Jason Chen

The most effective way to oppose this political takeover is collective action from the academic community. If the first universities that sign Trump contracts face strong academic boycotts- no talks, no manuscript reviews, no interviews of graduates- that should dissuade others from signing.

Thank you from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting

Today is the last day for CPB staff. A team remains to sustain operations at a reduced scale until all obligations are fulfilled. This is a challenging moment for us. Our departing colleagues strengthened the impact of public media & made a profound difference in the lives of the American people. 😥

This is THE CORE reason Trump defeated liberals in the US in 2016 and today.

everyone must understand: we are dealing with bad-faith liars. To beat them we MUST attack their agenda, and yes, who they are: their credentials.

/end

Dual transposon sequencing profiles the genetic interaction landscape in bacteria Gene redundancy complicates systematic characterization of gene function as single-gene deletions may not produce discernible phenotypes. We report dual transposon sequencing (dual Tn-seq), a platform...

This week @science.org Dual #transposon sequencing profiles the #genetic interaction landscape in #bacteria | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🦠🔬🧫🧬

I hate this for the second years who had already been working on applications.

Also the USDA fellowship RFA has still not been issued for this year.

It is harder and harder to find fellowships to support the newest generation of scientists. 🧪

We are shortchanging our future.

The GRFP announcement from NSF cuts out an entire cohort of 2nd year students from consideration, without warning. This is so deeply unfair that it warrants a formal protest from the scientific community. If someone wants to work with me to craft an open letter and solicit signatures, LMK.

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)

Continuing efforts to hurt the research pipeline, the very late NSF GFRP solicitation no longer allows 2nd year PhD students to apply. Lots of these students chose not to apply last year because they were told they would have a better change once in their thesis lab www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

It’s a new term: here are 99 lab hacks Nature asked contributors, editors and working researchers to share their best advice for scientists.

As the new term begins, here are 99 lab hacks to make your working lives easier

go.nature.com/4pEZ6ZJ

They may not look like much, but those non-fluorescent growth sectors in this streak of green bacteria represent a year's worth of work to advance a new technique for my toolkit! 💚

Are REUs always good for students enrolled in MSIs? It’s complicated. In my department, we have a complicated relationship with REU (Research Experience for Undergraduate) programs. We have several well-funded active labs on my campus that provide quality mentored re…

A lot of chats about mentoring/training opportunities so I'd like to bring back an important read from @hormiga.bsky.social: "Are REUs always good for students enrolled in MSIs? It’s complicated." 1/3

smallpondscience.com/2022/09/07/a...

the republican party hates public goods and wants to force feed you and your family slop produced by its billionaire allies

The Centre for Biodiversity Genomics (CBG) is seeking ten taxonomic specialists in Collembola or any of the following insect orders - Blattodea, Ephemeroptera, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera, Orthoptera, Trichoptera!

graduatestudies.uoguelph.ca/postdoctoral...

UT System announces $100 million investment into civic leadership school The money will help pay for a permanent home for the school on UT-Austin's campus. Conservative donors and lawmakers, including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, helped create the school in 2023.

UT's entomology teaching lab, where I run the fall field entomology class, is being forced out of its decades-long home to make room for the Republican Civitas think tank.

No obvious replacement site for us has been offered.

Per a court order, HHS is required to restore this website as of 11:59PM ET, February 14, 2025. Any information on this page promoting gender ideology is extremely inaccurate and disconnected from the immutable biological reality that there are two sexes, male and female. The Trump Administration rejects gender ideology and condemns the harms it causes to children, by promoting their chemical and surgical mutilation, and to women, by depriving them of their dignity, safety, well-being, and opportunities. This page does not reflect biological reality and therefore the Administration and this Department rejects It.

This is a screenshot of the CDC’s Mpox page. The government of the United States is now producing anti-science propaganda and putting it up on official webpages. This is scary as hell, friends. www.cdc.gov/mpox/hcp/vac...

Another remarkable thing about this list of no-no words is that it exposes its authors as absolute buffoons who not only disdain humanities and economics but lack even a basic familiarity with published research in most “hard science” fields

no funding if it seems like the research MIGHT involve a woman or a nonwhite person

@asm.org same concern here that makes angie rasmussen say 👇

plz consider while "reviewing": 𝖛𝖔𝖗𝖆𝖚𝖘𝖊𝖎𝖑𝖊𝖓𝖉𝖊𝖗 𝕲𝖊𝖍𝖔𝖗𝖘𝖆𝖒 (obediance in advance) of many public institutions – incl. academia – was a major reason why in 1933 the nazis could take over in germany so incredibly quickly, i.e. within months.

The relative importance of host phylogeny and dietary convergence in shaping the bacterial communities hosted by several Sonoran Desert Drosophila species Abstract. Complex eukaryotes vary greatly in the mode and extent that their evolutionary histories have been shaped by the microbial communities that they

New paper is now out in @jevbio.bsky.social

academic.oup.com/jeb/article/...

Email text: [EXT] Grants.gov Opportunities Update External Email The following grant opportunities were created, updated, or deleted on Grants.gov: NSF National Science Foundation 25-504 - Organismal Response to Climate Change Deletion Comments: Opportunity deleted

The dismantling of American Science continues. The Organismal Response to Climate Change grant call has been cancelled. The NSF Director is a disgrace

@asm.org this better not be anticipatory obedience. I have 5 lab members planning on going to ASM microbe this year. I will absolutely pivot to another meeting if ASM gives in to anti-DEI efforts.

Finally, one of two new paper wasps for me- I think this is Polistes major.

Brown anole

The extreme cold we experienced recently killed a lot of the growth that would have made plants easier to identify. Based on the height, branching pattern, and the appearance and positioning of the leaves, I think this is/was a Brugmansia- an entire nightshade genus known solely from cultivation.

I was surprised to see a mesquite (Neltuma glandulosa) growing on Nobel Laureate walk, right next to the building where I work. I started some seed from the pods I found scattered under it.

I think this is some kind of prickly ash (Zanthoxylum)

A bottlebrush plant (Melaleuca)- another one I'm excited to see this summer in bloom

There is some interesting variation among the ball moss (a bromeliad, Tillandsia recurvata), with some plants being more red than others. I think these red ball mosses tend to be situated in higher light environments.

The live oaks on campus can be massive and are loaded with epiphytes. Resurrection fern is probably my favorite

I am obsessed with gesneriads, so I was pleasantly surprised to see this Seemannia sylvatica in this bed flashing its numerous neon red flowers in January. The severe cold we experienced later knocked it back down to the ground, but I am hoping to see it resprout from its rhizomes.

A huge Pyracantha(?) bush loaded with bunches of red berries.