Nicole M. Baran, Ph.D.
@nmbaran.bsky.social
Assistant Professor of Biology at Davidson College | Evolution & development of songbird social behavior, neuroendocrinology, & comparative genomics | STEMinist | Mostly here for the reading recommendations. (she/her) 🐦🧠🧬🌎🔬🌿🎺
Pinned
I believe that it is important that my students learn about the dynamic, complex process by which sexual differentiation occurs because it is the truth, writes @nmbaran.bsky.social.
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/sex/what-bir...
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/sex/what-bir...
What birds can teach us about the ‘biological truth’ of sex
Part of our job as educators is to give students a deeper understanding of the true diversity of sex and gender in the natural world.
www.thetransmitter.org
Excited to have this out in the world and to share my thoughts! Birds 🐣 have so much to teach us about sexual differentiation and diversity, which is so desperately needed in this moment. #neuroendocrinology
Reposted by Nicole M. Baran, Ph.D.
For the one millionth time: THIS IS FASCISM. IT'S MORE THAN JUST GRANT FUNDING. SCIENCE IS A CRITICAL PILLAR OF DEMOCRACY.
democrats-appropriations.house.gov/news/press-r...
democrats-appropriations.house.gov/news/press-r...
Defense Officials Attempt to Raid NIH Funds to Cover Department of Defense Activities
House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) has learned that officials at the Department of Defense (DoD) are working to divert billions of dollars from the National Institute...
democrats-appropriations.house.gov
September 3, 2026 at 8:51 PM
For the one millionth time: THIS IS FASCISM. IT'S MORE THAN JUST GRANT FUNDING. SCIENCE IS A CRITICAL PILLAR OF DEMOCRACY.
democrats-appropriations.house.gov/news/press-r...
democrats-appropriations.house.gov/news/press-r...
Reposted by Nicole M. Baran, Ph.D.
This summer, the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History launched an online exhibit that highlights their recently expanded Menstrual History Collection. Worth a perusal! And an amazing resource for women's history or medical history classes. 🗃️ americanhistory.si.edu/explore/exhi...
September 3, 2026 at 1:25 PM
This summer, the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History launched an online exhibit that highlights their recently expanded Menstrual History Collection. Worth a perusal! And an amazing resource for women's history or medical history classes. 🗃️ americanhistory.si.edu/explore/exhi...
Reposted by Nicole M. Baran, Ph.D.
At the center of my message to faculty yesterday was: 1.) We may not be adequately prepared for how angry students are about tech. 2.) They are not all angry for the same reasons. 3.) Being angry at it doesn’t mean they aren’t using it. The sense of entrapment fuels the anger.
August 27, 2026 at 10:15 PM
At the center of my message to faculty yesterday was: 1.) We may not be adequately prepared for how angry students are about tech. 2.) They are not all angry for the same reasons. 3.) Being angry at it doesn’t mean they aren’t using it. The sense of entrapment fuels the anger.
Reposted by Nicole M. Baran, Ph.D.
if there’s a point to fame it’s to do what dolly parton did in the world
August 25, 2026 at 6:09 PM
if there’s a point to fame it’s to do what dolly parton did in the world
Reposted by Nicole M. Baran, Ph.D.
New NSF BIO solicitation says expected number of awards is 250-300.
Historically, the number of awards is closer to 800-1000 for the Directorate of Bio Sciences: grantwitness.org/nsf/analyses... Unless I'm missing large, non-core programs, this seems really not good?
Historically, the number of awards is closer to 800-1000 for the Directorate of Bio Sciences: grantwitness.org/nsf/analyses... Unless I'm missing large, non-core programs, this seems really not good?
Agency Pulse: Grantmaking at NSF
An independent, up-to-date, grant-level record of federal science funding disruptions in the United States.
grantwitness.org
August 24, 2026 at 5:49 PM
New NSF BIO solicitation says expected number of awards is 250-300.
Historically, the number of awards is closer to 800-1000 for the Directorate of Bio Sciences: grantwitness.org/nsf/analyses... Unless I'm missing large, non-core programs, this seems really not good?
Historically, the number of awards is closer to 800-1000 for the Directorate of Bio Sciences: grantwitness.org/nsf/analyses... Unless I'm missing large, non-core programs, this seems really not good?
Reposted by Nicole M. Baran, Ph.D.
Reposted by Nicole M. Baran, Ph.D.
If you just happened to pick this week to start yelling about the importance of academic freedom, I sure hope you did more than watch silently for the past 18 months as the Trump administration assaulted everything from mRNA vaccine research to gender studies to the very idea of having universities.
August 24, 2026 at 12:40 AM
If you just happened to pick this week to start yelling about the importance of academic freedom, I sure hope you did more than watch silently for the past 18 months as the Trump administration assaulted everything from mRNA vaccine research to gender studies to the very idea of having universities.
Reposted by Nicole M. Baran, Ph.D.
I think the class of school administrators (not just in higher ed) who act fast to insulate core pedagogical functions from AI will reap major rewards for their trouble. In a few years, there will be an extremely stark difference between people who used AI in school and people who are competent
cognitive sabotage, you can ban it
extra credit to U Chicago for bans on professional AND undergrad programs; smart SLACs are going to market AI free campuses soon
chicagomaroon.com/53262/news/s...
extra credit to U Chicago for bans on professional AND undergrad programs; smart SLACs are going to market AI free campuses soon
chicagomaroon.com/53262/news/s...
August 23, 2026 at 8:00 PM
I think the class of school administrators (not just in higher ed) who act fast to insulate core pedagogical functions from AI will reap major rewards for their trouble. In a few years, there will be an extremely stark difference between people who used AI in school and people who are competent
Reposted by Nicole M. Baran, Ph.D.
As I research and write I can feel my brain changing and growing. It's an incredible feeling. I look down on people who write and research using AI. It's gross and evil and you are missing the point of living.
August 19, 2026 at 10:58 PM
As I research and write I can feel my brain changing and growing. It's an incredible feeling. I look down on people who write and research using AI. It's gross and evil and you are missing the point of living.
Reposted by Nicole M. Baran, Ph.D.
this from upenn's student paper is worth reading as the term starts:
"AI cannot coexist with education — it can only degrade it. As technology advances and workers are replaced by machines, schools are some of the only places we have left to explore and wrestle with human thought."
"AI cannot coexist with education — it can only degrade it. As technology advances and workers are replaced by machines, schools are some of the only places we have left to explore and wrestle with human thought."
Editorial | Penn has an AI problem
The Daily Pennsylvanian Editorial Board argues that Penn’s choice to embrace AI is detrimental to the institution of higher education.
www.thedp.com
August 18, 2026 at 2:03 PM
this from upenn's student paper is worth reading as the term starts:
"AI cannot coexist with education — it can only degrade it. As technology advances and workers are replaced by machines, schools are some of the only places we have left to explore and wrestle with human thought."
"AI cannot coexist with education — it can only degrade it. As technology advances and workers are replaced by machines, schools are some of the only places we have left to explore and wrestle with human thought."
Reposted by Nicole M. Baran, Ph.D.
Oh, for fuck's sake. If you had an "AI" generate the text, then you're not the author. "Oh, but the ideas are mine." Motherfucker, ideas aren't copyrightable, and neither is the text if "AI" barfed it out. In neither a logistical nor legal sense does the term "author" convey to you.
Dean of Science at Stellenbosch University writes that although AI generates almost all the words for his articles (including this one):
"AI did almost all of the writing. I remain the expert and the thought leader behind the piece."
www.nature.com/articles/d44...
"AI did almost all of the writing. I remain the expert and the thought leader behind the piece."
www.nature.com/articles/d44...
When AI writes the words, who is the author?
After an AI detector classified one of my opinion pieces as entirely AI-generated, I found myself questioning where authorship ends, where expertise begins and what readers deserve to know.
www.nature.com
August 18, 2026 at 3:34 PM
Oh, for fuck's sake. If you had an "AI" generate the text, then you're not the author. "Oh, but the ideas are mine." Motherfucker, ideas aren't copyrightable, and neither is the text if "AI" barfed it out. In neither a logistical nor legal sense does the term "author" convey to you.
Reposted by Nicole M. Baran, Ph.D.
“A single-payer universal health care system could cover every American, save more than 100,000 lives a year, and still cost $1 trillion less than the system it would replace, according to a new preprint study led by researchers at the Yale School of Public Health.”
ysph.yale.edu/news-article...
ysph.yale.edu/news-article...
Universal Health Coverage Could Save $1 Trillion and 114,000 Lives Every Year, Yale Study Projects
A single-payer universal health care system could cover every American, save more than 100,000 lives a year, and still cost $1 trillion less than the system it
ysph.yale.edu
August 17, 2026 at 5:25 AM
“A single-payer universal health care system could cover every American, save more than 100,000 lives a year, and still cost $1 trillion less than the system it would replace, according to a new preprint study led by researchers at the Yale School of Public Health.”
ysph.yale.edu/news-article...
ysph.yale.edu/news-article...
Reposted by Nicole M. Baran, Ph.D.
If you're a biologist, especially one in a field that has a history of eugenics and racism (which absolutely includes my own field of evolutionary biology) and you choose to remain "neutral" as race science once again crawls out from under its rock, you are not in fact neutral.
August 15, 2026 at 1:59 PM
If you're a biologist, especially one in a field that has a history of eugenics and racism (which absolutely includes my own field of evolutionary biology) and you choose to remain "neutral" as race science once again crawls out from under its rock, you are not in fact neutral.
Reposted by Nicole M. Baran, Ph.D.
NPR asked an aspiring scientist in Philadelphia to interview an adult who is living his dream about his career in conservation science.
We asked a first grader to interview his hero: A bird scientist
NPR asked an aspiring scientist in Philadelphia to interview an adult who is living his dream about his career in conservation science.
n.pr
August 1, 2026 at 10:34 PM
NPR asked an aspiring scientist in Philadelphia to interview an adult who is living his dream about his career in conservation science.
Reposted by Nicole M. Baran, Ph.D.
Still thinking about genderfluid avocados
Avocados come in 2 varieties - A-types start each day female and switch to male midday. B-types do the reverse. In work just published from the last chapter of my PhD, we show this system evolved 40+million yrs ago and is regulated by alleles of 1 transcription factor
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Balanced polymorphism in a floral transcription factor underlies the ancient rhythm of daily sex alternation in avocado | PNAS
In avocado and certain wild relatives in Lauraceae, a highly synchronized daily rhythm
of floral sex timing promotes cross-pollination between two ...
www.pnas.org
July 29, 2026 at 4:43 PM
Still thinking about genderfluid avocados
Reposted by Nicole M. Baran, Ph.D.
Great piece here by @brendonstuff.bsky.social on the need for widespread use of bird-safe glass to prevent window collisions theconversation.com/bird-safe-gl...
Bird-safe glass must become the norm to prevent collisions with buildings
In Canada, tens of millions of birds are killed annually by crashing into glass on buildings.
theconversation.com
July 29, 2026 at 1:16 AM
Great piece here by @brendonstuff.bsky.social on the need for widespread use of bird-safe glass to prevent window collisions theconversation.com/bird-safe-gl...
Reposted by Nicole M. Baran, Ph.D.
Shoutout to all of my swampwise homies.
Okefenokee becomes Georgia's first UNESCO World Heritage site
The Okefenokee Swamp in southeast Georgia is now a UNESCO World Heritage site, just the 27th such site in the U.S. and the first natural site in the country to be added in three decades. It’s Georgia’...
www.wabe.org
July 26, 2026 at 8:55 PM
Shoutout to all of my swampwise homies.
Reposted by Nicole M. Baran, Ph.D.
"Hey Jess, why do you spend so much of the classroom time of your genetics course talking about ethics?"
What a harrowing story and an incredible work of #scicomm in the reporting. 🧪
www.science.org/content/arti...
www.science.org/content/arti...
Exclusive: Death of girl in Chinese gene-editing trial was never made public
Parents want accountability after study went disastrously wrong, Science and Retraction Watch investigation reveals
www.science.org
July 23, 2026 at 11:54 PM
"Hey Jess, why do you spend so much of the classroom time of your genetics course talking about ethics?"
Reposted by Nicole M. Baran, Ph.D.
Have kept thinking all day about this story, full of starving moms and grandmothers trying to feed 3-6 kids each on virtually nothing and Republican men cheering and patting themselves on the back for kicking them off food stamps. Congrats, boys, you really did it
"Four months into an appeal, Ms. McDonald, a cancer survivor who weighs 69 pounds, bustles to food banks, stretches ground turkey with oatmeal, and skips meals to feed three teenage boys." www.nytimes.com/2026/07/20/u...
Faced With Piles of New Paperwork, People Are Losing Food Stamps
Arizona’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program rolls have plummeted, offering a possible preview of national trends as states try to avoid new federal penalties.
www.nytimes.com
July 22, 2026 at 2:36 AM
Have kept thinking all day about this story, full of starving moms and grandmothers trying to feed 3-6 kids each on virtually nothing and Republican men cheering and patting themselves on the back for kicking them off food stamps. Congrats, boys, you really did it
Reposted by Nicole M. Baran, Ph.D.
Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal.
July 22, 2026 at 12:13 AM
Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal.
Reposted by Nicole M. Baran, Ph.D.
So the U.S. has gotten itself into a situation where the State Department is now warning Americans about traveling...anywhere.
"The Department of State advises Americans worldwide to exercise increased caution."
travel.state.gov/en/internati...
"The Department of State advises Americans worldwide to exercise increased caution."
travel.state.gov/en/internati...
travel.state.gov
July 21, 2026 at 11:42 PM
So the U.S. has gotten itself into a situation where the State Department is now warning Americans about traveling...anywhere.
"The Department of State advises Americans worldwide to exercise increased caution."
travel.state.gov/en/internati...
"The Department of State advises Americans worldwide to exercise increased caution."
travel.state.gov/en/internati...
Reposted by Nicole M. Baran, Ph.D.
In 2021, there were roughly 101 gender clinics offering care to transgender youth offering a full range of gender affirming care.
By July 2026, there are only about 31 left that still prescribe hormones and puberty blockers.
By July 2026, there are only about 31 left that still prescribe hormones and puberty blockers.
July 21, 2026 at 6:46 PM
In 2021, there were roughly 101 gender clinics offering care to transgender youth offering a full range of gender affirming care.
By July 2026, there are only about 31 left that still prescribe hormones and puberty blockers.
By July 2026, there are only about 31 left that still prescribe hormones and puberty blockers.
Reposted by Nicole M. Baran, Ph.D.
Well, this article is incredibly depressing for cooking enthusiasts. The short version: private equity has, over the last couple of decades, quietly bought up most of the classic brands you’ve heard of and then traded on their names while drastically cutting quality and closing American factories
July 21, 2026 at 1:27 AM
Well, this article is incredibly depressing for cooking enthusiasts. The short version: private equity has, over the last couple of decades, quietly bought up most of the classic brands you’ve heard of and then traded on their names while drastically cutting quality and closing American factories
Reposted by Nicole M. Baran, Ph.D.
I'm heartbroken to share that Marvin (known to readers of There Is No Place for Us as Maurice) died earlier today in a workplace accident. He was 43.
Natasha (Natalia in the book) asked me to share this news because she is too devastated to do so herself. We are all in shock.
Natasha (Natalia in the book) asked me to share this news because she is too devastated to do so herself. We are all in shock.
July 21, 2026 at 2:28 AM
I'm heartbroken to share that Marvin (known to readers of There Is No Place for Us as Maurice) died earlier today in a workplace accident. He was 43.
Natasha (Natalia in the book) asked me to share this news because she is too devastated to do so herself. We are all in shock.
Natasha (Natalia in the book) asked me to share this news because she is too devastated to do so herself. We are all in shock.
Reposted by Nicole M. Baran, Ph.D.
This, exactly. And I wish people understood that hormones and neurotransmitters are so much more complicated than how they are depicted in popular culture.
Humorism is back btw
The new humors are estrogen, testosterone, dopamine, and cortisol
Once you notice this you'll see it everywhere
The new humors are estrogen, testosterone, dopamine, and cortisol
Once you notice this you'll see it everywhere
July 20, 2026 at 3:27 PM
This, exactly. And I wish people understood that hormones and neurotransmitters are so much more complicated than how they are depicted in popular culture.