Sophia Aredas

Cockroaches that eat each other’s wings turn into a fierce fighting force The wood-feeding cockroach’s cannibalistic love bites lead to a lasting bond. Afterward, the pair prefer each other over all other roaches.

“To pair up, a male and female will gently eat each other’s wings off before, during or after mating.”

“…the chemicals released as the animals eat could help them learn the signature of their partner.“

#scicomm

www.sciencenews.org/article/cock...
🧪 🪳 🐙

My first first-author paper is posted! Glad to have this out! 🦠🚨🕺

We show that pGpp production depletes GTP, inhibits translation, and remodels the transcriptome faster than (p)ppGpp.

...and more!

Ancestral sequence reconstruction reveals CTP-dependent loading of the bacterial centromere-binding protein ParB as an ancient evolutionary feature

Now published:
tinyurl.com/4ddhwbb3

Thanks to the Hochberg and Bange labs for the great collaboration!

It's 2026, and time for #MattersMicrobial! Episode #121 showcases Dr. Liz de Ora Ortiz's wonderful description of using "Phollow" to, well, follow bacteriophage-host cell interaction, even in animals! Please spread the #GoodMicrobialWord! @microbetv.bsky.social @asm.org

youtu.be/2-iesv3eKPw?...

Donate to Honoring Sarah James Through Education, organized by Joe James Honoring Sarah James & Supporting Her Children’s Future On Christmas, our com… Joe James needs your support for Honoring Sarah James Through Education

If you or your students used #Binningsingletons at any ASM microbe meeting in the last, I dunno, 6 or so years, you have co-founder @tallcuppajoe.bsky.social to thank for that. His wife died on Christmas & his friends are raising funds for his kid's education. They are so close to their goal!

Saving the Museum After years of financial troubles and millions of funds raised in support, the Museum of the Earth is still struggling to bridge its multi-million dollar budgetary gap. It needs to

Museums are invaluable resources for science. Please help if you can! www.ithaca.com/news/regiona...

Peach crisp

hey shut up, everyone shut up—i made peach crisp

As national medical, scientific, public health and patient organizations, we call for the resignation of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to ensure the health of the American people. Read our statement: asm.org/press-releas...

enshittification | noun | when a digital platform is made worse for users, in order to increase profits

And yet a trace of the true self resides in the false self

Conservation of sporulation genes and a transmembrane-containing Spo0B variant in Paenibacillus Sporulation is a strategy employed by many bacteria to survive harsh environmental conditions. The genus Paenibacillus includes spore-forming species notorious for spoiling pasteurized dairy products ...

Here we show that >90% of Paenibacillus encode a unique Spo0B with a transmembrane domain! TM domain helps it interact with its phosphorelay partners. Congrats to @isabellalin.bsky.social who left for grad school this week and her mentor @cassidyprints.bsky.social! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Microbial iron oxide respiration coupled to sulfide oxidation - Nature Genomic and biochemical analyses of prokaryotic sulfur metabolism identify diverse microorganisms with the capacity to oxidize sulfide using iron(iii).

📢 New paper in @nature.com

Microbes rock 🎸🤘 with sulfide and iron minerals

I am very excited to share our recent study, which describes a previously unknown microbial energy metabolism ⚡⚡⚡🦠🧫⚡⚡⚡

🆕 Microbial iron oxide respiration coupled to sulfide oxidation - MISO

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

'An attack on knowledge': UCLA researchers say lifesaving research is in jeopardy - Daily Bruin Dr. Jerzy Kupiec-Weglinski has led organ transplant research at UCLA for nearly three decades. Kupiec-Weglinski, the vice chairman of basic science research in the David Geffen School of Medicine’s su...

The regime halted all federal grants then told UC administration if they pay $1 billion they could have them back.
It’s like ransomware.
UC is a public university system and we cannot do this.
So, no grants = no research and labs will shut down.
Are we great yet?

dailybruin.com/2025/08/09/a...

YebC2 resolves ribosome stalling and increases fitness of cells lacking EF-P and the ABCF ATPase YfmR Author summary Polyproline motifs are essential structural features of many proteins but are difficult for the ribosome to synthesize. EF-P reduces ribosome pausing at polyproline motifs. Here, we sho...

Latest work from the lab - we identify a translation factor, YebC2, that reduces ribosome stalling in B. subtilis!

Congrats to co-first authors: grad students Hye-Rim Hong & Cassidy Prince & undergrad Dennis Wu @denniswu02.bsky.social

journals.plos.org/plosgenetics...

Higher methanotroph abundance and bottom-water methane in ponds with floating photovoltaic arrays https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.24.666521v1

Higher methanotroph abundance and bottom-water methane in ponds with floating photovoltaic arrays https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.24.666521v1

White mug with a picture of a frog wearing a fedora and green text that says “my tummy hurts and I’m mad at the government.”

I like this mug

Columbia Agrees to $200 Million Fine to Settle Fight With Trump

You can never bend the knee enough to appease an authoritarian bully.

This is a devastating blow to academic freedom & freedom of speech at Columbia.

Never in the history of this nation has there been an administration so intent on the utter destruction of higher education as we know it.

a black and white cartoon of spongebob squarepants sitting at a table with a cup of coffee . ALT: a black and white cartoon of spongebob squarepants sitting at a table with a cup of coffee .

The emptiness of wanting a final sip of coffee and picking up the mug and realizing you already drank it all

Today is a great day to be a Great Lakes aquatic microbial ecologist🤩 Just a few photos from our #LakeMichigan cruise 🌊 Microbial community sampling isn’t so bad especially when your office for the week looks like this🌅

We’re excited to share a new CRISPR-Cas12 genome editing system, highly efficient across multiple brown algae species!

Brown algae transformation has been challenging despite many thoughtful approaches over the years.

We hope this one is kelpful 🌿😅
🔗 doi.org/10.1101/2025...
#CRISPR #Algae

Interpreting UniFrac with Absolute Abundance: A Conceptual and Practical Guide Microbial ecologists routinely use β-diversity metrics to compare communities, yet these metrics vary in the ecological dimensions they capture. Popular for incorporating phylogenetic relationships, U...

Microbial ecologists! Do you use Unifrac distances? Are you curious about absolute abundances? Then I’ve got a paper for you!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... (1/4)

Reminders to myself and others • Apply often, apply broadly, and diversify funding. • Fight misinformation about science and scientists (publicly and/or privately). • Use social media for advocacy, branding, and SciComm- expand your network. • Maximize your resources- learn how to do science on a budget. • Bring your whole self to science (when you can safely). • Celebrate All of your wins, big and small! • Always keep your options open and approach science and academia with flexibility.

“Approach difficult conversations with empathy.”

Important words from Crystal Rogers at #worm25

Wrapping up #ASMicrobe day 1 with the @bsingletons.bsky.social mixer. Great program to support and welcome first-timers to the conference. Huge shout out to #JoeJames for doing so much to support fellow microbiologists! @ASMICROBIOLOGY.BSKY.SOCIAL

To those who weren’t born yet or those like me who didn’t remember, this is why we have the EPA.

THANK U DREA!!!! Its been so awesome so far💖

Pet peeve: I hate how often ppl claim “all the researchers will just move to Europe/Canada!” You vastly under-estimate how little money there is there vs the USA- and unless that changes ASAP this loss is just going to decimate global science, full stop. 🧪🔭

#ASMMicrobe Day ✌️

Presented my poster and met so many incredible scientists! Please be welcome to come my rapid fire talk tomorrow in AES: Microbial Pioneers: Colonizing Earth’s Unique Habitats at 11:45AM😀

An empty booth at ASM that should have housed the NSF

Well this is f’in sad #ASMicrobe

Hey all - check this post if you’re at #ASMicrobe this weekend.

Let’s have a meet up tomorrow for a photo op of microbiologists on @bsky.app who are at #ASMicrobe!

Be there at 3 PM at the main entrance giant ASM sign!

In person meetups are super fun - please be there!

And plz repost!