Maureen Barr
@barrlab.bsky.social
Scientist studying tiny things: cilia, extracellular vesicles (EVs), C. elegans; ADPKD; Secretary Genetics Society of America; distinguished professor at Rutgers; three boy mom; she/her; my opinions
https://barrlab.rutgers.edu/
https://barrlab.rutgers.edu/
Reposted by Maureen Barr
Biological Chemistry's position is still taking applications. UM is a great place to be a PI, I'd love to see a new membrane biology or lipids expert join our community.
This is open for new and established investigators.
This is open for new and established investigators.
Collaborative. Creative. Impactful. Come join us in Ann Arbor! For more information and application link see jobs.sciencecareers.org/job/675674/f...
November 11, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Biological Chemistry's position is still taking applications. UM is a great place to be a PI, I'd love to see a new membrane biology or lipids expert join our community.
This is open for new and established investigators.
This is open for new and established investigators.
Reposted by Maureen Barr
Looks like a chair position in the Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine has opened up.
Any peeps looking to relocate to Pittsburgh?
Any peeps looking to relocate to Pittsburgh?
November 10, 2025 at 5:47 PM
Looks like a chair position in the Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine has opened up.
Any peeps looking to relocate to Pittsburgh?
Any peeps looking to relocate to Pittsburgh?
Reposted by Maureen Barr
Watson's name is one of many famous scientist names displayed in the atrium of our building. I hung this sweatshirt overtop of it in 2020 during that painful summer. So far no one has complained (at least not to me). ✊
November 9, 2025 at 3:55 AM
Watson's name is one of many famous scientist names displayed in the atrium of our building. I hung this sweatshirt overtop of it in 2020 during that painful summer. So far no one has complained (at least not to me). ✊
Reposted by Maureen Barr
I'm delighted to see this come out: "Nine Undergraduate Biology Instructors Revealing their LGBTQ+ Identities in Class Resulted in Benefits for their LGBTQ+ Students and Students with Other Marginalized Identities" from Carly Busch and Sara Brownell and colleagues www.lifescied.org/doi/10.1187/...
Nine Undergraduate Biology Instructors Revealing their LGBTQ+ Identities in Class Resulted in Benefits for their LGBTQ+ Students and Students with Other Marginalized Identities | CBE—Life Sciences Edu...
Few LGBTQ+ biology instructors reveal their identities to undergraduates, often without considering the potential student benefits. Although instructors who have revealed their LGBTQ+ identity perceiv...
www.lifescied.org
November 8, 2025 at 10:55 PM
I'm delighted to see this come out: "Nine Undergraduate Biology Instructors Revealing their LGBTQ+ Identities in Class Resulted in Benefits for their LGBTQ+ Students and Students with Other Marginalized Identities" from Carly Busch and Sara Brownell and colleagues www.lifescied.org/doi/10.1187/...
Reposted by Maureen Barr
I recommend reading this thread from F. Crick’s granddaughter.
Apparently even the scene at the Eagle pub, where we all went as scientific pilgrims, is not true?
Just mythology
Apparently even the scene at the Eagle pub, where we all went as scientific pilgrims, is not true?
Just mythology
"If you publish your book now, in the teeth of my opposition, history will condemn you”
“the tone used to describe Rosalind's work in the Epilogue
is perfectly reasonable,
but contrasts ludicrously with
the descriptions of her
in the text itself.”
-Francis Crick
Letter criticizing Watson’s book 🧪
“the tone used to describe Rosalind's work in the Epilogue
is perfectly reasonable,
but contrasts ludicrously with
the descriptions of her
in the text itself.”
-Francis Crick
Letter criticizing Watson’s book 🧪
November 8, 2025 at 10:47 PM
I recommend reading this thread from F. Crick’s granddaughter.
Apparently even the scene at the Eagle pub, where we all went as scientific pilgrims, is not true?
Just mythology
Apparently even the scene at the Eagle pub, where we all went as scientific pilgrims, is not true?
Just mythology
Reposted by Maureen Barr
I wrote a review of James Watson's obituary by CSHL: liorpachter.wordpress.com/2025/11/08/r...
Review of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s Obituary for Dr. James Watson
James Watson, who described himself as “not a racist in a conventional way”, has died at the age of 97. Below is a review of an obituary for Dr. James Watson published by Cold Spring Ha…
liorpachter.wordpress.com
November 8, 2025 at 9:58 PM
I wrote a review of James Watson's obituary by CSHL: liorpachter.wordpress.com/2025/11/08/r...
Reposted by Maureen Barr
If you’re at Vanderbilt or associated with the Quillen VA, YELL IN MY DIRECTION 😈
It’s time to get political, dorks!
It’s time to get political, dorks!
November 8, 2025 at 2:26 PM
If you’re at Vanderbilt or associated with the Quillen VA, YELL IN MY DIRECTION 😈
It’s time to get political, dorks!
It’s time to get political, dorks!
Reposted by Maureen Barr
I read this book when I was 15 and fell in love with DNA. I re-read it at 32 with lived experience in Science and it filled me with rage. I cannot pick up that book now. It reveals what women were/are up against.
Based on his self-described behavior in The Double Helix and these actions it is easy and appropriate to write him off as an ignorant jerk.
38/41
38/41
November 8, 2025 at 2:21 PM
I read this book when I was 15 and fell in love with DNA. I re-read it at 32 with lived experience in Science and it filled me with rage. I cannot pick up that book now. It reveals what women were/are up against.
Reposted by Maureen Barr
Scientific breakthroughs are rarely unique; someone else would’ve made them soon enough. But when prominent scientists cause harm, that harm isn’t inevitable; the world might simply have been better had the harm not been inflicted.
liorpachter.wordpress.com/2018/05/18/j...
liorpachter.wordpress.com/2018/05/18/j...
James Watson in his own words
“Some anti-Semitism is justified” “Whenever you interview fat people, you feel bad, because you know you’re not going to hire them” “Japan should be bombed for d…
liorpachter.wordpress.com
November 8, 2025 at 4:29 AM
Scientific breakthroughs are rarely unique; someone else would’ve made them soon enough. But when prominent scientists cause harm, that harm isn’t inevitable; the world might simply have been better had the harm not been inflicted.
liorpachter.wordpress.com/2018/05/18/j...
liorpachter.wordpress.com/2018/05/18/j...
Reposted by Maureen Barr
Just channeling Stephen J Gould: "I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops"
November 8, 2025 at 12:12 AM
Just channeling Stephen J Gould: "I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops"
Reposted by Maureen Barr
I fear that it might be a reference to Jim Watson, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, who is a major figure in molecular biology, but also, a complete and utter a$$hole, a racist and a misogynist. The kind of person that nothing should be named after.
October 31, 2025 at 4:18 PM
I fear that it might be a reference to Jim Watson, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, who is a major figure in molecular biology, but also, a complete and utter a$$hole, a racist and a misogynist. The kind of person that nothing should be named after.
Reposted by Maureen Barr
The residential portion, on floors 14-39, is apparently going to be called "The Watson" and I am not impressed with that name. That is a cursed name. I would like to know why they are calling it that.
October 31, 2025 at 4:12 PM
The residential portion, on floors 14-39, is apparently going to be called "The Watson" and I am not impressed with that name. That is a cursed name. I would like to know why they are calling it that.
Reposted by Maureen Barr
Are they seriously naming the Helix apartments after Jim Watson? Even now??? With a name like “Home base (pair)” right there???
The residential portion, on floors 14-39, is apparently going to be called "The Watson" and I am not impressed with that name. That is a cursed name. I would like to know why they are calling it that.
October 31, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Are they seriously naming the Helix apartments after Jim Watson? Even now??? With a name like “Home base (pair)” right there???
Harmit is the anti-toxin to Watson
When people celebrate the individual genius of folks in science, they should also
mourn the collective loss of genius of folks who were actively discouraged or disadvantaged from a career in science because of the same person(s)
mourn the collective loss of genius of folks who were actively discouraged or disadvantaged from a career in science because of the same person(s)
November 7, 2025 at 11:51 PM
Harmit is the anti-toxin to Watson
Reposted by Maureen Barr
conversations about Watson's death rn are a potent reminder that racism and/or misogyny have RARELY been professionally disqualifying, especially in this country
November 7, 2025 at 11:15 PM
conversations about Watson's death rn are a potent reminder that racism and/or misogyny have RARELY been professionally disqualifying, especially in this country
Reposted by Maureen Barr
I am fully in support of evil people getting completely dragged on the day of their death and let it be a lesson to the current cohort as to how they will be remembered.
November 7, 2025 at 10:13 PM
I am fully in support of evil people getting completely dragged on the day of their death and let it be a lesson to the current cohort as to how they will be remembered.
Reposted by Maureen Barr
Once again I am begging everyone to stop the "wine moms" commentary (I am NOT saying the OP did this, but it's happening in quotes). Ask yourself why you need to give these protestors such an irrelevant and disrespectful social media tag. Then get out to a protest yourself.
This morning, in Broadview, 14 suburban women were arrested during an act of civil disobedience calling for an end to ICE/CBP’s kidnappings throughout the Chicago area.
“We want to encourage other people who feel strongly about ICE’s actions to step off the sidelines and take our cities back.”
“We want to encourage other people who feel strongly about ICE’s actions to step off the sidelines and take our cities back.”
Fourteen suburban moms arrested in sit-in protest outside Broadview ICE facility
The mothers sat in a circle on Beach Street on Friday to “demand an end” to the immigration raids that have swept through the Chicago area since the Trump administration launched “Operation Midway Bli...
chicago.suntimes.com
November 7, 2025 at 10:40 PM
Once again I am begging everyone to stop the "wine moms" commentary (I am NOT saying the OP did this, but it's happening in quotes). Ask yourself why you need to give these protestors such an irrelevant and disrespectful social media tag. Then get out to a protest yourself.
Reposted by Maureen Barr
It's okay, he's talking about worms
Make males live more than 400% longer and prevent sexual disfunction late in life?! We're down with it. Our latest preprint: Disruption of the insulin signaling pathway in C. elegans dramatically increases male longevity and enhances reproductive health late in life. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
November 7, 2025 at 10:29 PM
It's okay, he's talking about worms
Reposted by Maureen Barr
Make males live more than 400% longer and prevent sexual disfunction late in life?! We're down with it. Our latest preprint: Disruption of the insulin signaling pathway in C. elegans dramatically increases male longevity and enhances reproductive health late in life. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
November 6, 2025 at 11:14 PM
Make males live more than 400% longer and prevent sexual disfunction late in life?! We're down with it. Our latest preprint: Disruption of the insulin signaling pathway in C. elegans dramatically increases male longevity and enhances reproductive health late in life. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Maureen Barr
I never met Watson. But he gave a public seminar at my undergrad. Don't remember the talk but do remember the incredibly disturbing and degrading misogynistic comments he made at the female biology majors given the honor to meet him.
A real piece of shit! World class.
A real piece of shit! World class.
Hey folks, as news of Watson's demise spreads, please don't set aside his weighty legacy of misogyny and racism. He was truly among the worst of us. www.vox.com/2019/1/15/18...
DNA scientist James Watson has a remarkably long history of sexist, racist public comments
“People say it would be terrible if we made all girls pretty,” he said in 2003. “I think it would be great.”
www.vox.com
November 7, 2025 at 9:31 PM
I never met Watson. But he gave a public seminar at my undergrad. Don't remember the talk but do remember the incredibly disturbing and degrading misogynistic comments he made at the female biology majors given the honor to meet him.
A real piece of shit! World class.
A real piece of shit! World class.
Reposted by Maureen Barr
Jim, honest at long last.
November 7, 2025 at 9:12 PM
Jim, honest at long last.
DAF-2/IGF-1 degradation: Males WAY outlive hermaphrodites! This is so cool. @patrickphillips.bsky.social
November 7, 2025 at 9:41 PM
DAF-2/IGF-1 degradation: Males WAY outlive hermaphrodites! This is so cool. @patrickphillips.bsky.social
Loving the Bluesky takes on Watson's contributions to science
a woman is sitting at a table with her hands folded in front of her .
ALT: a woman is sitting at a table with her hands folded in front of her .
media.tenor.com
November 7, 2025 at 9:25 PM
Loving the Bluesky takes on Watson's contributions to science
Reposted by Maureen Barr
Raise a glass for Rosalind Franklin tonight and honor her memory and scientific contributions
NYT obituary of Jim Watson.
A long and fairly balanced view of a complicated man who participated in one of the greatest discoveries in biology.
[Gift Link]
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/s...
A long and fairly balanced view of a complicated man who participated in one of the greatest discoveries in biology.
[Gift Link]
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/s...
James Watson, Co-Discoverer of the Structure of DNA, Is Dead at 97
www.nytimes.com
November 7, 2025 at 9:12 PM
Raise a glass for Rosalind Franklin tonight and honor her memory and scientific contributions
Reposted by Maureen Barr
How many (active) C. elegans labs are there?
November 7, 2025 at 4:49 PM
How many (active) C. elegans labs are there?