Tiffany Lowe-Power stands with Minnesota

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... Excited to share that PNAS published our research article focused on "Why are Ralstonia goofy?"

It was tradition to put a $20 in the physical copy of your PhD thesis for the rare chance someone pulled it off the stacks and read it. What's the equivalent of writing a research paper and hoping a human reads it instead of only the AIs?

“I believe that NSF has lost any semblance of independence and that any policy statement coming out of NSF is directed by the White House, presumably OSTP, in consultation with OMB,” says former NSF Director Neal Lane. 🔥 via @policyhound.bsky.social

Okay this one’s gonna be controversial. In our new preprint, we show that the canonical #Klebsiella pneumoniae 🦠 virulence factors and strain lineage are decoupled from infection severity and patient outcomes. This was a surprise to us #IDSky #KlebClub #MicroSky 🧪 www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...

Thank you to Stone for 26 years as a civil servant at NSF

Anyone have recommendations for a decent, not too expensive, digital microscope for amateur home use to look at things like diatoms, tardigrades, fungi, etc?

As a biologist, I'm strongly against Prop 38 here in California. It makes no sense for billions to go to one unnamed research institute. Vote no.

I'm excited. Five more days until this job closes. Come do plant evolution here at Davis! recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF07777?utm...

Please repost/share We're hiring! UC Davis Plant Pathology seeks a tenure-track Assistant Professor in plant health & microbiomes. recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF07904 My department is full of great colleagues, and we look forward to recruiting our new colleague!

Love all papers from Howard Ochman! I saw the interesting title and was jazzed to see him as a co-author.

Our world class international graduate students/postdocs are in the same union as domestic students/postdocs. They are not suppressing wages.

OSTP can adopt slogans and hold as many summits as they like, but that doesn't undo the facts on the ground. Under this administration, science, institutions, and early career researchers keep losing, with near- and long-term consequences for innovation, health, economy, and national security.

Arithmetic in the "New Golden Age of Science" at NSF: Reduce $600M in STEM funding between FY25 and FY26 grantwitness.org/nsf/analyses... Propose to reduce NSF GRFP fellowships by $180M in FY27 nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/FY-202... Declare "success" w/a $100M "push" for US scientists.

We have too much political violence in the US. www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/congres...

Exclusive: A new analysis refutes James Watson’s claim that he was the first to recognize the significance of the famed photograph 51. https://scim.ag/4rTKck8

CA prop 38 is a scam - vote NO. For example see: This CA proposition will send $4 billion to a single nonprofit. Who’s behind it? calmatters.org/politics/ele...

Eric Jones is not a serious candidate. I recommend reading this short article if you are in Davis/Napa congressional district davisite.org/2026/09/14/e...

Davis Residents: Join me and Supervisor Sheila Allen for a town hall Wednesday, October 7th at 5:00 pm at YoloCares. RSVP here: tinyurl.com/DavisTownHall

Hey Biologists : Have you made any comments on the NIH Biosafety Policy for Biohazards? Because some of the changes are REDONKULOUS - and there are only 40 comments on file - Submit comments by Oct 19! osp.od.nih.gov/comment-form.... 🦠 #microsky

"Meanwhile, Jane Doe dropped out of Cornell and was denied her request to get her tuition refunded so that she could transfer to a different college. She hence faced more severe consequences than most of the men who she alleges gang-raped her." www.thecut.com/article/what...

Please repost/share We're hiring! UC Davis Plant Pathology seeks a tenure-track Assistant Professor in plant health & microbiomes. recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF07904 My department is full of great colleagues, and we look forward to recruiting our new colleague!

Some random thoughts: Good science doesn't always need disruptors. Often, it needs load-bearing walls. You can't pivot away from a failed multi-year experiment or "iterate" your way out of a mentee's PhD. Science needs stable foundations, not churn. Don't break the people building on top of it.

A former mentor of mine used to say "we don't often stand on the shoulders of giants, we're usually standing on the shoulders of our colleagues and the ones who came before us who were, like us, pretty normal sized"... or something to that effect.

If you’re a graduate student and interested in fungi please apply, this a great opportunity to experience research in an industry setting jobs.bayer.com/job/Chesterf...

Eric Jones is not a serious candidate. I recommend reading this short article if you are in Davis/Napa congressional district davisite.org/2026/09/14/e...

Good news! The Trump admin was trying to limit grad students to a 4-year cap on their visa. But a judge blocked it. www.statnews.com/2026/09/14/c...

My least favorite part of grant writing is settling on a title.

Ten years ago Tami, Roy, and I released a movie we made of antibiotic resistance evolving in real time. I thought maybe a couple thousand people tops would see it. I couldn't have imagined it would be seen millions of times, and be taught from middle school through the graduate level worldwide

Why are tax dollars being diverted to support R&D at private industries? Can't those industries attract their own investment? Isn't that the entire point of those private industries? Are investers so fucking greedy that they no longer want to risk their own money on tech, so they have to spend ours?

The implementation phase begins... whereby investigator-initiated research is considered secondary to the whims and political priorities of OSTP and OMB who want to narrow what constitutes science into a limited set of corporate-focused interests while slashing budgets. www.nsf.gov/news/nsf-lea...

Over the past decade, a toxic fungus that destroys cheese rinds has been popping up in cheese caves throughout New England. In a new paper from my lab, we tried to better understand this emerging threat to New England's artisan cheese industry. doi.org/10.1128/aem....