Do you have any lab meeting "upgrades": traditions or recurring agenda items that help liven up the meeting, build skills, or just help members bond? I'm working on an article for Nature Careers @nature.com
and want to hear from you! Contact form in bio (cc @kendallsciwrite.bsky.social)
Whatever you think of the Washington Post at this moment, here's a chance to support the dedicated, hard-working journalists who were just laid off. If you have the means, your donation is most welcome. If you don't, a kind thought and maybe spreading the word to others is support enough 💙
It’s an offer irresistible to many young Americans. Unfortunately, I looked into it. slate.trib.al/VBSnPqE
I can't stop seeing the Trader Joe's bags so obviously I had to write about it for @slate.com slate.com/life/2025/06...
As a marine biologist, Sirachai Arunrugstichai didn't expect to spend much time behind a camera, but outside the laboratory he found a new passion in photography
https://go.nature.com/4n03q4B
Join us at 1 p.m. ET today (June 9) to get work advice -- ask @doreeshafrir.bsky.social and me anything! We'll be on Reddit for @slate.com's GOOD JOB advice column www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comme...
Inked scientists choose scientific images to mark career accomplishments and illustrate their research passion
https://go.nature.com/42CnT65
Researchers describe how they are using skills honed in the laboratory in their creative pursuits
https://go.nature.com/4jkH8Ii
The Slate Union logo—the Slate S featuring upward fist and surrounded by pink and white stripes—is seen above a statement: We, the Slate Union, are united in our belief that management’s decision yesterday to lay off three editorial employees—along with three of our coworkers in other departments—was misguided, foolish, and cruel. The cuts are not these employees’ failures; they are the result of the failure of this company to follow its obligations to its workers. When you can’t find a way to make the most out of smart, talented journalists, that’s a failure of management—and Slate staffers are right to believe it’s incumbent upon management to find ways to solve that problem that don’t involve job losses. Otherwise, what are we investing in journalism for? What are we asking Slate Plus members to invest in us for? There are particular aspects of these layoffs that we in the union find particularly outrageous. Eliminating three editors with their hands on politics and business will put an unbearable strain on others in the department, at the precise moment when coverage of these two subjects is crucial to the magazine’s success. One of the laid-off editors had union-negotiated parental leave approaching—as did another union member who was laid off just months ago. Another one of the laid-off employees was about to go on a honeymoon, and yet another was about to meet the qualifications for their pension benefit. The affected worker will be paid out for their parental leave, but the timing of these departures appears to be designed to make other union members think twice before utilizing the leave they have the contractual right to take. Not to mention, that one of the laid-off editors was hired not even a year ago—after a protracted search—calls management’s strategy into question, to put it lightly.
Slate has had two consecutive years of profitability. The fact that management views employees as chits to be discarded at any hint of trouble, instead of valuable people whose work makes our shop successful and profitable, is an enormous mistake. We insist that, in the upcoming contract negotiations, Slate commits to policies that treat layoffs not as a hair-trigger response to adversity but as an absolute last resort, one that will not be undertaken without consulting with the union and the employees in question. Simply paying out extra severance to a laid-off employee should no longer be a substitute for warnings about the state of our business and, more importantly, real attempts to save our staffers’ jobs. Anything short of this will demonstrate that Slate values the jobs of its executives more than its rank-and-file workers, and that good journalism by good journalists is no longer the north star of the magazine.
On Monday morning, Slate was suddenly informed that six of its employees—including three editors, two of whom were members of the union—were being laid off, just months after four other staffers were also let go. The Slate Union's official statement reads as follows:
“By moving the technology as close as possible to the biology that we want to study, we can all of a sudden see a whole new view of life"
‘Lab vans’ and other facilities can bring researchers closer to what they study
https://go.nature.com/4gSE3OF
Feel free to email hdocterloeb@gmail.com
Are you a botanist doing funky stuff with your house plants? A microbiologist brewing at home? Have you taken lab design into your kitchen redesign? I'm working on a piece for Nature Careers about scientists taking work home with them, literally, and would love to hear from you!
‘You have to find your own recipe’: Dutch suburb where residents must grow food on at least half of their property
Holy actual shit: Slate named Roberto (the soup) one of the 25 most important recipes of the last 100 years!!!????????!!! slate.com/life/2024/11...
got a starter pack going for the fine folks at @slate.bsky.social, if you'd like to follow my wonderful colleagues! bsky.app/starter-pack...
