Dr. Kelly Weinersmith
@FuSchmu
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A big nerd. Co-author of NYTimes Bestseller & Hugo Winner A City on Mars. Co-host of @DandKUniverse . Married to @ZachWeiner . She/her
Charlottesville, VA
Joined May 2009
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Pinned Tweet
The video has migrated to this new link:
I gave a talk for
@zombiemeded
on the parallels between sci-fi examples of parasites changing host behavior, and real life examples. It features amazing artwork by
@AbbyHoward
, and is now online!
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When I was a MS student, my advisor told me to multiply projected budgets & timelines by 3 because things will run over. I thought that was ridiculous. Why not just estimate things right the 1st time? Post-PhD, I still think it's ridiculous. Clearly, the multiplier should be 5.
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Is that bird poop? Nope! It’s the beautiful wood nymph moth, which mimics bird poop to hide from predators. Native to VIrginia
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After 4 years of research on space settlements,
@ZachWeiner
and I just hit send on our book manuscript. What a ride it’s been! Can’t wait until we can share this book with y’all!
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When your husband is also your co-author, you not only have to agree on things like how many kids you want and what (if any) religion you'll expose them to - but also things like when to use commas. Let it be known that
@ZachWeiner
does not use enough commas.
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I gave a talk for
@zombiemeded
on the parallels between sci-fi examples of parasites changing host behavior, and real life examples. It features amazing artwork by
@AbbyHoward
, and is now online!
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233
Zach said "let's get unfinished bookshelves. It can't take too long to stain them. I'll do it" Two years later, the only bookshelves that are stained are the ones I caved and did myself....
I don't usually go public with family stuff, but
@FuSchmu
offered to make me an iced coffee an hour ago. I said yes. I said yes, and yet I thirst.
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When I took Evolution as an undergrad my plan was to memorize it and get an A, but I didn't think I'd "buy it" based on my religious beliefs. Now I give a yearly guest lecture for a friend's evolution class. Funny the unexpected paths life takes you on.
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Zach found a USSR spacecraft tshirt for me for my birthday :D
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Here is a rusty spider wasp carrying a paralyzed wolf spider back to her nest. She will lay eggs on the spider, and when they hatch they will have a fresh spider snack. Nature is not particularly kind.
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Anchorwood species of the day: The freakin' eastern dobson fly. This nightmare inducing monster is typically found near streams, where it's a top invertebrate predator. This is a male, which you can tell by the huge sickle-shaped mandibles (females have smaller mandibles).
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I used the word "manel" (a panel of only men) when talking to
@ZachWeiner
. This inspired us to come up with some more.
Here we go:
Symposium = Himposium
Consortium = Conscrotium
Awards Banquet = Awards Ballsquet
(they got way less clever after Himposium).
Other suggestions?
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Fellow fast-talkers: When I slow down I sound either super condescending, or super bored. I'm neither - it just takes so much concentration to slow down that my voice loses its usual enthusiasm. Any fast-talkers have tips for slowing down? Does this just get better w/practice?
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Lately my dog is very interested in everything that I am looking at. So most of my nature photos look like this
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Fun fact - once you feeling something moving on your hairline and subsequently pull a huge lone star tick off your forehead, you will spend the rest of your life imagining that you feel something crawling on your head.
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Woman at airport counter: "no need to pull out your id. No one could make up a name like that."
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When contractors come through the house and say “your husband can probably fix this, ma’am“ I always laugh out loud.
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I accidentally signed an email "Beast" rather than "Best", and I'm thinking about just going with Beast in the future.
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Applications are now open for Cards Against Humanity's Science Ambassador Scholarship: A full–tuition scholarship for a woman in science, technology, engineering, or math.
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Anchorwood species of the day: Antlions (Family - Myrmeleontidae, but I don't know the species)!!
The larva dig cone-shaped pits, and hide in the bottom. When an ant gets too close to the pit it falls in, and is grabbed and eaten by the waiting antlion. ⅓
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Wow! I just happened to be reading Space Exploration and Humanity, A Historical Encyclopedia, Volume 2, page 1004, and did you know that Julie Payette, current governor general of Canada, was also one of the first Canadian astronauts?
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Working on the bibliography for my book with
@ZachWeiner
, and this tells you pretty much everything you need to know about differences in the way Zach and I manage references
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Hell yes! I thought I was going to go a whole year without seeing these beauties - but one showed up on the barn this morning. This is the adorable rosy maple moth (Dryocampa rubicunda), native to Virginia, USA.
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When you're a behavioral ecologist, and your partner knows your sense of humor.
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I frequently get Giant Microbes as gifts. The baby has tons of adorable teddy bears, but the one stuffed toy she won't put down is Gonorrhea
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My first co-authorless publication was accepted today. Woo!
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Just had my lowest words written to research pages read ratio. 932 page book condensed to 1 paragraph for the new book project. But I feel REALLY confident about the content of that one paragraph. 😂
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Another year, another Halloween where
@ZachWeiner
is a "responsible adult", and explains to me that it would be disrespectful to use plastic skeletons to make it look like the dead are rising from the old graveyard on our farm...
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We're having a girl!
@ZachWeiner
and I are naming her Ada Marie after Ada Lovelace and Marie Curie.
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Misspellings of "brain" as "brian" used to be my favorite journal typo. My new favorite:
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4-year-old: Mom, what are we listening to?
Me: It's a band called "Daft Punk, and the song is called "Around The World".
4-year-old: It's nice that someone makes dance music for robots.
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.
@ZachWeiner
& kid 1 were drawing comics together. Zach's comic is "LaserDad". An important plot point seems to be that everyone is impressed with Zach's (AKA LaserDad's) intelligence. It's not a particularly believable story, since "BOOK" appears to have been spelled incorrectly
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.
@ZachWeiner
&
@Bouletcorp
's gorgeous new kids' book comes out today! The book is currently
#1
on Amazon for Epic Poetry. Ha! 🙂
They put the first chapter online for free here, if you want a preview:
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This seems to be making the rounds again. :) There's more jokes where that came from in the book:
Giving a professional talk later today, setting the tone with my 2nd slide.
@FuSchmu
&
@ZachWeiner
are the philosophers biology deserves.
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Can anyone link me to a good paper about radiation risks for humans on Mars surface? Most of the papers I've found factor in radiation risk on the way to and from Mars, but I'm interested in the radiation risk for someone who is born on Mars and grows up there
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Kid 1’s response to snakes has evolved a lot since moving to the country. She used to get real scared, but this snake got an enthusiastic “woah! Mom! Come check this out! A huge black snake!” (Eastern rat snake)
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Got moderna shot number 2 yesterday. Thank you, Science.
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My new paper is out! "What’s gotten into you?: a review of recent research on parasitoid manipulation of host behavior" My first solo-authored paper, featuring artwork by
@BugsUncensored
! Thanks to
@zombieantguy
& Kelli Hoover the invitation.
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Anyone know what this fly is up to? I didn’t see any other flies nearby (so maybe not mating related?), but there was a jumping spider eyeing the fly (so maybe anti predator-related)?
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This guy is doing an admirable job of containing his anger
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Ha! I was voted in as the next president of
@Helm_Soc
(DC) today, and my daughter made me great stuff to celebrate! It includes a sign ("You are the Parasite Queen") with a gall, a scepter, and a crown (with a ladybug with a fungal infection, a brain, and a tapeworm). So sweet!<3
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I got my offer letter! I start as Huxley Faculty Fellow at Rice University. I'm Professor Weinersmith starting Jan 1st!
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My 7 year old has decided she wants to be a mathematician because they sit around drinking hot chocolate all day while working on math problems. That does sound like a good job....
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muscles I didn’t realize I’ve been tensing for four years are suddenly releasing
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E.g.-you've said you want a self-sustaining Mars settlement in 20-30 years, with ~1 million people. We don't even yet have life support systems that can keep 6 people alive for 2 yrs without breaking or requiring outside help. With 2 yr launch windows for Mars, this is scary. 2/4
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YOUNG WOMEN IN STEM! Apply for this
@CAH_Science
scholarship. It's a FULL ride.
http://t.co/oe7KSv8gdd
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The trivia game
@ZachWeiner
and I worked on is now live on Kickstarter! If you lost at Trivial Pursuit because of those damn sports & leisure questions - then this is the trivia game for you.
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(I agree with folks who are saying Musk shouldn't have to solve ALL the problems himself. But his timeline for a self-sustaining Mars settlement by 2050 can't possibly be met unless we solve these problems too. And these problems aren't getting the money or time they deserve)
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We also know nearly nothing about mammalian reproduction in Mars gravity. Yes, you can reach 1 million people by flying them in. But come on. Humans are gonna have sex, and make babies. Wouldn't it be good to have some insights into how baby-making is likely to go beforehand? ¾
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Anchorwood species of the day: white-marked tussock moth (Orgyia leucostigma). The hairs can cause irritation or allergic reactions. I have no idea how it got there, but I found this one on the cuff of my sweater (fall is coming!).
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I just achieved a "boring adult hat trick". We found a plumber, an electrician, and an HVAC guy who are great at their jobs and reliable. Fourteen year old me would be appalled to see how happy this has made me. What things make you happy that teenage you would find very dull?
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One of these gum containers was opened by
@ZachWeiner
, and one was opened by me. They say a lot about our approaches to life
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.
@ZachWeiner
and I just earned the "run screaming from a swarm of yellow jackets" square on our farm life bingo card. Only 5 bites between us. That's a win. Now how to get the swarm out of our mulch pile....
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::sigh::
When you're trying to set "the mood," what's your go-to sea shanty?
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There are loads of problems like this that stand in our way. Maybe all the problems are surmountable - but they'll take time & $$ to solve. This book is a guide for many things, including how to invest our research & engineering efforts if we want to be interplanetary. 4/4
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Painting from our hotel room. Caption contest. Top 3 responses get a Soonish audiobook
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My and
@ZachWeiner
's book "Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That'll Improve and/or Ruin Everything" comes out in paperback on June 4th! 20 copies are currently being given away on
@goodreads
. You can enter to win one here:
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You know
@ZachWeiner
is feeling stressed about not having enough time to get everything done when he defaults to the “quick meal“ of a spoonful of peanut butter plus chocolate chips
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Just crossed “seeing zombie ants in the wild” off my life list! ❤️💕 These were seen in North Carolina, and were found by Andrew Turner. It was such a great hike!
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I’m at the International Astronautical Congress and my first observation is that space people dress up for conferences WAY more than ecologists.
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Did I mention the guys who wrote The Expanse series liked our book? I think that's all your really need to know! Pre-orders for A City on Mars open now. :)
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The only other time I can remember being THIS wrong was when I thought absolutely no one would ever buy a "single use, unlubricated monocle"
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I believe this is in reference to Anatoli Berezovoi and Valentin Lebedev, who ate the miniature onions meant for the cultivators aboard Salyut 7. :)
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Dear Twitter,
Please stop sending
@ZachWeiner
links to cargo socks. I have to live with him, and I don’t think he gets that it’s a joke.
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The Chicago Tribune said something nice about our book! :)
"Don’t tell Elon Musk, but science writing is rarely as readable (or deflating) as “A City on Mars” (Nov. 7), an informed, irreverent study of how little we actually know of the practical considerations... ½
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Doctor: You keep coming in here with ear infections. Why do you keep swimming in that lake?
Me: I'm collecting data on the reproductive behavior of male smallmouth bass
Doctor: [only half listening] That's interesting....[stops a moment to think about what I said]...to you.
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I'm about to ctrl+x you out of my life, buddy. You better knock off this slander.
I want to be clear this was not about
@FuSchmu
's use of hotkeys, as she will plainly be able to discern by scrolling down to the tweet below, instead of simply pressing ctrl+f to search for the relevant keyword.
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I helped describe a new parasitoid! The wasp is beautiful, & manipulates its host (more on this coming soon!)
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I think it's a mom and her kids. <3 Here they are having breakfast (I had to improvise on the bowl....), and enjoying some rawhides. They won't let me touch them yet. Maybe they're chipped though....
But I don't have time for new dogs!
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Five years in the making, and less than 2 months until the book comes out. Yikes!
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My in-laws bought me Virginia specific field guides for my birthday, and my niece baked me a cake with gummy worms cut to look like tapeworms inside. It’s so nice to be around people who know me so well
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Anchorwood SOTD: I suspect this is the fungal pathogen Entomophthora muscae infecting a fly. The fungus causes the fly to climb up high, hold on tight w/their proboscis, spread their wings, and die. The fungus grows from the abdomen & "forcibly ejects" infective spores, ½
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I am obsessed with getting up early and using the Merlin Bird ID app to identify the birds by call in the morning. What a freaking awesome app!
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Any other grown ass adults out there scared of their crawl space?
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Only in academia can you end an email with "I hope you find lots of old poop" without malicious intent.
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.
@ZachWeiner
: "Can you cut ~1,000 words from our intro?"
Me: No problem.
Also me - [adds 600 words]
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Kid 1's advice on giving a fellow co-author comments on their work: "For example, you could say, your book is very good, but could you add more vampires?" Now this is the kind of critique I'd like to get more of.
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This morning the baby woke up, grabbed my iPhone, randomly turned on Eye of the Tiger, & then started trying to stand
#MotivationForAllAges
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My good friend
@julia_saltz
started a website where folks can submit reviews of experiences submitting to journals!
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We've invented a new drink! Introducing, the Ray Bradberry: Dandelion Wine mixed with cranBERRY juice. The dandelion wine is vintage... May. (I was skeptical of the dandelion wine, but I'm diggin' it!).
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