Drew Steen

We are hiring a tenure-track assistant professor in computational biology at USC! area: AI method development and its applications in biology. Do you combine quantitative research with a drive to develop innovative approaches for tackling biological questions? usccareers.usc.edu/job/los-ange...

I think I’m going to have to evaluate student papers this way too. Brief oral exams not so much for grades as for “do you have any idea what’s in the paper that you allegedly authored?”

One reason Prop. 38 in CA is SO bad is that it is written such that only one institute could get ~$4 billion in funding and that Institute is run by the person sponsoring the bill. Here are some of the constraints the Prop. puts on the institute to guarantee only one place gets the money:

The Department of Neurobiology at USC has launched a new PhD program and is recruiting our first cohort. Explore our labs: dornsife.usc.edu/neurobiology... Applications due December 1, 2026. GRE optional. Fee waivers available for demonstrated need. Apply here: dornsife.usc.edu/neurobiology...

Do I know any clinical pharmacologists on here? Would you be willing to speak with a high school student? if so, please DM me or email me at chemjobber -at- gmail dot com🧪#chemsky Please RT

This message brought to you by the 13 pages of “major” concerns an AE at an ostensibly respectable journal saw for to forward to me without comment

Editors really need to be flagging AI-seeming reviews

Let's say I'm in the market for a mid or shortwave UV flashlight for mineral fluorescence and also want to not blind myself / others. What would be a good way to tell which options are actually relatively safe vs being dangerous things sold on Amazon wit little warning?

Students from North Carolina A&T can be seen marching back to their HBCU after voting on the first day of early voting in the state. The Guilford County Board of Elections voted to remove the school’s on-campus polling site. (video via Todd Simmons) greensboro.com/news/local/g...

AI is conscious AND it is my girlfriend AND it is my slave. A perfect scenario for me, a normal person. Not gonna think too deeply about this. Now do all other living human people deserve the level of investment devoted to my Tamogotchi slave girlfriend? Not so fast.

Some of these guys aren’t great at thinking more than one step ahead

OMG this is so stupid

Prop. 38 in California is a scam claiming to be about funding science/medical research on major disease but is really designed to funnel billions of $$ of taxpayer money into one unnamed institution. VOTE NO ON PROP. 38. See votenoonprop38.org for more. (reposted with typo corrected)

Very slowly yours,

Notably smaller than the “minimal” cell JCVI-syn3b

Just open contempt for the rule of law

Please someone in Hollywood pay an actual human $ to write a script building off this story that ends with Matt going to jail and Cookie Monster securing the world record for largest baked chocolate chip cookie. It will surpass all box office records.

early-career academics, if you don't have a website, make yourself one. yes it's annoying but just do it it can be plain text on a white background, or google sites, or even a free Wix one with ads. nobody cares we just need to be able to look you up, quickly, bc there's like 100 other apps here

GOAT OR BIRD????

My favorite news from the past week - Tyrannosaurus Rex was *warm blooded*!!! And they figured this out using isotopes from tooth enamel 🤯https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aeb7653?referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fgo.bsky.app%2F

And now furries. These people know only one thing: scapegoating. They’re just like the OG Nazis. They’re not going to stop. You could be next.

Still accepting applications! ❄️

Midichlorian assay variability is explainable as a combination of kit contamination and bioinformatic pipeline error

One of the unexpected joys of having a teenager is someone who knows my taste in music intimately and is constantly sending me new stuff.

“I don’t have a problem with trans people, I just don’t think they should be able to use public bathrooms or play sports or get healthcare—“ ok so that’s segregation. you are functionally a segregationist. and you want me to believe that fights fascism somehow. ok.

Y’all, for real: if you’re old enough to remember two different millennia, get yourself on a a strength and flexibility program, with instruction from someone competent. Your spine doesn’t have to be sad! Heavy squats can work wonders!

Humaning.

I would like to point out that the local people in Bolivia were already familiar with the new cat species, traditionally calling it "Tilcayo", a name honored by the scientists who carried it over into the formal scientific name Leopardus tilcayo.

I do not like the natural, obvious endpoint of this recent swing. Our lives are already really fucking hard as it is.

I don't think people really understand the psychic impact of knowing that multiple times a day every day your friends, family, coworkers, neighbors, and everyone who could ever have any power over you is being flooded with agitprop designed to make them hate you

This is clarifying!

restoration ecology: