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Laura Hug

@lhug.bsky.social
1.3K followers 295 following 117 posts

Environmental microbiologist and CRC at UWaterloo. Tangent-prone story teller and compulsive frisbee chaser. Views are my own.

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Laura Hug @lhug.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
“Clearly Carney recognises that an unbound Trump, surrounded by sycophants in his administration, is simply too capricious to engage with through the norms of rational diplomacy.” This has impressed me from the start. Carney has never tried to enjoin Trump, he has deftly sidestepped the circus.
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Roland Hatzenpichler @environmicrobio.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Join us at the "2027 Applied and Environmental GRC: Mechanistic Microbiology for a Complex World" July 18-23, 2027 and GRS "Mechanistic Microbiology Beyond the Model Organism" July 17-18. Applications are open! @thuls.bsky.social and I put together an awesome schedule! www.grc.org/applied-and-...
grc.org
2027 Applied and Environmental Microbiology Conference GRC
The 2027 Gordon Research Conference on Applied and Environmental Microbiology will be held in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Apply today to reserve your spot.
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Laura Hug @lhug.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
I will always host play dates because having n=3-11 kids in my house is always easier than having the baseline n=2. YMMV, my n=2 are oil and water with each other.
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Max Telford @maxjtelford.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Lovely review of my book 'The Tree of Life'. Thanks @lhug.bsky.social!
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Laura Hug @lhug.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
HugLab (and adopted @nagissa.bsky.social lab) on a boat! Watching the Auckland skyline before #ISME20 kicks off!
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Laura Hug @lhug.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
My review of @maxjtelford.bsky.social's "The Tree of Life: Solving Science’s Greatest Puzzle" is out today in The Quarterly Review of Biology. www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/... In brief, it's great, you should read it. Especially if you like worms.
journals.uchicago.edu
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Laura Hug @lhug.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
A Canadian grocery chain has themed-by-country food suggestions for the World Cup. 🇨🇦: a lot of maple. Maple marshmallows even (why) 🇫🇷: Dijon mustard and pain au chocolat 🇲🇽: lime crema, tortillas 🇺🇸: a cheesecake and three varieties of mayonnaise 😂
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Laura Hug @lhug.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Kid1, (laying out a yoga mat, the uno deck, and the set deck) Mama want to play no rules Uno? Me: what in the CalvinBall is this? Kid1: (brandishing two handwritten pages) here are the rules Me: for no rules UNO?! It involved burpees and I lost…
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tomate 🍅 @jascha.ohai.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/03/2026
When someone says „Scientists do not want you to know“ you can dismiss everything from there on. Scientists want you to know. They are desperate that you know. They can’t shut up about what they found out and want you to know.
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Laura Hug @lhug.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
Never noticed before that the enchantress eternally cursed an entire castle of people because a 14 year old boy was rude to her. #BeautyAndTheBeast #WhatWasSheExpecting
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Ozma @psychicozma.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
I tried to take a photo of a grasshopper on my windshield, but now it looks like a gigantic bug destroying the town.
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Jeffrey Marlow @jjmarlow.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
Hey guess what - I wrote a book, and it's coming out soon! The Dark Frontier is about the wonders of the deep sea...and the threats they face. Check it out, and if you're so moved, you can preorder from your favorite purveyor of fine literature 📚❤️ www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/652987...
penguinrandomhouse.com
The Dark Frontier by Jeffrey Marlow: 9780593230183 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
An awe-inspiring investigation into the hidden world of the deep sea—the most mysterious, unforgiving environment on Earth—whose secrets can radically revise our understanding of life itself...
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Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
Covers of the 2 leading science journals this week @science.org and @nature.com www.science.org/content/arti... www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
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Laura Hug @lhug.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
If you manage people, and you don't read @rawsignal.ca's newsletter... well, that's probably fine but you definitely should start. On managing teams when you don't have the relevant expertise: "The tools are getting faster but the core issue was never that you were bullshitting slowly."
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Eowyn 🏳️‍🌈⚧️ @punchupnotdown.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
This is exactly my first thought when is comes to literally *anything* about Greenland. The native Inuit who were colonized by Europe, and who have fought long and hard to regain some level of home rule, deserve better than to have their homeland considered "for sale" by this bullshitter president.
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Sean MacK @stmack.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
I've played enough Risk to know that if the US takes Greenland, they're going to want Canada and Mexico next to get the completed continent bonus.
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Laura Hug @lhug.bsky.social · 27/12/2025
The classic academic urge to write a book… #IDontHaveTimeForThis
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Laura Hug @lhug.bsky.social · 01/12/2025
I’m running a social experiment on my family. This fall, I’ve taken up a new hobby. I’ve mentioned it to everyone at least twice, with appropriately nerdy enthusiasm. Will holiday gifts be overwhelmingly this-hobby-related, or has it not percolated into their view of me yet?
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
With current pledges, the world's on track for 2.6°C of warming in 2100 compared to preindustrial levels. 10 years ago, before the Paris agreement, it was 3.6°C 20+ years ago, we thought it would be 4-5°C So 2.6°C is better, but the problem is that climate impacts are way worse than we predicted.
theguardian.com
World still on track for catastrophic 2.6C temperature rise, report finds
Fossil fuel emissions have hit a record high while many nations have done too little to avert deadly global heating
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Laura Hug @lhug.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
Not *quite* the attitude I’m looking for..
Worksheet on soil layers with components labeled. Above, in pencil and with messy handwriting is written “I don’t need to hear this because my mom is a microbiologist”
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Laura Hug @lhug.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
New paper from our group - megaphages, compact CRISPR-Cas effectors, and more from landfill phage, led by the talented Dr. Nikhil George (not on bsky). rdcu.be/ePo8o
link.springer.com
Discarded diversity: novel megaphages, auxiliary metabolic genes, and virally encoded CRISPR-Cas systems in landfills
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Michael Bazaco @mcbazacophd.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
I love kids. I have two of them. They’re amazing. However, kids are the absolute least self aware, clumsiest little puffins on the planet. Please don’t drive tonight unless you have to, and if you do drive, drive super slow and pay 100% attention at all times. Happy Halloween! 🎃 👻 💀 #PublicHealth
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Hadas Weiss @hadas.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
not to brag but i can generate slop with natural intelligence
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Laura Hug @lhug.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
@planetmoney.bsky.social AI hosts in the Trojan Horse episode? Or sound mixing gone overboard? Really hard to listen to Kenny when interspersed with the interviews, then back to “human” for the wrappers, just obviously robotic in some way
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Laura Hug @lhug.bsky.social · 27/10/2025
First two (of five) carved. Now to see if the squirrels eat them before Friday…
Two pumpkins side by side on a deck in sunlight. The left pumpkin is a round orange gourd carved with a confused face. The right pumpkin is a smaller white pumpkin carved with a spooky ghost.
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Laura Hug @lhug.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
“I asked them to, if they have a chance, call me back,” said Thomas Perlmann, secretary-general of the Nobel committee Probably a call that you’d return… www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
theguardian.com
Nobel committee unable to reach prize winner who is ‘living his best life’ hiking off grid
Fred Ramsdell was among those honoured with a 2025 Nobel Prize in Medicine but might not know because he is somewhere in Idaho and uncontactable
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Laura Hug @lhug.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
If you aren't knowledgable, you are impressionable.
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Laura Hug @lhug.bsky.social · 13/09/2025
“Many young extremists now believe in a much simpler binary: Order and chaos. And if you are spending any time at all trying to derive meaning from violent acts like this then you are, by definition, their enemy.”
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Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · 13/09/2025
And this one via @ryanhatesthis.bsky.social at @garbageday.email sent me down some rabbit holes (but in a good way). www.garbageday.email/p/charlie-ki...
garbageday.email
Charlie Kirk was killed by a meme
Making sense of our dark new era of extremely online political violence
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Laura Hug @lhug.bsky.social · 08/09/2025
Walked someone through reading a COVID test correctly after they texted me a pic of a perfectly negative test saying “sorry I can’t come”…. No the C does not stand for COVID. #ItsBeenFiveYears #TwoLinesNotOne
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A.R. Moxon @juliusgoat.bsky.social · 08/09/2025
If it’s run for profit, then it’s profiting off of … us. When I hear that the post office lost money, I think this: Good. We already paid for it. Why on earth should it make even more money from us? Who would keep the money? Would we see it?
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Laura Hug @lhug.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
14 yo nephew is playing Cities Skylines and his mishaps are legendary. He built a neighbourhood that only had subway access to improve ridership He forgot to build a cemetery so the bodies piled up for a while. Later, discovered more piles of bodies - turns out you can’t take corpses on the subway
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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 29/08/2025
The maddening thing is that we know EXACTLY how to prevent this. Yes, kids should get vaccinated, test, stay home when sick, mask as much as possible. But even without any of that: Better ventilation and filtration in schools can MASSIVELY reduce viral spread, for all sorts of respiratory diseases.
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Laura Hug @lhug.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
And in the meantime Canada (checks notes), right, Canada hamstrings research by bankrupting universities
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James McDonald @jamesemcdonald.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
Really exciting and important tree microbiome paper published in @nature.com ‘A diverse and distinct microbiome inside living trees’ 👏 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
A diverse and distinct microbiome inside living trees - Nature
Microbiome analyses of living trees show that a single tree can host approximately one trillion bacteria, with microbial communities distinctly partitioned between heartwood and sapwood and with minim...
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Roland Hatzenpichler @environmicrobio.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
If you are a postdoc working on any topic related to environmental microbiology and are looking for exposure, the Thermal Biology Institute (tbi.montana.edu) has slots open for virtual talks via zoom this fall. Email me if you are interested! Seminars are most Mondays, 3-4 pm Mountain Time.
tbi.montana.edu
Thermal Biology Institute - Default | Montana State University
Index to the Thermal Biology Institute's website.
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Laura Hug @lhug.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
at the "must actually write the grant" stage of procrastinating writing a grant. worst stage. only mitigated by my established candy reward structure
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Laura Hug @lhug.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
my capacity to lose receipts* is astonishing. * notice a receipt in my bag/wallet, think "ew, why do I have this?" and throw it out...
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Jeffrey Marlow @jjmarlow.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
The year’s crowning achievement! 🙌😂
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Laura Hug @lhug.bsky.social · 19/07/2025
My sister: are you having an Icarus moment? ☀️🪽🪽 Me, yes and-ing my way to over commitment: probably? But I know how to swim! 🏊‍♀️
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David Macdonald @davidmaccdn.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
Research grants to universities & colleges as well as graduate scholarships face $764 million in cuts to pay for tax cuts and miliary spending. The Tri-council agencies providing those funds just won an increase in the last budget, but that will be completely undercut now. 6/x
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Denise Akob @deniseakob.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
@gilbertjacka.bsky.social does a karaoke version of Microbe Microbe with @lhug.bsky.social and @kuesellab.bsky.social and the 2025 AEM GRC group meet the challenge?
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Laura Hug @lhug.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
Shameless plug for this beautiful and free course on communicating with people with dementia. Based on clinical trial data, building from a critically acclaimed movie, designed and built by (disclaimer) my talented brother in law. howyouaretome.com
howyouaretome.com
How You Are to Me Approach – A better way to communicate with those living with dementia
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Laura Hug @lhug.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
This week in bad graphs, the 5 yo learned about bar charts. Asked everyone in her class their favourite ice cream flavour, and then “went back to the people I needed to fill it up”.
A bar chart with 7 different ice cream flavours, each with a height of ten, making for an entirely filled page of coloured stripes.
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Laura Hug @lhug.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
This snow day forecast… the categories! 😂
Map of southern Ontario with forecast categories based on the likelihood of a snow day for schools. Categories range from “do your homework” to “cross your shovels” to “let it snow”
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Laura Hug @lhug.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
5yo, instead of going to sleep: “we play Santa and reindeer at recess and you can choose which reindeer. There’s Dancer and Dasher and Frances and Rudolph”
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Laura Hug @lhug.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
I’ve occasionally been lurking on Twitter but now every time I spend five minutes there I am unwillingly subjected to a video of someone dying (crashes, accidents, security cam footage). I don’t want to see deaths, I don’t know who does, but I am Done over there.
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Richard 🎧 W @haunted.audio · 23/11/2024
Honoured that BACTERIA: THE TINY GIANTS was shortlisted in the AIBs 2024 @timhayward.bsky.social Huge thanks to Loftus media and the scientists and researchers who shared time/insights, incl. @audeber.bsky.social @frantecol.bsky.social @lhug.bsky.social @thecrobe.bsky.social @relenski.bsky.social
Logo for the Association for International Broadcasting Awards (AIBs) 2024. Looks a bit like a stylised multicoloured sphere/planet. Plus the words “20 years”, with a ‘play’ symbol inside the zero.
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Laura Hug @lhug.bsky.social · 12/11/2024
The first COVID case in Canada was January 25, 2020. I broke my 1,751-day streak yesterday with my first positive test. We’re abroad and away from our usual tools (HEPA, multiple bathrooms) so wish us luck in keeping this from the kids.
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Laura Hug @lhug.bsky.social · 21/10/2024
Double vaxxed (COVID + flu) my family of four on Friday and we had a very weird set of non-simultaneous side effects, which were much milder than either of those diseases
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