iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Alex Dainis PhD 🧬

Museum of Science @museumofscience.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

What if you could eat your water bottle instead of recycling it?🧪 @alexdainis.bsky.social shows how, using a bit of kitchen chemistry. Sodium alginate, a powder derived from seaweed, reacts with calcium lactate to form a gel wherever the two meet. #Chemistry #DIY #Science #STEM #ScienceExperiment

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Reposted by Alex Dainis PhD 🧬

Museum of Science @museumofscience.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

What happens if you put a carrot in the microwave? 🥕💥🧪 @alexdainis.bsky.social demonstrates how metals in the microwave are dangerous, even the smaller ones in root vegetables like carrots! #Science #Biology #Carrots #STEM #ScienceExperiment

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Reposted by Alex Dainis PhD 🧬

Museum of Science @museumofscience.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

You can make a tower of hot ice with ingredients in your home! 🧊🔥🧪 @alexdainis.bsky.social shows us how with sodium acetate, which you can make using baking soda and vinegar. #Science #DIY #Chemistry #STEM #ScienceExperiment

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Reposted by Alex Dainis PhD 🧬

Museum of Science @museumofscience.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

What are floating dots you see in your vision? 👁️🧪 @alexdainis.bsky.social breaks down "eye floaters" using a simple demo: a baggie of aloe gel standing in for your eyeball, and raisins standing in for collagen clumps. #ScienceExperiment #HumanBody #Vision #Anatomy #Science

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Alex Dainis PhD 🧬 @alexdainis.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

I've spent the past three months turning eggshells into leather so that I could make a leather jacket for an egg and then talk about dinosaurs. I'm really not sure what my job is some days. youtu.be/o7vcbvY1o9k?...

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Alex Dainis PhD 🧬 @alexdainis.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

So there is some scientific literature looking into cayenne and its active spicy compound, capsaicin, as a topical pain reliever. And there can be "spicy receptors" (TRPV1 channels) in your skin that respond to these compounds too. But all these players are likely doing is making spicy gym socks.

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Alex Dainis PhD 🧬 @alexdainis.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

I've been telling everyone I know. I have decided I need to go opening night because I just need to be a fly on the wall for whatever is going to happen. Maybe it's actually the best marketing ever.

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Alex Dainis PhD 🧬 @alexdainis.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

I know EXACTLY which restaurant you're talking about and I have felt like they are trolling me specifically. Pictures of the stairs! The parking lot! An interior that looks like it was designed in the Sims. But the food? Not even a whiff of a hint. I feel like I'm losing my mind.

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Reposted by Alex Dainis PhD 🧬

PacBio @pacbio.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

🚩 Short reads for big SVs 🚩 Long reads with tradeoffs 🟢 Tech with large variant detection, haplotyping, epigenetics + exceptional accuracy. See how to get green flags from the start...There's HiFi for That: bit.ly/3JminPa #PacBio #ScienceHumor #TheresHiFiForThat #HiFisequencing

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Alex Dainis PhD 🧬 @alexdainis.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

I just received three separate AI notetaker summaries of a call I was in and y’all I do not want or need three different sets of badly taken notes.

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Alex Dainis PhD 🧬 @alexdainis.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

I have been dying to see it on my few trips up there!!

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Museum of Science @museumofscience.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

What looks like a spinning window might just be your brain filling in the blanks. 🧠😵‍💫 In the Ames window illusion, @alexdainis.bsky.social builds a trapezoid “window” with shading that tricks your brain into seeing motion that’s not really there.

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Alex Dainis PhD 🧬 @alexdainis.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

Sometimes I really feel like I’ve messed up my “influencer” journey. I’m out here trying to convince people to use science for good in their lives when I’ve missed my true passion and calling of being a collab cookie reviewer.

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Clare Fieseler, PhD @fieseler.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

Update: Our friend @alecluhn.bsky.social was found alive this morning! He is in good health with some injuries to his leg/foot. He is at a hospital in Bergen now. Thank you to the Norwegian helicopter team who found him and all the volunteers who searched in bad conditions. ❤️

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Reposted by Alex Dainis PhD 🧬

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

The best news!!! 😍

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The New York Times @nytimes.com · 05/08/2025

Alec Luhn, an American journalist, has been missing for days in Folgefonna National Park in Norway. He was last heard from on Thursday at the start of a solo hike.

nyti.ms

Search Underway for Alec Luhn, American Journalist Missing in Norway

A search was underway Tuesday for Alec Luhn, 38, who was last heard from five days ago at the start of a solo hike.

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Reposted by Alex Dainis PhD 🧬

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

I NEED to tell you the story of Tae Heung “William” Kim. He's a graduate student at Texas A&M where he's working on a vaccine for Lyme disease. He's a *legal permanent resident* of the United States. And he's been in ICE detention for 12 days & counting, transferred Tuesday to South Texas.

From left to right, Dr. Albert Mulenga, William Tae Heung Kim, Dr. Thu Thuy Nguyen, Dr. Alex Kiarie Gaithuma, Dr Hassan Hakimi and Emily Bencosme Cuevas. Kim is a Texas A&M researcher who was detained in San Francisco last Monday despite being a permanent resident of the United States and a green card holder.

COURTESY OF TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY

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Reposted by Alex Dainis PhD 🧬

micah @nemerevermore.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

I wish I could work on my book after work but unfortunately my brain only functions for five hours a day and my job takes seven of those

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Reposted by Alex Dainis PhD 🧬

Ryan Marino, MD @ryanmarino.bsky.social · 27/07/2025

The NIH’s 2024 budget of just under $37B generated $95B in economic activity in 2024 alone. 99.4% of new pharmaceuticals approved from 2010-2019 came from NIH-funded research. I’m hard pressed to think of anything that generates as much direct economic benefit as our NIH did before they destroyed it

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Reposted by Alex Dainis PhD 🧬

Dr. Davey F. Wright ⛏️🦕🧬 @daveyfwright.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

"i asked grok" "i asked chatgpt" yeah well i asked carl sagan and he said the greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge 🧪

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Reposted by Alex Dainis PhD 🧬

Brooke Fitzwater, PhD (she/her) 🐟🪱🏳️‍🌈♾️ @oceanfilly.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

Are you a PI in a biology field looking for postdocs? Here is a Starter Pack of early career biologists currently seeking postdoctoral positions! (Also if you are searching for a postdoc, let me know if you want to be added!) go.bsky.app/8zZNEGV

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Reposted by Alex Dainis PhD 🧬

Andy Luttrell @andyluttrell.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

A clip from this week's episode of SciComm Summer, featuring @alexdainis.bsky.social. Check out Opinion Science for the full episode. ( opinionsciencepodcast.com/episode/alex...)

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Reposted by Alex Dainis PhD 🧬

Neil Lewis, Jr. @neillewisjr.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

We're hiring! academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/30219 The Cornell Department of Communication is hiring an Assistant Professor in Science, Environment, and Risk Communication! Applications received by September 15, 2025, will be given full consideration.

academicjobsonline.org

Cornell University, Department of Communication

Job #AJO30219, WDR-00053939 Assistant Professor in Science, Environment, and Risk Communication, Department of Communication, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, US

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Reposted by Alex Dainis PhD 🧬

SciComm Excellence @scicommexcellence.nationalacademies.org · 14/07/2025

Check out @andyluttrell.bsky.social's interview with fellow #scicomm awardee @alexdainis.bsky.social for his SciComm Summer series of the Opinion Science podcast!

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Alex Dainis PhD 🧬 @alexdainis.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

Booms and plumes over LA tonight. (Don’t be alarmed if a sonic boom wakes you up.)

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Reposted by Alex Dainis PhD 🧬

Office of Mayor Michelle Wu 吳弭 @mayorwu.boston.gov · 13/07/2025

Today is a #BostonFamilyDay with free museum, zoo, and aquarium access for all school-age children and two guests! Here’s a list of our partners opening their doors to families today! 🧵 Museum of Fine Arts Institute of Contemporary Art Museum of Science Boston Children's Museum New England Aquarium

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Reposted by Alex Dainis PhD 🧬

Andrew Sobey @andrewsobey.com · 07/07/2025

@alexdainis.bsky.social wanted to make a video about stable isotope testing and wound up uncovering what looks like honey fraud at her local grocery store. Our latest Reactions episode at ACS 🧪

youtu.be

Exposing Fake Honey Using Carbon-13

YouTube video by Reactions

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Alex Dainis PhD 🧬 @alexdainis.bsky.social · 05/07/2025

Hahaha, um yes, but only if you promise to send it to me when it’s done!!

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @aoc.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

I cannot emphasize enough how true & real this is. In almost anywhere on the political spectrum you ID with or major issue, there’s probably a bot/troll operation to encourage your rage and vitriol. And how/where that rage gets directed, esp understandable rage, is what they are out to influence.

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Alex Dainis PhD 🧬 @alexdainis.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

Very proud of this video on honey fraud that I worked on with the @acs.org Reactions team! I really really wanted to write a video about stable isotopes, and along the way we found honey that might not really be what it claims to be… youtu.be/rKvNp0fAaZ8

A YouTube thumbnail of Alex disappointedly pointing at a jar of honey with text that says “Jar of Lies”

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Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

Outdoor Afro is offering scholarships to cover the costs of anyone, at any age, interested in learning how to swim: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

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Reposted by Alex Dainis PhD 🧬

STAT @statnews.com · 20/06/2025

Nicole Verdun, director of the office that reviews cell and gene therapies at the Food and Drug Administration, and her deputy Rachael Anatol have been placed on administrative leave and escorted out of the agency. www.statnews.com/2025/06/18/t...

statnews.com

Top gene therapy regulator forced out at FDA

Nicole Verdun, top gene therapy regulator at the FDA, has been forced out of the agency.

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 19/06/2025

If a human told you things that were correct 80% of the time but claimed, flat out, with absolute confidence, that they were correct 100% of the time, you would dislike them & never trust a word they say. All I'm really suggesting is for people to treat chatbots with that same distrust & antagonism.

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Reposted by Alex Dainis PhD 🧬

Bradley Busch @bradleybusch.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

New research from MIT found that those who used ChatGPT can’t remember any of the content of their essays. Key takeaway: the product doesn’t suffer, but the process does. And when it comes to essays, the process *is* how they learn. arxiv.org/pdf/2506.088...

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Alex Dainis PhD 🧬 @alexdainis.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

I mean, can I ride *all* the blimps?!?

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Alex Dainis PhD 🧬 @alexdainis.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

People ask me for career advice sometimes, and my biggest piece of it is to tell everybody what you love and what you want to do, loudly and often. Sometimes, for me, that’s blimps 😂

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Alex Dainis PhD 🧬 @alexdainis.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

Thank you for this lovely snapshot of some of what I do in front of and behind the camera!!

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Vincent Ledvina @vincentledvina.bsky.social · 01/06/2025

The auroral oval seen from space during the early morning on June 1 - captured by the NOAA-21 satellite flying over North America

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Reposted by Alex Dainis PhD 🧬

Stephanie M. Lee @stephaniemlee.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

The Spencer Foundation normally hears from 500 scholars applying for grants. This year, it got 2,000. Philanthropies are facing a surge in demand in the wake of cuts to federal research subsidies. But they can't be a full replacement. @mkhaw.bsky.social reports: www.chronicle.com/article/as-t...

chronicle.com

As the Nation’s Research-Funding Model Ruptures, Private Money Becomes a Band-Aid

Some foundations are offering much-needed stopgaps for researchers. But that’s not a permanent fix, scientists and advocates say.

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Alex Dainis PhD 🧬 @alexdainis.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

Just a casual space capsule reentering the atmosphere! I’m mad I fell asleep before it happened because the odds of seeing/hearing it were kinda low, but those odds were wrong!

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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

Good God, vaccine hesitancy has gone from 12% to 26% among Republican parents in the last four years. www.kff.org/health-infor...

Percent of Republican parents who say they have ever delayed or skipped childhood vaccines for their children: 26%

Percent of Democratic parents who say they have ever delayed or skipped childhood vaccines for their children: 5%

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