Bill Ryerson

Policed and censored: professors in the southern US feel under siege Politics trumps salary as the main reason academics are looking for jobs in other states, a survey of university educators shows.

Policed and censored: professors in the southern US feel under siege

Museum of Earth could be met with possible foreclosure The PRI has until Dec. 31, 2025 to raise $1 million or the only collections based national history museum between New York City and Buffalo will be forced into foreclosure.

Local news story on why MotE/ PRI is special:
$̳1̳ ̳m̳i̳l̳l̳i̳o̳n̳ left to raise before the end of 2025 to save the Museum of the Earth at the Paleontological Research Institution in Ithaca, NY.

#SavePRI 🧪⚒️ #museums #dinosaurs #Mastodon #Ithaca
#fingerlakes

www.wbng.com/2025/10/27/m...

TONIGHT on Detroit PBS!

In the 50 years since the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, there hasn’t been another major shipwreck on the Great Lakes. We explore what changed. Plus, climb aboard the oldest working tugboat on the lakes.

Catch the episode at 7:30pET: www.greatlakesnow.org/the-fitzgera...

How your email finds me.

Eurasian hobby and kestrel in flight

Eurasian Hobby disagreeing with a Eurasian Kestrel. Czech Republic.

A 3D rendering of a CT scan of Tiliqua rugosa, facing the front (top) and facing the back (bottom), rendered in yellow (most dense parts), pink (medium density parts), and blue (least dense parts).

A 3D rendering of a CT scan of the head Tiliqua rugosa, in dorsal view (top) and ventral view (bottom), rendered in yellow (most dense parts), pink (medium density parts), and blue (least dense parts).

Hey it's #WorldLizardDay 🦎
Here's one of my faves & one I saw *a lot* of growing up in rural Australia. Tiliqua rugosa has many common names, but where I'm from we call them "sleepy lizard" or "stumpy tail".

Download the #oVertTCN CT scan from MorphoSource here: www.morphosource.org/concern/medi...

Title slide of our ICVM 2025 presentation

Attending the virtual #ICVM2025 conference? Check out our lightning talk on the imaging and articulation techniques we used to make our physical model of a dogfish skull and how physical models give new insights in research & education. icvm.econference.io/public/3JC8E... (registration req to view)

Y’all!!! Our comparative anatomy textbook is out!!! Free, open access, and just in time for the fall semester!

New Comparative Anatomy Textbook! Completely free to read and open access!

doi.org/10.59319/YHF...

Panels c-f of Figure 1 depicting the lower jaw of Devonian actinopterygian Gogosardina coatesi

Curious about Devonian actinopterygian lower jaws? Look no further--our new paper provides comprehensive descriptions for 19 species in a tidy ~50 page summary! anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Did you know SICB has a YouTube?
We have videos about
@invertebabe.bsky.social
@whysharksmatter.bsky.social
@oceanfilly.bsky.social
Kevin Kocot
Native Bio Consortium
Noah Gripshover
Shaz Zamore
& the @billryerson.bsky.social lab & more!
Be sure to subscribe
www.youtube.com/@societyfori...

YouTube video by Matthew Davis JMIH Childcare Fundraiser 2025 St. Paul

There will be FREE, ON-SITE CHILDCARE AT #JMIH2025 #JMIH25! Bring your kids, folks. Only if we show demand for this service will it continue into the future.

Now read on for how to save my life... 1/4

@IchsAndHerps @herpleague.bsky.social @ElasmoSociety
@ssarherps www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2xQ...

Mass Mortality in a Community of Headstarted (Emydoidea blandingii) and Naturally Occurring (Chrysemys picta marginata) Freshwater Turtles in Protected Urban Wetlands Turtles experience numerous threats and high mortality in urban areas. Mass-mortality events (MMEs) are localized, sudden events resulting in a catastrophic increase in mortality rate. Turtles are sus...

One of the collaborative projects during my PhD is now published!

We documented a mass mortality event of headstarted Blanding’s Turtles and naturally occurring Painted Turtles in an urban wetland complex.

Why do mass mortality events occur? We offer a few hypotheses.

doi.org/10.1643/h202...

The Rise (and Fall?) of the National Science Foundation In the ’50s, America declared science an “endless frontier.” We may be reaching the end of it.

I got mad and wrote an article.

STEM folks, this will greatly impact trans peoples ability to work in academia.

It will cut off #trans researchers from conferences, field work, international Phd or post doc opportunities, and so much more!

This will be bad for ALL trans people regardless of job type.

#TransInSTEM #STEM

New article from @science.org gives a bit of a peek behind the curtain. It seems NSF internally has no idea what is happening, how to implement, or what the consequences of non-compliance will be.

Reminder: funding the work of making science more welcoming and inclusive leads to better science.

AND it also helps set cultural expectations in STEM that scientists should not be racist, sexist pieces of shit—which is, I promise, an expectation we really want to set.

I’m continuing to do research without any grant funding at all because of this monumental project.

a close up of a man laying on a bed with his arm outstretched in front of a wall . Alt: Han Solo leaning against the wall of the Mos Eisley cantina saying "over my dead body"

Before trying to get a bunch of scientists to leave their jobs voluntarily, one should consider that many of us completed our advanced degrees PURELY OUT OF SPITE.

We CT scanned thousands of vertebrates from US natural history collections and made them freely available. Countless people have used the data for research (>200 pubs) and to learn anatomy/morphology.

www.morphosource.org/projects/000...

Hi, please call your reps tomorrow to restore funding to the NIH and oppose RFKs nomination! Here is a script you can use. If you are in Pennsylvania, you are calling these people: John Fetterman: (202) 224-4254 and David McCormick: (202) 224-6324

For those interested, lots of lawsuits went out and the federal grant freeze was temporarily stopped by the courts until at least Tuesday. They will then decide again after various lawyers submit documents. But there are other lawsuits that may also keep these stopped longer. 1/

Returning turtles to the wild | U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Any kindergartener — or overconfident hare — can tell you turtles play the long game. Slow and steady wins the race, right? But what if someone — like someone who traffics turtles — doesn’t play by th...

What a great story of conservation and collaboration! #herps 🐢

www.fws.gov/story/return...

CDC ordered to stop working with WHO immediately, upending expectations of an extended withdrawal U.S. public health officials have been told to stop working with the World Health Organization, effective immediately. The surprise decision is focused on the U.S.

"Trump last week issued an [EO] to begin the process of withdrawing the U.S. from WHO, but that did not take immediate effect. Leaving WHO requires the approval of Congress and that the U.S. meets its financial obligations for the current fiscal year. The U.S. also must provide a one-year notice."

What the new administration is currently doing to our taxpayer-funded scientific agencies is active sabotage.

Hey science friends?

I know that many of you are concerned about the perceived neutral and apolitical role of science in decisionmaking.

But scientists are being targeted. We didn't start it.

And advocating *for the role of scientific evidence in policymaking* is not unprofessional advocacy.

National Science Foundation halts reviews of research proposals Return to menu Joel Achenbach and Carolyn Y. Johnson The National Science Foundation has halted for at least the rest of the week the work of review panels, in which outside experts rate the merit of proposals for scientific research. The NSF, a $10 billion agency that spreads research dollars across the country in quantities both large and small, issued a brief statement Monday that added minimal clarity to a situation that had alarmed researchers.

WaPo: "The National Science Foundation has halted for at least the rest of the week the work of review panels, in which outside experts rate the merit of proposals for scientific research."

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

About NSF NSF's mission is to advance the progress of science, a mission accomplished by funding proposals for research and education made by scientists, engineers, and educators from across the country.

"NSF was established in 1950 by Congress to:

+Promote the progress of science.

+Advance the national health, prosperity and welfare.

+Secure the national defense.

Our investments account for about 25% of federal support to America's colleges and universities for basic research."