Isabel
@isabelott.bsky.social
Evolutionary & population biology of vector-borne viral disease systems. 🦟 genetics PhD student in NC.
Arbovirologist, orthobunyavirus wonk, feral reference librarian, & public health advocate. 80s mosquito. Coaster-sized earrings. (she/her) 🏳️🌈
Arbovirologist, orthobunyavirus wonk, feral reference librarian, & public health advocate. 80s mosquito. Coaster-sized earrings. (she/her) 🏳️🌈
Pinned
Isabel
@isabelott.bsky.social
· Jun 11
The Athens (GA) Immigrants Rights Coalition, which I volunteered with for several years, is currently fundraising for their Support for Immigrant Families in Crisis fund. 98.5% of donations go straight to families in need. Please boost & contribute if you can!
www.athensimmigrantrights.org/donate
www.athensimmigrantrights.org/donate
Reposted by Isabel
my latest: CRIT grants personhood status to #coloradoriver - 3rd in North America by Indigenous peoples. www.azcentral.com/story/news/l...
Colorado River wins personhood status from Arizona tribal council
Personhood status creates a powerful new mechanism for protecting the eponymous river that makes life possible in their arid homelands.
www.azcentral.com
November 10, 2025 at 11:43 PM
my latest: CRIT grants personhood status to #coloradoriver - 3rd in North America by Indigenous peoples. www.azcentral.com/story/news/l...
Reposted by Isabel
Reposted by Isabel
Worth listening: “When the reporter Dyan Neary attended a county commissioners’ meeting in the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania, she watched dozens of people step up to the mic to tell harrowing stories… They all claimed that the local hospital had misdiagnosed their children as victims of abuse.”
From Serial Productions: The Preventionist
www.nytimes.com
November 11, 2025 at 1:09 AM
Worth listening: “When the reporter Dyan Neary attended a county commissioners’ meeting in the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania, she watched dozens of people step up to the mic to tell harrowing stories… They all claimed that the local hospital had misdiagnosed their children as victims of abuse.”
Reposted by Isabel
the scope of the feds’ invasion cannot be overstated. this isn’t limited to chicago or even cook county.
Understand that he's talking about distances of ~50 miles apart here.
feds have also been seen at or abducted people from bensenville, blue island, glendale heights, and mount prospect.
November 10, 2025 at 10:52 PM
the scope of the feds’ invasion cannot be overstated. this isn’t limited to chicago or even cook county.
Reposted by Isabel
also, there are plenty of text to speech tools that just record and don't analyze and they've existed for nearly my entire life. we've got to stop allowing people to conflate direct, non-generative tools with genAI when they have a financial incentive to do so
November 10, 2025 at 4:16 PM
also, there are plenty of text to speech tools that just record and don't analyze and they've existed for nearly my entire life. we've got to stop allowing people to conflate direct, non-generative tools with genAI when they have a financial incentive to do so
Reposted by Isabel
we should not be letting any company get away with blaming AI for their failures. I'm not even sure how we got to this point. people are like "it's just a tool" okay so is a forklift and we still hold somebody responsible when it goes wrong and hurts someone. this is YOUR AI!
November 10, 2025 at 4:05 PM
we should not be letting any company get away with blaming AI for their failures. I'm not even sure how we got to this point. people are like "it's just a tool" okay so is a forklift and we still hold somebody responsible when it goes wrong and hurts someone. this is YOUR AI!
Reposted by Isabel
a few months ago I said "having generative AI handle absolutely anything with regards to healthcare is a nightmare and should be banned" and a bunch of people made fun of me and called me stupid. anyways,
November 10, 2025 at 4:00 PM
a few months ago I said "having generative AI handle absolutely anything with regards to healthcare is a nightmare and should be banned" and a bunch of people made fun of me and called me stupid. anyways,
Reposted by Isabel
🦟" #Aedes aegypti: A Disease-Carrying #Mosquito Has Landed in the #RockyMountains Where It Historically Couldn’t Survive." via @insideclimatenews.org
insideclimatenews.org/news/1011202...
insideclimatenews.org/news/1011202...
A Disease-Carrying Mosquito Has Landed in the Rocky Mountains Where It Historically Couldn’t Survive - Inside Climate News
The Aedes aegypti mosquito that can carry dengue was thought to be too reliant on a hot and wet climate to survive in the Mountain West. But now, a population is thriving in Western Colorado.
insideclimatenews.org
November 10, 2025 at 9:18 PM
🦟" #Aedes aegypti: A Disease-Carrying #Mosquito Has Landed in the #RockyMountains Where It Historically Couldn’t Survive." via @insideclimatenews.org
insideclimatenews.org/news/1011202...
insideclimatenews.org/news/1011202...
steve is watching this right now and I’m wondering if it isn’t worth a try at this point
November 11, 2025 at 2:08 AM
steve is watching this right now and I’m wondering if it isn’t worth a try at this point
Reposted by Isabel
I will forever end essays/reviews/perspectives with “In this paper I settle the matter once and for all, by showing which elements of each side are correct.”
I remember really enjoying this paper on individuality. Some time since I read it though, and I see there's a bunch of new stuff I haven't read yet...
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Plant individuality: a solution to the demographer’s dilemma - Biology & Philosophy
The problem of plant individuality is something which has vexed botanists throughout the ages, with fashion swinging back and forth from treating plants as communities of individuals (Darwin 1800; Bra...
link.springer.com
November 11, 2025 at 12:08 AM
I will forever end essays/reviews/perspectives with “In this paper I settle the matter once and for all, by showing which elements of each side are correct.”
Reposted by Isabel
Why is the "we must be united!" hectoring directed at people who are mad at the Cavers and not to the Cavers? Everyone who's mad was united, then the Cave Caucus walked across the aisle and betrayed what the public had been told was the Dem position.
The sooner we get past internal recriminations and back to fighting united, the better off we all are — the likelier our victory next November.
November 10, 2025 at 10:11 PM
Why is the "we must be united!" hectoring directed at people who are mad at the Cavers and not to the Cavers? Everyone who's mad was united, then the Cave Caucus walked across the aisle and betrayed what the public had been told was the Dem position.
Reposted by Isabel
Reposted by Isabel
This is one of the most remarkable academic debacles I've ever seen.
A large RCT got published in BMJ. There are currently 44 Pubpeer comments, mostly about the data, including...well. Read for yourself.
pubpeer.com/publications...
A large RCT got published in BMJ. There are currently 44 Pubpeer comments, mostly about the data, including...well. Read for yourself.
pubpeer.com/publications...
PubPeer - Prevention of acute myocardial infarction induced heart fail...
There are comments on PubPeer for publication: Prevention of acute myocardial infarction induced heart failure by intracoronary infusion of mesenchymal stem cells: phase 3 randomised clinical trial (P...
pubpeer.com
November 11, 2025 at 1:19 AM
This is one of the most remarkable academic debacles I've ever seen.
A large RCT got published in BMJ. There are currently 44 Pubpeer comments, mostly about the data, including...well. Read for yourself.
pubpeer.com/publications...
A large RCT got published in BMJ. There are currently 44 Pubpeer comments, mostly about the data, including...well. Read for yourself.
pubpeer.com/publications...
Reposted by Isabel
Good news.
Faculty expressing their concerns seems to be having effects.
If you are in academia, make sure your administration knows your views on the compact.
Faculty expressing their concerns seems to be having effects.
If you are in academia, make sure your administration knows your views on the compact.
UNC-Chapel Hill's chancellor says the university will not sign on to a higher education compact from the Trump administration.
www.wunc.org/education/20...
www.wunc.org/education/20...
After faculty raise concerns, UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor says university will not sign Trump's higher ed compact
Lee Roberts called the "preferential treatment" proposal a clear infringement on academic freedom.
www.wunc.org
November 10, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Good news.
Faculty expressing their concerns seems to be having effects.
If you are in academia, make sure your administration knows your views on the compact.
Faculty expressing their concerns seems to be having effects.
If you are in academia, make sure your administration knows your views on the compact.
Reposted by Isabel
PSA for people with NIH grant periods starting January 1st (including most NIGMS MIRAs): your RPPR is due Saturday, but they haven’t sent out the usual automated reminders, presumably due to the shutdown
November 11, 2025 at 1:20 AM
PSA for people with NIH grant periods starting January 1st (including most NIGMS MIRAs): your RPPR is due Saturday, but they haven’t sent out the usual automated reminders, presumably due to the shutdown
Reposted by Isabel
You can prevent this kind of thing by having a president who isn't an idiot child
November 10, 2025 at 11:42 PM
You can prevent this kind of thing by having a president who isn't an idiot child
Reposted by Isabel
“If Schumer really wanted to use his considerable influence and leverage to stop this, he could have done that,” a senior Democratic Senate aide tells Zeteo. “He didn’t.”
Furious Liberals Call for Schumer to Step Aside, Senate Dems Mostly Quiet
After their shutdown surrender, liberal lawmakers are begging their base to unite behind them anyway – as Trumpland celebrates that their opposition is a bunch of 'p*ssies.'
zeteo.com
November 11, 2025 at 1:23 AM
“If Schumer really wanted to use his considerable influence and leverage to stop this, he could have done that,” a senior Democratic Senate aide tells Zeteo. “He didn’t.”
Reposted by Isabel
Kyle Kingsbury is not a journalist. He is not an op-ed writer.
He is a computer safety researcher.
And he has written one of the most compelling, comprehensive accounts of the ongoing hell in Chicago that you could possibly imagine.
In under 1600 words.
aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...
He is a computer safety researcher.
And he has written one of the most compelling, comprehensive accounts of the ongoing hell in Chicago that you could possibly imagine.
In under 1600 words.
aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...
November 9, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Kyle Kingsbury is not a journalist. He is not an op-ed writer.
He is a computer safety researcher.
And he has written one of the most compelling, comprehensive accounts of the ongoing hell in Chicago that you could possibly imagine.
In under 1600 words.
aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...
He is a computer safety researcher.
And he has written one of the most compelling, comprehensive accounts of the ongoing hell in Chicago that you could possibly imagine.
In under 1600 words.
aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...
Reposted by Isabel
It is readily apparent that most lawmakers in the United States have never been poor; do not know any poor people; have never actually had a conversation with a poor person; and have no clear understanding of how poverty actually affects people’s health and opportunities.
November 11, 2025 at 1:03 AM
It is readily apparent that most lawmakers in the United States have never been poor; do not know any poor people; have never actually had a conversation with a poor person; and have no clear understanding of how poverty actually affects people’s health and opportunities.
Reposted by Isabel
They all just gave unanimous consent to fast track, so it’s definitely dishonest.
bsky.app/profile/sena...
bsky.app/profile/sena...
They did. My god. They are fast tracking the vote.
Every single one of them.
Every single one of them.
November 11, 2025 at 1:17 AM
They all just gave unanimous consent to fast track, so it’s definitely dishonest.
bsky.app/profile/sena...
bsky.app/profile/sena...
Reposted by Isabel
what if i told you there’s a better way to do politics than leading on your base for two months with your primary message, which is about the healthcare people need to live
November 11, 2025 at 1:29 AM
what if i told you there’s a better way to do politics than leading on your base for two months with your primary message, which is about the healthcare people need to live
Reposted by Isabel
I'm a healthcare lawyer and this is insane.
Trump: "I want the money to go into an account for people where they buy their own health insurance. It's so good. The insurance will be better. It'll cost less. Everybody is gonna be happy. They're gonna feel like entrepreneurs. They're actually able to go out & negotiate their own insurance"
November 11, 2025 at 1:33 AM
I'm a healthcare lawyer and this is insane.
Reposted by Isabel
be there or be square!
me:
me:
November 10, 2025 at 9:16 PM
be there or be square!
me:
me:
Reposted by Isabel
Reposting for the afternoon/early evening scientists
BIOLOG question: is there a good pipeline or program to compare biolog results (either in terms of absorbance reads or carbon sources/antibiotics/etc) to KEGG outputs from whole genome sequencing? Right now our tech is doing am manual comparison but there has to be an easier way. 🦠🧬
November 10, 2025 at 11:30 PM
Reposting for the afternoon/early evening scientists
Reposted by Isabel
“You will own nothing and be happy.” - the Trump administration
November 10, 2025 at 11:28 PM
“You will own nothing and be happy.” - the Trump administration