Jillian Lewis

People usually go to Sipadan for huge schools of fish, but this pygmy squid (idiosepius) was my favourite find! The size of a thumbnail, you can make out individual chromoatphores on its skin. Adorable. They have a glue gland in their mantle that helps them stick to surfaces. #scuba #marinelife

NIH Says It Will No Longer Recognize the Research Fellows’ Union NIH leadership said the union “should never have been certified,” in an email to the union’s leadership.

NIH leadership wants to strip worker's rights from the majority of scientists on its campuses.

But, the NIH does not get to say whether we are a union or not. We do, and we are no strangers to having to fight for our union. Time for a short history lesson. 1/n

Disclaimer: all views are my own.

Genomic and chemical analyses of 713 marine biofilm-derived bacterial strains journals.asm.org/doi/full/10.... #jcampubs

How a tiny bacterium turns itself into a “tunneling machine” Some symbiotic bacteria can invade micron-scale host passages by wrapping their flagella around themselves and moving like a tunneling machine. Our study reveals how this clever motion enables them to overcome extreme confinement and successfully colonize their hosts.

How a tiny bacterium turns itself into a “tunneling machine”

http://dlvr.it/TRGZ7c

http://dlvr.it/TRGZ7k

DEADLINE APPROACHING!

Apply to Molecular and Cell Biology of Symbiosis by March 4. This immersive four-week course is designed to teach basic concepts and and facilitate state-of-the-art experimental approaches in symbiosis research.

🔗More info here: go.mbl.edu/symbiosis

Spatial structure: shaping the ecology and evolution of microbial communities Spatial structure naturally emerges in microbial communities, shaping growth, interactions, and evolution, and revealing how microscale processes scale up

Wrapping up a productive week: very glad to have contributed to this review on how spatial structure shapes microbial ecology and evolution, led by @marcelbaecker.bsky.social, @bedutilh.bsky.social, @bramvandijk.bsky.social and many others. doi.org/10.1093/fems...

I saw a similar discussion from applicants in various fields yesterday: www.reddit.com/r/GRFPApps/s...

Bacterial diversity within the accessory nidamental gland of a Hawaiian bobtail squid (E. scolopes), showing Alphaproteobacteria (magenta), Verrucomicrobia (yellow), and Flavobacteriia (green). CREDIT: Nidhi Vijayan

Hawaiian bobtail squid maintain distinct microbiota in different organs, including bioluminescent bacteria in their light organs, by deploying immune factors with tailored expressions in each niche. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/QxLo50XPnyS

metagenomes!

Lipopeptides and antibiotics from a marine Bacillus pumilus mediate a potential “catch and kill” effect on pathogenetic Vibrio parahaemolyticus | mSystems Microbes communicate and compete using small molecules, yet linking specific metabolites to visible behaviors is difficult. We combine imaging mass spectrometry, genomics, analytical chemistry, and bi...

Happy to have contributed a small part to this really fun story: journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... ‘catch and kill’ interplay between marine organisms congrats Qihao and Dave!

BY THE WAY the CT application is open until the end of the year.

We'll be co-creating a biodiversity mural with the community. You get help from experienced assistants throughout the project! Easy-to-paint location, no scaffolds or ladders.

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

I know it’s always a bit of a toss up but I’m manifesting this for you - they played New Britain when I saw them this august

a cheap hand crank centrifuge can go for about $30 online. Follow your dreams Sarah

(for an even more DIY version, I wonder if a paperfuge could work)

meme of sisyphus pushing the boulder uphill and a photoshopped on green pentatomid captioned “one must imagine sisyphus finding a very cool bug under the rock”

the year i’m having

Opinion: A grad student’s call for transparency from UConn A new grad student writes that a confidentiality rule from UConn during union contract negotiations has sparked confusion and unrest.

Grad student in the lab (Dom Pham), in her first semester, already out here writing those op-eds: www.ctpost.com/opinion/arti... 💪✨

A squid eye, falsely colored orange. It has a circular lens in the center surrounded by retinal cells.

For this #FluorescenceFriday I wanted to share this spooky eye from a squid embryo! 👁️🦑

Host-mediated niche construction of bacterial communities in an aquatic microecosystem Abstract. Microbes coordinate homeostasis in host-associated and environmental ecosystems alike, but the connectivity of these biomes is seldom considered.

Excited to share our new paper out in @isme-microbes.bsky.social. We asked if environmental microbial communities can be adaptively modulated by host species that transiently acquire their symbionts from the environment #SymbioSky #MicrobiomeSky
doi.org/10.1093/isme...

Opinion: This is UConn: Zero paid family leave for professors UConn currently lets every pregnant/expecting individual reinvent the wheel, cobbling together a leave plan with whatever resources and departmental grace they can muster.

I wrote an opinion piece about parental/family leave at UConn. I’m only ~75% happy with it but … something needed to be said. Many things actually. Loudly. Repeatedly. And with as many voices as possible.

“This is UConn: Zero paid family leave for professors”

ctmirror.org/2025/10/21/t...

An Ice-Cold Octopus Nursery Could Help Expand Marine Protections Indigenous and Western scientists are working together to uncover biodiversity in the icy deep. They're getting some eight-armed help.

When marine biologist Cherisse Du Preez sent an underwater drone to explore a methane seep on the ocean floor, she expected to find tubeworms. Instead, she stumbled upon an army of octo-moms. 🐙

🪱🍄 The secret to predatory escape lies in collagen. A new study how a single nematode gene nhr-66 resist fungal traps thanks to Velcro-like abilities, but the trade-off is their weakened cuticles making them vulnerable to rainfall. For more: s.gwdg.de/VJySw4
#Nematodes #FungalBiology #MaxPlanck

Congratulations to Avery Imes and all of our collaborators on this cover & editor's spotlight article in #AEM! More details on the study in the preprint thread linked below. @asm.org bsky.app/profile/mark...

Frontiers | High partner specificity in an algal-salamander mutualism at continental scale The mutualism between the green alga Oophila amblystomatis (“Oophila”) and egg masses of the spotted salamander Ambystoma maculatum involves acquisition of a...

New #symbiosky paper from Cory Bishop and collaborators (including me 😊) on the remarkable specificity of the symbiosis between spotted salamanders and the alga in their eggs. Cory organized colleagues to get egg fluid from NC USA to NS Canada. He found extremely low...

tinyurl.com/2jmwce2s

A small hummingbird feeds on the nectar from the cone-shaped center of a purple echinacea flower.

everyone please look at the hummingbird enjoying my purple coneflower 🌼

this is great, I’m gonna have to keep that idea in my back pocket

Seeing between the lines: matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry imaging advances for microbial interactions This review delves into the technical advancements of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry imaging (MALDI-MSI) applications f…

Seeing between the lines: matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry imaging advances for microbial interactions

-in Curr Opin Microbiol from @drlaurasanchez.bsky.social
#Microbiota_thematic_issue

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Dancing deep-sea clams thrive on the seafloor off Southern California YouTube video by MBARI (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute)

please enjoy a bunch of clams doing the wiggle
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DBS...

A picture of an electrical box with an extremely rad skateboarding frog with curved letters on top that say willimantic. It is... extremely rad. The words superimposed over the image say "Calling all Eastern CT artists" We're making a biodiversity mural in willimantic

Artists of bluesky!

@skypeascientist.bsky.social & Willimantic Public Art are collabing on a community mural in Willimantic, CT in spring.

We're looking for Eastern CT artists who'd like to work on the project! The artist will be selected *by the community*.

Apply here: forms.gle/2tjJmdXcF6wy...

seconded.

Indiana public colleges cut almost 20% of degrees Public Indiana colleges and universities have eliminated 19 percent of their degree programs to meet requirements added to the state’s budget, according to the Commission for Higher Education.

So, here it is. Thanks to a new state law that was NEVER DEBATED, Indiana University has committed itself to abolishing majors in African-American/African Diaspora Studies: American Studies; Art History; French; Italian; Religious Studies etc. DOZENS of majors. www.ipm.org/news-section...