so interesting how most of us with aphantasia never knew anything was different about us.
every person i’ve ever talked to with it all thought (frequently STILL think) that people don’t actually SEE anything in their minds eye, that people are just using that language. we’re in denial.
Plot showing GRFP awards by directorate shows a big dip last year and major increases for engineering and biology (though this only brings it back to parity with 2024).
The NSF GRFP is now out! There are 2,599 awardees, which is the most ever—and a big shift from last year which initially halved awardees (1,000 awardees + an additional 500).
I've thrown together a plot to break down the changes by field.
www.research.gov/grfp/Awardee...
https://integrativeandcomparativebiology.wordpress.com/2025/12/02/carly-anne-york-bravely-following-her-curiosity-a-book-review/
SICB's April lunch zoom is coming up with @biologycarly.bsky.social !
carlyanneyork.wixsite.com/website
on April 6th 12 noon est join us by emailing sicbmedia@sicb.org
to receive a link
Carly will be interviewed by #scientist & #writer @rchoover.bsky.social of
www.kassandraford.com/people
BREAKING: In response to huge cuts in Trump's budget request, NSF is shuttering its SBE directorate. Staff will be transferred to other parts of the agency and "grants that align with Administration priorities" will be maintained.
That & more w/ @maxkozlov.bsky.social & @edwrdchen.bsky.social
Happy to announce the alpha release of the SCINKD3!
SCINKD3 is an extension of SCINKD streamlines the use of WGS data from multiple individuals to identify sex chromosomes. In testing, its shown to be robust in many cases with as few as 4 individuals.
github.com/DrPintoThe2n...
FYI, this gallery has all the photos NASA is sharing from Artemis II in one place, with descriptions.
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.
The U.S. Forest Service is closing 57 of its 77 research facilities in 31 states under a reorganization plan announced this week, threatening science that looked at how wildfires, drought, pests and global warming are putting pressure on forests.
There have been no federal funding opportunities in the infectious disease space for close to 1.5 years.
A while back, a few "forecasted" opportunities popped up, however, all of those just went the way of the dodo 👇
Good read on what's happening here: elizabethginexi.substack.com/p/inside-the...
Join our Conservation Genomics online course from April 7-10. A few seats are left! Learn population genomics tools for conservation. Details: www.physalia-courses.org/courses-workshops/course... #course
Dalmatian wall lizard (Podarcis melisellensis)
Más de 4 años de trabajo culminan ahora con esta fantástica publicación sobre el desmán ibérico. Mil gracias a todos los que habéis contribuido a que ahora sepamos un poco más acerca de esta silenciosa amenaza para mi querido desmán ibérico ¡Ha sido un auténtico placer trabajar con vosotros!
“I can’t think of a case where poems changed the world, but what they do is they change people’s understanding of what’s going on in the world.”
Seamus Heaney
Urban habitats reshape pollinator communities and flowers respond: jewelweed sepal size evolves via plastic and genetic changes. By @jeromeburkiewicz.bsky.social @simjoly.bsky.social doi.org/10.1093/evle... image credit Wim Rubers @Wikimedia
“Every year, we unleash this scourge on the countryside."
Brilliant to see David Attenborough address the enormous impact of pheasants (for shooting) and cats (people's pets) on native wildlife and ecosystems.
These are *crucial* conversations.
www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...
For #NSF and #NIH watchers, Grant Witness now has interactive data on numbers of grants and total funding obligations, broken down by institute and directorate, new awards and non-competitive renewals.
The stranglehold on new awards is still a disaster.
grant-witness.us/funding_curv...
I defended my PhD 10 years ago today. That was the least remarkable thing that happened that day. Sharing something I wrote about it last year. Since then "the horrors persist but so do we." And with dignity.
Just published: "Improving scientific mentoring with history and philosophy of science" (open access)
With my good friends and colleagues Alan Love and Tobias Uller.
royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...
Are you (or something you know) looking for a PhD? Like trait macroevolution but also yearn for an applied topic? Think plants are neat?
Want to live in beautiful northeast Scotland?! 🌊🐬⛰️🏴
I'm advertising a PhD in my lab! Deadline April 22, email me any questions. www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
If you'd be interested in a postdoc with us using CT scans of trilobite eyes to model their visual abilities, watch this space...!
"People close to Trump are trading based on national secrets."
Read @pkrugman.bsky.social on the latest incident of people making piles of cash using insider info about national security matters & how it could amount to treason.
open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...
Figure showing the evolutionary diversification of Lepidopteran larval appendages.
Really excellent paper on the genetics of caterpillar butt ornaments
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
Students are all smiles reviewing data at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
🔬 Final weeks! Are you an undergraduate or graduate student interested in studying the #NHMLAC Collections? If you’re currently enrolled in an accredited degree-granting program, apply for our Student Collections Study Awards now through April 1—details: go.nhm.org/study-award
Doctors across the nation are alarmed that skepticism fueled by rising anti-science sentiment and medical mistrust is increasingly reaching beyond vaccines to other safe and routine care for babies.
Size matters when you’re a Long Reed Frog (Hyperolius nasutus) with a max adult size of 2.5 cm. Being tiny means wetland reeds and sedges are an ideal home where the weight of larger frogs is not supported.
#herpetology #amphibians #herping
🤸
As a kid, watching Walker, Texas Ranger taught me that many problems in life can be solved by a well-timed roundhouse kick, a lesson that has served me well in academia
Husband has promised me a discman as consolation. And ice cream. So I’ve got that going for me, which is nice. 🎧 🍦
A 2004 4 door Honda Civic in Magnesium grey deemed “unsuitable” (ie: not safe enough) for our newborn. I drove him around the block in it and listened to my Greenday CD before saying goodbye 👋🏼 ✌🏼
DEVASTATED to say sianara to my first car, la Bellafante, a 2004 Honda Civic. Every one of our 164,000 miles was bliss.
Now where will I listen to my CDs?! 😭
Trade in value $1.2K.
In a sea of opinions about the role of LLMs in academics I offer my own.
Apart from being harmful, exploitive plagiarism machines, LLMs rob us of the opportunity to experience the gift of friction in writing, which changes how we think.
We must not give away that gift.
doi.org/10.1002/fee....
