🚨 Disturbing #urban nature fact: Invasive spotted lanternflies are BIGGER in cities! 😱🏙️
Yes -- Urban #SLF are super-sized, and that might help them survive hot city temps🔥.
Science by my amazing student researchers, not possible #withoutNSF support.
Read More📖: academic.oup.com/icb/advance-...
Read more in @biobrenna.bsky.social's thread, including the link to the article in Scientific Data! 🧪
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number 2312129
to BAL. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of
the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Check out the paper in @natureportfolio.nature.com Scientific Data! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Snead AA, Meng F, Largotta N, Winchell KM, Levine BA. 2025. Diploid chromosome-level genome assembly and annotation for Lycorma delicatula. Scientific Data, 12:579. doi.org/10.1038/s415...
Special thanks to our two leads, NYU postdoc @anthonysnead.bsky.social and PhD candidate Fallon Meng, for their excellent transcriptomics and annotation work.
This work is the first paper to come out of my #NSF BRC-BIO grant on invasive spotted lanternfly evolution (www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/...)
We also noticed a bunch of genes related to chemical detection, sense of smell, and reproduction on chromosome #12. This chromosome may be important for control of this invasive species.
We identified over 12,000 protein-coding genes on 13 chromosomes, and we pinpointed chromosome #4 as the likely sex chromosome for this species.
Adult and juvenile spotted lanternfly.
Remember this little monster? We just published the first annotated, chromosome-scale, haplotype-phased genome assembly for the spotted lanternfly! 🧵
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number 2312129
to BAL. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of
the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
We also noticed that chromosome #12 has a bunch of genes on it for chemical detection, perception of smell, and reproduction. This chromosome may be important for control.
We identified over 12,000 protein-coding genes on 13 chromosomes, and we pinpointed chromosome #4 as the likely sex chromosome.
"It is absurd to mindlessly decimate the workforce that has led the world in science over the past 75 years, and to willingly give up excellent scientists and talent," Beyer wrote.
www.reuters.com/world/us/us-...
Thinking about my US Forest Service partners and research collaborators. You are all so fantastic.
Ted Cruz’s “woke” science list contains a lot of basic, fundamental research that got flagged for simply addressing broader impacts (as Congress requires).
As absurd as the list seems, it’s making scientists uneasy.
My latest:
www.npr.org/2025/02/13/n...
My friend's grant is on this list among 3,483 NSF grants, for the "woke" research of examining what factors shape microbial communities.
www.commerce.senate.gov/2025/2/cruz-...
If you have a moment today, please call your congress-people about this list in support of people you know, like me.
www.commerce.senate.gov/2025/2/cruz-...
Seeing my grant on this “naughty list”, as some have called it, is a gut punch. I’m feeling totally betrayed.
They really could have used a scientist to design these methods.
Did you see the report this originates from? The "methods" are in an appendix and they are truly atrocious and arbitrary
www.commerce.senate.gov/services/fil...
I made the Woke list of NSF grants. Yea, science doesn't really matter. 🤯 @calstatefullerton.bsky.social
www.commerce.senate.gov/2025/2/cruz-...
NIH cuts billions of dollars in biomedical funding, effective immediately. The move halts a large slice of money for most universities and research institutions virtually overnight, imperiling vital research in everything from cancer to heart disease. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...
For every dollar of federal research funding in the United States, universities generate between $2.30 and $3.00 of economy activity, much of that in local communities.
That doesn’t even include the return on investment of getting a college or graduate degree, which research also dollars support.
NIH plans to slash support for indirect research costs, sending shockwaves through science www.statnews.com/2025/02/07/n...
The Trump Administration's list of censored scientific terms that get NSF grant proposals flagged contains "women” and “female”, but no mention of “men” or “male.” There is “black” and “indigenous” on this list, but no “white.” The only identity not censored is mine.
youtu.be/dHXbpj1Z3UU
“White House budget proposal could shatter the National Science Foundation”
"This kind of cut would kill American science and boost China."
#science #nsf #academicsky
arstechnica.com/science/2025...
What NSF does and why it matters by J. Weitz.
I have an active NSF award. The day that my PO called to tell me I won the grant was one of the best days of my adult life. I have since served on two panels and I have so much respect for NSF’s staff. So much so that I had a goal of being a rotating PO myself one day. Perhaps that dream is dashed.
