Ian Hewson

Sometimes you just have to sit and enjoy… I can’t have the ocean here in Ithaca but I can have vast expanses over which to gaze

Meet our new faculty - fall 2025

Fantastic to see so many new faculty in our college, including those affiliated with Cornell Oceans and the Department of Microbiology!

cals.cornell.edu/news/2025/09...

Many thanks to Moriah Sevier, Marilyn Brandt, @aquaticmicrolab.bsky.social @drchriskellogg.bsky.social @viromegirl.bsky.social Bella Ritchie and Brayan Vilanova Cuevas for making this trip such a success!

Oh goodness I am so sorry!

What an amazing way to kick off our Diadema project in Brewers Bay, USVI. Four days of hard work underwater, followed by hard days in the lab processing. Two experiments, and over 500 individual samples.

Final (full) day in USVI for NSF Diadema kickoff. This morning was about training the amazing Moriah Sevier at UVI in urchin sampling, then terminating experiments. This afternoon the team stole a couple of hours to go for a snorkel survey of Diadema in waters we had not previously scanned!

Day 3 Diadema NSF kickoff. Today we tested out transect approaches and new high resolution visual transects on our second site on the western end of Brewers Bay. This afforded us the opportunity to sample additional Diadema at a second site. So many of them! Very encouraging to see!

@aquaticmicrolab.bsky.social @drchriskellogg.bsky.social @viromegirl.bsky.social and Prof Marilyn Brandt

Day 2 of Diadema kickoff. Today was all about Diadema itself (cf environmental parameters). We were excited to see so many apparently healthy animals in shallow water! We also set up an experiment to examine microbial participation in echinoderm tissue decay. Such a great start to this time series!

A logistical and scientific standpoint. So lots of trial and error but in the end we achieved our goals! We were even able to set up experiments as part of the project to understand macroalgal exudates impact on parasite loads. A lot of work but incredibly excited to see this start!

Day 1 of NSF sponsored Diadema antillarum scuticociliatosis time series in Brewers Bay, St Thomas, USVI with @drchriskellogg.bsky.social @viromegirl.bsky.social @aquaticmicrolab.bsky.social and Prof Marilyn Brandt at UVI. After months of planning it was time to figure out what makes sense from

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Getting ready for my world famous swimming pool microbiology lecture for the intro micro for non majors class. Took samples before and after water polo class, as well as from my suit. Gross.

Running a little experiment right now to see how Vibrio responds to decaying echinoderm tissues. It’s always fun when you can see things on plates!

To give some perspective on the diversity of lectures and talks I give this week: 1) head lice and crabs; 2) underwater survey techniques and research cruises; 3) grad student funding opportunities and how to craft a proposal; 4) methods for surveying microbial diversity; 5) overview of marine jobs

Anyone got any tips for how to budget for science (or other) goods that are ordered through distributors? Not only are tariffs being requested when they arrive but couriers are tacking on “processing fees” for the collection of duties and tariffs.

Had my first taste of tariffs today. Bought some sporting gear from a website with a .com address; total cost $45. Shipper then contacted me to say I needed to pay $25 in “customs duties”. Looked at tracking and it came from Spain. JFC

Periodic excretion patterns of seabirds in flight Uesaka and Sato report on the excretion patterns of seabirds in the open ocean determined using a rear-facing video logger.

Now to match this with animal density and average fecal nutrient concentration to estimate role of seabirds on pelagic microbial ecology and biological C pump. Awesome study! www.cell.com/current-biol...

Stay safe

Preparing for an experiment. My PhD advisor always said never throw anything out, so my freezers are full of samples. Turns out they’re useful 12 years on!

Conservation of sporulation genes and a transmembrane-containing Spo0B variant in Paenibacillus Sporulation is a strategy employed by many bacteria to survive harsh environmental conditions. The genus Paenibacillus includes spore-forming species notorious for spoiling pasteurized dairy products ...

Here we show that >90% of Paenibacillus encode a unique Spo0B with a transmembrane domain! TM domain helps it interact with its phosphorelay partners. Congrats to @isabellalin.bsky.social who left for grad school this week and her mentor @cassidyprints.bsky.social! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Guess I’m going to get some immunizations next time I’m in Australia…

On my desk, everything in its right place

Really? That would be awesome

Anyone have any recommendations on sites/vendors from whom to buy second hand -80 freezers? Mine got fried during construction by my institution and they won’t replace it…

Excited/petrified about teaching 3 classes as of tomorrow, and having a new NSF grant starting, and no technician.

Five fall 2025 CALS courses sure to inspire Why do cats purr when they are happy? Can I still eat that pizza I left out overnight? What is the carbon footprint of a football game?CALS courses are designed to help you seek answers to your everyd...

Great to see a class I designed and initiated featured by Cornell. Though I’ve moved on to other teaching in marine science, awesome to know that it will continue to generate broader understanding of microbial ecology and scientific literacy cals.cornell.edu/news/2025/08...

Moreover, the conclusions reached in Prentice et al (2025), that it is the cause of all sea star wasting in space and time and across all species is unsupported by both this new analysis and their work which reported only Pycnopodia. Care must be taken to avoid overinterpretation

Interestingly, this strain is found in healthy starfish from Okinawa, Hong Kong, and sea cucumbers in Australia. It is also found in plankton of eastern Australia and NZ. This suggests it has a wide range and broad ecological function.