Guilty.

It’s yellow dust season!

NIH Office of Extramural Research announcements of feedback sessions for NIH-wide strategic plan for March 16 and April 8.

IMPORTANT---IMPORTANT---IMPORTANT

NIH is seeking input for the NIH-wide Strategic Plan. Open to everyone but Registration is Required!

Your chance to listen and get your 2 or more cents in.

grants.nih.gov/news-events/...

How many labs, and the scientists and students who show up every day to work in the academic trenches, are being held hostage by this tactic? We’re one of them.

Scientists: if you have pursued/secured philanthropic funding in the wake of federal research funding cuts, I want to talk to you.

Reposts appreciated!

This one pager is critical for your senators and representatives to understand. Call and write. | Carole LaBonne This one pager is critical for your senators and representatives to understand. Call and write.

www.linkedin.com/posts/carole...

H/T @labonnelab.bsky.social

FY 2026 R&D Appropriations Dashboard | American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Great resource if you want the latest data on spending bills working their way through Congress:
www.aaas.org/news/fy-2026...

Graduate school interview season is approaching.
After ~12 years of interviewing PhD and MD/PhD applicants, I’ve noticed some common interview mistakes that hold otherwise strong candidates back...
#GraduateSchool #PhDLife #MDPhD #GradSchoolTips #AcademicBluesky

👇

Sobering, well-documented study of how our current executive branch has attacked funding for research and training in the sciences. This needs to be read by everyone, most importantly by your friends and family who may not realize the extent of the damage.

So happy to announce our new preprint, “A geothermal amoeba sets a new upper temperature limit for eukaryotes.” We cultured a novel amoeba from Lassen Volcanic NP (CA, USA) that divides at 63°C (145°F) 🔥 - a new record for euk growth!
#protistsonsky 🧵

Join us in our plenary #seminar this week, with @crisprflydesign.bsky.social, from @dkfz.bsky.social.

Host: Dr. @milanlab.bsky.social

Register here ➡️ https://shorturl.at/gBv1J

#Drosophila #DrosophilaResearch #CRISPR 

🧪

Congrats, Hengel lab!

A comprehensive genetic catalog of human double-strand break repair The analysis of DNA sequence outcomes provides molecular insights into double-strand break (DSB) repair mechanisms. Using parallel in-pool profiling of Cas9-induced insertions and deletions (indels) w...

A comprehensive genetic catalog of human double-strand break repair | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

This made my day. Gotta watch those hot mikes.

Every few months the "good lab hands" thing comes up and it misses a key point: you can learn to have good hands. Training matters.

Good hands aren't some magic gift from the PCR gods, you have to develop them through directed repetitive practice, like any other skill

It is not always safe to repair DNA Damage. Sometimes, cells "just bypass it".

During DNA replication, repair of lesions on DNA can be dangerous. Cells instead "tolerate" DNA damage and focus on finishing replication.

Read our review and find out why and how: doi.org/10.1016/j.ti...

Postdoctoral Training Programs Funded by the National Cancer Institute (T32CA186895), the program at City of Hope provides exceptionally motivated, recent (2 years or less) postdoctoral fellows with scientific knowledge, researc

We have openings for a postdoctoral training program on DNA Damage and Oncogenic Signaling. Our past trainees have been very successful. Apply by Aug 31 for full consideration. See link for details. www.imgs-coh.edu/postdoctoral...

Why would anyone want to be a scientist? It is difficult to fathom why anyone intelligent enough to be a scientist would actually choose to be one. Doing good science requires the utmost exertion of body, mind and spirit, yet is consistently...

This!
journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...

Exclusive: Harvard University lays off fly database team The layoffs jeopardize this resource, which has served more than 4,000 labs for about three decades.

www.thetransmitter.org/community/ha...

a canva graphic that says "How it works Step 1: Go to SkypeAScientist.com Step 2: Click “Sign Up” then “Scientist Sign Up Form” Step 3: Tell us about yourself Step 4: Get matched with a classroom Step 5: Connect with the teacher Step 6: Make a kid’s day isn't that great? @SkypeAScientist"

Scientists!

@skypeascientist.bsky.social matches scientists with classrooms, libraries, & more for virtual Q&As! It's easy and fun!

We are looking for 750 more volunteers by 8/15

If you're down to chat with 1-5 classrooms this semester, sign up here
www.skypeascientist.com/sign-up.html

Sian, this absolutely sucks. You and your team are vital, and don’t deserve this.

If there is any way that the scientific community can prevent this, we MUST try!

Tell the Supreme Court: No Stay. Hands off NIH The Supreme Court is poised to allow Trump to illegally terminate NIH grants. Let's speak out. There is not much time.

Important new document available regarding SCOTUS and NIH grants.

scienceandfreedomalliance.substack.com/p/tell-the-s...

1/2

Proud of FASEB, ASM, ASCB, and ASBMB.

Check out this new review (with animations, natch) of mechanisms of licensing origins of DNA replication - a wonderful (and continuing!) collaboration with Bruce Stillman @cshlnews.bsky.social and John Diffley @crick.ac.uk! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

An important correction in the NYT, to a chart that was shared a lot in recent days & that I shared myself, shows they'd made a mistake with the 18-24 year old turnout, and so it's not the case that age group outvoted all others.

Still: nothing to sneeze at here, still a huge surge in youth vote.

I think that this is one of the most difficult aspects of science today—finding time to think and reflect.

It's unconscionable that Congress is rushing to pass the reconciliation bill, which polling indicates is wildly unpopular across citizens of both parties. This isn't a political football to get across the goal line. It's a morally bankrupt contract. There's no shame in taking extra time to fix it.

Yes! We need to replicate this graph across the country.