Happy to be in autumnal Cold Spring Harbor for the biennial #cshlgermcells conference. While enjoying great science, we C. elegans folks here are feeling rather giddy after the big miRNA news out of Stockholm. Congrats to Gary and Victor! washingtonpost.com/science/2024/1…

#cshlgermcells ends with a great session on meiosis, and an intriguing (and beautiful) talk by Yale’s Binyam Mogessie ቢንያም ሞገሴ on why female aneuploidy becomes so common as mammalian mothers age. I am already looking forward to October 2026…

Happy #FluorescenceFriday! Today I’m sharing gorgeous images of the chicken neural tube taken by our UC Davis PREP scholar, Christian Torres-Lopez. Christian is a former Society for Developmental Biology #ChooseDevelopment! Fellow and he studying how microtubule proteins regulate development. #DevBio

If you love the development and sexual quirks of vertebra-free animals, as I do, then you will rejoice at the triumphant return of ICIRD. We hope to see you in DC in June, 2025! burkclients.com/ICIRD/2025/sit…

I am excited to join Joshua Weitz for a (free!) public discussion of his new book, 5pm tomorrow at Politics & Prose (Conn. Ave., DC). Asymptomatic: The Silent Spread of Covid-19 and the Future of Pandemics is an important read. politics-prose.com/joshua-weitz

A fox in every henhouse. washingtonpost.com/health/2024/11…

Why do we have sex, and sexes, at all? In his new book "The Other Big Bang," Biology Professor Eric Haag explores the two-billion-year history of sex. At Science on Tap on Wednesday, November 20, Eric will give an informal talk on his new book. RSVP here: go.umd.edu/sot1124

It's blatant horn-tooting, yet I can't resist sharing the nice piece written by Univ. of Maryland's Emily Nuñez: today.umd.edu/in-new-book-bi… Thanks to Columbia University Press for making a dream come true.

Our local NPR station is giving away AC/DC tickets. No further evidence is needed of impending Gen-X geezerhood…

Let me be among the first to predict that hoovering LCA will backfire, probably horribly.

This is timely and worth a read. WRT to bathroom access, there is no safety impact of gender inclusivity (link.springer.com/article/10.100…). Meanwhile, the list of trans women being murdered by cis men is tragically long. theconversation.com/are-trans-wome…

Day 4 of Trump, The Sequel: “Whee, breaking stuff is fun!” I hear Kristallnacht was also a hoot…

Been thinking Elon would make a banger first dean of the PW Botha School of Structural Inequality.

Recent email to NSF PIs from Director Panchanathan asks us to happily lop off our own noses. I am disinclined, and I hope my school’s higher-ups agree. Make them come after the money already transferred—don’t do the job for them.

Very happy to share this paper out today, connecting sperm competition within species to reproductive isolation between. Pretty pictures, plus back stories of remarkable trainee perseverance by Justin Van Goor and others. Please enjoy, free for the next 50 days...

The Trump administration is scrubbing the CDC’s website of documents on reproductive rights issues, sexual health, intimate partner violence, and more. I'm trying to save them. You can find the deleted docs at CDCGuidelines.com - I'll be adding more over the weekend.

Re. #USAID, do the unelected wise men of “DOGE” really think a foreign aid policy conceived of and wholly implemented by purity-tested assholes helps our cause? For someone who can bring a reusable rocket into reality, it seems kinda dumb, Elon Musk.

Andy Ngo U.S. Attorney DC Reddit, Inc. Bluesky This is unreal. What kind of brainless NPCs mobilize to murder auditors exposing corruption? It’s like seeing radical terrorists popping out of the grass from nowhere. It’s like finding out half the country are Manson Family cult members.

Happy to see this job posting UMD Science. Those currently foaming at the mouth about the evils of DEI should consider that its literal opposite is HUE (homogenous unfair exclusion). Go Terps!

As the last 20 days have unfolded, it is clear Elon Musk is a sworn enemy of our constitutional democracy. He is an immigrant we welcomed, and his tech henchmen were mostly educated in the very institutions he is now trying to wreck. From where does such malice come? In any case,