iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Map of the outage region. My guess is they are worried about flooding.

A map of a closed bike trail sandwiched between the Huron river and a big pond.

Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Well this sounds totally suspicious. Apparently the entire B to B trail is closed from Gallup to the dam. No alternative route is provided. However, the construction on Huron River is paused so Huron River drive is closed to cars but navigable by bike, I guess that's my alternative route.

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

🧪I'm fed up with the Mr. Frosty (TM) brand cell freezer. I can't get them open and then they make a fricking mess when they are warming up after use. Do people use the foam ones? Do they work?

A foam freezing vessel labeled corning cool something.

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Mushroom season is finally here. Our golden oyster logs petered out last year so it’s been a long mushroom free summer. Got >55 shiitakes 1.25

Me holding a 3ft log covered in small mushrooms.

A pile of mushrooms two held aloft about the size of an adults palm.

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

After a (oof two month break) I'm back to my write for at least 30 min a day routine. It's so satisfying to check off each day, and I'm really making progress on several projects.

A photo of some cute little sheets labeled with each month and boxes for each weekday. Each sheet has silly birds on it. The top one is May and is not completely full. Then comes august which is looking to be on track with each day so far checked off.

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Poly A tail? Those first few lanes are a masterpiece.

Zoom in on a radiograph labeled GATC there is a string of G's

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Science peeps, I have a confession to make. I routinely do not balance pcr tubes in the picofuge. How many Hail Mary’s will absolve me of this sin?

A picofuge equipped for pcr tubes. A strip of three tubes is on one side with no counterbalance.

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Duuude…where are the red ones?

An assortment of Michigan produce available from a home gardener in July in Michigan. Ground cherries peppers summer squash various greens nasturtium and one red tomato.

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

But in that alternate universe, would the NP control ever have happened?

A faded photocopy of an image of young Navin looking confused in lab with the phrase 'What is the NP control?' in comic sans written underneath.

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

The hide and seek portion of the gardening season has officially begun, found some cherry tomatoes hiding on the shady side, and some cayenne on a sickly overwintered pepper.

Red cherry tomatoes hiding behind greenery.

Chonker cayenne peppers on a spindly plant.

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

We saw the craziest things when we imaged Saccharomyces acutely starved of glucose. All of the cells had these finger-like extensions that seemed to be coming from the PM. Markus Babst thinks they are extended eisosomes. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

A not great EM image of saccharomyces with finger-like extensions seeming to emanate from the plasma membrane into the cytosol.

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Probably the digital copy of the third book from the left on this cookbook shelf.

A shelf with cookbooks Marthi, new basics, better homes, japanese as well as a bash cookbook and numerical recipes in fortran second edition.

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Yeah! NOA day!! But really ERA commons? When the pending grant gets funded you list it as withdrawn on the summary screen. I almost cried when I saw that.

A summary of grant outcomes the middle ones says with drawn by IC Other version Encumbered.

Expanded line showing withdrawn by IC other version encumbered and then one of the two lines underneath showing awarded.

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

I guess they follow BSKY now, therefore I did just boost your score. Ok I really need to book some travel for my mom and sis that I'm procrastinating on booking.

A screen grab showing some of the posts about Francesca's labs lovely star protocol.

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

You know this exists right? Our university profile page lists the social media score of our papers next to the citations

A screen grab of an article from my lab listing the citations and social media scores.

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Damage control or the worst timing ever?

A screen grab for an e-mail from Thermo offering me publication quality antibodies.

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

🧪Does anyone else have problems reading MBoC papers online? The frame takes up my 1/2 of the browser screen! Is there any solution beyond downloading the pdf? I have this problem in edge, chrome, and duckduck browsers. @ascbiology.bsky.social

A screen grab from MBoC where most of the screen is frame and just a little window of text.

A screen grab of MBoC with just a little panel of data the rest is fram

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Does this help? I'm not sure how to parse your question.

A diagram of the pulley assembly for an orbital shaker.

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

🧪Has anyone ever replaced the upper bearings on an orbital shaker? The upper bearing is bolted to a lower bearing. I need to remove the upper one, but the lower one rotates. Do I just hold the lower one with a wrench and unbolt the upper or is there something I'm missing?

A photo of a grimy upper and lower bearing.

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

Done. Very much hoping that I can withdraw this one because the previous version gets funded.

A screen grab congratulating me for submitting a proposal.

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Apply to the Michigan Pioneer Fellows program to turbo-charge your postdoctoral experience. Open to PhD's with one year or less of experience, the Pioneer Fellows program provides fellows with comprehensive support to launch your research-intensive career. The application deadline is August 3rd.

Advertisement for the Michigan pioneers fellow program.

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Congratulations!! I think you've been scooped by a twenty year old paper. www.science.org/doi/full/10....

A title of a paper 'Logic of the Yeast Metabolic Cycle: Temporal Compartmentalization of Cellular Processes

by Benjamin P. Tu, Andrzej Kudlicki, Maga Rowicka, and Steven L. McKnight

A figure showing pulses of metabolic responses

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

Extension of important results is really the strength of our current system. Remember when +/- data were acceptable? Would have been quite easy to write a - instead? I worry people are making a big deal about the dangers of AI to science when things like insufficient funding are more pressing,

Data from a 1944 paper that unless I’m wrong is the one that showed DNA is the genetic material. The data is all pluses and minuses,

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

Similarly, you can use 1/2 as many plates for tetrad genotyping by printing two plates onto the same velvet. Just dissect towards the bottom or top of the plate and then once it grows, cut off everything but the tetrads.

A petri plate being pressed onto a velvet with an impression already on it.

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

You can save agar and plastic by plating transformations on quadrants of plates.

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

It’s wild! pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31203185/

Images from a leukocyte migrating out of a vessel, it goes through an extremely small constriction

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

So please, I beg you, if you are teaching anyone in science how to do presentations, show them this comparison so I don't have to sit through another talk with that boring overview slide.

A slide with generic bullets on the left and informative bullets on the right
overview=AZT a novel inhibitor of HIV
Introdcution=why do we need inhibitors of HIV
Background=reverse transcriptase as a druggable viral target
conclusions and results=AZT inhibition of RT in vitro and in vivo
future directions=challenges for AZT in human therapeutics.

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

They've just bored the heck out of their audience, and wasted valuable time that they could have used to really give an overview of the talk. Like this one, that actually has all of the bullets of the prior one but gives a sneak peek about the whole talk.

A slide entitled azt a novel inhibitor of HIV
with bullets
why do we need inhibitors of HIV
reverse transcriptase as a 'druggable' target
AZT inhibition ot RT in vitro and in vivo
Challenges for AZT in human therapeutics

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

Why do so many new graduate students use this exact slide in their presentations? Where do they find it? Someone must be giving it to them because without fail I see a few of them every year, this exact slide with these exact words.

A slide that reads overview
introduction
background
results
conclusions
future directions

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

For my March calendar, I picked a dark blue background and some birds pictures I bought on Etsy.

A calendar labeled march with some funky cute birds on it.

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

Write every day, February mission accomplished! Managed to write* at least 30 minutes every workday. Mostly on a pair of manuscripts, one in revision, one to go out this month. *write in my definition includes making figures

A set of three mini calendars. January has all but one day crossed out and a green foil star. February has all days crossed out and a gold foil star. March has one day crossed out and no stars.

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

Another round of damn, I'm feeling feverish, am I getting sick? Nope, my office is trying to kill me.

An office thermostat set at 70 reading 78.

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

🧪Science Photoshop question. I have some Photoshop files from a collaborator, and I would like to change the color scheme of micrographs. Is there a simple way to do this without the source image files? The micrographs are embedded as layers.

A screen grab of a photoshop image with blue green and red panels and then a layers menu with file names of micrograph images

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

Been looking forward to lunch all morning. Yummy, hefty dose of Bay leaf in the Indian spiced chicken wit gravy and rice.

A photo of a luscious bowl of rice with a juicy nugget of chicken and a glossy Bay leaf.

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

Edited for local conditions (although the pollening extends from third winter into summer)

A list of seasons with additional winters and falls, some are squished.

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

Yes. Used to teach the history of drug discovery. We read an early paper on penicillin. In one case, a kid broke his leg, and it got infected. One month later, he's still very ill, with a high fever and blood in urine; penicillin clears it up in a week. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

CASE 5.-Boy, aged 14. Admitted May 6,1941. Staphylococcal septicaemia with early osteomyelitis of left femur following fall 6 days before. aureus. Blood-culture grew Staph. Given sulphathiazole 64 g. between May 7 and 12 with little benefit. May 17: left hip-joint explored, no abscess found, joint contained little sterile fluid with polymorphs in it. May 22 : blood and albumin in urine. Embolic pustular rash. Extension by skin traction applied to left leg. May 30: X rays showed osteitis left femoral neck with involvement of joint and destruction of alveolar walls. Discharge from wound grew Staph. aureus. June 6 : still extremely ill, with temperature rising to 10l F., much pain in left hip and thigh ; urine still contained blood and albumin. Hb. 74% ; red cells 4,290,000. Bloodurea 23 mg. per 100 c.cm.

By June 10 had lost almost all pain and tenderness. Cannula transferred to another vein and infusion continued at half rate with double strength of penicillin (1 g. in 500 c.cm.). On June 11 and 13 sudden rises of temperature without apparent cause ; traced to use of penicillin prepared 2 months previously and containing pyrogenic impurity. June 14 : cannula transferred to another vein and penicillin recovered from boy’s urine used. No further rise of temperature. Steady improvement. On June 16 continuous administration stopped. Given another 50 mg. 3-hourly for 12 doses and then 4-hourly for 12 more Stopped June 20 ; total dosage 17-2 g. Urine then doses. normal. Blood-urea 29 mg. per 100 c.cm. June 21 : Hb. 64%; red cells 3,750,000. June 23 : radiograms of hip showed no extension of destructive process ; boy felt quite well. July 9 : extension removed. July 11: had been afebrile for 3 weeks. No pain in leg. Passive hip movements, flexion 80°. Other movements almost full.

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

Write every (work) day resolution going strong. I only did one cheat day in January. Made my February calendar even cuter.

A photo of two monthly calendars. The January one has cats and has most days checkmarked. There is a green foil star on the January calendar. February is empty. It has a green background and frogs.

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

How's your day going? I just figured something out.

A graphical of a sequence alignment showing what looks like perfect alignment.

A dot plot of a sequence alignment showing some trouble.

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

TIL-sometimes if you call the company, they will send you detailed schematics and discuss how to do repairs that are not in the user manual. I'll be replacing the belt on my orbital shaker, which will require removing this bead of silicon sealant.

A photo of some bearing poking up out of a sealed metal peice with three holes.

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

Here's the motivational calendar that I can use to record my writing sessions, and the sweet sweet gold stars that I could earn. (Yes, I know it's weird, but I find gold stars motivating)

A photo of a tiny calendar with many days crossed off. There are cute cats on the calendar. There is a sheet of gold stars nearby.

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

Resolution to write every morning is still going strong! My plan to write first thing in the morning seems to be working. On Weds, I had meetings at 9:30-10:30, 11-12:30, and I taught 3-5pm. Getting the writing done before that first meeting meant it got done!

A photo of mini January calendar. All of the work-days of the month have a check-mark, indicating I did a writing session. The calendar is decorated with cats.

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

The paper looked at AI-augmented scientific content, not (I think) LLM use for writing, they used as an example AlphaFold. Their model (I think) looked for terms common in AI-augmented research not AI-augmented writing.

A chart with an axis of relative frequency and terms like Convolutional neural network, Random Forest, Large Language model, K-neared neighbors.

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

So far so good with the New Year's resolution to write 30 min at the start of each work-day. I've been much more productive this week because of it. I'm keeping track with check marks and stars if I do it every day of the week. I might give myself a foil star sticker if I fill all of January.

A photo of a small piece of paper entitled January with a 6 by 5 grid. The grid is surrounded by cat illustrations. The boxes corresponding to Jan 2 and Jan5-9 are checked and the last box in the two top rows has a hand written star on it.

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

Who saw this XKCD and thought mitochondria?

An XKCD entitled sauropods. In the top panel, a long necked dinosaur is shown, it is exed out.
In the bottom panel two short-necked dinosaurs are shown and one snake. The caption reads thanks to modern palenotolgical reconstructions we now know thta most sauropds has short necks and all those extra vertebrae belonged to the sauropod colony's queen.

a two panel illustration the top shows football shaped mitochondria, they are exed out. The bottom shows long noodle shaped mitochondria. The caption readsThanks to modern microscopy reconstructions, we now know that mitochondria are often shaped like noodles.

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

Tom Pollard is doing this in the Drubin/Barnes lab. So it's absolutely something that can be done.

A screen grab of a web site with Principal Investigators David Drubin and Georjana Barnes with visiting professor Tom Pollard

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

Reviewing my New Year's checklist for the lab, apparently a New Year's innovation from 2017. This has been a great way to reset the lab every year.

A checklist: 1. Update and print 2017 notebook: ___
2. Review administrative e-mails, schedule any needed training, committee meetings etc: ___
3. Throw out media bottles older than 12 months (except –biotin, –iron or other expensive media): ___
4. Wipe down your shelves: ___
5. Organize your buffers: ___
6. Wipe down your pipettor holder: ___
7. Wipe down your benchtop and the drawer faces under your bench: ___
8. Check and discard any 50 or 15 ml falcons that are poorly labeled, cracked or old: ___
9. Discard random items from benchtop: ___
10. Clean pipettors: ___
11. Check calibration of pipettors: ___
12. Clean 4C space: ___
13. Clean coldroom space: ___
14. Check -20 freezers for your pcr racks, racks of tubes or bottles, move to labeled boxes or discard: ___
15. Check -80 freezer for racks of tubes or bottles, move to labeled boxes or discard: ___
16. Discard paper from around desk: ___

17. Check your lab coat, is it filthy? Set it aside for cleaning, get a clean lab coat from the pile: ___
18. Check your goggles, are they scratched, discard them and get a new pair, are they dirty, clean them with windex: ___
19. Survey the area above your bench and in the drawers under your bench, crosscheck with lab inventory, make any needed corrections: ___
20. Pick one piece of lab equipment or one common area, clean it: ___
21. Review 2017, perform self-evaluation (see attached documents Undergrads use Current skills, others use Contributions and Assessment forms): ___
22. Schedule annual review with Mara: ___

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Mara Duncan @mcduncanlab.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

Printed out my 2026 submissions tracker, this is my aspiration of submitting 20 manuscripts, grants, talk abstracts, or big projects per year. New Year's resolution from 2019 that stuck. I've never reached 20/year, but it does motivate me to do more.

A photo of some papers taped to the wall, one has cute cats and checkboxes and is labeled January. Another has empty stars and is labeled 2026. Behind is one labeled 2025 where some of the stars are filled.

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