iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Every time I use the lab handwashing sink, all I hear is “30 GRAND, BABY!” 🧪 #taskmaster

Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

I have lived through summers in DC and Boston. I’ve experienced a 113F/45C day in CA. But nothing provides quite as good a visceral summary of the problem as a persistently humid country with buildings that trap heat and an infrastructure built for several centuries of a very different climate

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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 brown and white cow walking in a field in front of buildings on a hillside

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Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

You have roughly 24 hours before it rains again. Good luck!

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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

Just a reminder: Many PFAS are well-known to be associated with neurological, immune, developmental, and reproductive problems, and cancers. Even types of PFAS that are designed or thought to be "safer" usually have some level of associated toxicity/carcinogenicity. 3/3 🧪

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Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 14/10/2025

PFAS are industrially profitable, and by now, pretty difficult to avoid. They're in many of the products we use, and they accumulate in our bodies. Without intervention (or sometimes, even with our best attempts at degradation), PFAS stick around in the environment for ages. 2/3 🧪

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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

Because PFAS stick around in the environment, and pose health risks even at very, very low concentrations, delaying regulation or research is an accumulative risk...and for the same reasons, this problem is going to be with us for a while. There will be a lot more to learn. (8/8) 🧪

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Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

These 6 PFAS are a minuscule fraction of the PFAS in our environment and economy. There are *thousands* (>14,000) of PFAS species with varying toxicity, utility, and chemistry. So we definitely don't have a full picture of PFAS's human and environmental health risks yet. (7/8) 🧪

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Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

The 4 PFAS that are now unrestricted in drinking water have been associated with risks of developmental, reproductive, and immunological problems, DNA damage, and/or cancer...and more. (6/8) 🧪

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Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

Some of these other PFAS were made to replace PFOA or PFOS, once the research revealed that those two PFAS were so toxic. These other PFAS may not be as extensively-studied or famous...but we have already learned a lot about their risks. Spoiler alert: They're ALSO toxic. (5/8) 🧪

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Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

The 4 PFAS compounds that will have limits removed are less famous. They're nicknamed PFNA, GenX, PFBA, and PFHxS. (Their full names are a doozy... "hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid" doesn't really roll off the tongue.) (4/8) 🧪

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Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

The 2 upheld drinking water limits are for PFOA and PFOS, probably the most (in)famous PFAS. They're well-studied and have serious health risks. They've been limited in the US for decades, but are still in some products...and other PFAS can turn into PFOA/PFOS in the environment. (3/8) 🧪

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Sarah Schwartz @flaskandquill.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

For those unfamiliar with PFAS: These compounds are full of fluorine-carbon bonds, which give great stability and very useful properties (e.g. nonstick, waterproofing, flame suppression). This stability also makes PFAS linger in the environment, hence the term "forever chemicals." (2/8) 🧪

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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 · 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 · 26/09/2023

So many cool people here! Hi everyone. I'm Sarah. I'm an environmental microbiologist and a science writer. I currently study microbial bioremediation, and I'm also interested in microbial evolution, geobiology, and all forms of science communication.

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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 · 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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