Leena K, PhD

Dr. Kadam, PhD, Placental molecular biologist, Assistant Professor (Research) @OSHUSOM
(tweets are my own)

[Siddharth @DearthOfSid]

Here is the full video of @iamjohnoliver’s new episode on India, which JioCinema refused to air.

An absolute must-watch 👏

[SRI @SRIWomensHealth]

"Women are more than half of our population but research on women’s health has always been underfunded", said President Biden during the State of the Union yesterday, announcing that the Women's Health Initiative plans on funding $12 billion toward women’s health research!

[BreakThrough News @BTnewsroom]

UPDATE: NYPD have begun preparing to arrest the New York Times protesters.

Protesters have been reading the names of Gazans killed by Israel starting with the youngest first. They’ve been reading for over half an hour.

They’ve gotten to three-year-olds.

[Chef José Andrés 🕊️🥘🍳 @chefjoseandres]

Longer tables not higher walls!
Give away the dignity you want to receive..
Give empathy to everyone on the way
Give the respect everyone deserves
Give love away…you will have no regret
Wish to others you don’t know the same you wish to your own…
And dream away a better world…and be part of it!

[Wajahat Ali @WajahatAli]

.@sesamestreet doing it better than most politicians, celebrities, activists and leaders.

[Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan]

Reposted without comment.

[Gina Darling @MissGinaDarling]

Dude she’s on chemo which made her unable to taste alcohol that she grabbed from a shared fridge not knowing it has alcohol in it. Someone give this woman a job. Jesus. Christ.

[Historic Vids @historyinmemes]

Pale Blue Dot is a photo of Earth that was taken by the Voyager 1 space probe in 1990 from a distance of about 6 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles) as it was leaving our solar system. This is what Carl Sagan said about the photo:

"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor, and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every 'superstar,' every 'supreme leader,' every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.”

[Irina Burd, MD, PhD @IrinaBurd]

Sad news! We need to continue to lobby congress for better funding of NIH!
We have a lot to do, not only for NIAID but also for #WomensHealth! Roll up your sleeves! @NIH @KamalaHarris @NIH_ORWH

[SRI @SRIWomensHealth]

One more announcement for the day- the deadline for abstract submissions has been extended and is now due October 18, 2023. Use these extra two weeks to gather your materials!

[Anime Aesthetics @anime_]

Mood.

[Washington State Dept. of Natural Resources @waDNR]

(Falling to my knees, begging, pleading)
Please.
Folks, seriously.
PLEASE.
Do not - and I can’t emphasize this enough - set the state on fire this weekend.

[ej @ejdickson]

The poor girl just wanted to bang a dirtbag before settling down like the rest of us in their late 20s/early 30s and no one would let her do it in peace. Sad

[Karthik 🇮🇳 @beastoftraal]

Amul would go to town when the wrestlers were winning, but won't acknowledge their struggle against sexual harassment through its cute cartoons?

Protest against sexual harassment is not 'topical' news enough for Amul?

Or, is it because they are protesting against a BJP leader?

[Andrew Akbashev @Andrew_Akbashev]

No reward - no duties.  75% of respondents have reduced the hours spent on academic duties since 2020 (Nature polls).

Mostly due to burnout and unwillingness to work for free.

This included attending conferences, peer reviewing manuscripts and grant proposals, committees, mentoring and even teaching.

Why?

Because scientists are tired of not being able to do #science.

- Students are tired of being unappreciated and overloaded

- Faculties are tired of “community duties” that become overwhelming (conferences, committees, reviewing, outreach, etc)

And everyone is tired of small salaries, zero empathy and little credit.

The problem is greatly summarized by Isabel Müller (in the article):

“There’s so little acknowledgement that people have difficult, complicated lives outside of work.”

A year ago, Nature described how PhD students don’t want to be postdocs and faculties are leaving academia. Now, we see that those who stayed are trying to resist the system from the inside.

But the problem is - the system is too rigid, too traditional and too elitist.

So, as a community, we can change it only by raising our voices and expressing distaste with the status quo. I applaud Nature for writing about these issues so regularly. The academic world has too many interdependent parts which should be addressed concurrently.

This is why we should stay united and strong as a community.

Regarding the academic environment we all hope to have, I loved how Isabel Müller put it in the article:

- I hope it becomes the new normal to say: “My life matters. My work is an important part, but I decide what my life looks like, not my employer”.

#AcademicTwitter #education

[Leena K, PhD @_Leena_K]

@nardhygomez @bogdanP007 @waynestate @waynemedicine @WayneStateNews Congratulations!! 🥳🥳

[Stillbirth CRE @CREStillbirth]

📢 Don't miss the upcoming Placental Consortium Webinar Series next Wednesday 17th May at 12pm AEST. Our expert speakers will share their insights into understanding the placental mechanisms related to stillbirth. Register now👇

https://t.co/48SGzETe7b