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Ethan Bass

@ethanbass.bsky.social
639 followers 1.1K following 35 posts

chemical ecologist

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Reposted by Ethan Bass
Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 9h
~Approximately no one in the general public knows because the leaders of the R1 research universities - whose budgets, programs, & personnel are entirely or significantly dependent on federal funding - have been totally absent from the public square in explaining & collectively protesting this.
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Stuart McDaniel @stuartmcdaniel.bsky.social · 1h
“For four decades, the United States has run one of the most profitable trades in the world economy… import young people that the global labor market has underpriced—graduate students whose ability outruns their résumés—give them a place to prove themselves, and keep much of the upside”
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Michael Clemens @mclem.org · 1h
A sobering, clear assessment in @pnas.org of the current US policy of international student exclusion. "The damage would not end with academic careers. A discovery becomes a vaccine, a company, and an industry only when someone commercializes it, and that work runs on the same imported talent."
pnas.org
Taxing the talent that builds American science | PNAS
Taxing the talent that builds American science
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Systems Ecology @systems-ecology.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Many people have asked us how to start an independent Diamond open-access journal. So we have written "The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Starting an Independent Diamond OA Journal". We hope it helps many more community-led journals follow. systems-ecology.org/index.php/se... #DiamondOA #OpenAccess
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Systems Ecology @systems-ecology.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
🌱 Systems Ecology is now live! A new independent, researcher-run, diamond OA journal for ecological research through systems science. Free to read. Free to publish. No APCs. We are now open for submissions: systems-ecology.org Please help spread the word!
systems-ecology.org
Systems Ecology
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Julian Sanchez @normative.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Glad about the result, but I don’t think it speaks well of us as a country that after two years of human rights violations, war crimes, naked gangster corruption, and contempt for the Constitution, he’s finally unpopular because gas got expensive.
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Soren Spicknall @sorenspicknall.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The influencers are glamorizing Metra and I say we should let them
A screenshot of an Instagram Reel featuring a vertical video of a silver Metra commuter train in sunset lighting with a caption over it that reads "have you ever travelled on a double decker train? Tinley Park"
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
New from Lauren Supplee at Can We Still Govern? The US government had gradually become better at producing and using evidence. This evidence-based infrastructure is largely invisible, important, and one more thing gutted by Trump. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-system...
donmoynihan.substack.com
The System for Using Evidence to Improve Federal Programs Has Been Gutted
Here’s How We Fix It
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Jenna Norton @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Please join me in thanking the named plaintiffs in this lawsuit, including @arghavansallesmd.medsky.social @michaeldgreen.phd & @jddaw.bsky.social These brave scientists are taking on risk to protect science, scientists & beneficiaries of science (all of us). www.aclu.org/press-releas...
aclu.org
Researchers Challenge NIH Screening of Grants for Disfavored Viewpoints | American Civil Liberties Union
Class action lawsuit seeks to stop censorship and termination of federally funded scientific research
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elizabethginexi.bsky.social @elizabethginexi.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
The Trump administration has cut or frozen up to $177 billion in federal grants since the president took office for his second term, according to a tracking tool released Wednesday by a pro-democracy nonprofit and a group of researchers and scientists. apnews.com/article/trum...
apnews.com
Trump administration has cut or frozen $177 billion in grants across every state, analysis shows
An analysis finds that the Trump administration has cut or frozen up to $177 billion in federal grants since the president took office for his second term.
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Graham Coop @gcbias.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
I’m looking to hire an NIH funded postdoc to join our lab here at Davis (please RT). Ongoing areas of interest include: 1) polygenic signals of selection from time series, ARGs, GWAS, etc 2) The interpretation of GWAS, polygenic scores, & sources of confounding
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Great idea for FOIAs!
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Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
More and more studies show that vaccination against various infectious diseases also leads to fewer cardiovascular deaths and lower rates of dementia. A rational public health system would be getting as many people vaccinated as possible. But. . .
science.org
More Impossible-to-Ignore Vaccine Effects
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Wayne Maddison @waynemaddison.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
The Tree of Life web project is back! A phylogenetic view of biodiversity way ahead of its time (ca. 1995!), conceived and led by David Maddison, collaborative & human-curated, widely used in teaching. Defunct technology had doomed it until Travis, Danny, and Andrew revived it. 🥳🎉 🧪 #evolbiol
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Dr Hannah M. Rowland @hannahmrowland.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
We just released a new open resource for studying evolution, ecology, colour, behaviour & biodiversity. OzButterflies 🦋 ✨ 4,000+ individuals 🌈 Visible + UV images 🧬 CO1 barcodes 📈 Spectral reflectance data 🏞️ 125 species doi.org/10.1093/data... @mherberstein.bsky.social @livuni-ives.bsky.social
examples of database images. (B) Disassembled RGB. (C) Disassembled UV. (D) Pinned dorsal RGB. (E) Pinned dorsal UV. (F) Pinned ventral RGB. (G) Pinned ventral UV.
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Allison Gill @muellershewrote.com · 04/09/2026
NEW: The federal prosecutor who charged ICE agent Christian Castro for lying about shooting Sosa-Celia has now been FIRED. He objected to the DoJ stopping him from charging a civil rights violation. And now he’s fired. www.cbsnews.com/news/ice-min...
cbsnews.com
Federal prosecutor fired after investigating ICE officer for civil rights offenses in Minnesota shooting, sources say
A federal prosecutor in Minnesota who was investigating an ICE officer for possible civil rights crimes has been fired, four sources familiar with the matter told CBS News.
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Daniel Ahmad @zhugeex.com · 04/09/2026
It takes you 20 paragraphs to get to the part of the article where they admit that Mamdani isn't paying the influencers and the reason they are posting videos of the stuff Mamdani is doing is because people are interested in watching it.
The mayor’s office says that it does not pay the influencers. Still, their proximity and access to a figure as popular as Mr. Mamdani can help increase their own social media following and, by extension, potentially put them in a position to attract paid content sponsorships from commercial brands. Some influencers said that when they feature Mr. Mamdani, the videos get more likes and viewers watch longer.
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Violet Miller @vimiller.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
A growing epidemic of alleged police abuse of Flock's vast surveillance system has led Homer Glen to (for now) halt plate reader use within its borders. West Chicago, Channahon and the Will County sheriff all have officers on leave for alleged unauthorized searches of license plate-tracking data.
chicago.suntimes.com
Illinois suburbs halt Flock use, suspend officers and review policy amid alleged improper use
Homer Glen announced Monday that it was suspending the use of Flock cameras within its borders pending an investigation after a Will County sheriff’s deputy was placed on administrative leave amid all...
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Ethan Bass @ethanbass.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
We’d probably be better off if they just cut out the middleman…
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Jim Swift @jimswift.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
www.thebulwark.com/p/mike-johns...
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John Stinchcombe @johnstinchcombe.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
This is an institution with a > $12B endowment, that spends $180M annually on athletics. The top 54 salaried administrators, coaches, executives make ~ $33M annually. Dismantling a research archive and selling it as "at least we didn't destroy it" is the very much moving the goalposts.
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John Stinchcombe @johnstinchcombe.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
This is a "least bad" outcome of a self-inflicted problem from Duke University. Is it better than the collection being atomized and shipped all over the place? Yes. Is it a travesty that one of the world's wealthiest private Universities divested from their herbarium? Definitely yes.
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Jonathan Coop @coopecology.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Our new paper asks the question: is there any precedent for recent, high-severity fires that have removed >100,000 acres of forests from northern New Mexico? Based on the locations of trees that recorded surface fires over the prior 500 years, the answer is, statistically speaking, "not a chance".
Formerly forested landscapes of the Jemez Mountains, NM. Burned in 1996 and 2011. Photo 2022.
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Drug Monkey @drugmonkey.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Look to your own Party, Speaker.
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Karl Bode @karlbode.com · 01/09/2026
"Reuters could not determine which organizations or journalists are likely to receive grants."
reuters.com
Trump administration plans $4 million for right-wing media in Europe, sources say
President Donald Trump's administration is planning to spend $4 million to bolster right-wing media in ‌Europe, part of a package of at least $25 million for civil society groups working on conservati...
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Eric Schares @eschares.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
🚨Update: Our analysis of global APC expenditure has now been expanded to cover more publishers (7 -> 14) and more years (2019-2025). We estimate $15B in APCs paid over seven years, $3.7B in 2025 alone. Elsevier crosses the $1B threshold by itself in 2025. arxiv.org/abs/2608.16322 #ScholComm
Line chart showing 5 biggest publishers from 2019-2025
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 01/09/2026
the fact that the papers of supreme court justices are treated as their personal property is outrageous www.nytimes.com/2026/09/01/u...
nytimes.com
How the Supreme Court Locks Away Its Own History (Gift Article)
After Justice Scalia died, the justices held private negotiations about locking away their papers. We may not see the ultimate record of the Roberts court for decades.
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The New York Times @nytimes.com · 01/09/2026
Breaking News: A whistle-blower at the U.S. Postal Service said Trump officials were defying court orders with a “secretive, rushed” effort affecting voting by mail.
nyti.ms
Whistle-Blower Says Trump Officials Are Defying Court Orders on Voting by Mail
A report detailed “grave concerns” that a new system being rushed into use by the U.S. Postal Service could imperil millions of mail ballots ahead of the midterm elections.
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 01/09/2026
I would like ask JD Vance about Pierre Damas Bel.
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Hansi Lo Wang (he/him) @hansilowang.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
SCOOP: After the Census Bureau issued a highly unusual report tied to a President Trump-aligned think tank, the bureau’s parent agency, the Commerce Department, cut language banning political interference from its scientific integrity policy, @npr.org has learned www.npr.org/2026/08/31/n...
npr.org
Trump officials cut political interference ban after unusual Census Bureau report
After the Census Bureau issued a report tied to a Trump-aligned think tank, the bureau's parent agency cut language banning political interference from its scientific integrity policy, NPR learned.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
It's like a parody, but it's deadly serious; the Commerce Department (which includes Census, NOAA, and others) has outright deleted "don't alter or suppress scientific findings for political reasons" from its scientific integrity rules. Seriously.
Protecting against "inappropriate influence" is no longer a "hallmark" of scientific integrity

The Commerce Department updated its policy for promoting a "culture of scientific integrity" in January 2025, days before Trump's second inauguration.

A new Trump administration order bans the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis from using statistical “noise,” or data for fuzzing survey results, to protect people’s privacy in their statistics.

The 2025 version included bans on attempts to shape or interfere in data collection, statistical analysis and other scientific activities "against well-accepted scientific methods and theories or without scientific justification."

The department's policy, the 2025 version said, involves ensuring scientific findings at its agencies "are not suppressed, delayed, or altered for political purposes and are not subjected to inappropriate influence," as well as making sure there's "independent review of facilities, methodologies, and other scientific activities as appropriate to ensure scientific integrity."

That language is missing, however, in the Trump administration's revision of the policy, according to an NPR analysis of text posted on the Commerce Department's website.

And while the revision adopts a definition for "scientific integrity" that is similar to the previous version, it no longer says that "protection from inappropriate influence" is among the "hallmarks of scientific integrity."
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
The bicycle is a simple solution to some of the world’s most complicated problems.
nature.com
Historical patterns and sustainability implications of worldwide bicycle ownership and use - Communications Earth & Environment
High bicycle ownership does not necessarily correlate with high bicycle use, with substantial health and environmental gains possible by worldwide pro-bicycle policy implementation, suggests a global ...
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Steve Held @peoplesfabric.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
It was either this or explain why not after they changed Gulf of Mexico. No difference. So Trump is effectively Chief of Naming at Google Maps.
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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
We have written a statement in support of Ghent Uni's decision to suspend Nathan Cofnas. We resist attempts to frame this as a punishment for "whistleblowing" or censorship of "controversial research". We invite all academics who share our views to sign our letter. forms.gle/qwN8xzEM5C7Q...
forms.gle
Open letter on the suspension of Nathan Cofnas at Ghent University
We, colleagues of Nathan Cofnas - supported by many colleagues internationally - want to respond to the negative and incorrect framing of Ghent University’s decision to suspend Nathan Cofnas. With th...
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Jeremy Yoder says no war @jbyoder.org · 26/08/2026
This is a really well-articulated explanation of the case against Cofnas specifically, but also of a broader principle that academic freedom requires defending principles of “integrity, intellectual honesty, and commitment to truth-seeking” against ideologues who don’t give a crap about scholarship
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Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
"...findings that 3 [insts] violated civil rights law by tolerating antisemitism were predetermined by political priorities that blew past the evidence and cast aside standard investigative procedures..." Reading the whistleblower statement and taking rage breaks www.ms.now/news/frame-u...
ms.now
Whistleblower says probes into antisemitism at colleges were ploys to harass and strip millions
A former Justice Department lawyer says the Trump investigations squeezed Ivy League universities for millions before they were even concluded. A top Democrat is demanding answers.
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Brandon Moore, PhD @rando.insalubrio.us · 22/08/2026
Ants were thought to eat this parasitic plant's fruit, but cameras revealed hermit crabs as the culprits! Each crab carried off 86 fruits on average, helping spread the seeds. Its ripe scent attracts crabs and the cockroaches that pollinate it! 🧪 esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
A land hermit crab (Coenobita brevimanus) scrapes off the tiny (3mm) fruits of a fungus root (Balanophora fungosa). As it feeds, it picks up the plant's minuscule seeds that can travel on its claws, body, and shell!

Credit: Kenji Suetsugu
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Colin Carlson @colincarlson.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
year 1: there's still grant funding, but we may need to change how we talk about our work, or what we work on year 2: the government has disappeared one billion dollars of science funding. it is unclear why they did that or where that sits within concepts like "the rule of law"
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Kat Tenbarge @kattenbarge.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
I feel like this platform is a safe space for me to say that I’ve gotten a lot of comments on my new YouTube channel from people saying they’re so glad I’m making videos because they don’t read and it’s scaring me a little
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Jeff Riffell @riffelllab.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Special issue in the Journal of Chemical Ecology! Submission deadline January 1st
Special issue in J Chem Ecol.
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rnett42.bsky.social @rnett42.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Plants can synthesize mimics of the insect molting hormone 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E) to defend against pests. In this preprint, we discover that two plant families independently evolved biosynthetic gene clusters to make 20E. Amazing team effort by my lab! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
Convergent biosynthesis of insect molting hormones in plants
Insect herbivores have driven plants to evolve complex chemical defenses, including mimics of the arthropod molting hormone 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E). Many distantly related plants produce 20E, suggest...
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Julia Kreiner @jmkreiner.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
uchicago.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/External/job... The Kreiner and Carley Lab groups are hiring a shared Research Analyst to help lead wet lab protocol development and management. We're a fun group and would love to hear from you :) Get in touch with questions!
uchicago.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com
Research, Analyst
Department BSD E&E Carley Lab About the Department The Kreiner Lab (kreinerlab.com) and Carley Lab (carleylab.uchicago.edu) in the Department of Ecology & Evolution at The University of Chicag...
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Ethan Bass @ethanbass.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Come work with me!!
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Paper Skygest Team @paper-feed.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
**Please repost** If you're enjoying Paper Skygest -- our personalized feed of academic content on Bluesky -- we'd appreciate you reposting this! We’ve found that the most effective way for us to reach new users and communities is through users sharing it with their network
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Ethan Bass @ethanbass.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
"Investigators reminded visitors to follow basic bear safety protocols, including... refraining from making noise such as “talking, singing or clapping” that could scare bears." Pretty sure the @nypost.com got this last part garbled...
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 23/07/2026
1. The new Trump / Kratsios plan for US science appears explicitly designed to destroy US universities. Diverting money to tech donors is probably just a bonus. Gift link.
nytimes.com
Trump’s Plan for Science: More Money for A.I., Less for Universities (Gift Article)
Michael Kratsios, President Trump’s science adviser, proposed overhauling how the government funds research. Democrats said Mr. Trump’s actions had weakened science.
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Asha Rangappa @asharangappa.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
This story is indeed insane. They literally *discounted his correct answers* (on questions about the Constitution) so that a Trump supporting girl who wants to go to Hillsdale College could win $25K and be televised meeting Trump. So. Gross.
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Professa Murray @kalimurray.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
I have said repeatedly that Russell Vought should be impeached. Congress appropriates and this is a high crime against its powers under Article I. The most important thing DOGE did was take over the appropriations pipes at Treasury. If you wanted to close USAID and CFPB pass a bill.
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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
appears the US war apparatus is pivoting from general war crimes to a more openly genocidal strategy
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unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 17/07/2026
Now ICE’s contractors are shooting protesters. (this is Colorado)
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