Blue Eyed Grass
@blueeyedgrass.bsky.social
Cell Biology, Genetics, Chromosome stuff. Believer in American placefulness. Also at https://allpoetry.com/Blue_Eyed_Grass
Cleaned out the series of blue bird nest boxes we maintain along the edge of the arroyo by our house today. A small thing, but it felt positive and placeful. Spring is coming.
January 26, 2026 at 1:04 AM
Cleaned out the series of blue bird nest boxes we maintain along the edge of the arroyo by our house today. A small thing, but it felt positive and placeful. Spring is coming.
Reposting because 1) its critical information on NIH funding; 2) Princess Vimentin is a cool name. Although I'm old enough to remember when the vimentin knockout mouse came out. IF function was a big question at the time and vim-/- crawling around and making baby mice was initially like...hmmm.
🧪IMPORTANT! This graphic explains how science all over the US is funded. Congress approved a 2% increase in the #NIH budget for FY 26.
Buried in the bill-
Shift of ~40% of grants to MYF. This will still result in a 35% DECREASE in the NUMBER of grants funded per yr.
Russel Vought is behind this.
Buried in the bill-
Shift of ~40% of grants to MYF. This will still result in a 35% DECREASE in the NUMBER of grants funded per yr.
Russel Vought is behind this.
January 22, 2026 at 7:48 AM
Reposting because 1) its critical information on NIH funding; 2) Princess Vimentin is a cool name. Although I'm old enough to remember when the vimentin knockout mouse came out. IF function was a big question at the time and vim-/- crawling around and making baby mice was initially like...hmmm.
Far out. Now they need to genotype Boulder, CO raccoons. Chautauqua raccoons vs. Boulder Creek path raccoons. You don't want to mess with those creek path raccoons. Try to clip a bit of ear like they did with those squirrels and you'll be missing digits.
When Squirrels Meet the Delmar Divide
Segregation in St. Louis, Missouri, is shaping the genetics of the city’s eastern gray squirrels.
by @alicesunreports.bsky.social
www.biographic.com/when-squirre...
Segregation in St. Louis, Missouri, is shaping the genetics of the city’s eastern gray squirrels.
by @alicesunreports.bsky.social
www.biographic.com/when-squirre...
When Squirrels Meet the Delmar Divide - bioGraphic
Segregation in St. Louis, Missouri, is shaping the genetics of the city’s eastern gray squirrels.
www.biographic.com
January 18, 2026 at 7:41 AM
Far out. Now they need to genotype Boulder, CO raccoons. Chautauqua raccoons vs. Boulder Creek path raccoons. You don't want to mess with those creek path raccoons. Try to clip a bit of ear like they did with those squirrels and you'll be missing digits.
Reposted by Blue Eyed Grass
Getting asked about how academics can continue to do science & inspire trainees even in the midst of a continued (escalated) assault on science, reason, truth, & human rights. I don’t have great answers.
I would love to hear from mentors about advice they’re giving to trainees/ colleagues.
I would love to hear from mentors about advice they’re giving to trainees/ colleagues.
January 17, 2026 at 6:47 PM
Getting asked about how academics can continue to do science & inspire trainees even in the midst of a continued (escalated) assault on science, reason, truth, & human rights. I don’t have great answers.
I would love to hear from mentors about advice they’re giving to trainees/ colleagues.
I would love to hear from mentors about advice they’re giving to trainees/ colleagues.
Reposted by Blue Eyed Grass
boy that gyre sure keeps getting wider
January 14, 2026 at 3:35 PM
boy that gyre sure keeps getting wider
Reposted by Blue Eyed Grass
Screenshots from a video DHS is sharing on X, about 20 heavily-armed agents confronting then tackling one guy at a gas station, shoving his partner aside, then threatening photographers with pepper spray. Noteworthy not for its now-routine brutality but for DHS showcasing it.
January 13, 2026 at 2:29 PM
Screenshots from a video DHS is sharing on X, about 20 heavily-armed agents confronting then tackling one guy at a gas station, shoving his partner aside, then threatening photographers with pepper spray. Noteworthy not for its now-routine brutality but for DHS showcasing it.
A good read. It is falling apart. But I think the idea of shifting block grants to universities will be a disaster at many institutions. Instead of a large scale hunger game playing out within "fields" it will become local small scale hunger games that are nasty and political.
“The system of funding science is fundamentally broken. In some respects, it’s been an unmitigated disaster. It was a house of cards, and it’s not surprising that it’s now falling apart.”
-Mike Lauer, former director of extramural research 🧪
www.statecraft.pub/p/whats-wron...
-Mike Lauer, former director of extramural research 🧪
www.statecraft.pub/p/whats-wron...
What’s Wrong with NIH Grants?
“Science is fundamentally different than remodeling a kitchen”
www.statecraft.pub
January 10, 2026 at 4:28 PM
A good read. It is falling apart. But I think the idea of shifting block grants to universities will be a disaster at many institutions. Instead of a large scale hunger game playing out within "fields" it will become local small scale hunger games that are nasty and political.
Aaronson a success story for sure. But there's so much potential. Loss of developed talent at the MLS Next, MLS Next Pro, college game nexus is an issue. As is a continued emphasis on physicality vs soccer IQ. And of course pay to play. We'll get there, eventually.
Americans are good at soccer, actually
BREEEEENNNNDDEEEEENNNN!!!! YEEEEESSSSSS!!!
January 7, 2026 at 9:45 PM
Aaronson a success story for sure. But there's so much potential. Loss of developed talent at the MLS Next, MLS Next Pro, college game nexus is an issue. As is a continued emphasis on physicality vs soccer IQ. And of course pay to play. We'll get there, eventually.
Reposted by Blue Eyed Grass
From LSE… What makes students feel included in introductory STEM courses? An analysis of nearly 2,000 student responses shows that teaching practices, policies, and classroom interactions matter. www.lifescied.org/doi/10.1187/...
December 25, 2025 at 3:25 PM
From LSE… What makes students feel included in introductory STEM courses? An analysis of nearly 2,000 student responses shows that teaching practices, policies, and classroom interactions matter. www.lifescied.org/doi/10.1187/...
The Canvas grade book sucks so F'ing bad. God I hate it.
December 16, 2025 at 7:02 AM
The Canvas grade book sucks so F'ing bad. God I hate it.
A revisit of an important book. On its failure to envision a positive role for government...it's hard to cast back to the days of pork barrel water projects that Reisner was reacting to. It was a reactionary time-make it stop. Now, of course, government doesn't undertake much, save breaking things.
Marc Reisner’s Cadillac Desert offers a history of development in the American West, particularly its water projects. @ryanlcooper.com recently reread the 1986 work: He found the book witty and well written, but “in places infected with Reaganite politics.” trib.al/ps8iqVK
‘Cadillac Desert’ Reconsidered - The American Prospect
Marc Reisner’s 1986 book demonstrates how a hypertrophic judiciary combines with America’s deadlocked legislature to make vast swaths of Western water policy dependent on 19th-century legal norms.
trib.al
December 13, 2025 at 11:45 PM
A revisit of an important book. On its failure to envision a positive role for government...it's hard to cast back to the days of pork barrel water projects that Reisner was reacting to. It was a reactionary time-make it stop. Now, of course, government doesn't undertake much, save breaking things.
Periodic missive on girl pre-teen music scene.
HuntR/X (like a drug, get it?) is out. Better hurry up with that sequel. Katseye is in. In time for Xmas. "Internet Girl" OMG. A song about ironically pretending to be ironic about being ironic. Perfect for the online teen vibe.
HuntR/X (like a drug, get it?) is out. Better hurry up with that sequel. Katseye is in. In time for Xmas. "Internet Girl" OMG. A song about ironically pretending to be ironic about being ironic. Perfect for the online teen vibe.
December 12, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Periodic missive on girl pre-teen music scene.
HuntR/X (like a drug, get it?) is out. Better hurry up with that sequel. Katseye is in. In time for Xmas. "Internet Girl" OMG. A song about ironically pretending to be ironic about being ironic. Perfect for the online teen vibe.
HuntR/X (like a drug, get it?) is out. Better hurry up with that sequel. Katseye is in. In time for Xmas. "Internet Girl" OMG. A song about ironically pretending to be ironic about being ironic. Perfect for the online teen vibe.
Trying to install the Univ CA mandated Trellix shit so I can submit grades. Bought a Cyber Monday stripped down burner Mac for the install. But for some reason can't disable all the privacy/security controls for the install to work. Very frustrating. There should be high level firings over this.
December 11, 2025 at 6:49 AM
Trying to install the Univ CA mandated Trellix shit so I can submit grades. Bought a Cyber Monday stripped down burner Mac for the install. But for some reason can't disable all the privacy/security controls for the install to work. Very frustrating. There should be high level firings over this.
"Perception": a piece that is sort of a reflection on Blake's the Marriage of Heaven and Hell with the famous doors of perception line but then gets tied into my own obsession with the koan of owls. Straight to the void.
December 9, 2025 at 7:19 AM
"Perception": a piece that is sort of a reflection on Blake's the Marriage of Heaven and Hell with the famous doors of perception line but then gets tied into my own obsession with the koan of owls. Straight to the void.
A interesting read. At least for me, with attempts at creative thought, an image "appears" first, and is subsequently attended by words that try to bring it forth. T.S. Eliot wrote "between the conception and and the creation falls the shadow". Sounds like AI is too insubstantial to cast one.
I’ve been running around asking tech execs and academics if language was the same as intelligence for over a year now - and, well, it isn’t. @benjaminjriley.bsky.social explains how the bubble is built on ignoring cutting-edge research into the science of thought www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...
November 25, 2025 at 9:24 PM
A interesting read. At least for me, with attempts at creative thought, an image "appears" first, and is subsequently attended by words that try to bring it forth. T.S. Eliot wrote "between the conception and and the creation falls the shadow". Sounds like AI is too insubstantial to cast one.
Thanksgiving is the holiday where we get to reconnect with the eternal cycle of fall midterm grading. For all who celebrate.
November 24, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Thanksgiving is the holiday where we get to reconnect with the eternal cycle of fall midterm grading. For all who celebrate.
Interesting read on really key issue. Seems like (if followed correctly) even twins raised apart inflate heritability. Wonder why...how mom specifies a maternal program into egg cytoplasm? So like not the code but the hardware. Or is that just an equally deterministic metaphor?
I wrote a little bit about the "missing heritability" question and several recent studies that have brought it to a close. A short 🧵
The missing heritability question is now (mostly) answered
Not with a bang but with a whimper
theinfinitesimal.substack.com
November 22, 2025 at 12:30 AM
Interesting read on really key issue. Seems like (if followed correctly) even twins raised apart inflate heritability. Wonder why...how mom specifies a maternal program into egg cytoplasm? So like not the code but the hardware. Or is that just an equally deterministic metaphor?
I'm not a fashion dude. Nonetheless, I can't help but wonder-is this autoclavable?
Oops, had the artist wrong, here are details sakitheartist.com/pipette-dres... #sciart
Pipette dress by Marty Ornish #sciart
November 17, 2025 at 6:09 AM
I'm not a fashion dude. Nonetheless, I can't help but wonder-is this autoclavable?
Reposted by Blue Eyed Grass
A huge district court victory for the University of California.
District courts find facts. This one found "overwhelming evidence" that the Trump administration has pervasively violated the First Amendment in its efforts to coerce and intimidate the University of California.
News story here—
District courts find facts. This one found "overwhelming evidence" that the Trump administration has pervasively violated the First Amendment in its efforts to coerce and intimidate the University of California.
News story here—
‘Unlawful coercion’: Trump can’t withhold funds or demand payment from UC, federal judge rules
A federal judge ruled Donald Trump cannot demand that UCLA pay a $1.2 billion settlement that would have restricted academic freedoms.
calmatters.org
November 15, 2025 at 1:41 AM
A huge district court victory for the University of California.
District courts find facts. This one found "overwhelming evidence" that the Trump administration has pervasively violated the First Amendment in its efforts to coerce and intimidate the University of California.
News story here—
District courts find facts. This one found "overwhelming evidence" that the Trump administration has pervasively violated the First Amendment in its efforts to coerce and intimidate the University of California.
News story here—
I hear you. I'm old but seems to me science, like so much else, has been caught up in what Paul Virilio calls the dromocratic society, the tyranny of acceleration, compressing everything. Give me a good old fashion 35 page Genetics article, reclaiming slowness, collecting thought.
Dang, hard disagree. The best papers to write and read are works of art, not merely a list of data and statements.
Don’t let LLMs take this away too, for gods sake.
Don’t let LLMs take this away too, for gods sake.
I honestly think we would all be a lot more productive if papers were bullet points with plots.
November 15, 2025 at 5:08 AM
I hear you. I'm old but seems to me science, like so much else, has been caught up in what Paul Virilio calls the dromocratic society, the tyranny of acceleration, compressing everything. Give me a good old fashion 35 page Genetics article, reclaiming slowness, collecting thought.
Reposted by Blue Eyed Grass
"This urgent order to clear away the entire, centuries-old idea of disciplinary governance in one fell swoop is both radical and without even a functional ideology—an especially pure plane of the empty-mind austerity satirized from Office Space to Severance." Adam Rzepka wp.me/p8xr4h-dil
The Eternal Synergy of the Spotless Mind
BY ADAM RZEPKA A large public university is wiping out all of its humanities departments. It isn’t sure why. As I write this, our Interim Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS…
wp.me
November 13, 2025 at 9:53 PM
"This urgent order to clear away the entire, centuries-old idea of disciplinary governance in one fell swoop is both radical and without even a functional ideology—an especially pure plane of the empty-mind austerity satirized from Office Space to Severance." Adam Rzepka wp.me/p8xr4h-dil
Geeky thing but for my cell biol class I've long wanted to build a teaching model of the Sec61 translocon big enough for a large lecture hall to demonstrate how START and STOP signals are read to make trans-membrane proteins. Here it is-behold. Students seemed to like it-fun class session.
November 14, 2025 at 12:09 AM
Geeky thing but for my cell biol class I've long wanted to build a teaching model of the Sec61 translocon big enough for a large lecture hall to demonstrate how START and STOP signals are read to make trans-membrane proteins. Here it is-behold. Students seemed to like it-fun class session.
An informative, clearly written article for anyone seeking insight into the "whys" underlying the current malaise of today's universities. The why of increased tuition for larger classes, the why of bloated admins disconnected from university mission, etc.
stevenmintz.substack.com/p/the-univer...
stevenmintz.substack.com/p/the-univer...
The University of Nebraska Now Spends More on Administrators and Support Staff Than on Professors
And It’s Not an Outlier
stevenmintz.substack.com
November 12, 2025 at 12:17 AM
An informative, clearly written article for anyone seeking insight into the "whys" underlying the current malaise of today's universities. The why of increased tuition for larger classes, the why of bloated admins disconnected from university mission, etc.
stevenmintz.substack.com/p/the-univer...
stevenmintz.substack.com/p/the-univer...
A nice summary. Bridge pieces like this integrating theoretical and practical pedagogical considerations are valuable. I wish more of them explicitly considered scale as a factor. What you can do with 50 is much different than with 300.
From LSE... Want students to lean in? Connect biology to purpose and real-life relevance.
Teaching guide by Dustin Thoman et al. with evidence-based strategies for intro courses.
🔗 www.lifescied.org/doi/10.1187/...
Teaching guide by Dustin Thoman et al. with evidence-based strategies for intro courses.
🔗 www.lifescied.org/doi/10.1187/...
November 11, 2025 at 9:20 PM
A nice summary. Bridge pieces like this integrating theoretical and practical pedagogical considerations are valuable. I wish more of them explicitly considered scale as a factor. What you can do with 50 is much different than with 300.