Melissa Ingala, Ph.D. 🦇🦠

Given growing hostility towards higher ed-- I thought I'd share that an @fduwhatsnew.bsky.social alum came to visit me yesterday, handed me these flowers, and thanked me for believing in her enough to help her find her path to a career in medicine. #ProfessorsareNOTtheenemy

'I am compelled to send a message calling for unity among the microbial sciences and a renewal of our commitment to support our diverse community of scientists, especially those historically excluded from science.' Excellent @patschloss.bsky.social

Mass Layoffs Begin at NOAA The cuts came just before a separate wave of departures was expected under the Trump administration’s so-called deferred resignation program.

The Trump administration has begun firing employees at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, one of the world’s premier centers for climate science.

Holy crap. At his town hall last night, Rep. Rich McCormick compared *his own constituents* who asked him tough and fair questions to January 6 insurrectionists

Doing my job: teaching, research, service, increasingly feels like an act of protest, civil disobedience, defiance. Thinking of it this way makes it a tad easier to keep my mind on work amidst the doomscrolling about the kelpto-oligo-kakistocracy

Stardew is so relaxing! We've also been playing Terraria lately, which is a similar vibe

in addition to being a contemptible liar and hollow opportunist, jd vance is also just pathetic. only a guy who has fried his brain on social media would even think to say something like this

Anyone Can Push Updates to the DOGE.gov Website "THESE 'EXPERTS' LEFT THEIR DATABASE OPEN."

One of the most important roles of the NSF is to support science and tech ecosystem in the US. This ecosystem drives basic science breakthroughs that industry can build on. It also supports the education of a skilled workforce so that actual tech firms don’t have to hire utter imbeciles like these.

One of these days we're gonna have to reckon with the fact that "money that I spend which does not directly benefit me is a waste" is a popular sentiment.

I think we should state plainly that this is selfish on its face.

And stupid when you have awareness which extends beyond your nose.

Trump tried to lower NIH indirect rates in his 2017 budget and that failed to pass. This is a reminder that everything he tried to do through legal means in the first term will be attempted again through illegal means. He will only succeed if we let him.

US scientists feeling ‘stress and fear’ as sweeping Trump orders hit funding Work and payments at universities, businesses and non-profits disrupted nationwide after executive orders

US scientists feeling ‘stress and fear’ as sweeping Trump orders hit funding

The most surreal and maddening feature of the campaign was that everyone agreed that high prices were the main issue but the guy explicitly, consistently running on a platform of raising everyone’s prices won voters most concerned about high prices.

We hammered this time and time again and yet.

THE ASK This week, between Monday and the vote on Vought, we're asking people from all over the country to plan a visit to Senate State Offices to demand Democrats fight and to hold Republicans accountable for their complicity. DEMOCRATS MUST USE EVERY PROCEDURAL TOOL TO SHUT DOWN TRUMP'S AGENDA Yes, we need Democrats to vote no on Vought's nomination, but no is not enough. Democrats have the power to grind Senate business to a halt and force Republicans to feel the political cost of backing Trump's extremist agenda. Here's how: 1. Deny a Quorum: If Republicans don't have 51 votes in the chamber, Democrats can walk out and shut down Senate business entirely. 2. Block Unanimous Consent: Object to every procedural shortcut, forcing Republicans to take the longest possible route for every step of the confirmation process. 3. Max Out Debate Time: Use all 30 hours of debate on Vought to expose Project 2025, Musk's Treasury takeover, and the funding freeze. 4. Delay and Disrupt: Force roll-call votes, quorum calls, and procedural delays to slow everything down. 5. Blanket Opposition: Democrats cannot continue to vote for Trump's other nominees, helping to install more MAGA loyalists into powerful positions in the federal government while this power grab continues. No Business as Usual: This is a constitutional crisis. Democrats must abandon the old rules and fight with everything they have. Bottom line: Senate Democrats must block, delay, and obstruct every step of this process-no cooperation, no easy votes, no fast-tracking Trump's takeover. To learn more about how Senate Democrats can shut down Trump's agenda with procedural hardball, check out our explainer here.

Indivisible is urging people to visit their senators' local offices between now and Thursday to demand that they use every tool—including denying a quorum and blocking unanimous consent—to fight the confirmation of Project 2025 architect Russell Vought for head of OMB docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Pleased to share our new pre print on a systems biology framework for the study of bats and their symbionts! This was a huge effort involving more than 20 authors from 10 countries.
ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...

The ironic thing is that this grant would be so transformative. Literally would create immunology tools for studying bat diseases that we've had in mouse models for decades. I'm keeping my fingers crossed

This is sickening and makes me worry deeply for the success of a grant I submitted in July, which contains so much good science and broader impacts that will help ALL people touched by the grant.

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.

DOE ordered to suspend PIER plan

Winter sunset in Norway

Wow! This feels like early 2010s Twitter and I'm here for it.