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Sarah Schwartz

@flaskandquill.bsky.social
395 followers 353 following 48 posts

Geomicrobiologist + science writer. Researcher @ Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University 🧬🧫🏞️ Previously: UC Berkeley, MIT, Science News, UCSD. She/her, opinions my own, likes/saves aren't endorsements. sarahlschwartz.com

PostsRepliesMedia
Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Every time I use the lab handwashing sink, all I hear is “30 GRAND, BABY!” 🧪 #taskmaster
A metal faucet/tap with the brand name “RADA” printed on it
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Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
I’d like to propose an educational exchange program where climate change deniers are dropped “Naked and Afraid” style into the UK during a heatwave 🧪
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Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Lovely time of year for fieldwork in Switzerland. 🧪🇨🇭
A field of red poppies and tall grasses A brown and white cow walking in a field in front of buildings on a hillside
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Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
Two for joy—happy Friday! #birds
Two magpies perched in front of windows on a brick building
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Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
If you have loved ones/colleagues in the northern UK, today is the day to ask us for things. We’ve had consecutive warm days. We’re flooded with Vitamin D. Plants are blooming. Birds are singing. WWIII was postponed. We’ll give advice! We’ll help you move! We’ll join your collaboration!
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Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
Spring is on its way in the North. 😮‍💨🌷
Purple and white crocuses on a lawn in front of the Gatehouse of Lancaster Castle. Purple crocuses and yellow daffodils underneath bare trees next to Lancaster Castle. A white stone block memorial reading “Witches 400” is visible at front right.
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Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
A little qPCR ASMR. 😜 Stay warm out there 🧪
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Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
Me, fixing a batch file for the sixth time: I hate phylogenetics Me, talking to literally anybody about phylogenetics: 🧪
A picture of the Lorax and his catchphrase "I speak for the trees"
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Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
No new PFAS restrictions in CA cookware, food packaging, dental floss, children's playpens and strollers, and other everyday products. 1/3 🧪 www.nytimes.com/2025/10/14/c...
nytimes.com
Newsom Vetoes California’s Ban on ‘Forever Chemicals’ in Cookware
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Reposted by Sarah Schwartz
Josh Moody @byjoshmoody.bsky.social · 10/10/2025
MIT rejects "compact" proposed by the Trump administration. MIT prez wrote: it "would restrict freedom of expression and our independence as an institution" and "is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone." orgchart.mit.edu/letters/rega...
orgchart.mit.edu
Regarding the Compact | MIT Organization Chart
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Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
Please be extra patient with your friends and colleagues in the Bay Area today. Most of us were up at 3 am for the earthquake, and to make matters worse, the Earth DIDN'T finish the job and swallow us whole
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Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
Small joys: The Campanile today, singing the song of angry men.
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Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
Last week, the EPA rolled back regulations on 4 of 6 per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that were strictly regulated in drinking water under the previous administration. (1/8) 🧪 tinyurl.com/y3bdhbkz
nytimes.com
Trump Administration to Uphold Some PFAS Limits but Eliminate Others
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Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
If you give a plant some silicon...it might make a pest-killing goo? Many thanks to the experts who told me about the complex science of silica supplementation. www.sciencenews.org/article/sili... 🧪
sciencenews.org
How silicon turns tomato plants into mean, green, pest-killing machines
Treated plants fight pests without the need for toxic pesticides, oozing a "larval toffee" that stunts tomato pinworms’ growth and attracts predators.
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Reposted by Sarah Schwartz
Andrea Love, PhD | Biomedical Scientist @drandrealove.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
I can’t believe this needs to be said. TransGENIC mice are not TransGENDER mice
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Reposted by Sarah Schwartz
Jo Wolfe, PhD @jopabinia.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
New writing! For @sciam.bsky.social, I talk about misleading memes. If you understand evolution enough to know this already, great! But memes/youtubes/etc reach folks with no biology background. Science has been twisted to justify bad things, such as eugenics, before. NOT IN CRABS' NAME. 🦀🧪🦑⚒️
scientificamerican.com
Crab Memes Amplify Mistaken Ideas about Evolution
Memes about repeated evolution of crabs have been co-opted to joke about technology and “ultimate forms.” They’re hilarious, but they oversimplify natural variation, giving bad arguments a scientific ...
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Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
If you also feel like displaying the NSF's "banned words" wherever you go, you can get them on a t-shirt, tote, or mug. The proceeds are donated to various science and research nonprofits in the US. www.bonfire.com/store/nerd-b... 🧪
bonfire.com
Nerd Behavior | Official Merchandise | Bonfire
By researchers, for everyone. All proceeds donated to support research in the USA.
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Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 28/01/2025
So, how are we all doing? 🧪
media.tenor.com
a man in a suit is carrying a stack of pizza boxes .
Alt: The scene from Community where Troy enters the apartment carrying pizza boxes, only to find the entire apartment engulfed in fire and chaos
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Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
I work in a group studying PFAS. These compounds are nearly everywhere on Earth now, are EXTREMELY hard to clean up or break down, and have been repeatedly linked to a ton of health risks--cancers, heart issues, immune/ neuro/ hormonal effects, etc. Not what you want in your water. 🧪
nytimes.com
Trump Promises Clean Water. Will He Clean Up PFAS?
Public health advocates worry that Donald Trump could unravel federal clean water efforts, including restrictions on lead pipes and chemicals known as PFAS.
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Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 09/09/2024
So, which necessary and seemingly-benign scientific entities have gradually become your sworn enemies? I'll go first: 1. Pure glycerol 2. Conda environments 3. eRA. Commons. 🧪 🦠 😒
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Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 11/05/2024
On a dark road in Massachusetts last night. Absolutely incredible. 🧪
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Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 30/04/2024
When someone asks me how I would describe myself 🧪
A cardboard box labeled "RUSH...RUSH. TEMPERATURE-SENSITIVE"
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Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 17/04/2024
The SDS for a chemical I just received is offered in two forms of English. What are the chances that the European version lists exposure hazards entirely in Cockney rhyming slang? 🧪
A dropdown menu of languages, with English (American), English (Europe), and Danish.
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Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 15/04/2024
Imagine if "peers" were more literal, and THIS had to be the whole jury
A picture of four former presidents--Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and George W. Bush
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Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 15/02/2024
The lab supply chain in a nutshell: The redox reagent that was scheduled to arrive today actually arrived last week, but what did arrive today was the bicarb that I ordered 8 months ago
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Reposted by Sarah Schwartz
Scott Biering @sbiering.bsky.social · 11/12/2023
The Biering Lab at UCSD is now hiring! Lab Manager: employment.ucsd.edu/lab-assistan... Lab Technician: employment.ucsd.edu/sra-1-126961... Postdocs and grad students should also reach out for more info! Learn more here: bieringlab.biosci.ucsd.edu Please repost
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Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 30/11/2023
Rapidly running out of culture(d) puns 🧪🦠
Photo of bleach-filled tubes with the label "This is what the ideal bleach body looks like"
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Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 24/10/2023
"Combining experimental and bioinformatic approaches" 🧪 🦠
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Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 19/10/2023
POV i'm your postdoc 🧪
Falcon tubes with biological waste labeled "To bleach their own"A laboratory freezer completely encased in iceA (SDS-PAGE) gel with bands incorrectly running sideways
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Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 26/09/2023
It's that time of year again. Halidon. Fall. Mix. www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMPR... Science 🧪 + writing peeps (skeeps?), this is *elite* working music. Your copy will be cleaner, your data more significant, your self-worth higher. Treat yourself
youtube.com
Classical Music for Autumn
🎵 Buy the MP3 album on the Official Halidon Music Store: https://bit.ly/45XcNIM🎧 Listen to our playlist on Spotify: http://bit.ly/ClassicalAutumn💿 Order "...
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Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 21/09/2023
It's September 21...can we also chase the *smoke* away? Asking for a friend. Also for myself. Also for the whole Bay Area
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Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 19/09/2023
Freezer problem = laboratory ice fishing! Who knows what reagents lurk below 🧪
Image shows an iced-over lab freezer with samples and reagents visible through a hole in the ice
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Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 03/08/2023
Me too, little acid. Me too 🧪
Sinapic acid, abbreviated "Sad"
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Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 28/06/2023
😬 🧪
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Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 16/06/2023
Stopped by the library this afternoon for the serotonin. The busiest room was the one reading room where laptops are not allowed. I get the appeal.
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Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 15/06/2023
So @jopabinia.bsky.social and I have just learned that Professor X has *checks notes* four PhDs and an MD. Deeply hoping that adjunct professorship is by choice, and not a reflection on the TT job market.
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