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aidemm.bsky.social
Evolutionary Biologist at UCSC | Assistant professor | Interested in genes, genomes, and #evolution of complex traits 🧬 | #NewPI | FirstGen | #scicomm she/her/ella https://macias.sites.ucsc.edu/ 📸 IG: @cnidolab_ucsc
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NIH indirects case update: Hearing ongoing now, and I'll try to live tweet some notable exchanges. Prior to more detailed arguments, Judge Kelley starts off with a few point questions to both sides: (I'm paraphrasing here)

what abortion bans lead to - covered in depth by @propublica.org here

Pretty sad. Just got the email that CZI is canceling the second round of Diversity Leadership Awards. Private industry will definitely not fill the hole that NIH and NSF are leaving. 😢💔

Statements like this give me hope. I understand that people are afraid. There is so much to lose. But there is so much more to lose if we don't defend DEI. If they want to dismantle science, they will find a way to do it. Let's not let them do it at the expense of the next generation of trainees.

(1/4) Recent layoffs of federal workers has a disproportionate impact on Native Americans, but is receiving almost no media attention. In Indian Health Services, which provides healthcare to 2.8 mil NAs, 2,200 people were laid off, including 1,400 who provide direct patient care.

Hi, here is something positive and fun today. My artwork is highlighted in this interview with me on The Node @the-node.bsky.social #SciArt #pottery #WormWednesday

The SSE Caregiver Award provides up to $500 USD to help cover caregiving costs while attending virtual or in-person #Evol2025. Apply by March 15! @evolmtg.bsky.social https://buff.ly/4ayQxbG

Just to be clear, because I don’t think the Post story highlights it enough: This was Trump’s day-one pick to lead the Social Security Admin until his nominee got confirmed who RESIGNED a career job rather than do what Musk’s DOGE team wants. This is Treasury (DOGE) and DOJ (Adams) all over again.

This does away with awards based on underrepresentation, student support services based on race, scholarships, etc. Let me explain, pre coffee (wrote this morning, no time to update, you're getting a cut n paste), why this is a bad idea. 🧵 www.insidehighered.com/news/diversi...

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KU Center for Genomics is hiring a postdoctoral fellow! Choose a mentor among the Center's faculty and propose an original project. Two years funding and generous research budget included. Please share, retweet and apply! genomics.ku.edu/ku-center-geno…

Ted Cruz’s “woke” science list contains a lot of basic, fundamental research that got flagged for simply addressing broader impacts (as Congress requires). As absurd as the list seems, it’s making scientists uneasy. My latest: www.npr.org/2025/02/13/n...

Only 5 days left to submit an application to this summer's #REU - BLINKS program! We're excited to have so many awesome projects lined up 🎉 🦊🦀🪸🐠🌕🌱♻️🌏🌊🤖🐚☁️ Please pass this along and check out our website for project descriptions and application info: fhl.uw.edu/research/sum... @fishguy.bsky.social

Amplifying this on the Science feed 🧪 If you care about science, follow below for details about a nationwide protest on March 7th!

Guess what - our Science Moms climate ad made this top ten best (upcoming) Super Bowl ads list! The only nonprofit ad on the list! Warning: do not watch without a tissue www.nytimes.com/2025/02/07/a...

Executive wants to frame the NIH indirects cut as $4B in savings. But given that NIH returns $2.5 on every $1 investment, this would actually cost US economy a net $6 BILLION (per year!). Not to mention the human costs of wrecking education and research sectors and the communities they serve.

Universities staying quiet in hopes that they remain unscathed wasn't really a viable strategy...

Letter from the SSE/SSB/ASN councils on the scientific understanding of sex and gender, pls RT

1. Today the NIH director issued a new directive slashing overhead rates to 15%. I want to provide some context on what that means and why it matters. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

The Hubrecht Symposium is coming up soon! Registration is open until February 20th, submit your abstracts for talks and posters by February 13th. Join this inspiring day on the topic of developmental biology - morphogenesis and cell fate decisions! hubrecht.eu/hubrecht-symposium-2025/registration/

Petition to call the post conference gatherings at @cnidofest.bsky.social cnid-outs? Cnids-out? Cnids-out-on-the-town? 🪼

Lab “cnid-out”

Job Alert! We are recruiting a postdoc for organoid technology at RIKEN BDR, Japan. This is a valuable opportunity to work in collaboration with multiple labs, aiming for an advanced integration of developmental biology and engineering. Please contact! www.riken.jp/en/careers/r...

🧪📍🌊 🦑🍎 PAID INTERNSHIPS! California State University (CSU) students interested in marine, ocean, and coastal STEM are invited to apply for the 2025 CSU COAST Summer Internship Program. 20 internships available Head to bit.ly/COASTInterns2025 to apply by 2/26/25!

NEW: We obtained the directions NSF program officers are following to review all grants for compliance with the Trump EOs and the turmoil it has created in an agency mandated to broaden STEM participation. Our story: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Beginning Master’s and PhD students - apply by February 19 for up to $2,500 USD for funds to advance your research! https://buff.ly/3YZlUHf

All of these programs - KU's Bridge, MARC, PREP, IRACDA and RaMP - have done so much for training Native students in science - and all are currently shuttered on the NIH and NSF websites. I'm beyond heartbroken.

“Once you decide that a single vulnerable minority can be sacrificed, you’re operating within a fascist logic,” they said. “That means there might be a second one you’re willing to sacrifice and a third, a fourth. Then what happens?”

This is such an important point - and applies to universities also. Funded grants were rigorously peer-reviewed. This is important work that makes America better. We need university leaders standing up and defending their faculty and their faculty's work. If you fundraised on it then, defend it now.

If you're a Black person in STEM, you need to be plugged into the @blackinx.bsky.social and #NSBE as soon as POSSIBLE. Even though these companies are rolling back their DEI strategies, they are going to keep recruiting at conferences. (Hence why conferences are the next target)

I cannot stress enough how important private funding will be for underrepresented (UR) scientists for the next 4 years. NSF and NIH fund summer research opportunities for UR undergrad students in STEM, mentoring programs starting in high school, funds for UR PhD students, & more.

Applications due Monday for the T. H. Huxley Award, which recognizes high-quality evolution education resources! The recipient will have the opportunity to attend and present their work at the NABT meeting in October or #Evol2025 in June. Apply by Feb. 3! http://bit.ly/2kP2pPM

Also, our new Bougainvillia genome assembly is now in bioRxiv

Two proposals submitted to OSP this morning ✅ but it feels like we have been in survival mode for a few weeks. 😮‍💨

A reminder to US scientists: yes, your research is at risk. It's terrifying. But these efforts are systematically targeting programs meant to broaden access to science. This is the time to check in with BIPOC, LGBTQ+, disabled, and international students and colleagues in your departments.

I just contacted my representatives about the nomination of RFK, Jr and the recent executive orders. Here is what I wrote in my email or said to the staffer on the phone: Hello- I am writing/calling on several topics:

My occasional reminder to folks on tenure and promotion committees that there will be a cohort of people whose early careers were defined entirely by the pandemic and *waves vaguely* this nonsense, and it *will* impact their productivity. It can't not.

Also hiring committees. I felt invisible from like 2020 to 2022. Got my PhD in May 2021 and doing that during a pandemic, haha don't ask for the details please

Application reviews for a postdoc in my lab will begin next week. Two years of funding to conduct EvoDevo research using cnidarians.

Looking for a #LifeSciences #postdoc opportunity? Check out EMBO Postdoctoral Fellowships for internationally mobile scientists in Europe and around the world. Apply before 14 February (next cut-off date): embo.org/funding/fell... #ResearchFunding 🧪

American science and medicine has been thrown into chaos and uncertainty over the past week. Here are some stories to get up to speed. 1/12

I think some people hear “grants” and think that without them, scientists and government workers just have less stuff to play with at work. But grants fund salaries for students, academics, researchers, and people who work in all areas of public service. “Pausing” grants means people don’t eat.

Omg 😭

“Life-changing research is the engine that drives innovation in the state of California and it heavily depends on federal research dollars” -John MacMillan, @ucsantacruz.bsky.social vice chancellor of research

Heads up! The @aclu.org Immigrant Rights Project has an EXCELLENT online resource available in multiple languages to walk immigrants or advocates through various scenarios of encounters with immigration officials or police. It includes contact #s for local ACLU offices. www.aclu.org/know-your-ri...