So great to have you visit! Thanks for a terrific talk for @evmedasu.bsky.social !

🚨PhD opportunity!
Study brown bears in the Balkans using ancient DNA 🧬🐻
Interested in paleogenomics & conservation? Apply!
@lpcg.bsky.social

🔗 Details here: www.uw.edu.pl/wp-content/u...

#PhD #AncientDNA #Paleogenomics #ConservationGenomics #WildlifeConservation

Copenhagen has taken bicycle commuting to a whole new level Cycling has been a part of that good life in Copenhagen for decades. In recent years, it has enjoyed yet another unfathomable surge in popularity — taken to the next level thanks to constantly improvi...

“Copenhagen reported that 62% of its residents are now commuting to work or school by bike — an increase from 52% in 2015 & 36% in 2012, when the City Council launched a 14-year-plan to improve the quality, safety & comfort of cycling.”

#Copenhagen chose. They keep choosing even better every year.

For some reason, I just keep envisioning new rings of hell in a modern version of Dante's inferno...

For all scientists and science allies who are not members, please join @aaas.org. They lead the charge in lobbying for science. I also recommend signing up for their weekly policy alert: www.aaas.org/programs/off... #SaveScience #SaveNSF #SaveNIH

Anne and Maxine holding a funfetti cake that has DNA in sprinkles along with some sad attempts at drawing M. tuberculosis and skeleton in icing. Funfetti is not the cake that Anne typically makes students but 2 of her students (including Maxine) are Funfetti aficionados. Basically, important life events are meant to be celebrated with cake (and bubbles which are not shown in the image).

Congrats to #ASU #SOLS graduate student Maxine McCarty who successfully defended her PhD proposal yesterday to advance to candidacy!!!

a cartoon of tom and jerry in a classroom with a chalkboard ALT: a cartoon of tom and jerry in a classroom with a chalkboard

Hey professors and instructors! 🧑‍🏫👨🏾‍🏫 Are you stressing about lecture prep? AAAG has a bank of syllabi and teaching materials to support courses in genetics, anthropology, and related fields! 🧬🏺🦴 You can access these materials through our webpage with an active AAAG membership 🤓! anthgen.org/Education

WHAT FRESH HELL IS THIS!

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.

Why we all need to advocate for science: www.science.org/content/arti... #NSF #SaveScience #WIthoutNSFsbe

If you think 2025 was bad, 2026 is even worse. It doesn't matter what the budget was because OMB has found ways to not allow NSF and NIH spend their money.

You need to make AI guidelines for your lab Here's why you should, and how to start

I wrote about why every lab should have AI use guidelines, and how to do it.

open.substack.com/pub/blekhman...

My current #NSF funded research examines ancient TB in ancient populations in South America to understand its evolutionary history & effects on communities. TB is the world's leading cause of death from a single infectious agent TODAY. #WithoutNSFsbe #SaveScience #WithoutNSF

#WithoutNSFsbe the next gen of scientists is at risk. #NSF supports grad training & research. Ex: my former student @marioapata.bsky.social who studied ancient pop history in N. Chile & how they adapted to high arsenic levels in H2O (still a world problem today!) www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4P6...

From the executive summary of the proposed NSF budget for FY27: Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences. In FY 2027, NSF will close-out this directorate. Continuing grants that align with Administration priorities, such as in behavioral and cognitive science, and all impacted employees will be transferred to other parts of the agency. The National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics will operate independently of the directorates and continue to be supported through the R&RA appropriation.

The FY27 budget request for NSF (see nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/FY-202...) would get rid of the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE). #WithoutNSFsbe important research about communities, our past, economic impacts & future don't happen. #SaveNSF Contact your reps!

Why is the U.S. National Science Foundation important? Why is NSF SBE important?

Please share your stories!

Use the hashtags #WithoutNSF or #WithoutScience or #WithoutNSFsbe

A line graph showing awards over time at NSF's SBE. The line for this year, 2026, is extremely FLAT compared to prior years. By this time in 2025, 179 grants had been awarded. In 2021, it was 243. This year... 16.

NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Directorate has awarded only 16 grants since October.

No big budget cuts went through. No freeze. The courts have acted to keep funds flowing at every turn. The money just isn't going out.

Why...?

1/x

source: grant-witness.us/funding_curv...
🟦🧠 #academicsky

*contact…

For NIH, it proposes a $5 billion cut to research program funding (~11% cut).

It also proposes elimination of 1 institutes and 2 centers:

National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health
Fogarty International Center

2/9

Chart showing cumulative number of awards from the NSF BIO directorate. Currently = 38 whereas in previous years it was 204-353 by this time of year.

The assault on science isn't limited to NSF SBE = agency wide. Even though the FY26 appropriation = $8.75 billion (slightly < FY25 levels), the $ going out to fund science is not just slow at SBE. At BIO only 38 awards have been made so far this year (~7x ⬇️ normal!)
grant-witness.us/funding_curv...

data showing cumulative number of awards from the Social, Behavioral, and Economic directorate at NSF for the past few fiscal years. In FY26, the number to date is 16. In previous years by now over 150 are funded. WRITE YOUR CONGRESS PEOPLE!!!

So far for FY26 they have funded ONLY 16 awards compared to over 150 in previous years: grant-witness.us/funding_curv...

Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) NSF's mission is to advance the progress of science, a mission accomplished by funding proposals for research and education made by scientists, engineers, and educators from across the country.

Why is NSF SBE important? Over 25 years, it has funded research on the impact of terrorism on social systems, how social, cultural, & econ factors affect interactions w/the environment & how communities adapt to environmental change, human origins, & how people interact w/new technologies etc!

Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences. In FY 2027, NSF will close-out this directorate. Continuing grants that align with Administration priorities, such as in behavioral and cognitive science, and all impacted employees will be transferred to other parts of the agency. The National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics will operate independently of the directorates and continue to be supported through the R&RA appropriation.

Once again it is time to contract your representatives: The FY27 budget request for NSF (see nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/FY-202...) would get rid of the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences.

Fiscal Year 2027 Budget Request to Congress

I am shocked to see this language from the NSF.

“The U.S. National Science Foundation's Fiscal Year 2027 Budget Request reflects a strategic alignment of resources in a constrained fiscal environment while eliminating woke and weaponized grant programs that previously funded radical DEI projects.”

Massive budget cuts for US science proposed again by Trump administration Budget proposal would also curb federal payments for scientific publishing.

I will say this again: Science isn’t just something that nerds do, it’s the foundation of the modern world.

It’s why this app exists. It’s why child mortality rate isn’t 50% anymore. It’s how we’re able to launch people to the moon. It’s how we’re able to grow food that feeds half the world.

MAMA HUMPBACK WHALE DEFEATS NILE CROCODILE!

HUMPBACK WHALE is #2026MMM CHAMPION!

Artwork by @veppart.bsky.social & @opellisms.bsky.social !!!

TOP: Fig. 1.Placement of study samples within the African crocodilian phylogenetic tree. Colours of the branches refer to the species found in Guinea-Bissau in this study, namely: the Nile crocodile (C. niloticus in green), the West African crocodile (C. suchus in yellow), and the West African dwarf crocodile (O. cf. tetraspisin purple). Red dots at the nodes represent highly supported nodes (>95% pp), coloured dots next to the branch description represent the samples collected for this study. The red rectangle in the inset map of Africa represents the geographic location of Guinea-Bissau. This figure and maps within it, were produced using QGIS version 3.36. BOTTOM: Fig. 2. Distribution of crocodile data collected in Guinea Bissau. Symbols with red strokes represent barcoded genetic samples.

Pizzigalli et al. (2025) used mtDNA from tissue & poop samples to investigate croc diversity in Guinea Bissau in W. Africa. They found evidence for Nile crocodile (previously thought to be extinct in that region 200 years ago)! doi.org/10.1038/s415... #2026MMM #RIP

A Representative ideograms of three main karyotypes (2n = 30/32/38) observed among the true crocodile species analyzed in the present study showing Zoo-FISH results after using CSI-1, OST-1, OST-4, and OST-19 probes, and the 18S rDNA distribution. Arrows indicate the 4 main chromosomal rearrangements involved in karyotype differentiation from a putative ancestral 2n = 32. B Ancestral state reconstruction of diploid chromosome number using maximum parsimony. The phylogenetic relationships were adapted from Oaks (2011) and Colston et al. (2020), C. halli was added manually, & its position requires confirmation. Karyological data were collected from Cohen & Gans (1970), Kawagoshi et al. (2008), Hekkala et al. (2011), Srikulnath et al. (2015), Oliveira et al. (2021), Olmo and Signorino (2022), and this study (in bold). The colored circles represent different 2n, while the black diamonds indicate the species with unknown 2n. Ambiguous data (marked with an asterisk) are addressed in the “Discussion” section of the paper.

Sales‑Oliveira et al. (2023) found that croc chromosomes are conservative maintaining similar karyotype structures & diploid chrom numbers for ~100 MY! Most Crocodylinae (including Nile Crocodile) maintain the ancestral number of 2n = 32 (16 pairs) #2026MMM doi.org/10.1007/s004...