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Lesley MacNeil

@steeltownworms.bsky.social
604 followers 600 following 538 posts

Loves worms, dogs and nothing else. Opinions are my own and rarely reflect those of my employer. Associate Professor at McMaster University.

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Reposted by Lesley MacNeil
Canadian Paintings @canadianpaintings.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
The road to reconciliation begins with truth Mishiikenh Kwe ~ Anishinaabe c. 2022
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W. Brent Derry @wbderry.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Faculty position at the University of Toronto 👇 jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Toronto-...
jobs.utoronto.ca
Assistant Professor - Systems Neurophysiology
Assistant Professor - Systems Neurophysiology
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Anne C. Hart @ach-ceneuro.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Position available to work on Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood; develop assays & test compounds using Hart lab #Celegans disease models. Ideal for scientist with Bachelors or Masters degree seeking mentorship, but previous at-the-bench experience is required. See REQ211438 on Brown Univ website.
C. elegans, various life stages
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Lesley MacNeil @steeltownworms.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I'm writing a lay summary and I really want to write "because we can't do experiments on humans"......
static.klipy.com
Spock: Flawlessly Logical
ALT: Spock: Flawlessly Logical
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Cezar Khursigara @cmkhursigara.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Molecular & Cellular Biology at the University of Guelph is recruiting an Assistant Professor in Molecular & Cellular Biotechnology through the Canada Impact+ Emerging Leaders program. Please share widely! careers.uoguelph.ca/job/Guelph-A...
careers.uoguelph.ca
Assistant Professor (Canada Impact+ Emerging Leader)
Assistant Professor (Canada Impact+ Emerging Leader)
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Lesley MacNeil @steeltownworms.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
So, Canada Impact+ Research Chairs has been renamed? I'm having a flashback to CERC. Does this mean the program will continue past this year?
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AAU @aau.edu · 28/09/2026
Most major scientific and medical advances began with federally funded basic research. Tonight, the Golden Goose Award will honor scientists whose fundamental, curiosity-driven research led to unexpected breakthroughs.
aau.edu
Golden Goose Award a Reminder That Federally Funded Basic Research…
These examples of past Golden Goose Award stories help demonstrate why curiosity-driven basic research matters, even when its value is not at first…
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Michel Cayouette @michelcayouette.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
If you are a postdoc looking for opportunities to present your latest results, apply to our Early-Career Scientists Seminar Series (ECS3) to get invited to our Institute, all expenses paid. A unique opportunity! Apply here: www.ircm.qc.ca/en/ecs3
ircm.qc.ca
ECS3
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BCCHR ResDev (DM) @resdevbcch.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
‼️ attention Canadian health researchers ‼️ #CIHR has posted the Project Grants Discussion Paper and a related *survey* cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/54821.html Please please participate 🙏
photo of the “help shape the future of the project grant program” announcement by CIHR. TEXT is accessible in the hyperlink in this post.
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David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
There’s a whole cadre right wing professors, mostly middle aged, mostly men, mostly white, who went to university in the 80s and 90s. They want their nostalgic vision of academia back and thought partnering with the fascists might get them there. DEI gone too far. Also fat paychecks. Etc.
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Jim Woodgett @jwoodgett.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
There’s a concerted campaign to undermine EDI in Canada. The evidence behind EDI policies reducing excellence are based on abysmal, flawed evidence. Look at who feels threatened by equity, diversity and inclusion. They’re the least diverse, least equitable and most exclusive people. Just no.
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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 22/09/2026
NEW: OpenAI took 20 million ChatGPT responses and had one of its experts search for chunks of text—specifically chunks of 25 words in a row- that were identical between ChatGPT’s responses and a news article. They found more than 400,000 of these 25-word overlaps between ChatGPT and our articles.
motherjones.com
AI exec: We may have pulled off “the largest theft of labor in human history.”
Documents from our lawsuit reveal how tech leaders talk when they think no one is listening.
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WeberLab@McGill @weber-lab.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
🚨We're hiring!!🚨 @biomcgill.bsky.social is looking for a Quantitative Cell Biologist to join our diverse and interdisciplinary community. Please share this ad broadly, and reach out if you have any questions. mcgill.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/McGill...
mcgill.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com
Assistant Professor in Quantitative Cell Biology - Department of Biology
Please refer to the How to Apply for a Job (for External Candidates) job aid for instructions on how to apply. If you are an active McGill employee (ie: currently in an active contract or position at ...
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Nick Burton @nickburton.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Very excited to put out this new preprint from the lab that represents our 3rd paper now in the lab's move into the field of identifying bioactive molecules in bacteria using C. elegans and studying how they regulate animal physiology. Really excited about this space- www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
The shape of the future unless we get our collective act together...
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Alex Usher @alexusherhesa.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
And a blog post.
higheredstrategy.com
The Macdonald-Laurier Institute’s Crap H-Index Paper | HESA
Today I want to focus on a publication which came out from the Macdonald-Laurier Institute called   “The equity excellence trade-off: A study of EDI in the Canada Research Chairs programs” which appea...
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Lesley MacNeil @steeltownworms.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Wow. None of the authors are researchers in Canada!
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Lesley MacNeil @steeltownworms.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
It's 2026 and a bunch of dudes just published something called the "Equity-excellence trade-off". Their central hypothesis is that CRC should not have introduced quotas that force universities to nominate women and minorities. They want to go back to a time when chairs were 80% men and mostly white.
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Trevon Logan @trevondlogan.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
If you know the details of the Claudine Gay (Harvard) and Jason Arday (Cambridge) controversies but little about the Marc Tessier-Lavigne (Stanford) controversy, you should ask yourself why. [And, yes, the answer is as simple as you think it is. This isn’t 3-dimensional chess...]
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Daniel Bolnick @danielbolnick.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Men are more likely to accept invitations to review a paper in Ecology and Evolution when the *editor* inviting them is male. Women’s response rate is unaffected onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
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George O'Toole (he/him/his) @geiselbiofilm.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Pls share: We have a new position for an Assistant Professor of Evolutionary Biology at UNLV. tinyurl.com/4uhpav4j
tinyurl.com
Assistant Professor in Evolutionary Biology, School of Life Sciences [R0153361]
The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) appreciates your interest in employment. We ask that you keep in mind the following when completing your application: Once you start the application process ...
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Lesley MacNeil @steeltownworms.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Is no one doing their own homework these days?
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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
It’s almost 3:00 PM EST. You’ve done enough. You can stop now.
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Ivan Liachko @ivanliachko.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Best quotable of #ISME20 a la Phil Hugenholtz: Q: "Phil, do you have FOMO?" A: "No, I have the fear of being included" @xrefugee13.bsky.social @isme-microbes.bsky.social #microbiome
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Lesley MacNeil @steeltownworms.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
The purpose of a university is still education and research right? Just checking.
static.klipy.com
What The Hell Are Your Priorities Saturday Night Live
ALT: What The Hell Are Your Priorities Saturday Night Live
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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
For a few years the gates were genuinely open before being shut again — a kind of pulse-chase experiment. Even if the movement doesn’t survive this political moment, the scientists who earn tenure and do great work at top universities will prove the point: talent is universal, but opportunity is not
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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Amid the rush to burn DEI infrastructure to the ground, it’s worth remembering that the goal was never favoritism. It was a fair shot for people long excluded by unconscious or real bias — prominent scientists, including Nobel laureates, openly argued some “races” were innately unsuited for science.
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Lesley MacNeil @steeltownworms.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Hedgehog-signaling regulates intergenerational effects on size in C. elegans. Super cool micropub from Nicole Templeman's lab. www.micropublication.org/journals/bio...
micropublication.org
Hedgehog-related gene wrt-10 mediates intergenerational effects of fasting on larval size in Caenorhabditis elegans | microPublication
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Lesley MacNeil @steeltownworms.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
I asked ChatGPT for a list of Canadian Researchers who use C. elegans. Shout-out to my friends Doug Derry @wbderry.bsky.social and Joe Chin-Sang. Also, shout-out to Cathy Rankin, who is the only female C. elegans researcher in Canada.
static.klipy.com
Chicago Fire Stella Kidd
ALT: Chicago Fire Stella Kidd
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Brian Phillips @bpmornings.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Had Fauci been in the Epstein files he would have avoided today's hearing.
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Lesley MacNeil @steeltownworms.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Please for the love of God, stop putting text in bold for no particular reason! Software developers, stop making bold the default (looking at you Prism). It doesn't need to be fancy, it needs to be readable. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
static.klipy.com
Anna Kendrick: Boom Mic Drop
ALT: Anna Kendrick: Boom Mic Drop
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Annika Barber @annikabarber.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
I have two preprints out (and under review/revision) and another coming soon (linked below), and I go up for tenure next spring. So if your department is looking for a speaker - call me! (Actually do not. Email me. I am a millennial and unexpected phone calls give me anxiety). 🧪
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Vicky Forster @vickyyyf.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
I've been following this cyclospora outbreak story (and writing for Forbes) and now would be a good time to stop eating any uncooked fresh produce from the U.S. The CDC are investigating but no source/s identified yet. Canadian fresh produce is a much better bet. Never a better time to buy Canadian
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Tim Ellis, TDSB Ward 2 candidate 🍁 @djdynamic.ca · 08/07/2026
"They just want to turn it off." A fascinating story of the librarians who have started teaching classes showing people how to remove AI "features" from their phones and apps. www.bangordailynews.com/2026/07/02/m...
bangordailynews.com
These Maine librarians are helping patrons resist AI and Big Tech
Despite breathless reporting on how AI is going to change the world, Hannah Cyrus, a Bangor librarian, said that, in her experience, most library patrons aren’t finding it helpful.
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Richard Sever @richardsever.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Is the real issue less a guilty/not guilty verdict but - as in Tessier-Lavigne’s case - the fact this seems bound to occur in a hypercompetitive environment incentivizing fraud and a feudal system ill-equipped and disincentivized to address it?
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Adam Weinstein @adamweinstein.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
I'm so disillusioned, I almost don't even care who gets the FIFA Peace Prize next year
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Lesley MacNeil @steeltownworms.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Reason 1 million that I love the worm community: Someone shows an image of a really large C. elegans, and there are audible oooohhhs and ahhhhhhs from the audience.
static.klipy.com
Buddy Elf's Big Reaction
ALT: Buddy Elf's Big Reaction
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Irini Topalidou @irinakitop.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Hey C. elegans friends! What's your preferred method for cell-specific knockout or knockdown? Would love any paper recommendations too! Thank you!!!
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Lesley MacNeil @steeltownworms.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
What happens when AI is used to train AI. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
The curious case of Elias Thorne – and what he tells us about AI inbreeding | Arwa Mahdawi
A character bearing that name appears in a remarkable number of chatbot-generated stories, writes Arwa Mahdawi. He could be a messenger from the future – or a warning that generative AI is in danger o...
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Anne Carpenter @drannecarpenter.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
Are you super organized? Knowledgeable about research operations and administration? Join me at Purdue!! In Indiana. Opportunity to: - work with all kinds of software and AI tools - contribute to labs working on the causes and cures of disease - with nice people! careers.purdue.edu/job/Research...
careers.purdue.edu
Research Operations Administrator, Associate
Research Operations Administrator, Associate
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Julie Blommaert @drjulieb.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
No public good (eg universities, libraries, museums, infrastructure, public transport, government, etc) should ever be run like a business
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Lesley MacNeil @steeltownworms.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
I'm trying to come up with assignments for my undergrad class that are hard for AI to complete. How do we feel about a farm biosecurity plan delivered with a diorama (I'm mostly kidding)?
static.klipy.com
Four Dancing Cows in a Field
ALT: Four Dancing Cows in a Field
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Esther Verheyen 🇨🇦 @estherverheyen.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Thrilled to share our latest paper describing systemic metabolic alterations in a fly tumour model. Great work of PhD grad Dr. Kewei Yu and undergrad and post-bacc researcher Gurpreet Moroak. @dmmjournal.bsky.social @sfuscience.bsky.social journals.biologists.com/dmm/article/...
journals.biologists.com
A Drosophila tumor model identifies a conserved Upd–JAK/STAT–Akh signaling axis associated with metabolic changes in cancer cachexia
Summary: A Drosophila tumor model drives cancer cachexia and distant organ wasting through a conserved tumor–host signaling axis resulting in metabolic reprogramming.
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Javier Apfeld @javierapfeld.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
C. elegans friends: If you participated in the mentor match program last year, we want your feedback on what worked, what didn't, and how to make the program better! Please fill out this survey: forms.gle/xYCF19saFfoj...
forms.gle
C. elegans Community Mentor Match 2025 feedback survey
Thank you for providing feedback about your experiences as a mentee, mentor, and peer group member in the last cycle of the C. elegans Community Mentor Match program! Please skip questions that are n...
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Paul Gribble 🇨🇦 @gribblelab.org · 16/06/2026
Any time I’m in a meeting and the topic of discussion turns to brainstorming ways the university can make more money, I know I’m in the wrong meeting. Or to put it differently the meeting has the wrong attendee. #academicsky
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Lesley MacNeil @steeltownworms.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
Looks like I am teaching for 4 hours in a row on Mondays in the fall. In two different buildings, obviously.
static.klipy.com
Bugs Bunny Crying Tears
ALT: Bugs Bunny Crying Tears
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Tim Dickinson @timdickinson.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
The world's first trillionaire did this
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Dr Dan Shugar 🇨🇦 @watershedlab.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
TODAY! I am fully aware of how absurd a <24h deadline is but trust me there’s a good reason. if you’re interested in this postdoc, send me your CV immediately.🧪⚒️
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PLOS Biology @plosbiology.org · 10/06/2026
#CrohnsDisease is associated with NOD2 mutations, but what's NOD2's role in the #intestine? Mckenna Eklund & @edanfoley.bsky.social show that #NOD2 interacts with #estrogen to regulate intestinal homeostasis, perhaps explaining the sex-specific pathogenesis of CD @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4ojTEuZ
Immunohistochemical images of a sagittal posterior intestine section from WT and nod2−/− intestines (6-month-old, cohoused adults) stained for Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen (PCNA – arrowheads). Sections were counterstained with Alcian blue (Goblet) and quarter-strength Hematoxylin Gill III in lavender blush (nuclei). Images are shown in rostral-to-caudal orientation. Scale bars are indicated in each panel.
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Popehat @kenwhite.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Is there a word for government of, for, and by 12-year-old boys
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