vicky.science - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

Lots of fun working with Tim Brown @parasitetim.bsky.social on this piece for The Conversation about our recent review on the under-appreciated topic of conserving parasites. If it sounds wierd, read this to find out why it's important for biodiversity 🧪🪱🌍 👇 theconversation.com/parasites-ar...

submitted 3 hours ago • 3 comments

Had the honor of speaking at today’s @standupforscience.bsky.social rally in Philly. I spoke about the importance of breaking the right rules and harnessing chaos for the greater good.

submitted 3 days ago • 28 comments

Even if you take DOGE's savings claims so far at face value, its moves to cancel contracts, end leases and push federal agencies to reduce head count barely dent the government's balance sheet.

submitted 4 days ago • 107 comments

There's literaly an mRNA vaccine to treat pancreatic cancer in the works. It's shown promising results in a Phase 1 trial. Most people with pancreatic cancer are dead within 5 years. It's what killed Patrick Swayze.

submitted 6 days ago • 89 comments

Everybody out in the park for a walk with their kids

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

"The Man with the Golden Arm" hated needles and still donated blood 1,173 times, beginning even before scientists realized he had very high rates of a rare antibody that has turned his blood into 3 million doses of a lifesaving injection for pregnancies. 🧪 www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2...

submitted 6 days ago • 3 comments

NOAA returns/produces so much more money to the American economy than it costs, no stories about any of this should allow them the absolutely bullshit "savings" framing

submitted 8 days ago • 98 comments

The National Weather Service took more than 150 years to build. Forget flight or the internet or whatever - public-service systems like this are the marvels of the modern world. Conceptual cathedrals, constructed across generations and dedicated to the public good.

submitted 10 days ago • 6 comments

“It’s a six-month production cycle,” Dr. Offit said. “So one can only assume that we’re not picking flu strains this year.” 🎁 www.nytimes.com/2025/02/26/u...

submitted 11 days ago • 7 comments

This adorable little friend is a purple mouse ears flower! Not often seen — they’re mostly found tucked into rocky, nutrient-poor serpentine soils in California and a bit of Oregon… and they’re tiny!

submitted 11 days ago • 1 comment

Haha it looks like a butt

submitted 13 days ago • 1 comment

My very kind neighbor donated a bunch of grapefruits from his backyard tree! They look great and he said they’ve been very tasty in past years. One of them is uhhh extra fun though, pic in next post

submitted 13 days ago • 1 comment

Fun to stir fajitas (well, the feeding-600-people-at-once version of fajitas) with an oar. Today we sailed upon a sea of delicious peppers and onions and chicken, now on their way to feed seniors and unhoused people in San Mateo

submitted 13 days ago • 2 comments

Gray, but there’s still colors if you’re looking

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

When OMB head Russ Vought talks about deliberate efforts to put federal employees "in trauma" and make them quit their jobs, he's talking about people like Michelle, recently fired by Musk/Trump. www.sfgate.com/california/a...

submitted 14 days ago • 75 comments

Dear Manager, I have: 1. Raised the curtain 2. Lit the lights 3. Put on makeup 4. Dressed up right 5. Met the Muppets at the Muppet Show tonight

submitted 15 days ago • 18 comments

It’s a good day for looking very closely at mosses

submitted 15 days ago • 6 comments

It’s not hyperbole to say that American science is being destroyed before our eyes.

submitted 15 days ago • 10 comments

When you are just trying to chill but the winds of chaos be a-blowin' Couldn't help but chuckle at this little nudibranch feeling the gusts, rhinophores (bunny ears!) getting swept flat side to side in the surge 🧪🦑🐙 #MarineLife #inverts How would you caption this? 😄

submitted 16 days ago • 5 comments

Warrior’s plumes at the park

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

Life…

submitted 18 days ago • 17 comments

This is good news, but it appears only to apply to the seasonal employees NPS has to hire to cope with summer crowds, not the permanent staff who've been dismissed

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

Less than one fifteenth of a percent of the national budget. Thousands of dedicated, already-underpaid but passionate and incredibly important workers with the rug ripped out from under them. www.hcn.org/articles/peo...

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

"I don't know what NSF is going to be now, but it's not more efficient. It's just a mess." My story on today's firings and their impact. www.npr.org/2025/02/18/n...

submitted 19 days ago • 5 comments

I’ll never forget being stared down by one of these, face-on, with its head fully red and bloody from being buried inside a seal carcass. Also they can projectile vomit the nastiest substance you’ve ever heard of. I did not win that staring contest.

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

The MMR vaccine is 97% effective at preventing measles infection. But infants under 12 months old are not eligible for the vaccine, leaving them vulnerable. When measles spreads due to low vaccination rates, it puts our youngest—and most defenseless—children at the greatest risk.

submitted 20 days ago • 3 comments

Today’s Samaritan House of San Mateo menu: chicken with mushroom gravy, rice, and zucchini. Carmen did beautiful things with mushrooms and rice and veggies for our vegetarian meal too! Fighting The Horrors: from time to time you hit the jackpot, and it both feels good and smells good

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

submitted 22 days ago • 1 comment

Some whale #linocut prints for #WorldWhaleDay! 🧪🐡 I’ve had the great privilege of seeing humpbacks and orcas (and other species) when working at sea. They seem as curious about us as we are of them. 🧵

submitted 22 days ago • 2 comments