MCDuncanLab

Associate Professor at the University of Michigan. I frequently post photos of my cat and garden, and helpful tips for running a lab.

Science: Cell Biology, Membrane Traffic, Clathrin, Golgi
Interests: Gardening, Education, Biking, Environment, Art

Public Key

npub14k3sv7gtyhujmep00nkx86m4h6yv2rsna740rasupl93h00d2fvq26yep4

NIP-05 Address

mcduncanlab_at_mstdn.social@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqs2mgcx0y9jt7fdushhemrrad6mazx9pcf7l2h37cwqljcmhhk4ykqpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsjwutmn

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub14k3sv7gtyhujmep00nkx86m4h6yv2rsna740rasupl93h00d2fvq26yep4

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Last Notes

2026-06-04 14:33:52 UTC

Grant uploaded. Waiting for verifications.
I'm hoping this submission is moot, because it looks like my prior submission is actually going to get funded❤️ 🤯 🎉 !

2026-06-03 12:12:43 UTC

Hi Friends,
If you are a US citizen, please take a moment to learn about the new Office of Management and Budget proposal for massive changes to the use of federal funds.
https://elizabethginexi.substack.com/p/this-new-omb-rule-is-bigger-than
(sorry its substack)
A lot of scientists are concerned about what its going to do to science, but it turns out it's much bigger impacting medicaid, transportation, education and more.
There's a comment period and it would be great to have a big push back from all sectors.

2026-06-01 14:39:58 UTC

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Funnily that idea crossed my mind.
Hubs confesses to leaving it there. This information raises the question of why he had a potato in his study.
Yes, it is near the cold pantry where we store potatoes, but what he was getting a single potato and was like, I'll go read a book and then forgot about the potato?

2026-06-01 12:50:44 UTC

Working in hub’s study and I noticed this potato. I have so many questions.
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/116/674/925/651/590/504/original/dbcf495aa42bd322.png

2026-05-30 22:38:27 UTC

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Not with a grant due this week.

2026-05-30 21:41:50 UTC

Ghaaaa--you can install endnote on the work computer through our enterprise management portal but you can't link it to word. For that you need elevated privileges, like why tempt me that I can load it if I can't use it.
Guess I'm heading into work tomorrow to add new references to the grant.
Time to work on shade cages for the plants.

2026-05-29 20:07:22 UTC

Hey USains,
Do you think that experts in the field or executive branch appointees should be making the decisions on federal grants?
Do you think that the president should be able to cancel funded grants mid-stream for no good reason?
If you have opinions, please comment on the new regulations that would do just that:
https://www.regulations.gov/document/OMB-2026-0034-0001/comment

2026-05-27 17:33:35 UTC

How many people wonder if some of what we're seeing from federal agencies just outright failing to accomplish their goals is strategic inefficiency (weaponized incompetence)?

2026-05-24 12:46:02 UTC

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Chocolate eclairs may have gone out of style in the us, but maybe it’s just that I moved from the west coast where every corner has a boutique cafe to the Midwest where all we have are chains.

2026-05-23 20:35:46 UTC

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With the school closed, Dad will never coach soccer again, our new school is too far for him to pop over for practices. Although for decades when we talk about someone from our hometown, he will swear he coached that kid. In two years, dad will go on sabbatical in Southern California where he will meet my first step mom. A woman who deserved far more kindness and respect than my dad or the rest of our family gave her.

2026-05-23 20:35:09 UTC

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My elementary school closes for good, something that had been planned for years, but with the cancelled school year, the school remains just like we left it. Years later my friends and I will break into the school and sort through the clay dinosaurs we’d made in art class and try to remember which one was ours.
The school will eventually be torn down to make low cost apartments for college students.

2026-05-23 20:33:25 UTC

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We wear stuffy masks outside for weeks. They stink like rubber and fresh paint. The gritty ash and tight bands leave red welts on my nose and cheeks. The whiteish ash gets everywhere. For years, people will find piles of it under decks or behind woodpiles.

2026-05-23 20:33:08 UTC

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The next day dawns to a different world. Everything is covered in a fine layer of ash. Radio and TV news casters broadcast instructions to deal with the ash-wash it off, wait that turns it into a cement that won’t come off, brush it off, it just billows back. The school year is cancelled, my sister will never go on her camping trip. For reasons that still remain mysterious, she is not allowed to join scouts the following year and I am never allowed to join.

2026-05-23 20:30:15 UTC

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Home. Mom fusses over us, Dad heads out to pick up my sister who is trapped at someone’s house where she was preparing to go on her first girl scout camping trip. I take a bath, and get in my PJs, which everyone laughs at because it’s only 1pm.

2026-05-23 20:30:04 UTC

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Left onto our street past the ‘field’ a vacant lot owned by some neighbors who kept it as a community park where on 4th of July after gorging on potluck food, the big kids would light their illegal fireworks, purchased from the Indian reservations up north of town, and entertain us all.

2026-05-23 20:28:48 UTC

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Turn right and we’re going past greenhouses, where in 10 years I’ll work my first job. They glow dimly through the ash. Right again past the coliseum, where we’d watch basketball games and later my sister and I would go for our graduations.

2026-05-23 20:28:01 UTC

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We inch along the highway, hoping that we see any car stopped ahead of us, that we stay on the highway. Slowly, dim street lights emerge from the dark as we near the turn off for the back way home, fewer stop lights, fewer chances of rear ending someone. In darkness, we surely pass the strange three wheeled merry-go-round machine that tests radial tires for wear, and the barn that holds the cows with the windows on their sides so the veterinary students can learn anatomy, but we don’t see them.

2026-05-23 20:27:28 UTC

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A fine dusting of ash starts to appear on the dashboard and dad tells us to pull our shirts up over our noses. Brian, my little brother, asks if we are going to die. Dad assures us we’ll be fine, we’ll be home soon.
He is lying, he’s seen what Mt. Vesuvius did to the people of Pompei and he can see us clutching each other in fear as the ash seals us for eternity. It'll be easier on us if we make it home first.

2026-05-23 20:26:32 UTC

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The cloud continues its march across the sky, blocking out the sun and dropping us into a pitch darkness deeper than the darkest night. The ash is falling heavily now, unable to see more than a few feet in front of the car, Dad slows to an achingly slow pace. We're still miles from home an hour at the pace we're going.

2026-05-23 20:25:56 UTC

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We speed past the tiny city of Troy its little cluster of main street stores lining the two-lane highway with no stoplights to slow our race. Into Moscow, where each red stoplight makes dad chew his lips watching the cloud creeping slowly overhead. We make it just to the west side of town when the ash starts falling, and the cloud begins to block out the noon-time sun. Dad has me roll up the window and shut the vent on my side of the car.

2026-05-23 20:25:01 UTC

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As we hurriedly pack up our things and trundle back to the car, Dad orders us around with an angry shortness, that I now know is his panicked mode. The cloud looms large, occupying at least ¼ of the western sky, as we speed down the bumpy dirt roads as fast as the old VW bus can take us. When we finally hit the paved roads and can jump to 55 the cloud spans half the sky a menacing black growing by the minute, and we're driving straight towards it.

2026-05-23 20:23:45 UTC

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The adults start talking with one another in the hushed tones one uses when trying not alarm children. Finally, a decision is made, we’re heading home.

2026-05-23 20:23:24 UTC

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Convinced that it was the volcano erupting, she drags her embarrassed husband home while the cloud was just an ominous bulge on the western horizon. We continue fishing, and the cloud continues to grow, inky black, unlike any cloud I’ve seen on my short time on the planet.

2026-05-23 20:21:59 UTC

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It was just a normal day fishing. Me, my dad, my brother, and Dad's kid-less colleagues.
At some point, one of the wives noticed a dark black cloud peeking between the hills to the west. As it grew, she became increasingly convinced it was an eruption from Mt. St. Helens, whose rumblings had been in the nightly news. This was of course clearly ridiculous Dad says, we are at least 400 miles away.

2026-05-23 20:21:18 UTC

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We hadn’t been out at my favorite shore of the little reservoir for more than a few hours, having left home just after 8:00am mass. We’d met up with some of Dad’s fellow Econ Professor colleagues and their wives, none of them the expert fisher people that my dad and I were.

2026-05-23 20:20:17 UTC

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We’d only moved to this out of the way corner of the Northwest from Evanston Illinois a few years earlier. Dad relished every opportunity to get back to the outdoor activities he’d loved as a kid before the arrival of my sister abruptly pushed him into adulthood. He was so proud when I’d taken to fishing like a pro, pulling in trout after trout from the forest-service-stocked reservoir just 40 minutes from home. And I was so proud to be his little fisher-woman.

2026-05-23 20:19:57 UTC

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My dad is still a bigger than life hero to me; the wisest, strongest, most skilled, and honorable person in the world. It would take three decades, a Black man becoming president, and me marrying a non-white man who my dad had hoped was just phase to fully shatter that illusion.
But this is 1980, I’m seven.

2026-05-23 20:19:21 UTC

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It’s a cool cloudy morning in western Idaho, just a few miles from the border with Washington state. I’m still the apple of my father’s eye. The favorite kid, who unlike my older sister loves all the hobbies my dad loves, fishing, hunting, working on the car, and unlike my younger brother, I can sit still long enough to do them.

2026-05-23 20:18:52 UTC

As requested, here's my story of the eruption of Mt. St. Helens. It's long.

2026-05-23 12:31:10 UTC

A thought inspired by the anniversary of mt st helens eruption. I was 8 and fishing with my dad in eastern Washington. I have a harrowing story of how we got home.
I wrote about it several times in school assignments.
I've often thought about the English teachers in my home town. Starting in 1980's they'd see dozens or more essays with personal accounts of Mt. St Helens eruptions, and each year the observer would be younger and younger. Until one year there would be no more on that topic.

2026-05-20 20:03:57 UTC

@npub19en…0cut has
a very good response to the storm over whether arxiv's proposal to ban all authors on a paper from future submissions if AI hallucinations are found in a paper.
https://drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2026/05/20/thoughts-on-each-author-taking-full-responsibility/

2026-05-18 17:46:37 UTC

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When I first started gardening my garden consisted entirely of reused lab chemical buckets.
I use them mainly now to grow mushrooms, because hubs has banned ugly pots from the deck.
I'm interested in the hydroponics approach. Do you have any good resources?

2026-05-16 21:11:41 UTC

My overwintered peppers have some volunteer tomatoes, a consequence of hubs insisting that all rinse water gets poured in the plants.
I cut some of the suckers off and am trying to root them.
I have no idea what they might be. Hoping to get some of my favorites out. I didn’t start seeds this year and am worried that the seedlings I bought will have disappointing fruit.
#gardening
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/116/586/299/736/913/873/original/8c9acee34d6f874d.png
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/116/586/303/309/135/266/original/31584247a3c03c9e.png

2026-05-16 12:30:28 UTC

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Of course as typical for genX, just as we’re reaching the age for a happiness pivot the world has to hand us a flaming turdball.
Graduated college? Here’s a dot com recession.
Secure job? Here’s a housing bubble recession.
Settling into late mid-life? Here’s a giant turdball of politically initiated recession, and loss of freedoms, oh and your government is committing war crimes. Cheers!

2026-05-16 12:23:03 UTC

Ok we officially have a raccoon problem.
My glorious deck garden has become their playground. Every couple of nights they come up and dig through all of the planters.
This has not happened in past years, not sure if we have a particularly enterprising raccoon or what.
What’s worked for other people to repel raccoons? (It could be a possum)
#gardening

2026-05-15 00:50:54 UTC

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Same for our class. Some of the best final projects were from students who worked so hard to stay on track all semester, many of the students who were doing fine heading into the final project just disappointed.

2026-05-13 01:07:02 UTC

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Wonderful!

2026-05-12 19:03:56 UTC

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And volunteering at foodbanks can be a lot of fun.
We've done it with groups of grad students as a fun activity. One time we rebagged frozen veggies from a massive bin into smaller portions to distribute to community kitchens, another time we inspected donated fresh fruits for things that were not usable.
In the Ann Arbor area, https://www.foodgatherers.org/ is a great place to volunteer.

2026-05-11 18:46:05 UTC

@npub13t8…2ksn Look at what was in my feed.
I wonder if the tip is to not push rocks up the hill.
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/116/557/420/470/788/436/original/cbdda8a037dc6458.png

2026-05-11 18:24:23 UTC

Whoa! I got behind on my seed starting so took my bitter gourd and snake gourd seeds into work and popped them in the 37C over the weekend after an overnight soak.
Snake gourds all have 1inch roots, going to take them home and pot them. The Indian bitter gourdes ~50% have 0.5-1cm roots, probably going to take them home. The chinese bitter gourdes have done nothing, they get another day or two.

2026-05-10 13:10:52 UTC

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What is so exciting about PROTACs is they can be designed to destroy almost protein, so their usefulness isn’t limited to cancer therapies, there are PROTACs in the works for neurodegenerative diseases and autoimmunity.
It’s really an amazing time to be in bioscience (there’s bad stuff happening to the scientific enterprise esp in the US but I’ll leave this thread mainly positive)
🧵/end

2026-05-10 13:04:09 UTC

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To do this, they wanted to make a chemical with two faces one that bound the quality control system and one that bound the protein they wanted to destroy. Both are difficult chemistries to build.
But the work on thalidomide revealed a ready made chemical that bound the quality control system, this spurred a whole ton of academic and biotech research that is just now bearing its first fruits.
5/🧵

2026-05-10 12:59:40 UTC

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And this is where it intersects with another line of research. In the early 2000s, Kathleen Sakamoto, Craig Crews and Ray Deshaies described the first attempt to hijack the cells quality control system to target a protein they chose.
The process worked in principle, but they needed to find a better way to bring the quality control system to the protein they wanted to destroy.
4/🧵
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC37474/

2026-05-10 12:50:19 UTC

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The target was a protein known as cereblon. Cereblon is a protein that is part of the cell’s quality control system. It flags other proteins for destruction.
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1177319 (Sorry paywalled)
3/🧵

2026-05-10 12:44:00 UTC

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You may recall the thalidomide tragedy, a wonder drug for severe morning sickness that caused some babies to be born with severely shortened limbs.
The drug was later repurposed as an anticancer drug, but the question remained why does it cause birth defects and why is it effective as an anti cancer drug.
Decades of research went into answering that question. In 2010, a paper authored by Takumi Ito Hideki Ando and others working with Hiroshi Handa revealed the target of thalidomide. 2/🧵

2026-05-10 12:27:33 UTC

First PROTAC wins FDA approval. This one targets certain metastatic breast cancers.
This is the first of a totally new type of drug that is set to revolutionize drug development.
The story of PROTACs is fascinating and a testament to fundamental research.
It starts with two lines of research including research one why thalidomide causes birth defects the other on how to harness cellular machinery for therapeutics.
1/🧵
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41573-026-00078-6

2026-04-25 22:26:32 UTC

Perennials and overwintered garden produce. It’s not going to make a dent in the household budget but it is a tasty hobby.
Rhubarb stems off the flower stems we trimmed, overwintered kale and turnip, sunchokes, and shiitakes.
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/116/467/678/352/430/139/original/c179dc83906c9675.png

2026-04-25 12:39:32 UTC

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In fact a common problem with the big splash reproducibility studies, was that baseline assays didn’t work. (Cooking example-they couldn’t get a plain croissant right and never made it to the raspberry goat cheese filled one)
This is not likely due to falsified data but due to how difficult it is to write a truly reproducible protocol and how rarely we even try to do so.

2026-04-25 12:35:56 UTC

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For example, mix gently-that can mean different things in different labs or for different protocols-usually when someone new joins a lab there’s a learning curve where they pick up these unwritable steps to get the baseline assays to work.
For non scientists, think of it as having an ingredients list from a Michelin starred pastry chef for their award winning dessert, how hard would it be to get the recipe exactly right with just the ingredients list and maybe some vague instructions.

2026-04-25 12:34:20 UTC

Porting a conversation over from bsky.
Someone had posted a sensational image showing how well AI can falsify data.
Here’s my response:
It’s always been easy to falsify data. Charts were once hand drawn, tables had ++,+,+-,- not # ‘s
The real problem isn‘t that new technology allows people to falsify data.
It’s that we’re losing trust in one another. Why is that?
Are the reasons for lost of trust based in fact or sensationalism?

2026-04-24 14:51:08 UTC

Kitty and I are resting in bed because I'm home sick. I just had buttered toast and wiped my buttery hands on the cat's blanket. This was a mistake

2026-04-20 21:06:18 UTC

TIL George Takei and I share a birthday!

2026-04-15 17:45:23 UTC

Ok. It's finally time to do a deep reading of the summary statement for my latest reviewed grant. It was available before my vacation and I glanced at it, but since I was going on vacation and I knew I wasn't going to be able to act on it, I just set it aside.
Wish me luck. I already know that there's some batshit crazy stuff about interdependent aims that are totally not interdependent.

2026-04-13 15:27:33 UTC

I was hoping that the spinach and radishes I'd planted before I left would have sprouted when I returned home. Nope, I guess it was too cold or dry or both.
But we had a massive mushroom bloom, the shitakes were still ok but we lost probably a kg or so of oysters that rotted on the logs.
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/116/398/095/209/863/806/original/a10afa553a1ce391.png
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/116/398/097/804/489/157/original/06a64c1ab68b4b2c.png

2026-04-02 12:45:49 UTC

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My guess is the original draft had something of what you and I would have done to introduce optical physics to kids but someone nixed it because it was too boring.

2026-04-02 12:26:46 UTC

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Well Mara-Kaku proceeded to get multiple spoons and show upside down reflections on the spoony side even if we turned it upside down and stretched ones on the reverse side and that images were reversed in a mirror and explained it’s not magic at all but physics which is a science you’ll learn in a few years.

2026-04-02 04:53:18 UTC

WTF….I read a Peppa the pig book to my niece about mirrors and reflections. They start by noticing her reflection is upside down in a spoon. Daddy starts to explain concave mirrors but after 4 words gives up and says it’s magic. That’s it. The rest of the book mirrors and reflections are magic, no discovery at the end of the book that its physics or science.
Mara-Kaku went totally off script and extemporized about mirrors. Niece was not impressed.

2026-03-25 16:37:13 UTC

Hey sciencers,
On BSKY someone is asking about DNA preps where they care about size bias prior to making an illumina sequencing library.
Anyone have protocols that don't use phenol:choroform that work for low sample abundance and don't size bias?

2026-03-17 19:27:28 UTC

I'm going to be in Tasmania early next month, what should I see?

2026-03-17 19:20:58 UTC

The good news, I got the best score on a grant that I have ever had in my life. In 2023, this grant would have been funded without a doubt.
The bad news is its 2026.
I'm still having a celebratory dinner tonight.

2026-03-16 21:45:12 UTC

For people not dealing with the continued stranglehold on US science, we are still not seeing new NIH or NSF grants get funded.
If you are a US taxpayer, where are your tax dollars going? Are you ok with this?
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/116/241/023/210/376/862/original/d7fdb2836f352c8d.png
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/116/241/037/542/858/719/original/87eaf959d273eee8.png

2026-03-16 16:45:10 UTC

from my photo archive
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/116/239/848/195/928/436/original/834c88b76ab28faf.png

2026-03-12 21:03:31 UTC

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I really want to know who is giving students the uninformative template without telling them that they are actually supposed to replace the generic bullets words with their own.

2026-03-12 21:02:18 UTC

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See-
Uniformative->informative
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/116/218/212/969/222/682/original/3289bc4ffc1cf59b.png

2026-03-12 20:59:12 UTC

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For example, this slide.
It contains all of the info in the uninformative slide, but now it's all informative.
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/116/218/205/233/834/264/original/b880ddee228228ec.png

2026-03-12 20:57:43 UTC

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This slide is so useless.
It tells the viewer nothing about the talk they are going to see. We’ve all seen a lot of talks and know that they start with an introduction and end with future directions. Hitting results and conclusions in between.
Since we all know this, you’ve just used up 15 seconds of your talk on something everyone knows. Use this 15 seconds for something more valuable!

2026-03-12 20:55:03 UTC

I can't remember if I posted this rant already. Somewhere someone is teaching all science students to use the stupidest slide.
The slide says:
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/116/218/191/640/451/144/original/a9c9041e4a55b675.png

2026-03-12 19:24:54 UTC

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I forgot to jostle my indoor lettuce and it's very floppy this year.

2026-03-07 17:23:53 UTC

Happy to report I did my first bicycle commute for 2026 yesterday. Due to the ice and snow this year, quite a bit later than 2025 or 2024.
Such a superior way to travel, assuming you have a safe route like I do.
It looks like we're done with rain for today so I'm going to do my first bicycle shopping run for 2026.
#bikeTooter

2026-03-02 15:45:02 UTC

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I used to use these all the time. You're supposed to put the grounding wire on the screw between the two ports on the outlet, the idea being that it will act as a ground. But you have to hope that the outlet ground is somehow linked to that screw.
Shady as shit, but it's probably fine for a short stint, I mean I used them for 30+ years and am still here. Is it possible to charge your computer elsewhere and run off the battery?

2026-02-25 16:02:51 UTC

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Interestingly, several students didn't draw anything; they just wrote out the pathway in words, which makes me think they don't really have a good understanding of the relationship of the different parts of the cell to one another.
One of them wrote, "I realize that the fact that I can't draw this means that I don't really understand this as well as I should. I'll work on this before the next class."
I'd say mission accomplished with this assignment.

2026-02-25 15:59:16 UTC

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Some common potential misconceptions that emerged from the exercise, whether the proteins without affinity for ordered domains go through the Golgi to reach the PM.
Whether vesicles are involved.
Whether the plasma membrane is a bilayer.
(these are all potential misconceptions because it's drawing and they only have 10 minutes so they might run out of time.)

2026-02-25 15:57:05 UTC

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For example, last week we had a somewhat complex paper that examined the roles of sorting signals and transmembrane domains in ER and Golgi exit.
The main conclusion was that sorting signals are the main driver of ER exit, and transmembrane domain affinity for ordered domains is the main driver of rapid Golgi exit. There is a minor contribution of ordered domain affinity for the ER exit.

2026-02-25 15:52:04 UTC

More on my anti-AI approach for my grad seminar course. I've posted before that we're doing an in-class assignment that should be relatively easy if you answered the short homework assignment yourself.
My favorite type of question here is draw out the pathway that you described in words.
I actually don't think we have any or many students using AI this year, but this has revealed a lot of misconceptions that I don't think we'd see without it.

2026-02-15 14:27:52 UTC

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I’ve had good luck with indeterminate ones too, I had an overhang so I could hang some netting to support them as they grew and keep them from toppling over.
Now that I have a full yard, I mainly grow cherry tomatoes on the deck and have my sauce tomatoes in the ground,

2026-02-14 21:51:37 UTC

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We just rediscovered popcorn. What a delicious treat it is!
We’ve been stovetop popping it. Is microwaving as good?

2026-02-11 03:32:34 UTC

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This is a situation where steaming would save the day!

2026-02-09 23:09:57 UTC

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Grrr--I'm fighting with my Dr.'s office to get a measles booster (or at least a titer). I don't have documentation of a second dose. I was no longer seeing a pediatrician when they decided in the late 1980's that kids born in the 1970's should get two doses, so I kind of doubt I had the second dose, unless it was required for registration at my University, which of course it's difficult to find the Uni's 1990's requirements.

2026-02-05 21:25:54 UTC

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Are you looking for solidarity or suggestions?
We've all been there. I have suggestions, but maybe you just want to vent.

2026-02-03 15:03:07 UTC

Ok, so the brushes I ordered don't fit my equipment.
Anyone have tips on finding replacement brushes for small electronic motors?
(I have catalog numbers from the ancient manual, but I can't find anyone that sells them.)
These are for laboratory equipment, a tube roller (New Brunswick TV7), and rockers (motor: Dayton electronics 4z539a).
#FixIt #RepairCafe #RightToRepair #electronics

2026-01-21 01:40:22 UTC

Taking advantage of the bitter cold to freeze croquettes. Normally they stick together because I don’t have space in my freezer to freeze them on a cookie sheet.
Keeping my eye on them in case they attract the coyotes or something else.
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/115/930/526/568/097/283/original/9f4c88784d631eaa.png

2026-01-04 18:57:43 UTC

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Yeah for me it was how many electronics do I need to travel with. Work computer, personal tablet, phone, converters, and an ereader plus sketch pad, art pencils, etc.
Different priorities for different ppl.
My recent trip was the first trip in maybe 20 yrs that I left the work computer home.

2026-01-04 15:54:08 UTC

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In the end, I switched to reading on my tablet. It's heavier than I want and the battery isn't as long as an ereader, but it's fewer devices to lug around.

2026-01-03 16:06:03 UTC

Factoid fact:
The term factoid was coined to mean an invented fact believed to be true because it appears in print.
Because English is as it is, it has been redefined as meaning a small fact. Not quite the same as bad meaning good depending on the circumstances.
I wonder how many English words have so completely switched their definition.

2026-01-01 20:46:02 UTC

Bringing my potted peppers in this fall, I tried something different.
I just brought them in, no trimming, no harvesting before bringing them in.
So far so good; except for a brief fight with aphids early on, they seem healthy. The fruits that were on the plant continue to grow slowly and we use them as needed.
Last night we used the peppers on a paella.
#gardening
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2025-12-31 23:14:48 UTC

I decided to display those painting cards my sister in law gave me and I painted. A joyful daily reminder of one of my favorite things about my husband, his loving and welcoming family.
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2025-12-31 17:08:01 UTC

FFS-someone in the larger lab area is very sick, with a deep, congested cough, and they look like poop warmed over, and of course, they are wearing a paper mask around their chin.
Thankfully, I have an N95, and no one else in my lab works this week.
I gently suggested that they shouldn't work if they are sick yesterday, but I've been previously reminded that I'm not the boss of ppl in other ppl's labs, so anything beyond that is the danger zone.

2025-12-30 23:45:39 UTC

A story in two parts.
#cats
Courtesy of my sister.
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2025-12-30 14:51:33 UTC

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You might be able to find a pre-made sambar mix if you don't have all of the sundry spices and tamarind.
My MIL uses a premade mix for her sambar, here's a screen grab of the recipe with pre-made
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2025-12-30 14:43:34 UTC

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Do you like Indian flavors?
I like this:
https://ministryofcurry.com/pumpkin-raita/
and this looks good-but I'd serve it with idly
https://www.yummytummyaarthi.com/pumpkin-sambar-recipe-poosanikai-sambar/

2025-12-30 14:36:50 UTC

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What other tips or inspirations do people have to start a morning writing routine for scientists?
#NewYear #Resolutions

2025-12-30 14:34:37 UTC

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I think the first thing in the morning is best time to do this because I usually have a cup of coffee at work, so I can't do lab work anyway. I also rarely have meeting first thing in the morning.
I plan to wrap up each writing session with a to-do list for the next writing session, and potentially leave whatever I'm working on 'mid-sentence'. I've heard that leaving a sentence unfinished makes it much easier to start writing in the next session.

2025-12-30 14:31:47 UTC

So, I'm a New Year's resolution person. It's a way to try out new habits; sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. I'm ok with it not working, but I want to give it my best shot.
This year, I want to start a morning writing routine for work-related writing.
Anyone have tips or inspiration?
My current plan is to write as soon as I get into the office, for at least 30 minutes. I might allow data analysis/figure making to count as writing just so I can make it a routine.
#NewYear

2025-12-29 16:39:38 UTC

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The stains on the chair are muddy kitty cat footprints because this is the chair under the window that kitty comes in and out of during the summer months when she comes in after we go to bed.

2025-12-29 16:33:24 UTC

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So unless you are going to beat the heck out of chairs, you can probably pick any heavy-weight fabric of a pattern you like and it'll last quite some time.

2025-12-29 16:31:58 UTC

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I've had similar chairs. I covered one with a heavy upholstery brocade, I really liked it. The other set my step mom covered in a striped fabric that I thought was too lightweight for chairs, I inherited the chairs when they moved to a different house and bought a new dining set.
I'm surprised how well the lighter weight fabric has held up, it has got to be 15-20 years since she reupholstered them.
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2025-12-26 16:47:33 UTC

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Just once and the coffee was almost gone.
I should not have inked the ridges. But I like how the moss came out.
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2025-12-26 15:21:32 UTC

How long until I wet my brushes in the coffee (blue mug) versus water (clear cup)?
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2025-12-25 21:05:03 UTC

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I gave myself a nice set of pens and a watercolor journal. This is slightly less fun because they don’t come out as well. Yesterday’s mushrooms were good, but today’s creature did not come out as well as the concept sketch.
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2025-12-25 20:56:48 UTC

Holiday fun.
My sister in law gave me this nice set of cards to paint, it’s so much fun!
They are coming out quite well, we might frame them for art in the house.
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