When the s*** hits the turbofan…

🧵 on why you should not be coy about pitching new ideas to prospective postdoc advisors (even if you have to tell them you have a better idea than they do)

NEW: In March the White House released an FY27 budget request that zeroed out the National Science Foundation's directorate of Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE). For months it was unclear what would happen. Now, with FY26 over, the damage to SBE is coming to light. My reporting:

This is it. This is what everyone is enabling by humoring genAI: you spend months writing something that took you years to get at, for an opaque algorithm that a few control to spit a number and cut you off right there and then. This is what we're up against 🧪

Don't new traits evolve by rewiring of GRNs (which can of course consist of conserved and non-conserved elements)?

Random answer: Define “controlled”. Many seem to confuse the fact that manipulation of a gene may disturb a process with “control” or “regulation” of said process. I’d therefore extend your thought: “Just because a gene AFFECTS a conserved process …”

In today’s random thoughts. Just because a gene controls a conserved process does not suggest or even support that the gene is conserved. Lots of family specific genes input into or control highly conserved processes.

Please pass along: I’m recruiting PhD students to join our Macroecology Lab. We study physical ecology, macroecology, and biodiversity — spanning scaling, trait-based ecology, theory, comparative biology & ecoinformatics. Several avenues for funding. Please reach out if interested 🧪🌐🌾

Are you looking for a postdoc exploring the cell biology of development, defining how cells change shape and move? Do you want to develop a research program & teaching skills preparing you for a position at a college or small University? Our new NIH grant will support those goals 1/n Please share

Wir brauchen ein Wort für die seltsam verquere Freude, in einem Text Holprigkeiten oder Fehler zu finden, weil es uns zeigt, dass er nicht von einer verdammten AI geschrieben wurde.