Sarah Scientist

a woman in a black dress is smiling with #schitts creek written in the corner Alt: Catherine O’Hara is smiling and sending a flying kiss at the camera in a clip from schitts creek

Laughter is the best medicine.

We’ll miss you, Catherine O’Hara.

Sarah VanDiepenbos stands at her bench holding a pipette.

Why are coral reefs bleaching, and what can we do to stop it?

Sarah VanDiepenbos ( @sarahscientist.bsky.social ) is an MGI doctoral student working in Rob Quinn's lab, and she's trying to answer that question.

Sarah smiling in front of her scientific poster on coral bleaching.

A mountain view from the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.

I had a lovely time presenting my poster on the metabolomics of coral bleaching at the MANA 2025 conference in Banff!

Now that July is over, the 2025 spawning season should be finished…until next year! 🪸

I had the privilege of joining the Coral Resilience Lab at Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology last month to help with collection of coral spawn! Check out this article about it, from MSU's Connor Yeck:

natsci.msu.edu/news/2025-07...

My lab got some new coral frags recently, and check out those long sweeper tentacles! Also featuring a guest appearance from our Tang fish, named Wu 🪸🐠

I’ll be using mass spectrometry to study why corals lose the tiny algae that live inside them. Hopefully we can learn how to save the corals 🪸

Aquarium tank with many small fragments of the stony coral Galaxea fascicularis

I’ve officially joined my dissertation lab in the Quinn lab at Michigan State University! I’ll be studying coral bleaching and how to prevent losing our corals in the face of climate change.

Welcome to BlueSky!

Often, students think the most important aspect of running a new experiment is collecting and analyzing the data. It is also important to learn the method - what each step of the protocol is doing. It helps with troubleshooting and interpreting data you weren’t expecting!

My Valentine this year is Komagataeibacter! This genus of bacteria has all kinds of uses, including being featured in Paris Fashion Week last year. These pellicles are from Komagataeibacter hansenii ❤️

My shout out for International Day of Women and Girls in Science this year goes to Nancy Hopkins for her work in zebrafish!

A research lab from Northwestern, chosen because it's generic and sort of zoomed out. Three scientists are visible in lab coats, and there are benches and shelving, with glass along one wall showing another high-rise building nearby. Overhead fluorescents provide light.

This is a room where we turn very modest salaries and budgets (and lots of coffee) into new knowledge, life-saving innovations, and technology that feeds business growth.

It's literally the loom that spins hay into gold but these numpties are suddenly worried about the cost of hay.

"The halftime show was boring."

Look, you may not be familiar with the genius of Kendrick Lamar and couldn't quite hear the lyrics and don't know the backstory and the symbolism went over your head, but trust me when I say you'll want to read an analysis of it and rewatch. A true masterpiece.