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mepjoe.bsky.social
joe vallino ∫🦠dxdt ≻∫🔥dxdt
@mepjoe.bsky.social
Microbial biogeochemistry, non-equilibrium thermodynamics, Maximum Entropy Production (MEP). Defining how life differs from fire, maybe. he/him
Reposted by joe vallino ∫🦠dxdt ≻∫🔥dxdt
If, like me, today’s horrors left you feeling more untethered than usual, read this. It will ground you.
Tonight, I was one of more than 200 people who gathered on Chicago’s North Side to mourn Renee Nicole Good. Several people asked me to publish my remarks from the vigil, so I’m sharing them here.
The Cost of Staying Human
Remarks from a vigil for Renee Nicole Good
organizingmythoughts.org
January 8, 2026 at 2:16 AM
Reposted by joe vallino ∫🦠dxdt ≻∫🔥dxdt
Trump cuts and uncertainties regarding the operation of the UNOLS oceanographic fleet headlines story of unraveling of decades of investment in Earth observations and research and loss of US scientific leadership.
Gift link: wapo.st/4jcO6Qp
How Trump’s attacks on ‘climate alarmism’ have already transformed U.S. science
Experts say the cuts to the federal workforce and climate science funding could cause decades of loss in human knowledge and discovery.
wapo.st
December 24, 2025 at 1:42 PM
A new paper out with @oahern.bsky.social (@mblscience.bsky.social) and @julesdeep.bsky.social (@whoi.edu) examines how energy dissipation can be used to predict food web structure of microbial communities. A short description and a link to the paper can be found here: www.mbl.edu/news/energy-...
An Energy-Based Perspective on Microbial Food Web Structure | Marine Biological Laboratory
The oceans are teeming with microbes like bacteria and phytoplankton that play an outsized role in climate regulation. These microorganisms absorb carbon, cycle nutrients, and form the base of the oce...
www.mbl.edu
December 22, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Reposted by joe vallino ∫🦠dxdt ≻∫🔥dxdt
I’ll likely have to take cough breaks to sip my tea & blow my nose, as the plague & I are @agu.org but I hope you’ll join me at 1030 Wednesday for my lecture. I’ll talk about Carson’s impact on science & my career, subseafloor life, microbial ecosystem services, & science storytelling! #AGU25
December 16, 2025 at 10:32 PM
Reposted by joe vallino ∫🦠dxdt ≻∫🔥dxdt
The best way to spread deep-sea cheer is by sending tubeworm videos to those you hold dear. 🎁

Tubeworms like these Oasisia alvinae are abundant at hydrothermal vents at depths of 3,700 meters (12,140 feet) in the Pescadero Basin, located off the east coast of Mexico’s Baja California.
December 2, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Reposted by joe vallino ∫🦠dxdt ≻∫🔥dxdt
Job Opening **ASSISTANT PROFESSOR MARINE ECOLOGY**, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Rhode Island.

jobs.uri.edu/postings/15960
November 10, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Winogradsky Columns after 8 weeks of growth showing nice development of purple and green (yellowish here) sulfur bacteria that are anaerobic phototrophs. The columns are used in the microbial methods course taught in the Semester in Environmental Science Program @mblscience.bsky.social
November 14, 2025 at 12:56 PM
Reposted by joe vallino ∫🦠dxdt ≻∫🔥dxdt
Congratulations to WHOI's @julesdeep.bsky.social, who was recently selected to deliver the prestigious @agu.org Rachel Carson Lecture.

The award recognizes women whose work in ocean science is both cutting-edge and deeply relevant to today’s societal & environmental challenges: go.whoi.edu/Huber
October 14, 2025 at 1:59 PM
Fantastic news! Julie Huber @julesdeep.bsky.social was just awarded the prestigious Rachel Carson Lecture by @agu.org! Not only well deserved, but also a fitting tribute. Rachel Carson was one of Julie’s childhood heroes that guided her path. Congratulations Julie!! 🎉🙌 www.whoi.edu/press-room/n...
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Julie Huber Awarded Prestigious Rachel Carson Lecture by the American Geophysical Union
WHOI’s Julie Huber Awarded Prestigious Rachel Carson Lecture by the AGU
www.whoi.edu
October 8, 2025 at 3:11 PM
SES students got to measure bacterial production in their Winogradsky Columns using radioactive 14C-Leucine yesterday! My favorite lab! ☢️🦠❤️
September 19, 2025 at 1:46 PM
Reposted by joe vallino ∫🦠dxdt ≻∫🔥dxdt
The GRFP lives!! (due end of October)
www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)
www.nsf.gov
September 8, 2025 at 6:23 PM
A beautiful day for a field trip to Little Sippewissett Marsh for the annual construction of Winogradsky columns for the Microbial Methods course in the Semester in Environmental Science program @mblscience.bsky.social

Purple sulfur bacteria at low tide 🦠💜
September 7, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Reposted by joe vallino ∫🦠dxdt ≻∫🔥dxdt
After learning it would be evicted from its current headquarters and left in limbo about its future home, the National Science Foundation appears headed to new digs just down the street—and soon. https://scim.ag/4p1zzto
NSF could be moving down the street
Government sets requirements for new space that sound like nearby patent office campus
www.science.org
September 2, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Interesting. If you're a scientist who publishes, your papers are likely in the database.
There are tons of graphic novels, academic papers, film and TV scripts, & prose novels/nonfiction on the LibGen list Anthropic used.

As settlement approaches, make it easy for the class action lawyers to contact you! Here’s how

Part 1: is your work in Libgen?

www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
Search LibGen, the Pirated-Books Database That Meta Used to Train AI
Millions of books and scientific papers are captured in the collection’s current iteration.
www.theatlantic.com
August 29, 2025 at 11:38 AM
Beyond the Second Law: Darwinian Evolution as a Tendency for Entropy Production to Increase

www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/27...

or, to a faster heat death of the universe, use life!
www.mdpi.com
August 19, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Reposted by joe vallino ∫🦠dxdt ≻∫🔥dxdt
Our opinion piece is hot off the presses! Cutting science funding has profound implications for STEM education & training & will negatively impact the San Diego region. TAKE ACTION by calling your congressional reps & demand no cuts to science funding! #StandUpForScience 🧪
tinyurl.com/ywxkvv25
August 4, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Reposted by joe vallino ∫🦠dxdt ≻∫🔥dxdt
I chased this all day:

UCLA research grants suspended after Trump administration faulted campus for antisemitism

calmatters.org/education/hi...
UCLA research grants suspended after Trump administration faulted campus for antisemitism
The Justice Department issued UCLA a notice of violation for not responding “adequately” to complaints about antisemitism.
calmatters.org
August 1, 2025 at 5:33 AM
Reposted by joe vallino ∫🦠dxdt ≻∫🔥dxdt
Check out "the deepest and the most extensive chemosynthesis-based communities known to exist on Earth" - methane seeps along Russia's NE coast, down to a depth of 9500 meters! 😮

It's amazing that such incredible ecosystems remain to be found in the deep sea...

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Flourishing chemosynthetic life at the greatest depths of hadal trenches - Nature
The discovery of chemosynthesis-based benthic communities at depths of 5,800 m to 9,533 m in the Kuril–Kamchatka and western Aleutian trenches challenges traditional perspectives on the energy sources...
www.nature.com
July 31, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Superb!
Motherfucking wind farms…
July 31, 2025 at 11:33 AM
Reposted by joe vallino ∫🦠dxdt ≻∫🔥dxdt
A quick update re NIH and NSF terminated grant tracking:

Grant Watch has a new name!

We're now called **Grant Witness**

You can find us at grant-witness.us

Please update your bookmarks and spread the word! 🙏

(And no, this wasn't our preference, but trademarks are a thing. 🤦‍♂️🤷‍♂️)
July 29, 2025 at 6:05 PM
Anyone know someone, or a company, that can analyze brackish pond water (0.3%) samples for simple substrates (specifically, glucose, xylose, acetate, ethanol, and methanol) in the 0 to 200 micromolar range? The number samples is between 15 to 100 depending on cost per sample.
July 21, 2025 at 7:05 PM
Reposted by joe vallino ∫🦠dxdt ≻∫🔥dxdt
Excellent piece on keeping US as maritime leader and ocean science is vital to national security. 🧪🌊https://wapo.st/4kMAcUs
Opinion | To lead at sea, we must understand the sea
The U.S. still has an advantage on the waves, but ocean science needs more — not less — investment.
wapo.st
July 21, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Reposted by joe vallino ∫🦠dxdt ≻∫🔥dxdt
There is a new, rather detailed and annotated "Statement of Solidarity and Support" out called "The NASA Voyager Declaration" regarding the current state of affairs at #NASA. It is modeled after similar efforts by employees at #EPA and #NIH nasawatch.com/activism/the...
The NASA Voyager Declaration
Statement of Solidarity and Support
nasawatch.com
July 21, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Preaching to the choir here, but if you've been living under a rock, this👇

"In the past six months, the Trump administration has systematically and recklessly undermined federal science. Read the new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists here:" act.ucsusa.org/Trump6Months
Science and Democracy Under Siege
This administration's first 6 months have been characterized by destruction, division, and chaos.
act.ucsusa.org
July 21, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Reposted by joe vallino ∫🦠dxdt ≻∫🔥dxdt
reminder of amazing fellowship opportunity!
July 21, 2025 at 4:30 PM