iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Was watching Buffy’s Anya backstory episode. Friend asked why I sighed. “She’s not of a sufficiently high social class to have domesticated rabbits that far north in Europe in that century, but the writers couldn’t know, the paper was only presented at a conference yesterday.” Accuracy is fleeting.

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Joshua Weitz @joshuasweitz.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

The NIH proposal to conceal reviewer scores from program officers, investigators, and advisory councils is ill-conceived, introduces disproportionate weight to small percentile differences, diminishes the role of scientific peer review, and should be withdrawn in its entirety. a 🧵

joshuasweitz.substack.com

What is NIH Leadership Trying to Hide from Researchers & the Public?

A NIH proposal to conceal reviewer rankings of investigator-initiated research grants is ripe for misuse & demands a collective response (by October 13).

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Kari Debbink @karidebbink.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

The US medical system is not even accessible to those with good insurance who are proactive about seeking care. And those who most need it will never be able to jump through all the hoops it takes. It’s just really fucked up how much we all pay for an awful system.

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David C Bell @moviehooligan.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

If you’re wondering what the vibe is going into the midterms the New England fall fair I went to today had a crochet guillotine for sale.

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Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

It’s simply unimaginable that CDC Director Dr. Erica Schwartz has just bowed to RFK Jr. and approved funding for an utterly unethical clinical trial that will withhold the birth dose of HepB vaccine in Guinea Bissau. It is to be conducted by researchers accused of academic misconduct.

rollingstone.com

CDC Is Moving Forward With a Previously Shelved Controversial Hepatitis B Vaccine Study

“It’s a wholly unethical trial, and it shouldn’t be allowed,” says Dr. Paul Offit of Guinea-Bissau study

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Erin Purcell @erinpurcell.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Whole-plasmid and whole-genome sequencing being readily available and fairly cheap is one of the thing that regularly makes me feel old, in a positive 'oh we have that now! it's the future!' way.

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Courtney Milan @courtneymilan.com · 09/10/2026

People in California who are facing a terrible ICE surge: remember that if you need whistles, we are still sending them out for free. In fact, we just passed 1.7 million whistles sent out. linktr.ee/3Dwhistles

linktr.ee

3D Printed Whistles | Linktree

We ship community protection whistles for free. Need some? Click the email link below & tell us how many you need (between 100 - 3000) & where to send them.

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Soraya Nadia McDonald @soraya.press · 10/10/2026

The machine did not "go rogue." The machine belongs to and is the responsibility of the people who own it. Hold those people accountable for their goddamn machine.

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David William with a 'This IS my costume' pin @nrvscrcts.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

hello 911, yes, I'd like to report a murder

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Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

"The current level of political animosity is exactly what one would expect to see if an extremist faction attempted to rescind the hard-earned rights of the vast majority of the country’s citizens." There are not enough exclamation points to convey how I felt reading this paragraph

Screenshot of article which reads: From this perspective, the “both sides” frame falls apart. The prob-
lem is not that the parties are divided. The problem is the existential
threat that a reempowered ethnonationalist strain poses to pluralistic
U.S. democracy writ large. The current level of political animosity is
exactly what one would expect to see if an extremist faction attempted
to rescind the hard-earned rights of the vast majority of the country’s
citizens. The only way to re-oppress most of a country is to use anti-
democratic and authoritarian tactics. And the only way to oppose those
tactics is to push back as a population and clearly reject them. This is
the argument happening in the United States, and its pathology is not
anger—it is the movement to undermine a generation of rights.

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Erin Biba @erinbiba.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

TIL there’s a fish that lives in the lowest depths of the Congo River that has stunted growth, no color pigment, and no eyes. And locally it’s called “mondeli bureau,” which translates to “white man in an office” LMAO

A very small blind pasty white yellowish fish in the palm of someone’s hand.

Lamprologus lethops, a fish that lives in the lower Congo River, is pale and blind like fish that dwell in caves deep underwater.
(Image credit: Courtesy of Melanie Stiassny)

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Matt Hartings @matthartings.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

You can't call DMSO a universal solvent if the universe has never been dissolved in a container of DMSO <smug look> #chemchat #chemsky

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Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

it’s also not NOT giving Moopsy which RED FLAG

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Prasad Jallepalli, MD, PhD @prasad.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

5 potatoes cubed is still 5 potatoes because potatoes are root vegetables

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

When they get back in power, Democrats need to go all-in on higher education. We need a campaign of reinvestment in public universities across the country that makes the Morrill Land-Grant Act look like nothing by comparison *and* a GI Bill of Rights-style program of tuition grants.

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Anna Holmes @annabookwriter.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

“I put the books back where I found them! Isn’t that great?” *library worker unhinges jaw, prepares to devour*

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Erin Purcell @erinpurcell.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

'We have replaced the danger of mouth-pipetting with the danger of a generation of scientists spending their most productive years writing grants that will not be funded. This is its own form of danger, just slower and less honest than the phenol.' Onion-level satire with a side of 'oooof.'

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Karen Fisher, PhD @fisherke.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

This just seems to have gone from bad to worse, with the image's creator either not understanding or admitting what is wrong and Nikon pretty much staying silent. I am glad (and hopeful) that that the vaast majority of the microscopy community seems united on how imaging should be handled/treated.

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Josh Chafetz @joshchafetz.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

The more we buy into the logic that academia needs to be more like "the real world"--the more we buy into the idea that all we're doing is training students to go out and be good workers--the less we are fulfilling any sort of distinct mission, and the less exciting our work is our students.

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Josh Chafetz @joshchafetz.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

On the one hand, it's just dumb. Universities are, in fact, real, and they exist in the world. American universities employ about 3x as many people as there are active duty servicemembers, so if soldiers are "real," then so are academics.

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Erin Purcell @erinpurcell.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Dinosaur Escape was a hit with my 3 year old because dinos. Not competitive, but a volcano and T-Rex give urgency (and gameplay is fairly snappy, it doesn't drag on forever). www.toysrus.com/products/din...

toysrus.com

Dinosaur Escape Cooperative Board Game for Kids

Roar into adventure with the Dinosaur Escape Game! This thrilling board game transports players to a prehistoric island where teamwork and memory skills lead to a dino-mite escape. Scurry to rescue th...

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Senator Patty Murray @murray.senate.gov · 23/09/2026

NIH funding doesn't belong to Donald Trump—it belongs to the patients and families waiting for the next medical breakthrough. We cannot let Trump politicize federal research grants and give right-wing extremists a veto over lifesaving work. SPEAK UP FOR SCIENCE.

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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 20/09/2026

“The arrangement would give Vought, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, a direct role in determining how NIH distributes its $48 billion in congressionally-appropriated money.” Bypassing the many checks and balances at NIH on grant funding decisions.

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Stephen Curry @scurry.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Very much enjoyed @mjrobbins.com conversation-paced rant about the supposed threat of so-called superintelligent AI. martinrobbins.substack.com/p/the-ai-apo...

Screenshot from linked article reads:

Civilisation is the gearbox for the engines of our minds; human intelligence is its attribute. The scale of that intelligence is not governed by the person or entity with the highest IQ. You can't make a car that goes at 3000mph by just putting a rocket in it. I'm not sure it's possible to be superintelligent. To me it's like saying you're going to make the ocean superwet by pouring more water into it.
Rationalists desperately wish this wasn't the case, because it means the promise of the Al priesthood, the promise of a world where being smart and thinking better magically solves all your problems - could lead you to the gates of heaven itself! - is a lie: that the world isn't changed by thinkers, but doers. That's why every contrived thought experiment that involves an AI triggering the end of humanity involves, ultimately, human beings doing something incredible stupid with real stuff, like shipping a super-virus to an angry teenager or firing a nuclear arsenal. The boring risks of human agency that we already face today.

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Erin Purcell @erinpurcell.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

This makes me very angry, because the show was so fun, and made me want Hannah Waddingham as Bond, and I know we can never have that.

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Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Pranks-to-rama @prankster36.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Honestly wonder what evangelicals reading that book especially think when Aslan basically turns to the camera and goes "I made this world so why would I have a problem with people trying to understand the rules I set up" which obviously applies to science too

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Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

LLMs seem to me a way, a shortcut, for some academics to build reputations (as "fast" reviewers, as "good" colleagues) rather than foundations of solid academic labor however difficult that labor is. This is about being seen to be doing the work rather than actually doing it

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Annalee @flowerhorne.com · 19/09/2026

This is why I think it's so important to push back against the personification of LLMs. If a person shoots someone while wearing a hand puppet, they can't claim the hand puppet did the murder.

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Petra Levin @redrockcity.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

4 years (!) in the making, in this review Jade Wang and I detail the fundamental processes underlying growth, the cell autonomous nature of homeostatic control, and the contribution of stochasticity to both. TL;DR Bacteria are more like teenagers than you think. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com

Bacterial growth rate in populations and single cells - Nature Microbiology

In this Perspective, Levin and Wang give a brief history of bacterial growth rate and discuss how it is connected to nutrient availability and macromolecule synthesis, with a focus on (p)ppGpp as a ce...

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Tyler King @tyleraking.com · 17/09/2026

“A senior executive at Microsoft said A.I. systems built on the work of others will be seen as ‘an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions’ and possibly the greatest robbery of labor in human history, according to court documents unredacted Thursday in an ongoing Manhattan lawsuit.”

orlandosentinel.com

Docs in A.I. copyright suit reveal startling admission by Microsoft exec over ‘astonishing theft’

The admission appeared in a newly unredacted filing in the landmark copyright infringement legal battle playing out between newspapers like the Orlando Sentinel and tech companies Microsoft and OpenAI...

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Erin Purcell @erinpurcell.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Very cool story! The interplay between stress response and metabolism is SO complex!

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Erin Purcell @erinpurcell.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

My kids were lucky that reading came pretty easily & they already viewed it as a source of fun by 1st grade, bc the required edutech programs make it a chore & breaking pieces into chunks to gameify finishing them robs everything of meaning. Heartbroken for kids whose schools ruined reading for them

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Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

"stores and tracks faculty CVs and productivity" in the hands of private equity can't go wrong can it

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Tobias Wilson-Bates @phdhurtbrain.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I would not like an AI summary, I would not like it on a boat, I would not like the email bloat, I do not like it on a chair, I would not like it anywhere! I do not like them on a phone, I do not like them in my home, I do not want them on a search, I do not like them in a church

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Erin Purcell @erinpurcell.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I KNOW! One of the most tangible examples of things actually going backwards!

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ashley fairbanks @ziibiing.com · 12/09/2026

i am incredibly excited to share our research about how paying people’s rent through mutual aid made an impact on minnesota this year we accidentally collected more data than anyone ever has for an effort like this, and can very seriously say we prevented an eviction bubble that everyone expected

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Naomi Klein @naomiaklein.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

"People are really mad and however mad you are, it’s not enough. Because there is something so profound about no longer believing in the future, about seeing no value in our shared home, in the natural world. They’re traitors to creation.” www.theguardian.com/books/2026/s...

theguardian.com

Naomi Klein: ‘Extreme wealth has a deranging effect. It turns you into a supremacist’

She’s tackled neoliberalism and the digital world, now the writer and activist is taking on tech billionaires. She explains how the super-rich are capitalising on climate and financial chaos in pursui...

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Erin Purcell @erinpurcell.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Have Padme originally have an crush on Qui-Gon and Anakin's Achille's heel be about being her 2nd choice rather than fearing she'd die in childbirth! It'd be less of a 'men will literally turn to the dark side instead of getting therapy for anxiety' situation and address the charisma gap b/n actors.

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Erin Purcell @erinpurcell.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Kid picked Gremlins 2 for movie night... I'm sure plenty of people have realized this before, but Gizmo is a tribble. That's why they let him back into their lives despite knowing better-- the hypnotic trilling!

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Chise @sailorrooscout.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

GOOD NEWS! A personalized mRNA vaccine has SUCCEEDED in keeping melanoma, a deadly skin cancer, from returning. Phase III trial results in MORE THAN 1,100 patients shows the vaccine SIGNIFICANTLY extended the time patients lived without their melanoma returning AND reduced the risk of metastasis.

statnews.com

Moderna and Merck say mRNA cancer vaccine succeeded in late-stage melanoma trial

A personalized mRNA cancer vaccine succeeded in a late-stage melanoma study, results that could herald a new, powerful approach in oncology.

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Erin Purcell @erinpurcell.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Whenever I think about politics I picture being trapped in a Pawnee town hall forever, Groundhog-Day-style.

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U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission @cpsc.gov · 10/09/2026

Good morning. It's Baby Safety Month and you've got things to learn.

A hawk with the head of a human baby -- soaring through the blue skies with glee -- its talons extended and ready to strike. The text reads: Babies don't have talons. You need to keep them safe. Your human baby needs a safe sleep space. Bare is best - make sure to remove all suffocation hazards like toys, blankets, pillows, and padded crib bumpers from your baby's sleep space.

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Erin Purcell @erinpurcell.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

But then I'd WIN and have to spend all day being talked at by PEOPLE!

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Erin Purcell @erinpurcell.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I want a 'fight enshittification' political platform. 'Phones will be small and solid! We'll stop changing the clocks twice a year! You can buy software once instead of subscribing forever! Clothing will be made of durable materials! Senders of fundraising texts gets ants released in their homes!'

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Erin Purcell @erinpurcell.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Another great YA wizard school series my kiddo and I recently read and loved was Stealing From Wizards.

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Dr. Katharine Dickson @metaomicsnerd.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

What I would like to remind everyone talking about Sam Altman talking about the “PhD level intelligence” of the new ChatGPT is that Sam Altman dropped out of college so he… has no experiential construct for what grad school even is.

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