Dr. Rebecca Calisi-Rodríguez

2 First-Gen Scientists on Curiosity, Community and Discovery Megan Dennis, associate professor in Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, and Siobhan Brady, professor in the Department of Plant Biology and the Genome Center, are more than an just office neighbors ...

Please check out these amazing women! They are fantastic scientists, committed mentors, supportive friends and honestly super stars! 🤩@bradylabs.bsky.social @mydennis.bsky.social @ucdavis.bsky.social
www.ucdavis.edu/news/podcast...

Confusion is the ally of evasion, which shields power.
We resist it by speaking truthfully, sharing only what's verified,
& naming uncertainty when it exists.
Because clarity is the 1st requirement of accountability, the foundation of justice.
In choosing truth over confusion, we choose one another.

Sign the Petition Reinstate the UC Davis D1 NCEA equestrian team

UC Davis cut its nationally ranked equestrian team. At the #1 ag & veterinary university. With a horse as its mascot.
You don't save an agricultural uni by hollowing out its relationship with animals.

Some costs are greater than line items.
Please sign the petition:
www.change.org/p/reinstate-...

Text: 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐈𝐬 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚 𝐕𝐞𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐥𝐞 𝐑𝐚𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐀𝐭𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐋𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬 𝐋𝐢𝐤𝐞 Over the past decade, I have written about vehicle ramming attacks. I hold a research grant focused on this TTP, and I curate what I believe is the largest database of these incidents, more than 500 cases worldwide since 1987. As a result, I have watched more video footage of vehicle ramming attacks than most people ever will. That is why I am going to be direct about what the available video shows in the killing of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on January 7, 2026. Based on the publicly available footage described by multiple outlets, I do not see indicators consistent with a deliberate vehicle ramming attempt. When authorities claim “she tried to run over an officer,” they are not just offering an interpretation. They are trying to lock in a narrative that justifies lethal force after the fact. What I see, and what is being described in reporting based on video review, looks like ambiguity and escalation, not a textbook ramming attempt. Reports indicate the agent was not in the vehicle’s direct path when shots were fired, and that at least some shots were fired from the side as the vehicle moved away. This matters because I know what ramming attempts look like when they are real. Across hundreds of cases, intentional vehicle ramming attacks tend to leave a signature in the footage. A purposeful approach line toward a person. Commitment to that line. Steering corrections that track a target. Acceleration and follow through. Those indicators are the difference between “the vehicle moved” and “the vehicle was used as the weapon.” When the state kills first and invents the threat afterward, it is not policing, it is death squad behavior.

A post on LinedIn by Dr. Yannick Veilleux, Associate Professor at the Royal Military College of Canada and expert on vehicle ramming attacks.

Link to original post: www.linkedin.com/posts/yveill...

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

George Orwell, 1984

Daycare at conferences At scientific conferences, attendees can now find daycare, although it might be hard to find one with a pool slide. Much has changed in recent years but, alas, in some ways, it's still not quite addre...

Conference childcare only works if parents can actually access it.

Vivien Marx’s Daycare at Conferences blog brings the policy debate down to lived experience, with stories from academic parents (me included).

communities.springernature.com/posts/daycar...

When conferences provide childcare, science doesn’t “accommodate parents”. It retains talent.

Thanks Vivien Marx for including my voice in your @NatureMethods piece on conference childcare, access, & why affordability is still the choke point.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#ParentsInSTEM

I Was The Black Woman In A Mostly White Office. Now I Fear White Liberals More Than Overt Racists. "When I tried to respond, she raised her hand to stop me. My throat tightened. My shoulders rose."

“These are the spaces where you’re asked to do the educating while someone else holds the power to interpret your tone, where calm explanations are dismissed, and where empathy is promised but rarely practiced.”

www.huffpost.com/entry/black-...

New Field of Ecological Medicine Emphasizes Health Benefits of Connectedness Ecological medicine is a new approach to health science that draws on a very old idea: connecting with each other, with animals and plants, and with the natural world fosters health and well-being for...

Introducing #EcologicalMedicine.
If #OneHealth shows how life connects to avoid disaster, Eco Medicine shows what makes that life worth living.
With rising mental health challenges, naming this field gives us a compass, a vocabulary & a way to study how humans, communities & ecosystems thrive.

UC to Stop Funding Systemwide Postdoc Program Established in 1984 to encourage women and minority Ph.D.s to pursue academia, the program has attracted right-wing criticism for prioritizing diverse candidates.

One more step backward, one more reminder that progress in academia is never linear. But take heart, familia. Nos quisieron enterrar, pero no sabían que éramos semillas.

www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...

A Consensus Statement for Ecological Medicine: Moving Toward Connection-Based Medicine - EcoHealth Mounting evidence across multiple disciplines supports the health benefits of connection to nature. Although this trend suggests that the human-nature relationship is integral to health, its importanc...

Just out in EcoHealth! Our international working group presents the first formal definition of **Ecological Medicine** uniting science, ecology, and Indigenous wisdom. It gives language and structure to what healers, farmers, & caretakers have always known: connection heals.

doi.org/10.1007/s103...

Yup!

Picture of Perspective title and authors from article PDF

Speaking science in a fractured world: making truth land when facts alone cannot

A Perspective by @rebeccacalisi.bsky.social, @kaliceaphd.bsky.social, Jamy Peng, @spiraldoc.bsky.social & @rogerslabucd.bsky.social on how to combat scientific misinformation

journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

Jane Goodall, chimpanzee expert and animal rights campaigner, dies age 91 - follow live The campaigner, a

So many of us opened her books and found not only chimpanzees but an invitation to see with compassion & believe in a bridge between humans and the wild. Her legacy flows through rivers, forests, children planting trees, and every act of love for animals and one another.
www.bbc.com/news/live/c9...

Speaking science in a fractured world: making truth land when facts alone cannot ABSTRACT. Scientific misinformation is a defining challenge of our time. As public trust in science declines and falsehoods spread faster than facts, the scientific community must rethink its role in ...

Raise your hand if you’ve seen scientific misinformation (e.g., “Tylenol causes autism”). Keep it up if you countered it in real time. Not easy, right? You're not alone! Want to practice? Learn how in our latest paper, Speaking Science in a Fractured World.

journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

Effective and empathetic scientific communication is so critical right now. We had an interactive workshop at the #2025ICDB led by @rebeccacalisi.bsky.social and Dr. Kevin Alicea-Torres and facilitated by @spiraldoc.bsky.social and myself- and we practiced this. Please check out our perspective!

The true test of free speech is not in defending the voices we welcome, but in refusing to silence the ones we fear. And in answering hate not with more hate but with the steady, unrelenting work of dismantling lies and building a society where every voice, every person, every community, is valued.

A white bowl brimming with freshly harvested clusters of purple and green grapes sits on dry grass among grapevine leaves, next to two camouflage-patterned wildlife trail cameras with straps.

Perks of summer fieldwork in California: wildlife cameras for the data, grapes for the dinner table.

#CaliforniaBiologist

Instead of rushing to assign blame, rush to help. Listen to those grieving.
Let’s build better systems, yes, AND let’s also build better compassion.
Because climate-fueled disasters WILL get worse.

Fund science.
Fix alerts.
Treat climate action not as politics, but as survival.

Could warning systems be better? Absolutely. Should we ask hard questions about preparedness? Yes.
But let’s stop the armchair heroism.
You wouldn’t have evacuated early. You’d have stayed too. Not out of carelessness, but because no one imagined it would be that bad.
That’s not a flaw. It’s human.

Flash floods don’t knock politely. They roar in fast, rising in minutes. Now imagine it’s the middle of the night. You’re asleep. There’s thunder and rain. Again. It doesn’t feel any different than last time. And then suddenly, the water is at your door.

In Texas, flood warnings are common. They come often, and most of the time, they pass with little harm. So people understandably become numb. It’s like the smoke alarm going off every time you toast bread: eventually, you stop reacting. Until the one time, it’s real.

Years ago, I lost a loved one in a flash flood in Texas. That kind of loss changes how you see everything that follows. So when I hear people casting blame or saying what they would’ve done differently, I feel compelled to speak.

I don’t think anyone is prepared for what they just did w/ ICE.

This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined.

It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.

LOVE

¡Mi placer! So glad our improv + storytelling #scicomm workshops are helping scientists “connect over correct”. Real change doesn’t start with soapboxes - it starts with trust & empathy. Times have changed, and so should how we share science: *with* people, not *at* them. 🙌

@socdevbio.bsky.social

University of Virginia President Resigns Under Pressure From Trump Administration

University of Virginia’s president, James E. Ryan, resigning in the face of demands by the Trump administration that he step aside to help resolve a Justice Department inquiry into the school’s diversity, equity & inclusion efforts.

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/27/u...

July 1, all NIH-funded science must be free to read instantly.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

'We're losing our home.' UC shutters DEI programs, departments in response to new Ohio law The university will reassign staff, close its Women's Center and rename its African American Cultural and Resource Center, among other moves.

The University of Cincinnati shutters its DEI programs in response to a Republican-led change in Ohio law that banned such programs and threatened to withhold money from schools that fail to comply.

www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2...

Yes! *Curiosity before correction*!
You get an A+!