I like Pratchett, but the definition of edible includes safe for consumption.

Schematic representation of the Smilax insularis and Dasineura heterosmilacicola brood-site pollination system. Midges preferentially oviposits in male flowers, which support higher larval survival and development. This preference confines larval damage to expendable tissues. Both male and female flowers predominantly emit the rare apocarotenoid dihydroedulan I, which attracts D. heterosmilacicola midges. Despite asymmetric larval performance, this shared chemical signal, together with earlier daily opening of male flowers than female flowers, ensures effective pollen transfer. Red arrows indicate midge movement during visits, and blue arrows indicate temporal progression.

A single rare scent molecule combined with the daily timing of male/female flower opening steers tiny midges to pollinate Smilax insularis while mostly laying eggs on disposable male flowers, demonstrating an elegantly balanced plant-insect partnership! 🧪

www.cell.com/current-biol...

Good pair of articles. Hiring well is easily both the hardest and most important part of entrepreneurship. The labor landscape keeps changing which makes it ... interesting.

It means there are too many investors who have no idea what to fund.

This one didn't fare as well:
bsky.app/profile/sung...

Restart of US small-business research grants may be too late for some Since two federal programs, SBIR and STTR, lapsed in October, businesses have canceled projects and lost workers

Restart of US small-business research grants may be too late for some

Since two federal programs, SBIR and STTR, lapsed in October, businesses have canceled projects and lost workers.

#chemsky 🧪

Not sure how employees or customers of a company whose founder and CEO writes bizarre political screeds and moves the headquarters to a different time zone every couple of years should feel. Feels niche to me rather than destined for Fortune 100.

Good graphic explaining the issue with "multi-year funding" of NIH grants. Most other departments obligate funds at time of award, so this hasn't been an issue for them.

An image taken by the Perseverance rover on Mars

Sol 1835: Left Navcam, imaged at 14:25:51.954 (local mean solar time)

KUKA Robot for Automated Welding of Automotive Body in White YouTube video by NKS~A promoter of Chinese industrial robot

Versus some of the common uses of robots in industry, witness this welding line in a car plant:

www.youtube.com/shorts/5C8G2...

The stretcher is a nice touch. But as always, these humanoid robots are a solution in search of a problem, and really hard to do.

Michael Chaboud :
The tool becomes the artist, n.d.

Damn, busted. I also need to literally go touch grass to pull dandelions.

Federal administration proposes to halt of these astrophysics and particle astrophysics space missions:

COSI
Fermi
Chandra
LISA contribution
ULTRASAT contribution
Athena contribution
NICER
Euclid contribution
XRISM contribution
UVEX

🔭🧪⚛️ #astrophysics

Our Bambu Carbon X1 reminds me of the HP Laserjet - it was the first printer of its kind where you forgot it was this "innovative technology" and it just became a tool that works when you need it.

This is how I find out that pterosaurs aren't dinos?

Restart of US small-business research grants may be too late for some Since two federal programs, SBIR and STTR, lapsed in October, businesses have canceled projects and lost workers

Restart of US small-business research grants may be too late for some cen.acs.org/policy/resea...

"The companies that didn’t get a Phase I in 2025 won’t be eligible for Phase II until they do"

There are direct-to-phase II mechanisms, and continuation awards (IIA, IIB, IIC) that complicate the picture. But yes, PMs are constantly looking to seed new phase Is.

The SBIR restart won’t be easy A six-month lapse of funding for the Small Business Innovation Research program will be challenging for the workforce to reopen the gates for small businesses.

The SBIR restart won’t be easy

Detective Lennie Briscoe from the original Law and Order series.

Had to look up HARKing. It's too bad this is happening. I've never understood the impulse to pretend to have been smarter before starting the work. We get smarter during and because of the work!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HARKing

I know very little about the history of music theory, but found this thread interesting, bc it is about distorting the scientific process during presentation.

Struggling shoe retailer Allbirds makes bizarre pivot from shoes to AI, stock explodes more than 400% Allbirds announced a deal with American Exchange Group to sell its intellectual property and other assets for $39 million in March.

One of the birds is a canary

www.cnbc.com/2026/04/15/a...

I grew up in hurricane land not tornado alley, so don't have a feel for the EFs. The last time a serious tornado came through nearby, a few homes were demolished but most were untouched, and it was over in 1 hour. Hurricanes are relentless and mostly about flooding.

These baby beetles work together to look—and smell—like flowers Parasitic beetles are the first animals known to imitate floral scents

“the larvae attract bees by emitting a collection of 17 scented compounds often found in flowers, including linalool oxide and lilac aldehyde. Once a larva has been airlifted to a bee’s nest, it feeds on the bees’ eggs and supplies of pollen and nectar.”

www.scientificamerican.com/article/beet...
🧪

I like it. A similar analogy would be an immune system.

Thinking back on committees for meetings, seminars and symposia, we really missed the boat only inviting interesting speakers who audiences would enjoy. /s

A Chicago coyote kicks back (while another one saunters past)

Nah, I'm good thx.

If you have kids in your home of the right age, it's so easy and worthwhile making some of this with them. Fun demo of extraordinary material behavior.