Dr. Caleb C. Butler 🦠🪸

6 bad doodles with text under each one. horseshoe crab is literally the animal horseshoe crab. shoehorse crab is a crab riding a shoe, cowboy style. crabshoe horse is a horse wearing literal crabs as shoes. shoecrab horse is a horse telling a crab to go away. crabhorse shoe is a pair of shoes, left one crab shaped, right one horse shaped. horsecrab shoe is literally the same pair of shoes, flipped.

#InvertebrateShitposting as per @joabaldwin.com's request

How specific are heritable symbioses?

And what can we learn from swapping obligate symbionts across host species?

We address this in our latest, led by @inespons.bsky.social & in our collaboration w/ @microbiome.bsky.social 🦠🪲 Out today in @natcomms.nature.com!

1/n
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

It's that time of year again! I'm looking for suggestions of 'emerging' model organisms for my #CellBio course's final proj:

Organism nomination form here (links to blog on proj info): forms.office.com/r/v8zYgqVe8W

#cellbiology #biology #academicsky #microsky #archaeasky #protistsonsky 🧪 (1/n)

Enamel pin of sea creatures at the all you can eat whale carcass buffet.

I made (and ate) an omelet that deserved a modeling contract, and A Santa who decided I was good enough delivered this delightful pin by @fossilforager.bsky.social (OBSESSED)

A man holds a box in front of a Christmas tree, inspecting it. Behind him is an Orange car perched in a folding chair next to other on lookers

Lab Christmas party last night had a surprising star… Motsenbocker was the life of the party. Made sure to supervise the white elephant exchange as well.

One mother for two species via obligate cross-species cloning in ants - Nature In a case of obligate cross-species cloning, female ants of Messor ibericus need to clone males of Messor structor to obtain sperm for producing the worker caste, resulting in males from the same moth...

One of the coolest biology stories of the year IMO: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧪

We are looking for a PhD student to work on an exciting plastid endosymbiosis in microbial eukaryotes. This position involves sampling, exciting microscopy such as CARDFISH, ExM and FIBSEM, single-cell transcriptomics and more. #protistsonsky 1/2

Begging scientists (and media posts about science) to stop using ChatGPT-generated images

Day 3 #Invertober2025 - Giant green anemone (Anthopleura xanthogrammica) 🟢

#SciArt #invertebrates

New today: We're petitioning NSF to revert GRFP eligibility criteria to last year's terms, to avoid pulling the rug out from under the earliest of early-career scientists who had every reason to think they'd be able to apply this year. Sign and spread the word!

laurenkuehne.github.io/grfpChanges/

I just want to highlight that what is being said is in the context of the current climate conditions. As with anything, if climate change continues to be unmitigated, this story will likely change.

Also, my first paper on octocoral symbionts coming out very soon🤞waiting on type specimen depositions

Resilient reefs: How soft corals survive bleaching and warming oceans As stony corals decline from heat and pollution, soft-bodied octocorals are taking over and fundamentally changing these vital habitats. Powered by unique algae partnerships, their resilience is helpi...

I wrote a blog post on soft corals during my PhD that was just published! Check it out here: iee.psu.edu/news/blog/re... 🧪🪸🦑

Poem titled "Gnawed." The text of the poem reads: Gnawed Kalends of April, 2020 I can feel the rat, dark and angry, buried in the furrows of my chest, trying hard to pull apart the fiber of my breathing. Twisting. Writhing. Clawing with a feral-hearted hatred at the bonds that sinew soul to skin. I cannot walk across the room without the rasping of its teeth along the inside of my ribs, or speak without it screaming in the shallows of my breath. I can only lie beyond the borders of my life, checking the thermometer a hundred times a day as all the while I am being eaten from the inside out. – John Wyatt Greenlee

Early in the pandemic I spent 2 terrible weeks in isolation, unable to breathe or walk across the room. Expecting my temp. to spike, & knowing that then I'd have to go to the hospital. Worrying I was dying.

In the middle of this anti-vax bullshit, I thought it was worth saying what it felt like:

Firefighters question leaders’ role in ICE raid near Bear Gulch Fire - High Country News Firefighting veterans believe the management team overseeing fire crews played a key role in handing team members over to immigration authorities.

Holy shit:

Stateline spoke to nearly a dozen firefighters, agency staffers and contractors, who said that top officials assigned to the fire deployed the crews to a remote location under false pretenses so federal agents could check their immigration status.

www.hcn.org/articles/fir...

a spongebob squarepants cartoon character is flying through the air with a spotlight shining on him Alt: Spongebob Squarepants is flying down from the sky with angel wings and a halo with a spotlight shining on him as he plays a harp and sings. It's a good vibe

Ooooh the new Zotero update can now dark mode PDFs 🧪

Image of Wednesday, a domestic short hair cat with black fur, above the camera's POV and staring directly down at the camera.

Image of Pete, a domestic long hair cat with a sort of grey mask on his face and various grey spots on his mostly white fur. Pete is loaded up a few feet away on the floor from the camera looking directly at it. Several cat toys like a banana and a ball are surrounding him since the cat's toy box is right there too.

Out of town for a concert and the cat camera has fallen and/or been knocked down successfully 👍

It’s crazy that America just like. Destroyed science. Just looked at its golden goose and went “wow should we kill this? And not for the gold, but just because we fucking hate this thing”

And if you tell random people about it they go “no, that doesn’t seem true” and just refuse to believe you

You’re not the only one who feels like you’re losing your mind. Everyone I talk to has said this to me. This world is taking a toll on all of us, even those who are trying not to pay attention. Let this connect you to other people in solidarity rather than isolate you.

🚨🚨We’re hiring a postdoc!🚨🚨

Min two year contract; start in 2026 (flexible) & contribute to this project focused on understanding the link between bleaching recovery and disease in cnidarians!! Opportunities to work on side projects too!

Deadline Nov 1!

Info here: tinyurl.com/y2abjsem

BBC International Editor Jeremy Bowen has confirmed that the entire Al Jazeera team in Gaza City has been killed.

Pete, my long hair domestic cat thats mostly white white some grey splotches looking very concerned inside a pet crate inside a car. There is a blue blanket underneath him. Behind him, with a separator in the crate, is my partner's cat, Wednesday, a black short hair domestic cat. She's just looking to the side, much less concerned than Pete.

Now Wednesday has stolen Pete's blanket and sits on it while Pete is mostly now on the plastic crate bottom. Both have annoyed looks on their faces from the hours of car time.

🚨 Wednesday has successfully yoinked Pete's blanket 🚨

NSF plans abrupt end to lone U.S. Antarctic research icebreaker Imminent termination of the RV Nathaniel B. Palmer shocks polar scientists

My latest: Polar scientists warn that the White House and NSF are planning to terminate the Nathaniel Palmer, the only US research icebreaker capable of handling Antarctic extremes, this October.

So far the plan has seen minimal pushback from Congress.

Biologist folk (especially in evolutionary biology and/or ecology, but it don’t matter):

Can you give me your favorite examples of trade offs in biology? Organism or system don’t matter. Primary literature or reviews preferred.

He's doing surprisingly well! I think it's just us humans he's scared of!

a man is standing on a rug in a living room with stairs . Alt: Will Smith at the end of Fresh Prince looking around the empty house for the last time. Happy memories and vibes to say goodbye to but exciting new opportunities (and new place) soon.

Packing up the grad school apartment sure is bittersweet

4-panel comic. (1) [Person 1 with ponytail flanked by person with short hair and another person speaking into microphone at podium] PERSON 1: In the early 2010s, researchers found that many major scientific results couldn’t be reproduced. (2) PERSON 1: Over a decade into the replication crisis, we wanted to see if today’s studies have become more robust. (3) PERSON 1: Unfortunately, our replication analysis has found exactly the same problems that those 2010s researchers did. (4) [newspaper with image of speakers from previous panels] Headline: Replication Crisis Solved

Replication Crisis

xkcd.com/3117/

Pete, my long hair domestic cat with white and grey splotches facing forward, sitting up, clueless and just casually staring at me taking the picture. Behind him is Wednesday, my partner's short hair domestic also in the same position staring forward.

The two cats in the precious spots in the same positions but now Pete's ears have flaired like he senses something is amiss (Wednesday being behind him).

"She's behind me isn't she" 🐱

Pete, my long hair domestic cat with zigzagging white and grey hair, sits on the wooden floor with a carpet stretched out. Pete is watching Wednesday, my partner's short hair domestic cat that is all black. Wednesday is up close sniffing Pete's (historically) bad back foot he is very sensitive about.

Pete and Wednesday are batting at each other after Pete wasn't happy with Wednesday sniffing Pete's bad foot.

Pete is sitting up while Wednesday is a little lower, both cats have their ears up in attention. They are staring at each other.

Wednesday is now loafing and Pete has turned back and is now facing towards me with his ears in full airplane position. No cats were harmed in these images, they were only just a little grumpy.

They're basically besties

Tiny, colorful baby scallops — a total cuteness overload in one dish!

You might think, “This person posts the same creature every year!” But honestly, seeing the same life return year after year is something truly wonderful𓂃🫧‪