ScienceSpread

Zotero (and Notion) are my academic overlords, and I will praise them until the inevitable heat death of the universe (or until they turn evil and stop being free, whatever comes first). Some reasons I love Zotero:
- Allows you to create collections to organize your papers by categories
- Tag papers to find them more easily
- Zotero streamlines reference management and auto-generates citations in all major styles (MLA, APA, Chicago, Nature, etc.) - it integrates with Word and Google Docs making in-text citations and bibliography creation so easy.
- Lots of tools for annotations and tagging. The iPad version even supports handwritten notes (and thus drawings).
- It's free and open-access (and better than Mendeley IMO).
Do you already use Zotero?

Starting a series of resources for grad and STEM students! First up is the Almighty Zotero 🌟 This platform has made my research journey sooo much more streamlined and saved me hours of work citing papers when writing. If you have an iPad, you might love it even more because of the ability to create handwritten notes and drawings ✏️ handwritten notes will show up on all other versions. Zotero has been one of my biggest allies during my PhD, she's a girl's girl 🙂‍↔️
Do you already use Zotero? Let me know!
Also let me know if you'd like a full tutorial 🙂‍↕️
For my fellow notion users, dvanoni created a plug-in to integrate Zotero, you can find it at GitHub.com/dvanoni/notero

Bird Flu H5N1 continues to expand its host range and recently added cows to the list. What does that mean for milk?

Had the chance to return to Nantucket with the Virus Plus Lab last week and wow, fieldwork really is a rollercoaster – wonderful one moment, heartbreaking the next. This trip was sadly dominated by dead bird sampling, mostly Common Eiders, magnificent diving ducks who also happen to be incredibly clumsy and fun to watch when on land; there were so many bodies that we didn't have enough time to sample them all. The samples we brought back from the island will tell us whether Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) might be to blame for these deaths.

For now, I'll be thinking about the cute fella in the first two photos (common eider, male), how thankful I am to have met him, and how much I hope that he will make it into old age happy and healthy. Thanks to aka for capturing these moments!

The Virus Plus Lab is working hard to understand the disease ecology of HPAI and how wild birds are responding to it so we can better protect these amazing creatures 🦆

Moving up 🔼 the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) H5N1 virus has been infecting mammals, notably carnivores and omnivores who might be eating infected birds.

🦠 Interested in my lab's research? Check us out at: blogs.umb.edu/nichola-hill/

📈 Keep track of the outbreak here: CDC.gov/flu/avianflu/avian-flu-summary.html

🦠 Highly Pathogenic Avian Flu, also known as Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), is wreaking havoc worldwide, leading to the deadliest avian pandemic ever recorded. The planet has lost millions of bird lives since outbreaks started occurring back in late 2021/early 2022 which is truly upsetting, heartbreaking, and concerning 💔. The circulating virus belongs to the clade known as 2.3.4.4b (not very memorable, sorry!). Avian influenza is considered bird adapted but has jumped to mammals multiple times, including very rare human cases. Still, this virus could be a couple of specific mutations away from being a big problem for humans, so it is considered a virus of human pandemic potential.

Citizen science is so valuable for us! Your bird observations allow us to plan field surveillance as well as have a better idea of how, where and why the virus is/isn't found in some regions. iNaturalist ans eBird are completely free and an amazing way to connect to the natural world 🌍

🦠 Interested in my lab’s research? Check us out at: blogs.umb.edu/nichola-hill/

🐤 eBird and iNaturalist apps are available on the Apple and android play store. They really are a great way to get to know your local fauna and connect to your non-human neighbors!

📈 Keep track of the outbreak here: cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/avian-flu-summary.htm

*Marcel Klaassen, Michelle Wille bioRxiv 2023.05.02.539182; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.05.02.539182

A note about hope 🫶🏼

The way genetic information is stored is actually pretty clever.

Needless to say, this is a fairly simplified explanation, and while it does the job, there's a lot more to DNA than straightforward messages!

Did you find this explanation useful? Let me know your thoughts 🦜

Do you know how your DNA stores your genetic information?

DNA is a household name nowadays but most people don't know a lot about it, which is a shame since it is so important for out bodies!!

Don't miss the bonus at the end! 🐕‍🦺

🦠 Microbes are (mostly) wonderful and (always) fascinating organisms that make life on earth possible

I don't celebrate my birthdays but something that I can definitely celebrate is that at some point during my embryonic development I was approached by microbes and became a super-organism, the home of an imaginable number of invisible residents...

This truthfully makes me emotional, I guess it's just part of being a nerd at heart 💚
___
Have you thanked (your) microbes today?