Vicky Stein (agentredsquirrel)
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vicky.science
Vicky Stein (agentredsquirrel)
@vicky.science
The friend you send bug pictures to. Also accepting dead-thing-on-beach pictures, dog pictures, and stories about your cats.
Reposted by Vicky Stein (agentredsquirrel)
Expectant mothers were left so hungry after the U.S. cut foreign food aid that one woman ate clay and charcoal.

Her baby struggled to gain weight after being born prematurely.

By @annamaria.bsky.social, photos by @storitellah.com & illustrations by Phoebe Ouma
What I Saw at a Maternity Ward in Kenya After the U.S. Cut Off Food and Foreign Aid
Photographs tell a story of two mothers determined to help their babies gain enough weight to leave the hospital — only to face little to no food again.
www.propublica.org
December 29, 2025 at 4:00 AM
Reposted by Vicky Stein (agentredsquirrel)
Another fun little doodle that is a departure from my usual style. I just love ptarmigan. #birds #art
December 29, 2025 at 3:47 AM
Reposted by Vicky Stein (agentredsquirrel)
December 28, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Reposted by Vicky Stein (agentredsquirrel)
"Did you see what Mark Cuban posted? Oh did you see the clapb—"

You shake yourself awake in the cold North Atlantic water. You are not online. It is July of 1858. You are a baleen whale, and you have changed your mind. The future most not come to pass. The telegraph cable must break.
December 27, 2025 at 2:06 AM
Reposted by Vicky Stein (agentredsquirrel)
Good morning! 🪶
December 26, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Reposted by Vicky Stein (agentredsquirrel)
We have 526 scientists signed up for spring semester. We try to get that to about 1000 scientists before unleashing the teachers on the database. Wanna connect a class of kids with science this spring? Sign up!
Alright scientists! It's that time again!

Time to sign up for Skype a Scientist's spring semester.

Want to get matched with a classroom in 2026?

Sign up now 🥰

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
December 20, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Reposted by Vicky Stein (agentredsquirrel)
Merychippus to all who celebrate!
December 25, 2025 at 5:10 PM
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December 24, 2025 at 12:57 AM
Reposted by Vicky Stein (agentredsquirrel)
A wet desert lily flowering with a grand view while storm clouds are moving in from the west this morning (Photo: Sicco Rood).
December 24, 2025 at 5:54 PM
Happiness is hand-knitted baby socks that match mama’s. Or at least that’s happiness today. Tomorrow it might be more about a whole four-hour sleep, or an especially satisfying burp.

But anyways.

Wishing you joy and warmth and safety.
December 24, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Reposted by Vicky Stein (agentredsquirrel)
Per NY Times’s Michael Grynbaum on X, this is Sharyn Alfonsi’s email to her “60 Minutes” colleagues in full:
December 22, 2025 at 3:37 AM
Reposted by Vicky Stein (agentredsquirrel)
Hoping you all have a warm, light filled Longest Night from my little family to yours
December 22, 2025 at 1:22 AM
This is the shit I’m here for
I have a weird question for the #bird people on here. Do you think someone could tell that a book was pooped on specifically by a sparrowhawk (or perhaps hawks generally) just from the feces? I'm looking at a 16th c. case where witnesses claim books were pooped on specifically by sparrowhawks!
December 19, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Reposted by Vicky Stein (agentredsquirrel)
People who aspire to be academics: I wish to live a life of the mind

Actual academics:
I have a weird question for the #bird people on here. Do you think someone could tell that a book was pooped on specifically by a sparrowhawk (or perhaps hawks generally) just from the feces? I'm looking at a 16th c. case where witnesses claim books were pooped on specifically by sparrowhawks!
December 18, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Reposted by Vicky Stein (agentredsquirrel)
The name "Popular Science" doesn't mean we shift our coverage depending on public opinion. It means we cover relevant subjects that are rigorously researched, reliable, and grounded in reality.

And trans lives are grounded in reality.

We see y'all. No matter what.

www.popsci.com/science/tran...
First-of-a-kind study shows encouraging data for trans kids who socially transition
Ninety-four percent of participants in a new study stood firm in their trans identity after five years, and "detransitioning" is rare.
www.popsci.com
December 18, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Reposted by Vicky Stein (agentredsquirrel)
December 16, 2025 at 3:32 AM
Reposted by Vicky Stein (agentredsquirrel)
I'm devastated by what the field has lost in terms of pandemic prevention research and infrastructure, but even more for the (to date, 60+) PhD students and postdocs on the project, many of whom face an immediate funding cliff at the end of the year. NSF had the funds for them and just didn't pay /3
December 5, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Reposted by Vicky Stein (agentredsquirrel)
If new proposals detailed in an FDA memo are put into place, experts told me it would mean the end of annual flu shots. And end of most vaccines for pregnant people. And maybe the end of updates to pneumonia vaccines. And more.

www.cidrap.umn.edu/childhood-va...
FDA official proposes ‘impossible’ standards for vaccine testing that could curtail access to immunizations
www.cidrap.umn.edu
December 3, 2025 at 1:43 PM
Reposted by Vicky Stein (agentredsquirrel)
The weather is great up here!
December 3, 2025 at 5:09 AM
Reposted by Vicky Stein (agentredsquirrel)
“Have Yourself A Merriam Little Christmas”

Merriam, a career-oriented lexicographer from the city, returns to her small town for the holidays and meets Webster, a ruggedly handsome librarian, who shows her the true DEFINITION of Christmas.
December 2, 2025 at 7:18 PM
Reposted by Vicky Stein (agentredsquirrel)
We have 125 more calendars left to go to fully fund the 2026 Native Plant Project!

People who have received their calendars say they're even prettier in person, I'm just saying.

Get one at SquidFacts.net
Hey, what are you gonna get for the office secret Santa?
For your mother in law who loves her bird feeder?
For your niece who loves whales?
For your dad who literally has no hobbies and you’re like “shit wtf do I get this guy”?

Get a love notes from nature calendar!
squidfacts.net
December 2, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Reposted by Vicky Stein (agentredsquirrel)
"Never spread the lie in the headline" should be a hard rule of 21st century journalism.

Research shows that repeating lies helps to spread them, and people read headlines more than they read stories.
News media has to do better with headlines that present false and unverified public health claims.
November 30, 2025 at 1:10 AM
Reposted by Vicky Stein (agentredsquirrel)
People will die, and are currently dying, because RFK was granted one of the most powerful megaphones in the country. Two people who could have thrown barriers in front of his climb decided not to; there's a sex scandal here but it is not the biggest scandal.
November 26, 2025 at 11:30 PM
Reposted by Vicky Stein (agentredsquirrel)
crab prints!
November 26, 2025 at 10:54 PM
Reposted by Vicky Stein (agentredsquirrel)
This is one of the last days I get to post these absolutely curséd animations I made for eel facts season. I think I'll post them in a thread here for posterity.

Get a calendar at EelFacts.net
November 26, 2025 at 12:26 AM