Tootfinder

"Countries that neglect #science become dependent on those that don’t. U.S. post-WWII dominance came from basic science investments (OSRD, NSF, NIH, DOE labs). After WWII ended, the UK slashed science investment which allowed the U.S. to commercialize the British inventions made during the war.
...[USSR failed] to convert science into sustained innovation...during the same time that U.…

Steve Blank No Science, No Startups: The Innovation Engine We’re Switching Off
Tons of words have been written about the Trump Administrations war on Science in Universities. But few people have asked what, exactly, is science? How does it work? Who are the scientists? What d…

Weekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
Since 2011, millions of tons of a brown algae called Sargassum has washed onto beaches in the Caribbean. The rotting seaweed releases toxic hydrogen sulfide, smelling of rotten eggs, impacting tourism and shore access. It was initially thought Saharan iron dust was the cause, but new #science

Leopards eating faces party is a time-honored tradition. #science

Early Humans Weren’t Apex Predators—They Were Eaten by Leopards
Homo habilis was thought to be the first hominin to use stone tools for hunting and processing meat, but they might have been prey instead of predators.

Cuckoo eggs match the eggs of their adoptive hosts thanks to (mostly) loci inherited from their mothers, who put them there — impressive multifaceted genomic study #science

Conference vignette 👀: #OpenScience is about much more than #OpenData. Presenting unpublished work is also Openness, as social science alumna Dr. Ros Attenborough reminded us. And if you can share that way, then...
In the Presidential symposium, another lab alumnus introduced a mouse protein that massively affected the clock ⏰ . His group found it through an ambitious phosphoproteomic 🧪 candidate selection approach on a cell line 🧫 , looking beyond the canonical idea of the clockwork (TTFL in the jargon). Canonical here means canonised by a Nobel prize.
A good friend from Japan explained in the Q&A that his group had just found the SAME gene in a genetic screen of mice 🐁with altered sleep patterns 🐁💤🛌. We know the clock controls sleep. So, independent evidence across continents.👍
Over dinner they started to coordinate how they would each publish their work. #Science working.

If a rat is a good model for your emotional life, you're in big trouble.
-- Robert Sapolski
#Science #Biology #Primatology

🧊 Atomic-level engineering enables new alloys that won't break in extreme cold
#science

Atomic-level engineering enables new alloys that won't break in extreme cold
Navigating the extreme cold of deep space or handling super-chilled liquid fuels here on Earth requires materials that won't break. Most metals become brittle and fracture at such low temperatures. However, new research is pioneering an approach to build metal structures atom by atom to create tough and durable alloys that can withstand such harsh environments.

#Science #ClimateChange Open letter by Scientists: #Climate Neutrality is Europe's Greatest Economic Opportunity

Adaptations that let Culex pipiens mosquitoes thrive in the London Underground turn out to have a much more ancient origin, in Egypt
Ancient origin of an urban underground mosquito https://doi.org/10.1126/science.ady4515

Anyone (academic / researcher) had recent experience with submitting to #ScienceAdvances (https://www.science.org/journal/sciadv)? Good or bad?
We submitted there about 3 months ago and hear…

New scientific analysis determines there are four distinct species of giraffe #science

There are actually four giraffe species in Africa, scientists say
Giraffes are now classified into four distinct species in Africa. Researchers previously thought all giraffes belonged to a single species. On Thursday, a task force of the International Union for Conservation of Nature identified Northern, reticulated, Masai, and Southern giraffes as separate species. This change is based on genetic studies and anatomical differences. Each species faces unique threats and conservation needs. Northern giraffes are the most endangered, with only about 7,000 left…

Won’t happen in my lifetime, but if the human race survives the next decade or so some of you young whippersnappers could be seeing this.
#science #spaceScience #exoPlanets

Could a unique rectangular telescope be the key to finding Earth 2.0?
"We show that this design can, in principle, find half of all existing Earth-like planets orbiting sun-like stars within 30 light-years in less than three years."

"La plupart des gens savent qu'ils devraient boire plus d'eau, mais notre nouvelle étude révèle une conséquence inattendue de cette lacune : le stress quotidien pourrait devenir beaucoup plus difficile Š gérer."
#science #santé

Good discussion of the scientific method and how Jane Goodall helped further improve how we practice #Science
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_FzzLeA6pk

Julia Platt was a brilliant scientist. #Science She made experimental breakthroughs in developmental biology from the late 1800s to the 1920s. She worked in universities in the U.S. and Europe. Her non-standard ideas and techniques were eventually accepted and shown to be correct by male scientists, after she died.
Here's a portrait of her after she was mayor of Pacific Grove, California. She h…

Weekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
This is the phyllosoma larva of a Spiny "Rock" Lobster, which can spend as much as a year drifting in the plankton.
#MarineBiology #science

Right, literally torture ants to *kick start* yogurt making (and then bury milk in an ant nest for 26 hours). 🤦‍♂️
I know, for science, but still screams Ig Nobel. 🏆
#science #milk #yogurt #fermentation #ants #IgNobel

💢 How do drivers react to partisan bumper stickers? Understanding polarization in apolitical settings
#science

Frontiers | How do drivers react to partisan bumper stickers? Understanding polarization in apolitical settings
IntroductionThe impact of political polarization is no longer confined to the voting booth, and partisan identity can shape behavior even in seemingly apolit...

John Bell [quantum physics]…
Not to be confused with Alexander Graham Bell, who came up with the idea of people yelling “Can you hear me now?”
— Sabine Hossenfelder (one good reason for watching YouTube)
#Science #ScienceExplainer

Joshua trees make the cover of New Phytologist, for the issue with our paper, led by Karolina Heyduk, showing that they use water-saving CAM photosynthesis — but only sometimes #science

Barfing is their love language.♥️ A kinky male fruit fly barfs up a bit of his last meal and offers it as a nuptial meal to his intended. Discerning lady fruit flies swoon, and lap it up. #science #entomology

A single protein makes lovesick flies spill their guts
Producing a male-specific protein in digestion-related neurons may have led to the evolution of an odd “romantic” barfing behavior in one species of fruit flies.

The Mongabay news source checks out. The story about the salamanders checks out.
But I'd like to know about the nuns and their cough syrup made with salamanders. Going to have to follow up on this one!
#Nature #Ecology #Science

Great RadioLab interview with Ella al-Shamahi, about her journey from religious anti-evolutionism into evolutionary biology. New perspective but also familiar if you (like me) grew up among Christian creationists; really moving on what faith, even "denialist" faith, means to people
#science #evolution

Cover of Sep-Oct 2025 American Scientist (free mag). #Science

Experimentally co-evolved E. coli and yeast achieve stable coexistence — and the coevolved E. coli, but not the yeast, is able to resist invasion by other bacterial strains
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-025-02618-w

😞 Famous cognitive psychology experiments that failed to replicate
#science

Famous Cognitive Psychology Experiments that Failed to Replicate
A quick reference

Jane Goodall, legendary primatologist, has died at age 91. 🥹
#death #Goodall #Jane #legend #science