Claudia Astorino
LightNews LightNews
banner
claudistics.bsky.social
Claudia Astorino
@claudistics.bsky.social
1.9K followers 540 following 330 posts
yr friendly neighborhood tooth evangelist 🦷✨ | PhD candidate CUNY GC & @nycep.bsky.social | Evo bio | Bioanthro | Vert paleo | Dental evo-devo | Sexual polymorphism | #intersex 🟨🙆‍♀️🟨 | neurodivergent #LateDiagnosisClub 🧠 | she/her 🌈
Posts Replies Media Videos
claudistics.bsky.social
always a good time to review this @katebeaton.bsky.social comic, gloriously entitled, “Every Lady Scientist Who Ever Did Anything (until recently)” 🧪
This image shows a six-panel comic by Kate Beaton, titled, “Every Lady Scientist Who Ever Did Anything (until recently).” Panel 1: Rosalind Franklin being taunted by a grinning James Watson while with Francis Crick, saying, “Oooh, what’s that you’ve got? Little Rosie Franklin’s research! I bet it’s something!” Rosalind replies, “My final report.” Panel 2: Franklin corrects Watson saying, “ROSALIND.” Crick retorts, “Oh, that’s a big name,” and Watson says, “You’re getting fancy on us! Tell me -“ Panel 3: Rosalind deadpans, “Ah. I love this game.” Watson says, “Is it a scientific breakthrough in feelings?” while Crick laughs Panel 4: Rosalind, leaving the room, says, “Well, I suppose I have to go into hysterics or have a baby somewhere, good day gentlemen” Panel 5: Watson, hiding behind doorframe, watching Franklin walk almost out of sight, says, “Go, go,” to Crick, who is grabbing a paper Panel 6: Watson and Crick hold out a folder in front of their faces, showing their eyes and tips of their heads. Crick remarks, “Nice,” while Watson says to Crick, “Quit hogging”
November 7, 2025 at 10:05 PM
claudistics.bsky.social
just gonna leave this here 🧪
An iconic tweet from Robby Kraft @RobbyKraft on 5/3/16 reads: scientist: “does everyone here know what Watson and Crick discovered?” me from back of room: “Rosalind Franklin’s notes”
November 7, 2025 at 9:02 PM
claudistics.bsky.social
represent yr discipline! #paleo
Image of Sisyphus pushing a large boulder up a hill. In the bottom right corner, it reads, “one must imagine Sisyphus finding very cool fossils under the rock.” Three emoji have been added under the rock - a skull, a tooth, and a generic long bone.
November 5, 2025 at 7:43 PM
claudistics.bsky.social
this is the one you want!
Correct name!
November 4, 2025 at 6:10 PM
claudistics.bsky.social
okay, the figure on the right for this paper reminds me of @palaeoiris.bsky.social art in the best of ways! #paleoart #palaeoart #QueerInPaleo #QueerInSTEM 🌈🧪
Sticker from the Etsy store of the queer art collective, Palaeoiris, featuring a foraminifera test (or shell) in the colors of the progress pride flag. The sticker appears on a very light gray background. Enamel pins from the Etsy store of the queer art collective, Palaeoiris, featuring a foraminifera test (or shell) in the colors of the progress pride flag. The pin on the left is made of gold-colored metal, while the pin on the right is made of silver-colored metal. Both pins rest against a rock that is shiny and gold, on a bright orange surface. Button pins from the Etsy store of the queer art collective, Palaeoiris, featuring a foraminifera test (or shell) in the colors of the progress pride flag. The background of each pin is solid blue. Buttons are equally spaced apart from one another on a white background, depicting full or partial images of twelve pins.
October 6, 2025 at 6:16 PM
claudistics.bsky.social
I knew checking the news was gonna be bad following a few days away, but god
A frame from the movie, This Is The End (2013), depicting Rihanna turning around and smacking Michael Cera in the face
September 8, 2025 at 10:34 PM
claudistics.bsky.social
Figure 11 from Lance et al. (2016), “Data science for global health,” with the figure heading, “Figure 11. Correlation of two unrelated variables: per capita consumption of mozzarella cheese and civil engineering doctorates awarded.” The figure depicts a dot plot chart of how both “cheese consumption” (y-axis, numbers on right-hand side) with red dots and a red line connecting them, and “doctorates” (y-axis, numbers on the left-hand side) with blue dots and a blue line connecting them has risen over time (x-axis) from 2000-2009. Cheese increased from 9.75 to 11 (no units given) while doctorates have increased from about 475 to 800 (no units given). A caption under the figure reads, “The correlation of the two variables shown here is .958648. Source: Spurious Correlations. http://www.tylervigen.com-spurious-correlations.”
July 16, 2025 at 7:12 PM
claudistics.bsky.social
This image shows the “but you didn’t do anything” meme from the anime Sailor Moon. In the first panel, the character Tuxedo Mask - a man in a black tuxedo, a black cape, and a white eye mask - says, “My job here is done!” In the second panel, Sailor Moon replies to Tuxedo Mask, “But you didn’t do anything.” In the last panel, Tuxedo Mask has turned to go, flinging his cap behind him, ignoring Sailor Moon.
April 30, 2025 at 5:30 PM
claudistics.bsky.social
in TX House budget proceedings, Rep Lauren Ashley Simmons (D) asks Rep Andy Hopper (R) how his proposal to deny U Texas state funding (bc of LGBTQ research & support) will affect #intersex ppl

Hopper apparently doesn’t know not all ppl have XX or XY chromosomes - yikes

Thank you, Rep Simmons!
In TX House of Representatives, during proceedings to approve TX state budget, Rep Andy Hopper (R) proposed defunding U Texas because of its LGBT programs & research. Three vertical images are shown. The top image shows TX Rep Lauren Ashley Simmons (D) asking, “Okay, so in the same vein, what about intersex individuals?” The middle image shows Hopper responding, “I don’t even know what that means, ma’am.” Simmons replies, “But you want to define a program about something that you don’t quite understand.” Two vertical images are shown. The top image shows Hopper responding, “Yeah, those intersex individuals are still XX or XY. So you can’t change that.” The bottom image depicts as associate of Hopper’s saying to him, with their hand cupped in front of their mouth, “Andy, that’s not true.” Above this text, another line of text reads, “ *Another state rep whispers* “
April 20, 2025 at 6:41 PM
claudistics.bsky.social
in this article:

- refers to Earth’s “apocalypse” as foregone conclusion

- refers to his kids as a “legion”

- bought a compound in Austin, TX with the intent to keep his kids & their moms there 😳

- thinks newborn brain size is limited when birthed vaginally but not if birthed via C-section 🥴
Underlined in yellow text, Musk states: “In all of history, there has never been a competitive army composed of women. Not even once…Men are made for war. Real men, anyway.” Underlined in yellow, the article reports that Musk has “a compound in Austin [TX] where Musk imagined the women and his growing number of babies would all live…Musk also attempted to get Grimes to move to the compound, but she refused.” Underlined in yellow, the article states “…Musk had urged [St. Clair] to deliver the baby via caesarean section…Musk had posted on X that vaginal births limit brain size and that C-sections allow for larger brains.” Underlined in yellow, the article states “Musk refers to his offspring as a “legion”” and referenced “reach[ing] legion-level before the apocalypse…”
April 16, 2025 at 3:33 AM
claudistics.bsky.social
Image shows a screenshot from the BBC television show, Sherlock. A hand is holding a black flip phone. The screen on the flip phone, in the original image, shows three lines of text: "I AM" at top, "LOCKED" at the bottom, and "SHER" in the middle. Together, the text reads, "I AM SHER LOCKED." The "SHER" line shows each letter in "SHER" in its own separate box, to indicate that a user has entered "SHER" as a code to unlock the phone. I modified this image by replacing "SHER" with "FISH" so that the text reads, "I AM FISH LOCKED."
April 14, 2025 at 6:47 PM
claudistics.bsky.social
the govt apparently wants to force academic receiverships (read: appointed, hand-picked people outside the dept) for Columbia’s MESAAS dept as a part of their “negotiations” (read: fascist govt mandates that Columbia either complies to or loses major govt funding)

Columbia, resist!
An excerpt from the article reads as follows: “One of the main sticking points in the negotiations has been the status of the Middle East, South Asian and African Studies department. The Trump administration requested it be put into receivership for five years, which means someone from outside the department would be brought in to make decisions for the faculty. “When a school puts a department into receivership - an unusual move - it typically appoints a dean from another department. Normally, a school only does this when departments are so dysfunctional the university has lost faith they can course correct on their own.”
March 19, 2025 at 6:10 PM
claudistics.bsky.social
had a great time at the @dentalanth.bsky.social business meeting tonight @bioanth.org #AABA2025 🦷✨

excited to follow it up tomorrow with the baby tooth symposium! #TeamTooth
This frame from the comic Blobby and Friends depicts Blobby, a pink blobfish, smiling while sorting through a pile of teeth, while his friend Lily, who has blue hair in two side buns, has backed herself against a wall and is sweating profusely, assumedly because the pile of teeth is freaking her out
March 15, 2025 at 3:19 AM
claudistics.bsky.social
* David Attenborough voice * the cool S morphotype is rare in nature - here we see the Columba livia coolessica surveying her surroundings
This image title reads, “Finish drawing the pigeon,” and shows an illustrated black and white line drawing of a pigeon head and bird feet. Instead of drawing a round body in the middle of the pigeon, I drew a “cool S” instead in thick black marker
March 8, 2025 at 9:45 PM
claudistics.bsky.social
This image from the first generation Pokémon games depicts a Pokémon battle between the Gastly and Zubat. Gastly is shown as a purple & black cloud of 8-bit “dots” and Batly is shown as a blue bat with sharp, pointed teeth. After an attack by Zubat, a text box at the bottom of the image says, “Gastly is confused!”
February 22, 2025 at 8:15 PM
claudistics.bsky.social
hard not to feel like this
This is a variation of the “but you didn’t do anything” meme from the anime Sailor Moon. In the first panel, the character Tuxedo Mask - a man in a black tuxedo, a black cape, and a white eye mask - says, “My job here is done!” In the second panel, Sailor Moon replies to Tuxedo Mask, “But you didn’t do anything.” In the last panel, Tuxedo Mask has turned to go, flinging his cap behind him, and declares, “My job here is done.” In this variation, I’ve labeled Tuxedo Mask as “DEMOCRATS” in Panels 1 and 3 and Sailor Moon as “US” in Panel 2.
February 19, 2025 at 12:15 AM
claudistics.bsky.social
I distinctly remember loving the nose tubes - so fascinating!

I also loved looking at the panoply of fossil ancestors - the Platybelodon!! those two giant lower incisors!! ✨🦷🦷✨
This image shows an illustration from the Elephants issue of Zoobooks, depicting fossil ancestors of modern elephants, including mastodons and mammoths. These fossil ancestors include Platybelodon, which has comically large lower incisors, which are flat and shaped like a large shovel.
January 7, 2025 at 8:40 PM