Sign in

DocMaertens

@toxicological.bsky.social
513 followers 1.6K following 230 posts

Toxicologist, systems biologist. Bringing bioinformatics to environmental health. Interested in using computational toxicology to design safer chemicals? There’s a book for that! www.amazon.com/Green-Toxicology-Mak…

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by DocMaertens
Laurie! Live! @laurie-merrell.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
hilariously shady content from Pew this Fourth of July
1102
Reposted by DocMaertens
Daniel S. Goldberg @profgoldberg.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
Just for the record, I've worked on stigma, inequalities, and pain for 20 years, & the evidence is utterly overwhelming that women are vastly less likely to have their pain adequately diagnosed and treated than men. And of course WoC are less likely than white women. Etc. cc @maybell.bsky.social
25911
Reposted by DocMaertens
Free DC @freedcproject.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
But yesterday, soldiers from the Minnesota National Guard arrived in DC to aid and abet Trump's immoral and illegal occupation of the capital city.
15615
Reposted by DocMaertens
D. Scott Pumpkins 🎃🏳️‍🌈 @dslundberg.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
City: Washington, DC I only need one word: Statehood
0276
Reposted by DocMaertens
Janne M. Korhonen @jmkorhonen.fi · 24/06/2026
There are words for that and they are “political” and “prisoner.”
420074
Reposted by DocMaertens
Prof Gavin Yamey MD MPH @gavinyamey.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
This is IMHO extremely important Keep an eye out—other government departments will hopefully follow🤞 The right-wing disinformation, violence, & abuse of women & children on X led the Attorney General to take his office OFF that Nazi cesspit Hermer himself has suffered grotesque antisemitism
1154
Reposted by DocMaertens
ae @aelkus.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
at the end, @professormusgrave.bsky.social says future students will ask "why?" And I'm afraid that we'll have to tell them the answer is that a plurality of the American people wanted it to be 2019 again and thought nothing Trump did would impact them. Ditto to institutions that enabled him
10601124
Reposted by DocMaertens
Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
Also, the JCPOA was an actual painstakingly negotiated, detailed, actual international agreement, signed by 🇬🇧, 🇩🇪, 🇫🇷, 🇷🇺, & 🇨🇳alongside 🇺🇸, & 🇮🇷. We don’t even know if this is real, & this administration has exactly zero credibility to make agreements right now, even if they exist.
9980261
Reposted by DocMaertens
David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
In case we had any doubt
lemonde.fr
Elon Musk's role was 'instrumental' in the Belfast riots, researchers say
The newly crowned world's first trillionaire is once again facing criticism over the violent narratives he amplified on his platform X.
2233861316
Reposted by DocMaertens
🇵🇸Tim Henke (tɪm 'ɦɛŋ.kə) @timhenke.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
If any future student of history wishes to learn what our era was like, they simply need to know that there was less than a year between Elon becoming a historic mass murderer and officially becoming the world's first trillionaire
112135
Reposted by DocMaertens
Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 10/06/2026
Twitter/X is an enormous national security threat on a global scale, and a lot more nations need to grow a spine and start blocking it (and taking other active, aggressive measures).
252780706
Reposted by DocMaertens
Amesh Adalja @ameshaa.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
In this @hannamwebster.bsky.social piece I’m quoted about how vaccination rates are a key component of school safety that should be widely publicized and also how it’s not suprising to see 60+ measles cases in PA as the virus has re-established endemicity. www.post-gazette.com/news/health/...
post-gazette.com
Amid a measles resurgence, Pennsylvania leaders say plunging vaccine rates in thousands of schools will be made public
As measles cases in Pennsylvania spike to levels not seen in decades, state officials say they will disclose the vaccination rates in classrooms across...
012
Reposted by DocMaertens
Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 10/06/2026
It's hard to be excited about the Artemis III mission announcements when the CEO of the company making one of the mission's rockets has spent his week inciting racial violence via his personal social media platform.
214141182949
Reposted by DocMaertens
Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
reminder that the last time trump was at madison square garden was for a literal nazi rally
newrepublic.com
Trump’s Madison Square Garden Event Was a Full Nazi Rally
Donald Trump’s rally was rife with Nazi and Nazi-adjacent language and imagery.
303198787
Reposted by DocMaertens
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Read this whole piece.
Mamuka spent 119 days in detention, about four months, but under normal circumstances, he should have been released. He was arrested on February 5 in Alabama, where he was detained for five days, then moved to Winn where he spent another 114 days before dying in custody. Unless something changed between the middle of March and early June, he did not have a final removal order so ICE couldn't move him-instead, Mamuka had a case pending before an immigration judge this entire time, and may have still been waiting on a final hearing when he passed. He was classified as the lowest risk level in detention, he had no mandatory detention flag, he was not a known terrorist or a suspected gang member (problematic as those categories are, and he never had a prior detainer, so it's unlikely that he ever had a run-in with police.All of these factors, combined with the nature of his arrest, support a straightforward conclusion that he should not have been in detention in the first place. Using the national ICE detention average daily rate of $150, the US taxpayer spent $17,850 detaining this single person without any evidence that it served the interests of public safety or national security.
4422181083
Reposted by DocMaertens
Steven Kahn @sekahn.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
I grew up in apartheid S Africa, where muzzling of speech and encroachment on academic freedom were the norm. I came to the USA to pursue a career in science. I never thought that at this stage of my career, I would ever experience my youth again. #StandUpForScience #ADA #ADA2026
711838
Reposted by DocMaertens
Drug Monkey @drugmonkey.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
To be absolutely clear in the current environment, the bias identified here was a bias for white lead investigators and also for topics that are favored by white investigators, regardless of the lead investigator’s race.
12011
Reposted by DocMaertens
Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 06/06/2026
Remember the current NIH director going on about protecting researchers from government censorship? Today his people called the police in to forcibly remove my colleagues from their own society meeting for sharing an editorial published in their flagship journal that was critical of him. Gift link
nytimes.com
Police Remove Diabetes Experts From Conference for Distributing Critique of Trump Administration
5629151465
Reposted by DocMaertens
Daniel Bolnick @danielbolnick.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
The new NIH policy requiring co-authorships with foreign scientists to be reported seems like an opportunity for a mass protest-by-cooperation: if each of us requested permission for each of our co-authorships (1 email per ms), the NIH would be deluged with these and it would convey how absurd it is
22716
Reposted by DocMaertens
David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈 @whysharksmatter.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
I work on global ocean conservation policy. I don’t know if it’s possible to do that without collaboration with foreign experts. It’s definitely not possible to do it well.
34510
Reposted by DocMaertens
Danielle R. Snowflack, Ph.D. @drsnowflack.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
www.capitalweather.com Found it and sent some bucks.
capitalweather.com
Capital Weather
Trusted D.C.-area weather forecasts, storm coverage, climate reporting and analysis from the Capital Weather meteorologists
152
Reposted by DocMaertens
liberation psychiatrist @libpsych.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
The first Memorial Day dates to 1865 when members of Black churches re-buried Union soldiers from a mass grave in a Confederate prison camp to individual grave sites. Memory of the event was later suppressed. apnews.com/31e1623c7565...
apnews.com
Charleston can lay a claim to 1st Memorial Day
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — The city that plunged the nation into its bloodiest conflict can also lay a claim to holding the first Memorial Day observance honoring the dead from the Civil War. In a little...
02620
Reposted by DocMaertens
Amesh Adalja @ameshaa.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
“Twenty of those cases are part of an ongoing outbreak that started in Lebanon County over the past month and has spread to three other counties: Berks, Dauphin and Lancaster.” www.post-gazette.com/news/health/...
post-gazette.com
Measles cases continue to spread in Pa., hitting the highest number since 1991
As vaccination rates plummet in hundreds of schools across Pennsylvania, state health officials say 32 cases of measles have been reported so far...
012
Reposted by DocMaertens
Eiko Fried @eikofried.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
100% worth your 63 seconds if you have my reading speed. sinceyouarrived.world/taken
sinceyouarrived.world
taken.
A web page that tells you what your browser gave away the moment you arrived. No login, no form, no permission. Most pages do this. None of them tell you.
125429
Reposted by DocMaertens
Kathleen Bachynski @bachynski.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
“Dr. Antaki, a biomedical engineer, had been building an artificial heart for babies and young children, a pump the size of a AA battery, and he was getting close. But with his research grants stopped, Dr. Antaki slowly drained his lab’s rainy day funds, and he was forced to lay off all his staff.”
nytimes.com
How a Funding Pause Derailed an Artificial Heart for Babies
2849475
Reposted by DocMaertens
Kashana @kashana.blacksky.app · 18/05/2026
Also the next somebody says reparations for black people is a ridiculous idea, remind them that we have a reparations program for trying to overthrow the government
172291664
Reposted by DocMaertens
Bill Madden @maddenifico.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
The most accurate portrayal of the pro-Jim Crow, white nationalist Roberts Supreme Court I've seen yet.
215106943615
Reposted by DocMaertens
Kathleen Bachynski @bachynski.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
“Let me start with what worked…the part of the story most Americans do not know. The Nebraska biocontainment unit now holding our returning passengers is a Level 1 Regional Emerging Special Pathogen Treatment Center… the highest tier of a national network built specifically for moments like this.”
statnews.com
The hantavirus is a wake-up call. Will the Trump administration answer it?
Arriving in the isolation ward of a biocontainment hospital is an unsettling, scary experience. In 2014, I spent 19 days in one while being treated for
313772
Reposted by DocMaertens
Sarah Lawton @sarahelawton.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Happy Frances Perkins feast day (Episcopal Church calendar, May 13)! Witness to the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, later FDR’s Labor Secretary; she wrote the Social Security Act in her church’s rectory kitchen. She pushed to admit Jewish refugees. Known as FDR’s conscience and author of the New Deal. ⚓️
Photograph of Frances Perkins in black and white; she is wearing a hat and fur stole in the style of the 1930s and looking directly at the camera with a determined look and slight close-mouthed smile.
19877311
Reposted by DocMaertens
Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 11/05/2026
Look, even this level of idiocy is not reason to panic. It just reemphasizes the point here:
231054
Reposted by DocMaertens
ProPublica @propublica.org · 10/05/2026
When Rubio abruptly halted foreign aid last year, cleanup crews in Vietnam were forced to abandon one of the largest chemical spills in the world for weeks. Left exposed: open pits of soil contaminated with dioxin, the deadly byproduct of Agent Orange. From Pulitzer finalist “The End of Aid”:
propublica.org
Trump Halted an Agent Orange Cleanup. That Puts Hundreds of Thousands at Risk for Poisoning.
Diplomats in Vietnam warned Washington that halting USAID’s efforts to clean up the massive deposit of postwar pesticides would be a catastrophe for public health and relations with a key strategic pa...
4519411125
Reposted by DocMaertens
Adam Schwarz @adamjschwarz.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Zelensky has issued a presidential decree “allowing” Russia to hold its annual Victory Day parade in Moscow. The decree provides exact coordinates of the Red Square that shall be excluded from the list of Ukrainian strike targets. Phenomenal power play.
14835461021
Reposted by DocMaertens
Mike the Mad Biologist and Trump's Press Corps Approver @mikethemadbiol.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
absolutely, and it's because we lack statehood. I realize, for obvious reasons, that most people view D.C. statehood in terms of 2 (almost certainly) Democratic senate seats, but the lack of self-governance is a real problem. Imagine if Congress had a de facto line item veto over your state budget.
1614136
Reposted by DocMaertens
HL Eisthen, defective human product @hleisthen.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
This should be a bigger story. I didn't know Isaiah but almost everyone in my lab, my TA, and a few close colleagues knew him well. They all say he was a sweet guy who was just really into herps. This is a tragedy.
11975533
Reposted by DocMaertens
Mallory Harris, PhD @malar0ne.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
NIH Director's stump speech lists stats on how it's hard to be early career & proposes no solution past "elevate new ideas" while he slashes our opportunities. If you're a scientific org inviting him & don't point this out, I'll assume you don't care about us. deevybee.blogspot.com/2026/04/that...
So including for instance elevating elevating the ideas of early career scientists

We have a problem, we have a major problem, right

 For for the last 30 years it's gotten worse and worse

Where where you have the time to first- like the age at which you get your first large grant, the age has gone up from the mid-80s was about 35 years old to now it's  like in your mid 40s.

We have a biological research ecosystem where you need 1,2,3 postdocs

Early career scientists are the ones who have the newer ideas

and so, like, when you when you elevate the new ideas you allow- essentially empower the institutes to have newer ideas funded, you're automatically organically going to fund early career scientists. You just are.
27928
Reposted by DocMaertens
Jon Cooper @joncooper-us.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
This photo should be on the front page of every single newspaper in America today.
38504153916663
Reposted by DocMaertens
Dr. Damien P. Williams, dread portent down from a mountain cave @wolven.blacksky.app · 17/04/2026
Yousof Azizi, Iranian researcher, journalist, commentator and PhD candidate at @virginiatech.bsky.social with valid legal status, has been illegally detained by ICE. He was taken from in front of his home, has been denied access to a lawyer, and may be transferred to a detention center in Louisiana:
change.org
Sign the Petition
Release Yousof Azizi from ICE detention
3244183
Reposted by DocMaertens
Laura Haynes👩‍🔬⚾️🐾💙 @drlaurahaynes.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
Once again, I have no words (or at least words that won’t get me in trouble) for the shit that our government is doing 😡
2189
Reposted by DocMaertens
Colette Delawalla, PhD @cdelawalla.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
Public servants who are doing everything they can to document the damage and throw sand in the gears are CRITICAL to saving our democracy. I trust @repauchincloss.bsky.social and his team. If this is you, please reach out. You will be protected and supported.
12411
Reposted by DocMaertens
Amesh Adalja @ameshaa.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
“Año Nuevo State Park in San Mateo County, California, is set to reopen this upcoming weekend after a bird flu outbreak killed several elephant seals and other marine mammals.” www.cidrap.umn.edu/avian-influe...
cidrap.umn.edu
Indiana tracks more avian flu in hard-hit counties
In the past 30 days, APHIS has confirmed outbreaks in 56 flocks.
111
Reposted by DocMaertens
Musicology Duck @musicologyduck.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
things don't actually sound better on vinyl
220611
Reposted by DocMaertens
Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
If we are using taxpayer fairness as a criterion, Black Americans make up ~14% of the population yet receive less than 1% of of NIH funding. 5/5
media.tenor.com
a poster for rules are rules shows a cartoon character
ALT: a poster for rules are rules shows a cartoon character
39220
Reposted by DocMaertens
diego@estupido.fyi @estupido.fyi · 09/04/2026
lmao and it's on CBS
075
Reposted by DocMaertens
Jasmine 🌌🔭 @astrojaz.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
OH. MY. GOD. THIS IS THE MILKY WAY SHOT BY THE ARTEMIS II CREW. LOOK AT ALL THOSE STARS!!!!
A starfield filled with thousands of stars and shining clouds of dust. The Milky Way\u2019s elegant spiral structure is dominated by just two arms wrapping off the ends of a central bar of stars. Spanning more than 100,000 light-years, Earth is located along one of the galaxy\u2019s spiral arms, about halfway from the center. Credit: NASA
341251755043
Reposted by DocMaertens
Senator Andy Kim @kim.senate.gov · 08/04/2026
I'm on the train back to DC – I call on all my colleagues to come back, too. Congress must vote to end this war IMMEDIATELY.
20957651185
Reposted by DocMaertens
Raider @iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
It you watch one thing from the Oscars, let it be this…
6335211428
Reposted by DocMaertens
Jenny Cohn @jennycohn.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
I read the “Save America Act,” so you don’t have to. Most of the media apparently *hasn’t* read it because, if they had, they would be sounding the alarm about the provision in Point 1, below, which almost none of them have even mentioned. I hope this summary helps raise awareness. 1/
22752993493
Reposted by DocMaertens
Eos @eos.org · 13/03/2026
In 1896, Florence Bascom became the first woman to work for USGS! She was also the first woman to earn a Ph.D. from @jhu.edu (in 1893) and created the geology program at Bryn Mawr College. She retired at age 74. #WomensHistoryMonth
usgs.gov
Florence Bascom, Trailblazer of the U.S. Geological Survey
Each March, Women’s History Month commemorates the trailblazers, visionaries and notable women who have forever changed the world.
04720
Reposted by DocMaertens
Alexander Fox @alexanderfox1.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
Finally, a flag worth fighting for.
3134421090