Leonardo Pacciani-Mori @LeoPaccianiMori@qoto.org

I'm really happy to share that this year I'm helping the graduate division of oSTEM at UCSD to organize SQUAD, a series of online seminars that highlight the research and experiences of queer scientist! 🌈🧑‍🔬 By sharing these stories and journeys we hope to build community and showcase examples of how LGBTQ+ individuals persevere and thrive in their respective fields.
🎙️The inaugural talk of this year's cycle is next Monday Jan 29th at 4pm PT: "Tiny green algae and a rainbow community" by
Maria Hamilton, postdoc at the University of Georgia 🦠
If you want to attend you can find the zoom link and information on future talks on our website! http://gradostem.ucsd.edu/events/squad
There are also recordings of some of the past talks! #diversity #inclusion #academia #STEM 🌈🔬

@krparadis Thanks! I'll check them out!

@gojonnes oh that looks like a good one. Thanks!

Does anybody know any good science podcast? Any topic/field is ok, as long as the episodes are <30mins. I have a list of podcasts I generally listen to, but I'd like to hear other people's recommendations!

Proud to have contributed to this, and grateful for the opportunity!
---
RT @jlw_ecoevo
Check out our guidance on how to make your microbiology conference more queer- and trans-inclusive!
https://doi.org/10.32942/X2601V
https://twitter.com/jlw_ecoevo/status/1653799997849362432

Just read the email: with 89.4% of YES votes, postdocs at UC have agreed to ratify the tentative agreement for the new contract!
It's definitely not the *perfect* contract (it's the result of a compromise, after all) but it's a **big** improvement over the status quo. Now I wish to see similar results for my grad student colleagues!
I'm glad I was (a small) part of this strike, and I hope this will lead the way for other institutions and ultimately bring *real* change to the system!
#fairUCnow #AcademicWorkers #AcademicStrike #UCstrike #postdoc

Week 3 of #strike at #UCSD and across all #UC campuses, with still very strong participation. The #postdoc bargaining team has already received several serious proposals from the University that go in the right direction. Hopefully the same will happen soon for grad students!

"The outcome in California, experts say, could shape a new model for higher education across the country."
https://time.com/6237230/uc-strike-higher-education-implications/

When workers organize they have power ✊🏼
#fairUCnow

So, from this week 48k academic workers (like grad students and postdocs) across all the Univeristy of California system are on #strike, including here in San Diego.

The #union that represents us is trying to bargain a new contract after ~18 months of delays and procrastination from the University. We are fighting for (among many other things) fair wages that actually reflect the exhorbitant cost of living in California.

This is the largest #strike ever held at an academic institution in the history of the US, and the first *ever* for postdocs. It has already inspired people in many other institutions across the US to form new unions and to fight for fair working conditions.
I really hope this brings **some** change to the whole system. We **really** need it.

[NYT article](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/14/us/university-of-california-strike-pay.html)

[Another NYT article](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/15/us/uc-workers-strike.html)

[LA Times article](https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2022-11-09/la-ed-potential-strike-by-academic-workers-tarnishes-prestigious-university-system)

[Inside Higher Ed article](https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/11/15/48000-u-california-student-workers-researchers-strike)

More information [here](https://www.fairucnow.org/)
#FairUCNow

Video from the first day of strike at UCSD

@obi You're welcome, and good luck!

@obi oooh QFT! So many memories 😂
There is DEFINITELY going to be some brain ache. I remember going through it when I was a student, and I already knew both quantum mechanics and field theory so I thought it wouldn't be so bad to just put the two things together. I was WRONG 😂
Joking aside, there might be some "energy barrier" that has to be overcome, but it's going to be worth it because it's just a beautiful and elegant theory (if you're into that)

@obi Thank YOU! I'm always glad to have these conversations 😀

@obi If we had that understanding, it probably could (at least potentially). But unfortunately we're not there yet

@obi Haha no worries 😂
I also remember several professors caught up in a similar predicament. Even one of my professors when I was a students had his theories almost completely disproven by LHC when I was attending one of his courses. That wasn't fun 😂

@obi Yes and no. I mean, of course physicists that work in biology have to look at function, but I would say the main difference between a physicist and a biologist working on the same problem is that the biologist will focus on the HOW (e.g., how can this microbe grow on this substrate? What are the molecular mechanisms that allow it to do so?), while the physicist will look at fundamental principles (building on the previous example: why would any microbe want to grow on that substrate in the first place?). Does that make sense?

@obi I agree. And every time I think about the technical challenges that they had to overcome in order to observe gravitational waves it just blows my mind

@obi physics has come a long way, but as far as biology goes we still lack a fundamental knowledge of how cells work. If we DID have such a fundamental knowledge, for example, we would be able to create living cells from scratch, but that's simply not the case (yet)

@obi Yes, for sure! But in biology we are simply not in the same place as physics. I mean, in physics we have some fundamental theories (e.g., quantum physics, general relativity etc.) that we can use to describe almost every possible phenomenon we observe - and when we don't is when we can discover new physics. In biology this simply does not exist: there is no "theory of everything" in biology (at least yet)

@obi Yes, this is a pretty common situation in "traditional" physics, especially now in particle physics. A professor develops a theory to describe some properties of particles and builds his/her own carreer on that, and then the theory gets disproven 20/30 years after that. Sometimes you get lucky (see the Higgs boson), but most time you don't

@obi Hope this makes sense! I probably got carried away a little bit 😂