I walked past a group of students running a stall to raise awareness about library closures and ways to support libraries. Mixed emotions. Sad that they have to fight for this, but deeply inspired by their passion.

As a big soccer fan, I'm so glad to see so many soccer subreddits calling for a stop to linking 'news' from that other place.

Still time to apply for @uoregon.bsky.social Summer Program for Undergraduate Research — a paid 10-week research opportunity this summer for undergrads in the life sciences.

Details in the flyer below.

Please share.

Motile cilia modulate neuronal and astroglial activity in the zebrafish larval brain The brain uses a specialized system to transport cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), consisting of interconnected ventricles lined by motile ciliated ependymal…

Have you ever wondered what role motile #cilia and cerebrospinal fluid (#CSF) play in brain development and physiology? If yes, please check out our latest article now published in Cell Reports and spearheaded by the newly minted Dr D'Gama www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Today, I saw daybreak twice.

On a short flight I saw the sun come up; a beautiful orange sky.

Then we descended and the sun disappeared. The stars came back out.

I was at the gate waiting for my next flight when I saw daybreak number 2.

I guess the earth really is round!

Arsenal stars join anti-homophobia campaign YouTube video by The Star Isnap

To end on a high note, here's an anti-homophobia campaign that Arsenal players did several years back that I always found funny. (6/6) 🌈

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXtu...

You can't avoid politics in football, you just have to decide which side you're on. (5/6)

If we keep anti-homophobia campaigns out of football, we're not staying neutral. We're allowing homophobia to thrive in football spaces. That is also a political choice, by the way. (4/6)

Saying "football shouldn't be political" when it comes to homophobia is just saying "I'm fine with the politics I like but not the ones I don't". (3/6)

Football is, and always has been, political. Players wear poppies on Remembrance Day, fans sing national anthems before international games, there are anti-racism campaigns and silent moments after deaths and tragedies and their anniversaries. These are all political acts. (2/6)

I'm a soccer fan (Arsenal). Recently, the Premier League ran an anti-homophobia campaign where captains wore rainbow armbands. Some refused or altered the message. A common response from fans has been "keep politics out of football [soccer]". Let's unpack why this isn't a serious argument. (1/6)

There is a human tissue that builds itself up and breaks itself down every 28 days (on average) using non-scarring wound healing and instead of studying that and learning everything we can about it we think it's gross and look for other less relevant models to understand wound healing.

I created this stater pack with women in ecology and evolution.
If you want to be added you can comment or DM me, but also please suggest the names of those I am missing 🧪🌎🌐

go.bsky.app/8jFH7cS

Analysis of a shark reveals ancient, Wnt-dependent, habenular asymmetries in vertebrates - Nature Communications The evolutionary origin of habenular asymmetries is elusive. Here they show morphological and molecular conservations indicative of an ancient origin in vertebrates and identify Wnt signaling as a cor...

Shark embryology, Wnt signaling, left-right brain asymmetry.

There's a lot to enjoy in this new paper. Congratulations to the authors.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A pixel of resolutionists

I would love to read this as I teach EvoDevo, but my institution does not have access. Any chance you could DM me a PDF?

Thanks for putting these together. Any chance you can include me if there's space?

Is there any space for me? My lab works on spine morphogenesis in zebrafish.

Would you mind adding me? I work on bone in the context of scoliosis and would love to connect more with others interested in orthopedics.

I was a regular at Hassan's years ago. Glad to hear they're still going.

Good to know, thanks!

For #FluorescenceFriday, here's the spinal canal of a zebrafish embryo filled with #cilia (cyan).

"The overriding ambition (of Biology research) should be to capture meaning, rather than simply catalogue complexity"

— from Paul Nurse's charming book What is Life?

Scoliosis is a common condition in which the spine curves to the side and rotates, often onsetting during adolescence.

In our lab, we generate zebrafish with scoliosis-like spinal curves to try to understand the causes of this disease.

I always liked this quote in defense of basic science:

"To feed applied science by starving basic science is like economizing on the foundations of a building so that it may be built higher. It is only a matter of time before the whole edifice crumbles".

— George Porter

I think it's already happening. I was advised to do this on the CV I recently submitted for promotion to tenure.

Many congratulations to Professor Judith Eisen @uoregon.bsky.social for winning the Streisinger Award for "sustained and foundational" work in the zebrafish field. Well deserved!

Hi Erik, please add me to this feed. I'm a professor at University of Oregon: www.grimes-lab.com

Arturo Rosenblueth

Arturo Rosenblueth was a pioneer of cybernetics and, along with Norbert Wiener, had this to say:

"The price of metaphor is eternal vigilance".

Let's remember that metaphors are useful for thinking and discussing science, but they are not reality.

Pluripotency of a founding field: rebranding developmental biology ABSTRACT. The field of developmental biology has declined in prominence in recent decades, with off-shoots from the field becoming more fashionable and highly funded. This has created inequity in disc...

Please check out our recent perspective paper, “Pluripotency of a founding field: rebranding developmental biology.” Huge thanks to the 50 scientists who came to California to discuss the future of #DevBio and contributed to the paper, and thanks to NSF for $! journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...