Stacy Farina
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stacyfarina.bsky.social
Stacy Farina
@stacyfarina.bsky.social
4.5K followers 330 following 590 posts
Associate Prof of Biology at Howard University studying functional and evolutionary morphology #BlackLivesMatter (she/they)

Fully funded MS Programs in EEB:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1f34fVzPkKviz0732mU8YtkTnLVaNNUjK_SKCTSglD0o/
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stacyfarina.bsky.social
This is going to be a figure in someone's dissertation someday.
A "re-truth" by President Trump of a user named P78 saying "HANG THEM GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD !!"
November 22, 2025 at 12:15 AM
stacyfarina.bsky.social
Love the axolotl!! #NoKings #DC
October 18, 2025 at 4:46 PM
stacyfarina.bsky.social
Google thinks its real this time.
September 25, 2025 at 1:33 PM
stacyfarina.bsky.social
Our information landscape is hell.
September 25, 2025 at 1:22 PM
stacyfarina.bsky.social
This assignment for Comparative Anatomy has been a big success, so I'm sharing it here!
The two most successful living vertebrate groups, in terms of number of species, are Tetrapods (30,000+ species) and Teleosts (33,000+ species), with Tetrapods transitioning to land from their Sarcopterygian ancestors and Teleosts remaining in the water like their Actinopterygian ancestors. Your assignment is to generate diagrams of skeletons using any AI image generator of your choosing*, one of a teleost and one of a tetrapod. Critique the images by describing three errors in each skeleton (totaling six errors) and explain what changes you could make to correct the errors. For each skeleton, one example should be from the cranial skeleton, one should be from the post-cranial axial skeleton, and one should be from the appendicular skeleton. When describing each of the six errors, make sure each description includes at least one name of a bone. *If you prefer not to use AI, you can instead critique images of halloween animal skeletons by searching the web (e.g., enter into google images: "X Halloween skeleton" where X is the name of the animal). Common Halloween skeleton toys for teleosts are piranhas and anglerfish. For tetrapods, there are many options. Your submission should include the two skeleton images and the text of your critique. For AI-generated images, they should be unique to you (do not use the same images as a classmate). For the halloween skeleton pictures, I understand that some students may use the same images by chance, which is fine.
September 23, 2025 at 2:27 PM
stacyfarina.bsky.social
Had to pause it to confirm the radius thing
September 11, 2025 at 2:48 AM
stacyfarina.bsky.social
Howard University's faculty and @aaup.org members stand with our students!
September 8, 2025 Dear University Community, On September 9 at 11am, students of Howard University are gathering on campus to demand an end to the deployment of the National Guard and ICE in DC and to urge the Howard University administration to “protect [student] constitutional rights by refusing to comply with occupying federal agencies.” Similar protests will be held at Georgetown, GWU, and American University throughout the day. Here is a link to the student campaign: https://www.instagram.com/huwontcomply/ The Howard University AAUP is an advocacy chapter of the American Association of University Professors. We, the current members of the HU AAUP Chapter, are making this statement to express our solidarity with this effort and encourage the students to exercise their First Amendment rights. We share their concerns about their safety, privacy, and rights on campus and in DC. Some of our members will attend to show our solidarity for this important action. Sincerely, HU AAUP Chapter Leadership and Membership
September 8, 2025 at 8:22 PM
stacyfarina.bsky.social
Good to know that AI image generation hasn't (yet) conquered my "draw a vertebrate phylogeny" assignment.
September 8, 2025 at 2:22 PM
stacyfarina.bsky.social
Kitties on a lazy Sunday
Two cats snuggling
September 7, 2025 at 4:06 PM
stacyfarina.bsky.social
Pro-racism activism from EO Wilson. If you know anything about Rushton, you know that by 1989, it was very obvious to anyone with eyes that he was a raving racist.
August 28, 2025 at 3:47 PM
stacyfarina.bsky.social
Inverted the colors for printing
August 19, 2025 at 12:32 PM
stacyfarina.bsky.social
It was a short note, so only 3 paragraphs. Here is the text.
The Trump administration’s executive order 14253 of 27 March 2025 aims to prevent “replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth” and criticizes an art exhibit that defines race as a social construct rather than a biological reality (1). This understanding of race, which the Trump administration considers a “divisive, race-centered ideology” (1), is supported by decades of research in social and biological sciences that have resulted in the consensus that the modern human species does not contain biological races (2–4). It is imperative that scientists publicly refute the president’s false claim. It is not divisive to illustrate examples of how scientific racism has harmed US society. The biological definition of race has been applied to nonhuman species of organisms on the basis of physical, geographic, genetic, and phylogenetic similarities (5–7). However, no biological definition of race can be accurately applied to subgroups of humans, especially not subgroups based on social definitions of race (3, 8), which arbitrarily use physical, geographic, cultural, and linguistic criteria. This consensus is based upon many lines of genetic and evolutionary evidence, particularly data showing that the amount of genetic variation that occurs within human populations is much greater than genetic variation between populations, and that human populations cannot be considered evolutionarily unique lineages (6, 9). Human genetic variation is continuous and cannot be unambiguously divided into biological races. Two recent blue-ribbon panels initiated by the National Academy of Sciences, Medicine, and Engineering have underscored the lack of concordance between social definitions of race and human biological variation (10, 11). The biological definition of race has been applied to nonhuman species of organisms on the basis of physical, geographic, genetic, and phylogenetic similarities (5–7). However, no biological definition of race can be accurately applied to subgroups of humans, especially not subgroups based on social definitions of race (3, 8), which arbitrarily use physical, geographic, cultural, and linguistic criteria. This consensus is based upon many lines of genetic and evolutionary evidence, particularly data showing that the amount of genetic variation that occurs within human populations is much greater than genetic variation between populations, and that human populations cannot be considered evolutionarily unique lineages (6, 9). Human genetic variation is continuous and cannot be unambiguously divided into biological races. Two recent blue-ribbon panels initiated by the National Academy of Sciences, Medicine, and Engineering have underscored the lack of concordance between social definitions of race and human biological variation (10, 11). The administration’s attempts to resuscitate scientifically disproven schemes serve a political agenda. Scientific racism has been associated with US social institutions since the country’s founding and has caused great harm to millions of Americans (12). The artists, historians, scientists, and sociologists who have detailed the dynamics of this ideology are not the ones distorting the truth. It is the US president, in attempting to silence these scholars by executive fiat, who is perpetrating a “divisive, race-centered ideology.”
August 7, 2025 at 12:58 PM
stacyfarina.bsky.social
Why TF am I getting this ad???
And ad for maximum security prison furniture
April 25, 2025 at 10:07 PM
stacyfarina.bsky.social
A screenshot like this of Google AI was sent to me by someone claiming "Biden did it, too." The AI claimed that mass revoking of student visas started in 2023, but linked to the April 2025 stories. It was easy for me to replecate it. It's getting scary out there...
Screenshot of Google AI falsely claiming that mass student deportations started in 2023 instead of 2025
April 20, 2025 at 1:48 PM
stacyfarina.bsky.social
Huge crowd at Stand up for Science
March 7, 2025 at 5:46 PM
stacyfarina.bsky.social
Please consider joining me on Friday, wherever you are, for Stand Up for Science. I have been trying to get out ae much as possible. Every person makes a difference!
Find your local rally here:
standupforscience2025.org
Stacy Farina speaks at a microphone on February 17 in Annapolis for the 50501 protest. They are holding a sign that reads "Science without segregation" with Science written in rainbow, and the "i" in science is a black power fist dotted by the trans flag in a heart. Stacy Farina on DC news at March 3 protest at NOAA. Their sign reads "Fish are friends and food, NOAA fisheries" with Bruce the Shark from Finding Nemo.
March 4, 2025 at 6:28 PM
stacyfarina.bsky.social
So we are already at the point that scientists are publicly saying that we should only be proud of research that doesn't support diverse students and participants? Cool... now I know where we stand.
A quote from the NPR article about Ted Cruz' list of research to ban: "It's ludicrous," says Joshua Weitz, a biologist at the University of Maryland whose research was not flagged but who has received NSF grants. "[Cruz] is using his position as a senator to make a big noise about fundamental research and mis-categorizing what's going on in the research and technology sector in this country. If one looks at this list, you find things that we should absolutely be proud of funding."
February 13, 2025 at 3:25 PM
stacyfarina.bsky.social
LinkedIn Message for the former NIH Director www.linkedin.com/posts/monica...
LinkedIn Post by Monica Bertagnolli. LinkedIn doesn't allow copy paste, so see link for text. LinkedIn Post by Monica Bertagnolli. LinkedIn doesn't allow copy paste, so see link for text.
February 8, 2025 at 6:42 PM
stacyfarina.bsky.social
Sorry, here's the end
LinkedIn Post by Monica Bertagnolli. LinkedIn doesn't allow copy paste, so see link for text.
February 8, 2025 at 6:40 PM
stacyfarina.bsky.social
Pictured: Pathetic little boots. Literally gender affirming clothing (men like to be tall).
Ron Desantis in height enhancing boots
February 5, 2025 at 9:28 PM
stacyfarina.bsky.social
I suppose all of the famous biologists who put their reputations on the line to sign that defense of EO Wilson's racism are feverishing writing a defense of DEI programs and trans rights, bc they clearly are willing to risk their careers for what they believe in... right? Right...?
Padme meme
January 22, 2025 at 12:29 PM
stacyfarina.bsky.social
Hey, @npr.org, it is not good journalism to defend a quack, when the facts aren't on your side. RFK making measel vaccines optional will likely kill thousands of children, regardless of whether the vaccine is still available. We've seen the outbreaks in antivax communities. It is basic fact.
Popkin fears if Kennedy is confirmed as HHS head, "thousands of children may die of measles and many other infectious diseases for which children have been vaccinated for many decades." (Kennedy recently told NPR that he won't "take vaccines away from anybody.")
November 20, 2024 at 1:13 PM
stacyfarina.bsky.social
This absolutely horrifying. The Republican Senators don't have enough energy to do their jobs??? Then they shouldn't be getting paid by the tax payer. WTF is the point of senate confirmation if the bar is so low that literally no one would be excluded.
A tweet from Robert Costa from CBS News that reads "What I’m hearing privately from a few key GOP senators: yes, they’d prefer to not have a messy fight over Gaetz. Not their favorite. But they also don’t have a lot of energy for pushing back. Trump runs the show, they say. If Gaetz can reassure them, they’re open to backing him."
November 14, 2024 at 4:55 PM
stacyfarina.bsky.social
If anyone wants to see what I do, here are some slides from my most recent talk.
A powerpoint slide titled "Evolution is Complex!" Bullet points about evolutionary complexity include "Adaptation Multifunctionality Exaptation Historical constraint Random events Environmental changes Incomplete fossil record Can’t repeat the “experiment of evolution” Things like physiology and behavior are hard to study and reconstruct Science costs money and time" Slide titled "Be wary of overly simplistic evolutionary stories (especially about human behavior)" with a trigger warning for the next slide. It reads, "[Trigger warning: racism, sexism, and homophobia]" A slide with screenshots of papers with titles such as "Tribalism is Human Nature" and "Race differences in sexual behavior." The middle of the slide reads "Be skeptical! Especially towards deeply flawed "studies" with a bigoted message."
November 6, 2024 at 8:04 PM
stacyfarina.bsky.social
Please help one of my colleagues find her sister:
A missing adult poster for Jennesa Justin, a Black woman, 5 foot 4 inches, 130 pounds, brown hair, brown eyes, last seen on October 18 in the 2400 block of West Tharpe St. Justin.
October 28, 2024 at 3:27 PM