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simonedsun.bsky.social
simón(e) 🌑
@simonedsun.bsky.social
1.7K followers 390 following 580 posts
hormones \\ neurons \\ genes \\ pdoc @tollkuhn lab \\ hanna gray fellow @hhmi \\ sr fellow @appliedtrans \\ transsexual ándrógýne \\ queering the anthrocatastrophocene \\ alien behind sén \\ simonesun.com \\ () optional, e is not
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simonedsun.bsky.social
Good lord, the soundtrack to Clair Obscur is beyond phenomenal. One of the best, if not the best, video game scoring I’ve heard.
Screenshot of album art for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 soundtrack. Track currently playing is “Nos Vies En Lumière” from the recent bonus edition of the video game soundtrack.
July 25, 2025 at 3:22 PM
simonedsun.bsky.social
These slides are a great introductory resource for scientists (and others) wanting to know more about what is currently happening to science during MAGA-2025.

The text/prose on the last slide hit me like a ton of bricks.
Text/poem by Danny Bryck in Unruly: A Racial Justice Blog by Jews of Color, on the reference slide of Chanda Prescod-Weinstein's slides from her 2017 talk to the American Physical Society titled "Nazi Germany & Physics." The text reads: "I know, I know, if you could go back you, would walk with Jesus, You would march with King, Maybe assassinate Hitler, At least hide Jews in your basement, It would all be clear to you, But people then, just like you, were baffled, had bills, to pay and children they didn't, understand and they too, were so desperate for normalcy, they made anything normal."
January 31, 2025 at 9:01 PM
simonedsun.bsky.social
We've got less than a week left to make sure NY leads the fight against climate change and builds clean energy while lowering bills and creating good jobs!

Take 2 mins to send an official public comment that HAS to be read by NY government: bit.ly/nyleadtheway
Graphic depicting the choice to "build or burn" with burn illustrating a dark fossil fuel powered future in contrast to to build illustrating a brighter green energy powered future with the text: "Last week to pack the public comments with demands for 15 gigawatts of renewable energy. Submit your comment: bit.ly/nyleadtheway"
December 3, 2024 at 8:00 PM
simonedsun.bsky.social
The end of this gives them away: "...people can FEEL lied to..."

We have, are, and continue to enthusiastically talk about the complexities of sex and gender while maintaining the dignity and value of the people directly affected by such "talk."

They simply hold their feelings over our humanity.
snapshot from NYT opinion piece "There is no excuse of the bullying of Sarah McBride." It states: The basic right of trans people to live in safety and dignity, free from discrimination, should be uncontested. But evolving ideas about sex and gender create new complexities and conflicts, and when progressives refuse to talk about them forthrightly, instead defaulting to clichés like “trans women are women,” people can feel lied to and become radicalized. The portion "when progressives refuse to talk about them forthrightly, instead defaulting to clichés like “trans women are women,” people can feel lied to and become radicalized." is highlighted.
November 26, 2024 at 6:34 PM
simonedsun.bsky.social
Like, look at this flowchart, your science on sex could be this good, if you tried.
A flowchart from Smiley et al., 2024 (figure 2) that describes different scientific study designs and statistical analyses for a non-essentialist/non-reductionist approach sex biology, as opposed to the limited and error-prone sex as a (binary) biological variable approach that is most commonly taken. Figure legend is available through the linked paper.
November 23, 2024 at 12:17 AM
simonedsun.bsky.social
lmao not really a prediction I guess (credit to @bexilla.bsky.social to pointing me to the story)

www.marshall.senate.gov/wp-content/u...
November 22, 2024 at 11:47 PM
simonedsun.bsky.social
And it looks like Ray Ray himself has joined the chat.
Screenshot of the TERFs moderation list by @bennie.gay, showing the recent addition of what appears to be Ray Blanchard’s account.
November 19, 2024 at 12:04 AM
simonedsun.bsky.social
sorry everyone, it's really the fault of us transgenders that harris lost, our trans witch spell at the center of bushwick taco bell pentagram on election night didn't work
A screenshot of a map of five taco bells in east Brooklyn that are coincidentally arranged in a way that a pentagram can be drawn with the taco bells at each point of the star.
November 12, 2024 at 4:26 PM
simonedsun.bsky.social
I know many trans people are already making plans and preparing, some even well before election day. Great episode from ICHH on the range of possible outcomes, how the Trump admin can attempt to do their worst. Keep preparing.

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i...
Image of the cover for podcast It Could Happen Here, a drying and cracking depiction of the continental united states, for an episode aired Nov. 11th 2024, on Life For Trans People Under Trump.
November 11, 2024 at 5:41 PM
simonedsun.bsky.social
I love recording from neurons so much! 🖤🧠
Figure of whole cell patch current clamp experiment of BNST neuron. Bottom shows current injections from -50 to +110 pA, top shows membrane voltage of neuronal response, with spikes!
May 13, 2024 at 6:41 PM
simonedsun.bsky.social
It’s real!!! 😭🥹
New York State drivers license with my real name SIMONE and Sex listed as X
March 7, 2024 at 1:32 AM
simonedsun.bsky.social
Endocrinology is surfing hormone waves.
An idealized graph of serum hormone levels relative to peak over a period of 5 days, the mouse estrus cycle.
February 14, 2024 at 4:49 AM
simonedsun.bsky.social
I sometimes think about how we found each other in this cold & heartless void of a universe that does not deserve our beauty and love.
Two nonbinary queer lovers taking a selfie in bisexual lighting looking radiant and filled with love.
January 15, 2024 at 11:46 PM
simonedsun.bsky.social
🐱 She saw the Grand Canyon. Only mildly impressed.
A tortoise shell cat with the Grand Canyon behind her looking nonplussed at the camera. A tortoise shell cat with the Grand Canyon behind her looking over to the right, ready to move on with her life
December 20, 2023 at 1:44 AM
simonedsun.bsky.social
Off on our East-to-West cross country road trip! Day 1: NYC ➡️ Louisville, KY
Image of Simón(e) and Dana in their Jeep heading off on their road trip from New York City to Oakland, CA. There’s a cat somewhere in this Jeep.
December 16, 2023 at 2:49 PM
simonedsun.bsky.social
Is Xitter having a stroke?
Screenshot of X menu, with options home, explore, notifications, messages, and “Grok” encircled and arrow with text ?????
December 11, 2023 at 10:27 PM
simonedsun.bsky.social
Elesh Norn 🖤
Three Magic The Gathering cards, Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines with alt. Art by Junji Ito; Atraxa Grand Unifier oil slick mythic; and Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa
December 3, 2023 at 12:36 AM
simonedsun.bsky.social
Do yourself a favor and listen to this live set 🖤🎵
Image of album art of Four Tet’s Libe at Alexandra Palace, London, 24th May 2023
November 28, 2023 at 2:02 PM
simonedsun.bsky.social
It extends beyond just normative definition as well. To them, gametes ARE the mechanism of everything that is sex. It all else stems from anisogamy as though it’s necessary and sufficient. But that’s just not how the biology works whatsoever.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2023.105445
figure 1 from KO Smiley et al., 2024 illustrating the complex functional biological networks and variables involved in sex.
November 24, 2023 at 6:57 PM
simonedsun.bsky.social
The sex binary is dead!
Long live sex diversity & variability!

Sex is one of the greatest sources of variation seen in life. How do we advance the scientific study of sex across the animal kingdom? Read our latest article in Hormones & Behavior to find out!

🧪 🧠 #neuroskyence
Fig. 1. Dynamic sex variability - An integrative, multidimensional framework. A framework that centers sex variability will enable the study of sex across multiple levels of biological analysis (colored boxes). A) Visual schematic representing the degree of sex variability (y-axis) across biological scale (x-axis) and time (z-axis), with example sex variables of interest (not all possible covariates and functional relationships are presented). In this example, to decipher mechanisms linking gonadal hormones to receptive reproductive behavior in adult rodents (lordosis), the functional relationships (black subset of possible gray relationships) between select variables (bold words) need to be identified. At each level of analysis, numerous variables differ across sex to contribute to reproductive behavior through these functional interactions. Importantly, the degree of variability across sex categories is dynamic and is affected by developmental stage, experience, and environment. Fig. 2. Approaches for the statistical analysis of sex-associated traits. Flow chart of example approaches for analyzing datasets with sex-associated variables. These analyses answer questions about whether and how sex-associated variables explain variation in dependent variables of interest, how independent variables of interest explain variation in dependent sex-associated variables, and how sex-associated variables (within and/or across levels of analysis) relate to one another. The examples match those in the text where possible, but the approaches are widely applicable and flexible. The choice(s) of analyses should follow directly from the research question(s), and it is likely that multiple approaches will be used in the analysis of an integrative dataset. Fig. 3. Questions for evaluating frameworks and approaches which study sex variability and diversity. Here, we present a set of questions to ask when critically evaluating work (whether it is your own or others) that addresses sex diversity and variability. Note that these questions reflect the integration of the conceptual framework, experimental approaches, and analysis and interpretation, as each of these aspects informs the other.
November 17, 2023 at 8:46 PM
simonedsun.bsky.social
LMAO, THE DICTIONARY SAYS SO
A knight is biological because of definition trees

These people are serious?!
a dumb xitter argument I'm now bored of, where a "philosophy professor" claims that my definition of "a sex" - a summary subclass that is categorical or continuous that is in reference to a group of traits that are often, but not always, associated with reproduction" means a knight with prostate cancer is a sex and they uses google dictionary to say that being a knight is biological.
November 10, 2023 at 6:55 PM
simonedsun.bsky.social
Nothing says free speech like being shadowbanned on freespeechdotcom
Image from x.com from a follower searching my twitter username showing no results.
November 7, 2023 at 5:06 AM
simonedsun.bsky.social
This figure captures the sex essentialist argument. Sex is binary because there are two different gametes (sex cells) that define biological sex and lead to all sex associated phenomena: genotypes, phenotypes, differentiation, sex roles, etc.

Thing is, this is wrong.

7/
Figure 1 from Goymann et al., 2022: Biological sex reflects two distinct evolutionary strategies to produce offspring: the female strategy is to produce few large gametes and the male strategy is to produce many small (and often motile) gametes. This fundamental definition is valid for all sexually reproducing organisms. Sex-associated genotypes or phenotypes (including sex chromosomes, primary and secondary sexual characteristics and sex hormones), sex roles and sexual differentiation are consequences of the biological sex. Genotypic and phenotypic features, as well as sex roles are often used as operational criteria to define sex, but since these traits differ vastly between sexually reproducing species, they only work for selected species.
November 6, 2023 at 8:27 PM
simonedsun.bsky.social
Accepted! Look out for our massive upcoming piece on Sex, and how to study it in the 21st century!
Figure illustrating a new approach to TV e biological study of sex. Figure legend text reads: Figure 1. Dynamic Sex Variability - An Integrative, Multidimensional Framework. A framework that centers sex variability will enable the study of sex across multiple levels of biological analysis (colored boxes). A) Visual schematic representing the degree of sex variability (y-axis) across biological scale (x-axis) and time (z-axis), with example sex variables of interest (not all possible covariates and functional relationships are presented). In this example, to decipher mechanisms linking gonadal hormones to receptive reproductive behavior in adult rodents (lordosis), the functional relationships (black subset of possible gray relationships) between select variables (bold words) need to be identified. At each level of analysis, numerous variables differ across sex to contribute to reproductive behavior through these functional interactions. Importantly, the degree of variability across sex categories is dynamic and is affected by developmental stage, experience, and environmental factors. B) An example of sex variable relationships across several levels of analysis. For any given study of sex, there are limits to which levels of analysis (and variables within these levels of analysis) are experimentally tractable (colored boxes). The
October 19, 2023 at 9:24 PM
simonedsun.bsky.social
enby breakfast
Image of a “non-binary breakfast.” Coffee and chocolate cake.
October 7, 2023 at 4:15 PM