient.

Watch below the Commission's State of Biodefense Address delivered by our Executive Director, Dr. Asha M. George, during yesterday's public meeting.

Read the testimony here: biodefensecommission.org/the-state-of...

youtu.be/R5VHNkHDMm4?...

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

Everyone needs to understand that dismantling NSF will have devastating long term consequences in our competitiveness and innovation in science, technology and beyond. 1/

I’m so pleased to see the important issues of planetary protection and biodefense being given attention, and honored to be part of the conversation. Many thanks to the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense for your work.

So many horror movies right now!

Three women in winter gear stand on the icy surface of Lake St. Clair with sampling equipment and big smiles.

A clover-shaped hole in the ice allows a researcher to dip sampling equipment into the waters of Lake St. Clair.

Your NOAA $$ at work! We're funding @tjvmajors.bsky.social at MTU to coordinate a "winter grab" of hard-to-get water samples. Last week, our director @newelllab.bsky.social joined @nicolewagner.bsky.social and her students from Oakland University to collect samples under Lake St. Clair's ice. (1/2)

Three women scientists holding a zooplankton net over an ice hole

Felt great to get out in the field for #winter #limnology #GreatLakes-wide sampling on Lake St. Clair yesterday with @nicolewagner.bsky.social as part of a @miseagrant.bsky.social funded project led by @tjvmajors.bsky.social. Just happened to be an all-women team. #womeninSTEM

Yesss!! Go team!!

U.S. early-career researchers struggling amid chaos Uncertain funding, government firings, and distressed universities hit vulnerable groups especially hard

“What part of diversity, equity, and inclusion do you have a problem with?”
www.science.org/content/arti...

NOAA carries a two century legacy of America’s first government science agency NOAA, the US government science and management agency in charge of sustainable fisheries, the national weather service, and ocean exploration, is in the crosshairs of the Trump administration and P…

NOAA is in the Trump administration's crosshairs.

You know the important work they do, but may now know that It's the descendant of the Coast Survey, the nation's first scientific agency, founded in 1807 under Jefferson. I spoke with maritime historians to put NOAA's legacy in context. 🧪🦑🌎🐟

A sun dog over frozen Keweenaw Bay on Lake Superior

Students giving thumbs up next to the field work truck.

The field team carrying gear onto the lake ice.

The field teams starting sampling on the lake ice.

These students rock! A great day sampling for @miseagrant.bsky.social funded Great Lakes Winter Grab on Lake Superior. MI Sea Grant work is critical to the health and understanding of our largest source of freshwater, and we are proud to do the science they support!

Firings are happening right now at the National Science Foundation. Essential staff are being cut.

This isn’t about the budget. If it was, they’d be going after the military (17%) or state appropriations (38%). NSF is 0.7% of the federal budget. All federal employees make up only 4% of the budget.

Yes!! I just made this argument in a conversation.

National Institutes of Health radically cuts support to universities Sudden and drastic change will make it hard for researchers to keep the lights on.

Cutting overhead on new and existing grants will do dire damage to universities and scientific research.

a man in a black shirt is looking at a screen with a red background Alt: a man in a black shirt is looking at a screen with a red background

Worried about losing access to US federal data that may go off-line, or already is? You’re not alone—but duplication isn’t the answer.

Many ongoing efforts have already archived key datasets and many more are ongoing. Check out these existing resources and, if you can, support their work. 🧵

Trump wants to cut the federal workforce. Who they are and what that means President Trump's efforts to cut the federal workforce by 10% might not save as much money as hoped and could have unintended consequences. NPR explains why.

The federal workforce does work that is critical to all of our every day lives. That work isn’t always visible. But we need you, federal employees! I know people are hurting or confused by the messages coming from OPM. Don’t resign. Hang in there. We see you, we appreciate you. You are not alone.

Staffing Was ‘Not Normal’ at Air Traffic Tower During Plane Crash The report, reviewed by The New York Times, said that one controller was communicating with both helicopters and planes. Those jobs are typically assigned to two people, not one.

DCA staffing on Wednesday was reportedly not normal — with one air traffic controller handling the job of two people.

These shortages will only be worsened by federal budget cuts and Trump's hiring freeze.

We should be investing in public workers, not attacking them.

I see - thanks so much!

Any way you can clarify who is collecting the information going into the form? I like the coordinated phone calling idea, but that’s a lot of my info to put into a form that’s going to ?

a illustration of our standard kitchen onion, Allium cepa, from 1586. Handcolored engraving

a black and white photograph of a white man in a suit, holding stalks of some plant, possibly corn or some sort of grain. Photo depicts Nikolai Vavilov (1887 - 1943)

The world has been through anti-science cycles before, to disastrous results

On a detour on my lit review, a mosey through the history of our familiar friend, the standard onion (Allium cepa) brought me right to one of botany's greatest cautionary tales of what happens when ideology overrides data