Thank you so much!

Thanks for highlighting these. Hypothetically speaking, say you had a kid entering a Ph.D program in ESS (soil hydrology). You're an academic yourself, and are looking for a read with sufficient scope to learn enough to hold up your end of a conversation. Which would you recommend?

What are warehouses doing to SoCal's air quality? UC Irvine undergraduate helps design a new method for assessing the impact of the distribution industry on SoCal's air.

Oh wow! My kid just sent me a link to a release article his university wrote up about a recent paper he published. That's really fun! ps.uci.edu/news/ian-bac...

Hope you stayed at the Mission Inn while you were there and had a chance to go to the Cheech

Sounds like a man who could step between worlds. And took you with him.

Words arrive, form in an internal space. And within that mirrored creation, sometimes flash "earthed lightening".

Hold On Hope: publication lag times at cell biology journals Publication lag times are still a frustration for researchers. Although preprints circumvent the delay in sharing science with others, publication is still king when it comes to evaluation. Contracts are short and publication delays can be long…

It's been a while... dusted off some old code to see what the current publication lag times are at cell bio journals.

At the end of the post there's the poor paper with the longest delay in the dataset...

Hold On Hope: publication lag times at cell biology journals

quantixed.org/2026/04/09/h...

I wonder if one of the UCs could come up with a prof teaching target of opportunity hire….

There is ABSOLUTELY another story here about how higher ed has abdicated its commitment to education by counting on federal funding to provide salary support to scientists like Donovan

Yes, and the academic structural issues about how a talented interdisciplinary person like this could not fit into the silo of a more secure tenure track position.

Politics cut the funding, but preexisting structural problems in academia underlie this story.

"he figured it was a good time to try for a tenure-track academic post. But....academic tradition of delineated departments makes it hard to know what to do with...inter-disciplinary research"

When I go to the Tar Pits museum I think of some of the bigger mammals that persisted through the Pleistocene extinction. Mountain lions and coyotes were in the LA basin back then, and they're here now. Survivors. We could learn a thing or two from them.

Linked in post from Sarah Bray The Company of Biologists (known for its 5 journals, Development, Journal of Cell Science, Journal of Experimental Biology, Disease Models and Mechanisms, Biology Open, as well as its charitable activities) is looking to appoint a new CEO. An opportunity to guide the next chapter! More information here:

The Company of Biologists @biologists.bsky.social has a more than 100 year history of supporting science through its journals, meetings, and fellowships. Help lead it into its second century! pls share
www.inspiredselection.com/jobs/jo00000...

lf you are in the market, check out the MachE. We got one in 2021 and its been an amazing vehicle.

It's a great picture. Zooming in on the eyes, and since you were on the ground, it seems like what's running through the hawk's mind is "that's the strangest vole I've ever seen. But, no point in being picky".

But their lives could be made unpleasant. Very unpleasant given the cushy life they live now. For example, podcast Jay's chair could assign him an onerous teaching load, grunt committee assignments, colleagues could shun him, no more fancy dinner parties, etc. He'd leave soon enough.

Might be complicated. They will be tenured, on leave of absence to do the horrible things they are doing. They would have a right of return, termination would need to be "for cause". Destroying US science and public health would seem to qualify as "for cause", but lawyers would argue differently.

It hurts the more you think about it. Experts on FEMA? Waffle House? Teleporting? Experts are dubious of the claim? Or are themselves dubious? "I can see him teleporting, sure" said the expert. "Like to a Howard Johnsons in Rachel NZ. There's precedence for that. But a Waffle House? That's nuts".

Oh...yeah. And somebody should probably run a bottle check on Whisky Pete.

Yes, unfortunately I think it is partially reflective of where lack of empathy and the imperative of judgement comes from. Same wellspring.

So beautiful and implausible. It is impossible not to see it, somehow, from somewhere, as a gift.

To give just one sense of what is at stake, check out the wildfire research being done by the Pacific Southwest Reseach Station, headquarted in Albany, CA, with research branches adjacent to several landgrant UCs. All in the name of corrupt profiteering.

research.fs.usda.gov/psw/fire

Was playing with some sequence files tonight and realized I'm so old that I still miss DNA Strider.

On drive between San Jose and San Fran last week I got 3: Cys Lys and Glu!

🎉 Congrats to 2026 Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal recipient Judith Kimble of @uwbiochem.bsky.social! Her work has built an entire field and inspired generations of scientists through her mentorship and leadership.

🔗Read more: buff.ly/0yzHXvk

A really nice piece of work. Once again, the CENPC/SUMO axis emerges. Maybe effect of SPF2/ULP2 going through modulation of cohesin/condensin at CENs, but SUMO targets within monopolin or other meiotic regulators also seem quite possible.

Just a reminder that 1yr ago today many dedicated NIH employees received RIF notices and started the process where many others were told they must leave their positions/ICs after years of service.

The pain felt across the scientific community in the last year is also felt by those serving it.

BREAKING: Trump Administration Orders Dismantling of the U.S. Forest Service The headquarters is going to Utah. Every regional office is being shuttered. The research program is being destroyed.

the trump administration is selling this country wholesale to rapacious, extractive industries that will destroy our collective resources for private profit morethanjustparks.substack.com/p/breaking-t...

In 2021, I was on a walk and came upon a crow on the ground in distress. Like H5N1 maybe. So I sat down in kind of a brother I am here for you sort of way. And it looked at me with what struck me as an understanding. I've been among many bird species in many places, but that moment was singular.

Either way, there's an extra-tangy dose of FUBAR sauce on the side since TMZ is owned by Fox.