Britt Koskella
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bkoskella.bsky.social
Britt Koskella
@bkoskella.bsky.social
Evo-ecologist (Assoc Prof at UC Berkeley) studying interactions among phages, microbiomes, and plants. Skeets (own view) about science, teaching, social justice, and politics. (profile pic unedited photo by my six-year-old son)
Reposted by Britt Koskella
U.S. government has lost more than 10,000 STEM Ph.D.s over last year www.science.org/content/arti... #jobs #STEM #science #research
U.S. government has lost more than 10,000 STEM Ph.D.s since Trump took office
A Science analysis reveals how many were fired, retired, or quit across 14 agencies
www.science.org
January 27, 2026 at 11:25 PM
Reposted by Britt Koskella
Two likely contenders for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination have taken opposite sides on California’s proposed wealth tax.

One of them is completely wrong.

Here's what you should know: https://robertreich.substack.com/p/a-wealth-tax-that-will-work
January 28, 2026 at 12:15 AM
Reposted by Britt Koskella
It’s officially happening folks! The Microbial Population Biology Gordon Research Conference is back in Andover, New Hampshire starting June 27th of 2027!
See you there!!

@wcratcliff.bsky.social @ksbakes.bsky.social @surtlab.bsky.social

#microsky #mevosky
December 10, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Reposted by Britt Koskella
Reposted by Britt Koskella
Bad Bunny Super Bowl promo is beautiful.

Hate is so embarrassing. Imaging being against everyone together dancing to good music 🥹🥹🥹
January 17, 2026 at 8:12 AM
Reposted by Britt Koskella
Breaking NYT:

The Pentagon used a secret aircraft painted to look like a civilian plane in its first boat attack, according to officials briefed on the matter.

The laws of armed conflict forbid combatants from feigning civilian status.

That is a war crime called "perfidy."
U.S. Attacked Boat With Aircraft That Looked Like a Civilian Plane
www.nytimes.com
January 13, 2026 at 12:05 AM
Reposted by Britt Koskella
Registration now open for @embo.org workshop on the evolution of biological interactions on April 24 - 27, 2026! Come join us in Taipei, Taiwan to see how interactions shaped the genomes of various organisms and meeting people from across the globe. Info: meetings.embo.org/event/26-bio...
January 7, 2026 at 1:15 AM
Reposted by Britt Koskella
💔
Corporation for Public Broadcasting Votes to Shut Down
www.nytimes.com
January 6, 2026 at 12:22 AM
Reposted by Britt Koskella
This column in a word: boss-up, y’all. It is not a warm and fuzzy hug, or an outrage sing-along. It’s a clear reflection of the present, a wake up call, and a preview of the future. We aren’t going to complain Trump away. It’s survival time. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Dear US researchers: break the outrage addiction. I survived the besieging of science. So can you
As I watch US researchers respond to threats against science, I’m reminded of when scientists in Brazil navigated a similar storm.
www.nature.com
January 4, 2026 at 5:03 PM
Reposted by Britt Koskella
It's 2025, and we're sharing bootleg 60 Minutes segments broadcast in other countries because our own country is being run by fascists and their billionaire-owned state media helpers, just as the Founding Fathers intended, of course.
December 23, 2025 at 1:49 AM
Reposted by Britt Koskella
"the researchers found that withdrawing support for rapidly advancing mRNA vaccine technology could result in over 49,000 preventable deaths annually among patients diagnosed with four major cancers"
A new report from researchers at the Yale School of Public Health warns that the U.S. government’s abrupt cancellation of funding for mRNA vaccine research could have devastating health and economic consequences for the nation.
New report sounds alarm on health fallout from mRNA vaccine funding cuts
A new report from the Yale School of Public Health warns that the U.S. government’s abrupt cancellation of funding for mRNA vaccine research could have
ysph.yale.edu
December 23, 2025 at 2:50 AM
Reposted by Britt Koskella
#phage #phagesky
💯:

Addressing methodological bias in phageome research to clarify bacteriophage diversity

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Evaluation of phages as a signature of microbiome health: a systematic review & meta-analysis
@bkoskella.bsky.social

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
December 7, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Reposted by Britt Koskella
Mobile genetic elements enable microbial local adaptation with cascading consequences for plants

📖 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
#TansleyInsight article by Porter et al.

@Bkoskella.bsky.social @dholtappels.bsky.social
Image created in BioRender biorender.com/lnio3pw.
December 6, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Reposted by Britt Koskella
Last week, ICE arrested and separated a father and son after a routine check-in. Six-year-old Yuanxin had just enrolled in the first grade at an elementary school in Astoria. Now he's in custody, alone. ICE won't say where. This cruelty serves no one. It must end.
December 2, 2025 at 9:16 PM
Reposted by Britt Koskella
Two fully-funded PhD openings in my research group at the University of York.
If you’re excited about viromes, phage biology, Nanopore sequencing, soils and the odd bit of alpine or agricultural field sampling, we’d love to hear from you!
🌱🦠🏔️

tiny.cc/c4pv001
tiny.cc/e4pv001
A Farewell to Arms: The Trade-off Between Growth and Defence in Bacteria (York YBDTP Project) at University of York on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - A Farewell to Arms: The Trade-off Between Growth and Defence in Bacteria (York YBDTP Project) at University of York, listed on FindAPhD.com
tiny.cc
November 27, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Reposted by Britt Koskella
Breaking: Administration officials working overtime to find turkeys with sexual assault and crypto scam convictions so the President can pardon them
November 21, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Reposted by Britt Koskella
There’s a lot of political commentary about Marjorie Taylor Greene resigning, but one important point is this: she entered Congress in 2021 with an estimated net worth of about $700,000, and is leaving in 2025 with a net worth of roughly $25 million.
November 22, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Reposted by Britt Koskella
The correct answer to MAGA outrage over the Dem video is this: Are you effing kidding me? Of course it's reasonable to warn that Trump might be giving illegal orders.

The evidence is strong that he actually is giving illegal orders! I went through that evidence here:
newrepublic.com/article/2035...
Is Trump Giving Illegal Orders? Dems Just Blew That Question Wide Open
From the boat bombings to deportations to prosecutions, the evidence mounts. And the speaker of the House could get to the bottom of it if he wanted to. Yeah, right.
newrepublic.com
November 21, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Reposted by Britt Koskella
Nice looking Jacques Monod conferences next year #1: Ecology and evolution of host-parasite interactions in a changing world (chaired by Oliver Kaltz and @bkoskella.bsky.social) cjm.sb-roscoff.fr/en/conferenc...
Ecology and evolution of host-parasite interactions in a changing world | CNRS - Conférences Jacques Monod (CJM)
cjm.sb-roscoff.fr
November 13, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Reposted by Britt Koskella
If **Jeffrey Epstein** thinks you're a evil and demented sociopath, the odds are overwhelming that you are, in fact, an evil and demented sociopath.
November 13, 2025 at 2:18 AM
Reposted by Britt Koskella
NPR reported this morning that, based on their review of the #Epstein emails released yesterday, Trump’s name appeared more than 1,000 times in the document—

"I have met some very bad people, none as bad as #Trump. Not one decent cell in his body." - Jeffrey Epstein
November 13, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Reposted by Britt Koskella
Super excited that the bulk of my PhD work is now preprinted! Here we used whole-community competition, or coalescence, experiments to quantify selection acting on genetically diverged strains within larger communities. (1/n)
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org
November 11, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Reposted by Britt Koskella
8 high level positions at NIH posted including 6 institute director positions (NIMH, NIGMS, NICHD, NIDCR, NHGRI, NLM).

Only open for 2 weeks (applications due November 21).

Application materials include a) CV b) vision statement c) a photocopy of doctoral degree.

hr.nih.gov/careers/open...
hr.nih.gov
November 7, 2025 at 10:20 PM
Reposted by Britt Koskella
I understand why we shut down American airspace for a few days after 9-11 to avoid a repeat attack but imagine shutting down American airspace to avoid releasing the Epstein files.
November 7, 2025 at 11:03 PM
Reposted by Britt Koskella
I’ve lost students in my school due to ICE. One of the most respectful students I’ve taught in 20 years. Someone who always helped me translate with students who had limited English. A kid who had the American Dream. He’s a senior. Instead of completing his year, he’s in an ICE facility.
Devastating— “I’m afraid for my parents to leave the house. They treat us like dogs because of the color of our skin. I shouldn’t be scared, I should be focusing on school.”

A 16yo American living in fear of the Trump regime’s ICE goons terrorizing brown people pleads for help.
November 7, 2025 at 3:36 AM