On my soapbox about cortisol (the “stress hormone” in mammals)

Scientists measure it as a proxy for stress but what if it’s, just, not?

Here me out:

1/12 I started a cortisol-promoting diet. It’s made from cholesterol (my cholesterol levels were also very low). I ate all the foods they said not to eat— saturated fats to make cholesterol, plus the nutrients needed for the conversion enzymes.

8/12

Everyone knows private insurance in the United States is a NIGHTMARE

But lately my insurance has been an extra nightmare for me

Join me for an infuriating story that involves hours of wasted work time, screaming in a CVS pharmacy, and the most incredible skeleton deal EVER: I have student insurance— a HUGE perk of this grad program! My fellowship covers most of the fee, and my union covers some of the fee for dependents. Even with this help we are spending ~$6000/year for the insurance plans, plus thousands in copays. Our medical debt is HUGE

I'm a stress-shopper, but money is tight

I'm probably the most stressed I've ever been, but I've bought little (progress!)

Then Hasbro announced the loveliest figure I've ever seen of my favorite fictional character EVER, I had to

Very grateful I managed to snag a pre-order! The problem with collectibles is that it's often cheapest to buy the items when they come out-- many collectibles can be nightmarishly expensive on the resale market

I've learned with Star Wars exclusive action figures that I either get them immediately or never will!

Fascinated initially by this piece, written by a “biology teacher” lamenting that biological definitions of sex and gender are now “too complicated”

“Maybe they teach a grade level that needs super simplistic definitions?” I wondered

Nope, PhD in biological psychology lol Of course this is just clearly written in bad faith, but geez it’s hard to see a professional advocating for teaching less accurate science because it hurts his misconceptions about sex/gender

Like “I think cells are just too complicated, tell students they’re made of beans!”

the coolest thing about growing as a scientist is learning more and more all the time

which means you also learn more and more about how much you *don't* know it's fun trying to balance these ideas in my brain

like obviously I've learned more since undergrad, so why do I feel like I know less? lol

I care a lot about bird conservation. I read the State of the Birds report every year.

But this year it impacted me waaaaaay more than I thought it would. I've been devastated for days.

I'm surprised, and it has me thinking a lot about how we communicate science!

Thoughts: So here's the report: stateofthebirds.org/2022/. Birds are doing bad overall. Scary statistics, beautiful graphics, compelling communication of how dire this problem is. They do a good job with these reports, but they have in the past. Why am I so much more impacted this year?

"don't confuse your WebMD search for my MD" is so common

I'm so grateful for the privilege I have in having a biology grad degree and a good doc

I brought up a medication I saw online and thought would be helpful. Doc hadn't heard of it but googled, agreed, and prescribed it I'm so grateful to have the ability to be like "hey, I'm experiencing this symptom and I'm guessing this is what's wrong based on these manuscripts I've found. Can we test it? And here's a medication I think would treat it, can we look into it?" And she's like "yep let's go!"

I really like birds. And talking about birds. And sharing bird research and photography.

Yet I’m compelled to spend my time advocating for queer rights. My rights are under discussion and attack every damn day

Please please build a world where I can just tweet about birds I’m trans, but specifically agender. I don’t identify with a gender. I have no pride in my gender, I don’t have one.

What I would give to just never have to talk about gender. Seriously not a fan.

Yet day in and day out, transphobic attacks to counter for me and my peers

CW: transphobia, homophobia

32 congresspeople co-signed this bill which would restrict federal funding for any organization that “promotes” “sexual” content to kids under 10 years old.

What’s “sexual”? “gender identity…transgenderism, sexual orientation, or related subjects”

https://twitter.com/erininthemorn/status/1582492801190674432

Fascinating to think of how they’d enforce this. I know they mean “gender identity” as a shorthand for “trans people” but it’s more fun to imagine that they’d keep people from talking about gender at all. No gendered clothes or pronouns or bathrooms for children!

A violent bigot came to campus to present his transphobia here. Furious, I protested every way I could think to.

I just learned that my new church had folks at the protests in an official church capacity, supporting us

Means so much to my poor recovering-Catholic heart I stood protesting, taking note of the folks who marched by us to attend the talk. Many leered, catcalled, insulted us. And so many were wearing Catholic symbols on their clothes and jewelry. Members of my faith community, hurling slurs at me, because of who I am.

In my experience, “science” classes (especially K-12 but even later) spend waaaay too much time focused on science “facts” and not enough time emphasizing that science is a process

A process to generate facts, sure, but the results/conclusions are just one step I mean, how many science “facts” are relevant to most people’s existence?

But the process of using observations to generate questions and hypotheses, testing those hypotheses, and forming conclusions is sooooo much more applicable

Writing manuscripts is the hardest part of science for me. It’s getting easier, but I still tend to put off writing because I’m anxious, which in turn just makes me more anxious about it, making writing harder to start. I spiral.

In a spiral now and was feeling hopeless. BUT… For weeks I’ve accomplished little. I’ve been working extremely hard to break the spiral alone, with little luck. I was miserable.

I finally reached out to my coauthors (wasn’t easy) and instead of conveying their anger at my failure they all offered really concrete help!

Trying to make wildlife biology more diverse?

Don’t forget disabled people!

If you’re looking at a #fieldwork job candidate in a zoom interview and think “I don’t think they look like they can physically handle this job” examine your biases

1/8

#subtweet
#AcademicChatter If someone reads the requirements and thinks they are capable of doing the job why make the assumption that they can’t?

Disabled folks know their limits better than you do

2/8

CW: death

I used to find funerals so pointlessly sad that I wished we didn’t have them, but I’d give anything to be able to attend a service for my therapist who died this week

I just need some closure, but there’s been no obituary, no mention of her passing anywhere

1/4 I mean, if I just logged into our zoom link tomorrow maybe she’d just be there and it would turn out that the call I got from her office was just some sick joke?

Wow I don’t handle grief well, I’m so blessed to not have had to deal with it too much so far in my life

2/4

Important breaking news: new dog toy comfy enough it immediately becomes new dog pillow She very much likes new dog toy, I need to quantify what aspects of it are her favorite for my never ending quest to find the Perfect Toy™️

It is the N. American songbird breeding season, AKA time for my annual #bird & #birding PSA:

Don’t kill #cowbird brood parasite eggs/nestlings! It is illegal and likely doing more harm to your birds than good. How? Behold, a mega-thread: 1/37

[all media mine unless indicated] Before I start, know I’m going to be citing lots of academic articles that are likely behind a paywall. If you want to know more about the articles and can’t access them please DM me! Science should be available to everyone, but that is an argument for another time. 2/37