eric lai

Who do I give to to get this in front of as many Michigan voters as possible?

In case facts still matter

great stuff from Poster Journal

my reward for daughter insisting to stay an hour later at practice, i found a bar with pinball to spend my time!

my reward for 2hr weekend drive so daughter can train at gym, sunny spot in comfy public chair next to the east river.

parking is tight in NYC!!

kids' halloween art: sometimes whimsical, sometimes magical, occasionally disturbing

double super annoying #shuffalo

my first thought with this subject line was "GASZ journal?! that's a very niche piRNA thing". but i read the message and was really struck by how threatening it sounds, not the usual "greetings of the day" text.

morning light

eeek!!! baby house centipede (minus an antenna) ventured out of my bathroom sink. i know they are good against bugs, but eeek!!!

music can transport you in funny ways. i unexpectedly heard "who's johnny" on the airport sound system, and could not place it, until i succumbed to web search. any 80s teenagers remember?

after you read the article on fake plant species described in the Kew Gardens collection, have a look at this article on the world's rarest fungus recorded. 3 specimens from england and east africa, apparently sterile and bearing faint whiff of rubber. www.kew.org/read-and-wat...

some slightly grim rodent humor. (i wouldn't have understood this before we had mouse breeding going on in my lab).

my favorite middle school teacher encouraged us kids with rewards of scratch-and-sniff stickers, and i made it my personal mission to get them ALL. its not the only reason why i became serious about school, but its a pretty important reason.

computers are groovy

if you're ever around Purdue, i recommend you hit up Chris Wirth @ageofarthropods.bsky.social and check out the entomological collection. focused on indiana specimens, he showed me highlights from cicadas, dragonflies, drosophila and butterflies/moths, and many more! 🦋🪲🪰

i have now entered the infinite zoom room for my talk in lilly...

This is Tommy. Tommy had a question about my allegiances. Listen to the end to hear about his.

i am currently there at the #Purdue marker. If you're in West Lafayette, come see my talk for the Biology dept tomorrow Monday, 11:30!

overheard in #IND: "are those jellyfish? or maybe potato chips?" later i had the chance to look up that it's a fleet of >100 dirigibles, the brainchild of science fiction fan/futurist Rob Fisher. sadly, he died before he received the commission, but the artwork was constructed posthumously.

i'm a big fan of thoughtful/beautiful public art. this bathroom tile mosaic doesn't seem to be attributed, but id gladly have it installed at home. #NYCart

jenny. #caturday

Delighted to host Mariana Wolfner, doyenne of reproductive biology, for seminar @mskcancercenter.bsky.social. wanted to share her Perspective on Dave Hogness in @genetics-gsa.bsky.social. Supplement includes her unpublished thesis on ecdysone inducible genes! 🪰🧬 academic.oup.com/genetics/art...

The FlyBoard is happy to announce the call for nominations for the Drosophila Community Service Award. Please submit your nomination by 01/16/2026 by email to: drosophilaserviceaward@gmail.com. Please repost.

4 decades of stocks sent out by the @bdsc.bsky.social, nearly 5M vials!! countless crosses, experiments and knowledge generated from those flies. fun fact, like having a low area code is a cachet (eg 212), low digit BUN (Bloomington user number) IDs are a status symbol for some. my old lab was #40.🪰

what marvelous creatures one can find right outside the front door!! 🪲

I’m ok. Make no mistake: this is an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement. For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns. This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation. I will not be silenced.

nominations are open till Oct 22 for the Bellen/Tasnier Drosophila Neurogenetics lecture! 🪰🍀

extra show bonuses: (1) scored a copy of @jamie-fisher.bsky.social new biography of elliott smith, which i'm looking forward to reading and probably crying over, (2) snagged the slippers setlist! (3) my daughter talked to madeline slippers, who promptly took her to the merch table and gave her a cd!

a gloomy rainy day flipped into one of the best of the year! took my daughter to a secret secret indie show and saw Currituck Co (kevin from Aden), Girl Scout Handbook (bklyn teens), Slippers (fav new fuzz pop) and the suave Jens Lekman. and chatted up bunch of indie royalty who were hanging around!

The deadline is approaching! NIH is proposing changes to how peer review is used in funding decisions and how outcomes are reported and they want to hear from you. Comments are due by October 13! Comment here: grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

breathtaking intimate show with laura veirs and karl blau. she's one of favorite songwriters. i got laura to pose with her guitar, she estimates she may have written 1000 songs on it!

there is a show tonight! #lauraveirs

conundrum: i'm meeting my wife who is 6 blocks east and can't find a parking spot. can i hold this one until she gets here? #NYClife

since i'm not around grand central terminal very often the past years, i always take some extra moments to appreciate the details of the building, and ponder the movement of people in transit. its such a fascinating place, a real treasure.

roughly 32000 ferrero rochers

our family loves going to hear live music...but there's not enough free time to go around. thus, within 4 days, we are sending three different pairs of family members out to see (1) the Linda Lindas, (2) Laura Veirs/Karl Blau and (3) Jens Lekman/Currituck Co/Slippers/Girl Scout Handbook. whooo!! 🎶🎸🥁

#sleepyhollow

legend

tall shadows in the morning. #arteverywhere @bwjones.bsky.social

this is so cool! 🧊 and apropos of dinner conversation last night, i was mentioning interesting things you can learn about from ice to my family. i was thinking about historical climate records assayed from ice cores, and didn't even know about this work! ⚛️

BREAKING NEWS The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel “for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics.”

i wasn't sure if president lincoln was formerly a mayor (maybe not), but looks like it could be him. i think the middle one looks like phage.

DEMETHYLATING not a word?!? (also not RE-CH3) ahhh, come on now! i think would/should have been some of my longest outliers... @triggerloop.bsky.social

beautiful setting, tremendous science and trainee presentations, and quality time with old and new folks at the BCMB program retreat @weillcornell.bsky.social. it's especially welcome after a year hiatus because of what's happening to science. also, time for a tight squeeze during the break!

the Lai lab is legal: 21 years! fantastic gathering of past and current lab stretching over 2 decades. these folks made mountains of discoveries that will last the ages, and continue to fuel new inquiries. im privileged to work with them @mskcancercenter.bsky.social and see them find their success!🧬

yes, it happened! science+music is the best combo yuki🎹 brendan🥁me🎸 @wbderry.bsky.social @chrmosimann.bsky.social @thelovelylab.bsky.social @docdellaire.bsky.social @burgesslab.bsky.social @benoitbruneau.bsky.social @mads100tist.bsky.social @slewzeus.bsky.social @daphsci.bsky.social

hi NYC RNA fans! i'm hosting the maestro of small RNA biochemistry for seminar @mskcancercenter.bsky.social today - Yuki Tomari!! special bonus, after his talk, we're going to make our northeast debut and play some original music! 🧬🎸🎹🥁