I'm heartbroken to report a devastating loss of a great friend and young scientist.

telliamedrevisited.wordpress.com/2026/04/09/a...

NSF LTER program “archived”.

LTER=“Long Term Ecological Research”.

This program has been incredibly successful, incredibly frugal for what they accomplish, and…of course…targeted by evil know-nothings.

My heart is breaking.

I am so very honored to receive this award from @sse-evolution.bsky.social, @asn-amnat.bsky.social , and @systbiol.bsky.social !!!

Join us at the 45th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Virology on July 27-30, 2026 at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities Campus!

The Mets….might be good?

Archaea Assemble!!! Archaea Power Hour returns next WEDNESDAY, March 18th at 11AM EST / 4PM CET. We will be having a special APH edition about science policy & reproducibility with the American Society for Microbiology and the protocol-sharing platform archaea.bio:

Happy 38th birthday to the #LTEE!
#BOTD in 1988.
Keep on evolving!

#science #evolution #microbiology

Boxing up the NSF at Eisenhower Av for the forced relocation. Boxes have “Details Matter” signage.

NSF

- Forced reorg

- POs down ~ 40% (DRP, most rotators not renewed, retirements)

- Forced move (and we have to pack and clean) to a building with no furniture, little to no conference space for panels, inadequate 🛜, …)

I personally love the boxes they gave us for packing.
“Details matter” 🙃

Screenshot from GRC portal confirming microbial population biology meeting June 27, 2027 in Andover, New Hampshire.

It’s officially happening folks! The Microbial Population Biology Gordon Research Conference is back in Andover, New Hampshire starting June 27th of 2027!
See you there!!

@wcratcliff.bsky.social @ksbakes.bsky.social @surtlab.bsky.social

#microsky #mevosky

Why Doesn’t Trump Pay a Political Price for His Racism? Immigration isn’t breaking our society. We are.

“Why Doesn’t Trump Pay a Political Price for His Racism?”

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

Evolution 2026 logo. Text: Evolution 2026, Cleveland, OH, June 20-24. A globe with a plane flying across it. Text: Society for the Study of Evolution International Travel Stipends, Deadline: January 30.

Applications now open for the International Travel Stipends to attend #Evol2026! Funds cover registration, travel, food, and lodging. Apply by January 30: www.evolutionsociety.org/content/soci... @evolmtg.bsky.social

Fifteen Years

i’m not crying you’re crying

xkcd: Fifteen Years

“The other Steve”

In a night filled with much bigger and grander stories and moments, for some reason I feel compelled to note that Gavin Newsom quoted Walt Whitman in his speech this evening.

Assuming that the Japanese leaders don’t understand the situation sells them short.

Hey Yaniv Brandvain is not on Bluesky but his most recent biostats ebook is live ybrandvain.github.io/biostats/. His stats resources have been so helpful to me as I develop my own stats course, so check it out. Github repo here: github.com/ybrandvain/b...

"Join ISME’s #UnityinDiversity 2025 Virtual Meeting on 21 October, which will elevate diverse voices in microbial ecology and affirm the importance of equity, inclusion, and global collaboration"

🦠

isme-microbes.org/invitation-t...

WE ARE BACK!!! Archaea Power Hour will return this coming WEDNESDAY, Oct. 22nd at 10AM EST/4PM CET. Check your email for the Zoom link (coming soon) or register here: forms.gle/6QvCjHH2H4pxro…. Take a look at the exciting talks we have planned to kick off our fall seminar series:

But even these don’t arise in a true vacuum. Instead they build upon discoveries, the true value of which often remain unrecognized for years even decades. It’s the scientific ecosystem that enables the forward momentum of science. It can be excruciatingly slow and frustrating but is critical. 2/

Our Plant and Microbial Biology Graduate Program (cbs.umn.edu/pmb/graduate...) is organizing two Zoom Admissions open houses where you can learn about preparing a strong application and get advice about graduate school from current PMB students.
Drop in at any point on either or both days, see below

Indianapolis, 1968: Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King and a historic call for peace YouTube video by Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights

Just putting this here for anyone who might like to hear Bobby Kennedy's remarks to a predominantly black audience in Indianapolis on the evening of April 4, 1968, after the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2kW...

Don’t Trust the Trumpsplainers The opioid dispensers’ efforts to sell some MAGA “grand strategy” dull the pain but dim the brain.

I should not minimize another important element of the Trump foreign policy: stupidity. www.theatlantic.com/internationa...

Trump, Vance, Musk, Patel, Hegseth, RFK, etc. are the comic book villains that we’ve seen in movies, but brought to real life. And their colleagues are just as pathetic as the followers in the movies, that I used to think were so unrealistic. What a nightmare.

No. Having a Russian asset for the President of the United States is hurting Ukraine.

West Texas measles outbreak doubles to 48 cases in four counties Most of the measles cases are still among school-aged children in Gaines County, Texas health officials said Friday.

Hell of a day to kill the Epidemic Intelligence Service.

Today’s assault on is way beyond your usual cut-government-spending-to-give-tax-breaks-to-billionaires bullshit. I suppose they think it’s some kind of retribution, but what we are seeing directed toward health and medicine is outright cultlike behavior.

Putting 22 highly motivated and accomplished individuals in a room and asking one of them defect is going to lead to bad outcomes. For the DOJ leadership.

GOP pollster says Trump voters ‘tired’ of being accused of racism Republican pollster Frank Luntz said on Friday that President Trump’s voters are “tired” of being accused of being sexist and racist. In a discussion about Trump’s remarks linking diversity, equity…

Cry me a river.

thehill.com/homenews/cam...

h/t @scalzi.com

It’s a zero sum world for Trump. But eventually everyone going to play w/o the U.S.

It’s official: all funding requests made on Tuesday by postdocs for their salaries have been unilaterally rejected by NSF.