Bye, Country Joe!
Unfortunately, your song remains relevant as the President discusses bringing back the draft.
And it's one, two, three,
What are we fighting for ?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,
Next stop is in Iran.
A line graph showing NSF grant awards made through 2/27/26 for fiscal year 2026 compared with grant awards for fiscal years 2021-2025.
NSF Update (Awards through 2/27/26)
Directorates to follow
1/10
So excited to share this manuscript led by the inimitable Cara Brand, who discovered that Topoisomerase II evolution causes hybrid female lethality in Drosophila.
Congrats to Cara, @nickbr0wn.bsky.social, Anirban, and
@buszczaklab.bsky.social!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Oh, I taught the same topic at UCSB today. It was quite stormy, and only 10% of the class chose to attend in person, so I missed most of the confused frowns.
Evolution of monoamine reception and its role in cellular contractility.
How do #sponges coordinate their bodies despite lacking neurons and true muscles?
We show that sponges use monoamines to control water flow in their canals — reminiscent of how adrenaline regulates blood vessels.
My PhD story, now on BioRxiv:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
#Evolution
Thousands of people filled the streets of downtown Minneapolis in protest of federal immigration enforcement for the second consecutive Friday.
📷️: Aaron Lavinsky
Post from Pete Buttigieg that reads: If there was ever a moment for libertarians and conservatives to step up and join the rest of us, we’re in it. Americans have to unite and stop this descent from a freedom-loving nation into the kind of place where masked, militarized government agents are sent to politically noncompliant areas to roam the streets, terrorize civilians, and deploy violence with impunity.
Back from holiday and it's finally time to post about this. I am taking on a section editor role for the new diamond open access journal Biogeography, put together by @biogeographyjfab.bsky.social. That means that it's free to publish and free to read. (thread)
biog.journals.sup.org/index.php/bi...
Some baby sponges grow inside their mothers, and little baby sponges are later released. This is the case in deep-sea golf ball sponges (genus Craniella). Want to know more? Read our new article 🙂
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
📣We're Hiring!📣 Come join us as a marine micro lab tech in sunny Santa Barbara! A great position for a 2-year post-bacc or starting point for a long-term technician position. Apply by 9 October for full consideration, and please share widely! careerspub.universityofcalifornia.edu/psp/ucsb/EMP...
Thanks to @joanaxavier.bsky.social, Javier Cristobo, and everyone else for a lovely 12th International Sponge Conference in Vila do Conde, Portugal. @wscommunity.bsky.social
Yet another study (Danish) has found no association between aluminum in childhood vaccines & 50 different health conditions, including autism, asthma & autoimmune diseases. In this study, they tracked 1 million kids over 21 years.
🧪🔗 en.ssi.dk/news/news/20...
“Fulfilling Koch’s postulates, V. pectenicida strain FHCF-3, cultured from the coelomic fluid of a diseased sunflower sea star, caused disease and mortality in exposed sunflower sea stars, demonstrating that it is a causative agent of SSWD” (www.nature.com/articles/s41...) 🦑🌊🧪 #MarineLife
We named the sponge Halicnemia weltoni after him in this paper. www.mapress.com/zt/article/v...
Welton took the lead on producing a key to the sponges of California, which required a monumental effort due to the state of the literature at the time. I wouldn't have started working on sponges if this key didn't exist, so we are very directly building on his work.
A young man in a tuxedo holding a violin
4 lobed harp or candelabra shaped sponge with balls along the top that are used to feed on prey
While it is still #spongethursday, it is w/sadness that I note that the sponge taxonomist, Dr. Welton Lee who famous described the carnivorous "harp sponge" in 2012 w/ @mbarinews.bsky.social & a host of co-authors passed away earlier this year in March. A good man and apparently QUITE the violinist!
So this morning, as I sip my coffee and get ready for a day of meetings, I'll be thinking of Will, who was moved to ICE detention in South Texas on Tuesday morning.
I can't imagine what's going through his mind, the anxiety & fear. Fear of losing the only home he's ever known.
A little belated but I've started a faculty position at Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology department at @ucsantabarbara.bsky.social. I'm absolutely stoked! I'll be recruiting at all levels and will be at #Botany2025
Reach out!
www.martinezgomezlab.com
I saw lots of good echinoderms in Juneau, too. www.inaturalist.org/observations..., www.inaturalist.org/observations...
I think we went to the same beach. www.inaturalist.org/observations...
They all find savings associated with turning up or off your A/C while you're out.
Air conditioning accounts for 19% of energy consumption in US homes! Any little bit you can do to reduce your A/C usage can save you money on your energy bills and fight climate change.
9/9
Santa Barbara #nokings
This shouldn't even be a particularly "hot" take in the sense that it's objectively & quantitatively correct! In formal studies on return on investment for federally funded research at universities, the enormous value is very clear. It is even (dare I say it?) a very *efficient* public expenditure.
He resolved that he would not stop either, even though it was a huge sacrifice on his part. I believe this is what we owe our trainees: so long as they are invested in their work, we must be as well, even if it seems like the world is on fire around us, both literally and figuratively. 10/
Done. Please comment, click on public comments on left bar. Suggestions in thread.
bsky.app/profile/free...
OOF! @Pacificklaus captures this video of a CRAB occupying this urchin's ANAL BULB! youtu.be/yyGMrOXNn5Y?...
This is likely the weirdest and most interesting story you could read today. From @usha.bsky.social.
www.statnews.com/2025/05/02/d...
Graph of NSF awards. Compares April 2024 to April 2025, which levels off.
In addition to the terminations of existing awards, new NSF grants are still stopped completely since DOGE was granted access to systems a week ago.
Last Thursday, an agency spokesperson said "NSF continues to issue awards." That does not appear to be the case.
