Time for this again apparently

Washington Post article on STEM cuts at federal agencies. NSF tops it at -42%!

“Between January 2025 and February 2026, STEM and health employees at science-focused agencies saw nearly 15,000 jobs cut. The rate outpaced cuts among other federal workers.”

OPM data - Figure from Wash Post article 19 April. (Where US science has been hit hardest.)

NSF at -42%!

I don't know who needs to read this, but you can simply say "use." You don't need "utilize." You really don't.

(Yes I know they have slightly different meanings, please resist the urge to "well actually").

Why scientists are nervous about fungi They can pose a threat to human health — yeast infections are but one example. Scientists say not enough attention is paid to their ability to develop resistance to medications that treat them.

They can pose a threat to human health — yeast infections are but one example. Scientists say not enough attention is paid to their ability to develop resistance to medications that treat them.

GitHub - RILAB/statements: Successful Job Applications and Grants Successful Job Applications and Grants. Contribute to RILAB/statements development by creating an account on GitHub.

That time of year again! If you'd like an example of job apps in academia or industry, here's a good resource. If you got a job in industry or academia in the last few years, please consider adding yours! github.com/RILAB/statem...

I’m looking for an automated way to read others’s scientific data without giving credit or acknowledgement, and also claim full credit for insights from it. And I want it to have a fitting name

OAI: say no more

LLMs are very powerful tools in computational biology, if you're willing to take your time, use them to check and stress test your work, and learn. But very very foolish tools if you use them just to take shortcuts and move faster than you ought to.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) funds over 300,000 researchers at more than 2,500 institutions across all 50 U.S. states, supporting roughly 390,863 jobs and driving $94
billion in economic activity. I am one of them and am thankful to all who pay the taxes that support this enterprise 🧪

Polishing off the eugenics lecture for class soon.

Even though it gets more intimidating to teach this each year, I always have students say thank you that I cover it.

And given North Carolina's history with eugenics in this country, it is a necessary part of learning Genetics.
🧬

The Fungi Sessions, Vol. 2

There is a new volume in The Fungi Sessions!! I loved the first album by Hannah Read that she performed at Fungal Genetics two years ago.

So excited for a part 2 and there are microscope videos of hyphae accompanying the songs in spotify 😍. 🍄🎶
open.spotify.com/album/5uGh16...

a man is standing in front of a sign that says ' usted leadership for a stronger america ' Alt: Jeb Bush asking an audience to please clap

I had a list of small things to get done today. And I did them.

The Fungi Sessions, Vol. 2

There is a new volume in The Fungi Sessions!! I loved the first album by Hannah Read that she performed at Fungal Genetics two years ago.

So excited for a part 2 and there are microscope videos of hyphae accompanying the songs in spotify 😍. 🍄🎶
open.spotify.com/album/5uGh16...

Where's the push back? Trump orders the dismantling *without authority*

Update: I am definitely hiring 2 PhD students; preference to those who can start spring 2027, but reach out if you’re looking to start in Fall 27.

Want to start earlier? Reach out and we can talk about technician positions starting as early as this summer.

2) Being apolitical IS political. Staying out of politics doesn’t keep you “above the fray” but instead endorses the status quo. (Which right now, is bad for both science and democracy.)

There are two kinds of academic.

Ones that apply their most severe skepticism to their own work and opinions and ones that apply their most severe skepticism to others.

A star scientist showed that better genetics lessons could reduce racism. It was the death knell for his career Brian Donovan had persuaded high school teachers and education researchers that prejudice might be ended by changing how genetics is taught.

“We’ve lost out on the ability to continue to improve this work to make it more effective, and to explore how to apply it to other areas…There are a lot of different ways that genetics has been used to justify prejudice and…that human-made social categories interface with biological categories“🧪

How do I work through this unprecedented time I mutter to myself for the 20th time this year.

📉 FY2026 is worse.

NIH has made 10,195 awards so far. NSF has made 613.

Six hundred thirteen.

Congress appropriated the money. The agencies are not spending it.

Grant freezes. NOFO collapse. Staff RIFs. Review cancellations. You can win the budget fight and still lose the funding war.

U.S. Forest Service unveils extensive closures of research facilities Cost-cutting move is expected to cause resignations and turmoil

What will happen to the 82 USFS experimental forests around the country? Many sites have decades-long experiments that are tracking how forests are changed by timber harvesting practices and climate change. As I say here, “you can't just pick up an experimental forest site and move it to SLC.”

Overview of changes in NSF funding proposed by the FY 2027 President's Budget Request. Most programs are significantly cut. OMB did not give numbers for STEM and NCSES, so the numbers appear to be increases (they are not).

Giving folks a sense of what the cuts to NSF funding in the 2027 President's Budget Request actually looks like. Note the significant cuts across domains--even to research security! STEM and NCSES aren't captured for prior years, so they appear to be cuts, even though they are not.

Grad students & postdocs: how is funding uncertainty affecting you right now?

SSE's GSAC is collecting anonymous input to inform advocacy and conversations at Evolution.

Share your perspective by May 1, 2026 and pls RT!

Fig. 1. Novel Alternaria species strain 22-162 infecting garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata). (A) Field-collected diseased garlic mustard leaves. Four-week growth on potato dextrose agar medium (B) and V8 medium (C). (D and E) Foliar symptoms at 10 days postinoculation. (F and G) Stem lesions at 16 days postinoculation.

Matthew A. Tancos, Jami L. Thomas, and Sydney McCauslin present the first documentation of a novel pathogenic #Alternaria species identified from the introduced range of the invasive weed garlic mustard: https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-03-25-0653-SC

Also want to remind everyone that North Carolina hasn’t passed a budget in 260 days.

The latest episode of #Plantopia is live! Host Matt Kasson talks with Madeline Wade (Brumidi Group) about how advocacy really works in D.C.—from advancing policy priorities to navigating Capitol Hill and the growing role of social media in politics.

🎧 https://www.plantopiapodcast.org/70

Apply to be an editor at an ASM Journal! Open call for editors at mBio, mSphere, mSystems, and Microbiology Spectrum. This is a very fulfilling way to share your expertise and give back to our society journals. @asm.org journals.asm.org/asm-call-for...

You know what all teams in the men's Final Four (and both women's teams in so far) have in common?

HERBARIA.

UConn is threatening to cut the staff of our nat history collections (plus many other awful budget cuts). If only we cared as much about biodiversity as we do about buzzer beaters!

While the situation is grim at NIH, it's closer to catastrophic at NSF. They're just not able to move any money out the door. It appears OMB has them on lockdown. www.science.org/content/arti....

AI can't pay my grad students or postdocs. AI can't do our experiments, collect really any of our data, make our lab reagents, fix our broken machines as they age.

I'm just so, so tired of this.

anyway if you write bioinformatics software and include in your documentation any examples of the input and output file formats, I will buy you a beer if we ever run into each other IRL