Aleeza Gerstein
@acgerstein.bsky.social
Associate professor in microbiology (human fungal pathogens) & statistics (really just evolutionary genetics) at UManitoba in Winnipeg 🇨🇦
Keeps two small humans alive.
Served with a side of politics. Because it's 2025.
(she/her)
)'(
Keeps two small humans alive.
Served with a side of politics. Because it's 2025.
(she/her)
)'(
Pinned
Aleeza Gerstein
@acgerstein.bsky.social
· May 11
I wrote this in a week where it felt like professoring while parenting (and equally, parenting while professoring) was impossible. This feeling ebbs and flows. Seems like Mothers Day is as good a time as any to share, maybe it will help someone else feel less alone.
The More Paradox
1/8
The More Paradox
1/8
To the non-Manitoban NDPers who think Wab is the guy (I assume the Manitobans already know this) - this is not the droid you’re looking for.
When you're endorsed by the far-right National Post, it's time to change direction: you're most certainly doing something wrong. I'd be curious to know how many card-carrying Mb NDP members are happy with Mr. Kinew's lurch to the right. #MbPoli
nationalpost.com/opinion/np-v...
nationalpost.com/opinion/np-v...
NP View: The federal NDP needs Wab Kinew
Bill to detain meth addicts shows that Manitoba premier is a realist
nationalpost.com
November 9, 2025 at 6:28 PM
To the non-Manitoban NDPers who think Wab is the guy (I assume the Manitobans already know this) - this is not the droid you’re looking for.
Reposted by Aleeza Gerstein
A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death.
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
James Watson, dead at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers
James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA who died Thursday at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers.
www.statnews.com
November 8, 2025 at 1:39 PM
A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death.
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
One of the best things that has happened on this platform for me so far is that on the day that Watson died I saw nothing positive about him but a wall of posts about Rosalind Franklin. This is the way.
This also seems as good a time as any to announce that this summer I got my first tattoo!
This also seems as good a time as any to announce that this summer I got my first tattoo!
November 8, 2025 at 5:49 PM
One of the best things that has happened on this platform for me so far is that on the day that Watson died I saw nothing positive about him but a wall of posts about Rosalind Franklin. This is the way.
This also seems as good a time as any to announce that this summer I got my first tattoo!
This also seems as good a time as any to announce that this summer I got my first tattoo!
Reposted by Aleeza Gerstein
“It suited the feminism of the 1960s & 1970s to portray her as a victim of male dominance, but she would have thought of herself simply as a scientist whose achievements should have been judged on their own terms, not as a ‘woman scientist’ striking a blow for the rights of women.”🧪
November 8, 2025 at 12:46 AM
“It suited the feminism of the 1960s & 1970s to portray her as a victim of male dominance, but she would have thought of herself simply as a scientist whose achievements should have been judged on their own terms, not as a ‘woman scientist’ striking a blow for the rights of women.”🧪
Reposted by Aleeza Gerstein
These changes would have made the difference in Rob Jenner living or dying in the summer of 2024. They might make the difference in keeping my family or yours alive, too. We have until December 12th to share how important these changes are to us. Let’s get it done.
The City of Winnipeg is seeking feedback on a proposed temporary bike lane design for Wellington Crescent.
Feedback sought on Wellington Crescent bike lanes
The City of Winnipeg is seeking feedback on a proposed temporary bike lane design for Wellington Crescent.
www.winnipegfreepress.com
November 7, 2025 at 1:59 AM
These changes would have made the difference in Rob Jenner living or dying in the summer of 2024. They might make the difference in keeping my family or yours alive, too. We have until December 12th to share how important these changes are to us. Let’s get it done.
Reposted by Aleeza Gerstein
Japan's "Mundane Halloween" costume contest is back!
Each year website DailyPortalZ holds a contest where people dress up as something super duper ordinary.
Here's a thread of some of my favorites from the 2025 contest!
#MundaneHalloween
Each year website DailyPortalZ holds a contest where people dress up as something super duper ordinary.
Here's a thread of some of my favorites from the 2025 contest!
#MundaneHalloween
November 2, 2025 at 9:15 AM
Japan's "Mundane Halloween" costume contest is back!
Each year website DailyPortalZ holds a contest where people dress up as something super duper ordinary.
Here's a thread of some of my favorites from the 2025 contest!
#MundaneHalloween
Each year website DailyPortalZ holds a contest where people dress up as something super duper ordinary.
Here's a thread of some of my favorites from the 2025 contest!
#MundaneHalloween
Pssst … it’s actually all about building community. What was gained isn’t tied to an undesired outcome in the last game. Last night brought back all the memories of grad school friends and beer and nachos in Vancouver during the 2011 cup run. Same bad end result, but the memories last a lifetime.
November 2, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Pssst … it’s actually all about building community. What was gained isn’t tied to an undesired outcome in the last game. Last night brought back all the memories of grad school friends and beer and nachos in Vancouver during the 2011 cup run. Same bad end result, but the memories last a lifetime.
Reposted by Aleeza Gerstein
TLDR; The PSF has made the decision to put our community and our shared diversity, equity, and inclusion values ahead of seeking $1.5M in new revenue. Please read and share. pyfound.blogspot.com/2025/10/NSF-...
🧵
🧵
The official home of the Python Programming Language
www.python.org
October 27, 2025 at 2:47 PM
TLDR; The PSF has made the decision to put our community and our shared diversity, equity, and inclusion values ahead of seeking $1.5M in new revenue. Please read and share. pyfound.blogspot.com/2025/10/NSF-...
🧵
🧵
Reposted by Aleeza Gerstein
I love the list of global cities the MLB considers important enough to need to be informed about the start time of tonight's World Series Blue Jays game.
Go Winnipeg!
Go Winnipeg!
It's almost time for the #WorldSeries to begin. Where will you be watching?
October 24, 2025 at 8:46 PM
I love the list of global cities the MLB considers important enough to need to be informed about the start time of tonight's World Series Blue Jays game.
Go Winnipeg!
Go Winnipeg!
Reposted by Aleeza Gerstein
Canada cool with one group of temporary foreign workers
Canada cool with one group of temporary foreign workers
TORONTO – The nation of Canada has decided that, on second thought, some temporary foreign workers can stay. “The Temporary Foreign Worker Program is a scam designed to take the jobs of hard working C...
thebeaverton.com
October 21, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Canada cool with one group of temporary foreign workers
Reposted by Aleeza Gerstein
A couple weeks ago, I had the incredible chance to visit Bolivia with a team from the Manitoba Council for International Cooperation, to learn about work they’re supporting that is led by — and bringing economic self-determination to — Bolivian women.
www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-lif...
www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-lif...
Winnipeg-based organization injects federal funds into innovative, women-powered business in Bolivia
With practised grace, Antonia Olpo slides down the bank of the long, shallow pond and plunges fully clothed into the muddy water. On the grass above, other women and their male helpers unfurl the net,...
www.winnipegfreepress.com
October 11, 2025 at 2:01 PM
A couple weeks ago, I had the incredible chance to visit Bolivia with a team from the Manitoba Council for International Cooperation, to learn about work they’re supporting that is led by — and bringing economic self-determination to — Bolivian women.
www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-lif...
www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-lif...
Reposted by Aleeza Gerstein
Announcement from PM Carney moments ago and this is good news. I've been working on this issue with @saulschwartz.bsky.social and @agenestgregoire.bsky.social for years. We've documented how many Canadians don't file and miss out on or loose benefits, .. 1/3
October 10, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Announcement from PM Carney moments ago and this is good news. I've been working on this issue with @saulschwartz.bsky.social and @agenestgregoire.bsky.social for years. We've documented how many Canadians don't file and miss out on or loose benefits, .. 1/3
Fall prairie sky moment of zen.
October 7, 2025 at 12:10 AM
Fall prairie sky moment of zen.
Reposted by Aleeza Gerstein
I really need all of us to abandon any impostor syndrome. It’s time.
In case it wasn’t clear, the anti-DEI crusade has never been about merit. Zero news experience. Never been a reporter. Elevated to Editor in Chief of CBS News, one of the most storied news institutions in the nation. www.mediaite.com/media/news/p...
Paramount Officially Acquiring The Free Press and Making Bari Weiss CBS News Editor in Chief: Report
Paramount Skydance will be officially acquiring The Free Press and hiring its founder Bari Weiss as editor in chief of its CBS News division, with the deal to be announced this coming Monday, accordin...
www.mediaite.com
October 2, 2025 at 11:24 PM
I really need all of us to abandon any impostor syndrome. It’s time.
Reposted by Aleeza Gerstein
Man, I'm sorry, but reading all these AI generated essays from students, it just sucks all the joy out of everything. It's exhausting, makes you into a weird paranoid cop, grinds you down, wastes your time, makes you feel like shit about everything.
Fuck this shit technology and all its enablers.
Fuck this shit technology and all its enablers.
October 1, 2025 at 7:21 PM
Man, I'm sorry, but reading all these AI generated essays from students, it just sucks all the joy out of everything. It's exhausting, makes you into a weird paranoid cop, grinds you down, wastes your time, makes you feel like shit about everything.
Fuck this shit technology and all its enablers.
Fuck this shit technology and all its enablers.
Reposting and bookmarking to share with students in my sci comm class in the winter about why I believe that me telling them not to use genAI is in their best interest.
Regular reminder that behind damn near every large-scale "Automated" "AI" system is a team of underpaid and otherwise exploited humans. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
How thousands of ‘overworked, underpaid’ humans train Google’s AI to seem smart
Contracted AI raters describe grueling deadlines, poor pay and opacity around work to make chatbots intelligent
www.theguardian.com
September 29, 2025 at 2:46 AM
Reposting and bookmarking to share with students in my sci comm class in the winter about why I believe that me telling them not to use genAI is in their best interest.
Reposted by Aleeza Gerstein
I had a not-so-little rant about how I practise journalism on *that other app* 🐦❎ earlier today.
ICYMI…
(I don’t plan to spam like this ever again – especially not on a Saturday – but I’m compelled to type because this is a timely opportunity to address misinformation and fake-news rhetoric.)
ICYMI…
(I don’t plan to spam like this ever again – especially not on a Saturday – but I’m compelled to type because this is a timely opportunity to address misinformation and fake-news rhetoric.)
September 27, 2025 at 9:32 PM
I had a not-so-little rant about how I practise journalism on *that other app* 🐦❎ earlier today.
ICYMI…
(I don’t plan to spam like this ever again – especially not on a Saturday – but I’m compelled to type because this is a timely opportunity to address misinformation and fake-news rhetoric.)
ICYMI…
(I don’t plan to spam like this ever again – especially not on a Saturday – but I’m compelled to type because this is a timely opportunity to address misinformation and fake-news rhetoric.)
Reposted by Aleeza Gerstein
Public comms on vaccine availability in #Manitoba is definitely lacking this year, but appointments in various pharmacy online platforms are starting to pop up. Some out there for shoppers, too.
Despite no communication about this from public health, Sobeys Transcona has Covid/Flu appointments available as early as Oct. 6th. They’re actually expect the shipment this week and will add earlier appointments when they receive it.
September 22, 2025 at 12:12 AM
Public comms on vaccine availability in #Manitoba is definitely lacking this year, but appointments in various pharmacy online platforms are starting to pop up. Some out there for shoppers, too.
Reposted by Aleeza Gerstein
Ready for some good news? Earlier this year The Narwhal teamed up with journalists at the Investigative Journalism Foundation to break stories about how more than 1,000 potential oil and gas infractions were left unchecked by B.C.’s energy regulator.
September 17, 2025 at 10:27 PM
Ready for some good news? Earlier this year The Narwhal teamed up with journalists at the Investigative Journalism Foundation to break stories about how more than 1,000 potential oil and gas infractions were left unchecked by B.C.’s energy regulator.
Reposted by Aleeza Gerstein
This is fucking brutal.
Paris is incredibly intelligent & among the best informed out there on digital sovereignty in Canada as well as the EU, Australia etc
And if your goal is to make this a bigger public issue, why not get the guy with a sizeable online following on board?!
I mean come on…
Paris is incredibly intelligent & among the best informed out there on digital sovereignty in Canada as well as the EU, Australia etc
And if your goal is to make this a bigger public issue, why not get the guy with a sizeable online following on board?!
I mean come on…
feels typical of how i’m regarded in canada that despite co-writing a white paper on digital sovereignty, speaking around the world on the subject, and even writing about it for ccpa, there’s a new open letter addressed to mark carney on just that subject that i’m only hearing about at publication
70 leading Canadians, civil society groups ask Carney to protect Canada's 'digital sovereignty' | CBC News
Dozens of experts, academics and organizations have released an open letter urging Prime Minister Mark Carney to swiftly "defend Canada's digital sovereignty" and protect the country from the whims of...
www.cbc.ca
September 2, 2025 at 10:48 PM
This is fucking brutal.
Paris is incredibly intelligent & among the best informed out there on digital sovereignty in Canada as well as the EU, Australia etc
And if your goal is to make this a bigger public issue, why not get the guy with a sizeable online following on board?!
I mean come on…
Paris is incredibly intelligent & among the best informed out there on digital sovereignty in Canada as well as the EU, Australia etc
And if your goal is to make this a bigger public issue, why not get the guy with a sizeable online following on board?!
I mean come on…
This made me curious, so I looked it up. MDPI publishes 482 journals. 482.
September 2, 2025 at 2:27 PM
This made me curious, so I looked it up. MDPI publishes 482 journals. 482.
Reposted by Aleeza Gerstein
Wellington Cres would look like this right now if it weren’t for Janice Lukes
The only thing better than a protected bike lane, is a protected bike lane with artworks by local artists! The new Lansdowne Avenue cycle track murals are looking good. Shoutout to Street Art Toronto, Cycle Toronto and the City of Toronto Cycling and Pedestrian Projects Unit.
August 24, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Wellington Cres would look like this right now if it weren’t for Janice Lukes
Reposted by Aleeza Gerstein
I'm super bummed to be missing #ESEB2025 @eseb2025.bsky.social due to a cancelled flight! Here's a quick overview of my talk "Gene- and genome-focused perspectives on microbial pangenomes" slated to be part of The Evolution of Microbial Pangenomes -- which I recommend you attend tomorrow (Fri) !
1/n
1/n
August 21, 2025 at 4:57 PM
I'm super bummed to be missing #ESEB2025 @eseb2025.bsky.social due to a cancelled flight! Here's a quick overview of my talk "Gene- and genome-focused perspectives on microbial pangenomes" slated to be part of The Evolution of Microbial Pangenomes -- which I recommend you attend tomorrow (Fri) !
1/n
1/n
Reposted by Aleeza Gerstein
In Winnipeg climate-driven migration is often imagined as a distant threat that affects others in the world. But summer evacuations foreshadow a future where internal displacement becomes a regular feature of Winnipeg life.
theconversation.com/canadian-cit...
theconversation.com/canadian-cit...
Canadian cities are unprepared for climate-driven migration — here’s what they can do
As climate change worsens extreme weather events, people in rural areas will increasingly seek refuge in urban areas. Cities must prepare to host and care for them.
theconversation.com
August 20, 2025 at 10:56 PM
In Winnipeg climate-driven migration is often imagined as a distant threat that affects others in the world. But summer evacuations foreshadow a future where internal displacement becomes a regular feature of Winnipeg life.
theconversation.com/canadian-cit...
theconversation.com/canadian-cit...
Reposted by Aleeza Gerstein
Health Canada has authorized the LP.8.1 variant adapted Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for individuals aged 6 months and older.
The updated COMIRNATY® vaccine targets the Omicron LP.8.1 variant, one of the most recently circulating SARS-CoV-2 lineages. It will be made available this Fall across Canada.
The updated COMIRNATY® vaccine targets the Omicron LP.8.1 variant, one of the most recently circulating SARS-CoV-2 lineages. It will be made available this Fall across Canada.
August 19, 2025 at 1:59 AM
Health Canada has authorized the LP.8.1 variant adapted Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for individuals aged 6 months and older.
The updated COMIRNATY® vaccine targets the Omicron LP.8.1 variant, one of the most recently circulating SARS-CoV-2 lineages. It will be made available this Fall across Canada.
The updated COMIRNATY® vaccine targets the Omicron LP.8.1 variant, one of the most recently circulating SARS-CoV-2 lineages. It will be made available this Fall across Canada.