#Biology Dissertation Help

[honeydippedfiction]

Would love something with maybe Nico hischier with the prompt “you do what you got to do I’ll make sure no one disturbs you” maybe the reader is finishing up her masters in biology and has a huge paper she has to work on. Stem maybe literature dissertation really anything of your choosing, but she has a hard time telling people no and has overbooked herself and ran herself down, so Nico takes control and makes sure she relaxes and has time to work on her paper, and takes care of everything for her!!!

Love your work!

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“you do what you got to do I’ll make sure no one disturbs you”

Nico Hischier x black!femreader

• you DO NOT have my permission to copy my work, upload as your own, translate, or repost on any other website •

The late afternoon light spilled through the apartment window in long, golden streaks that cut across stacks of notes, half-drunk mugs of tea, and a biology textbook left open on the coffee table. Y/N sat curled at the edge of the couch, her fingers hovering just above the keys of her laptop, her posture rigid. The screen in front of her blinked expectantly, waiting for her to resume her paragraph on calcium signaling in echinoderms.

But her mind was fraying at the edges.

She rubbed her eyes with the heels of her palms, then glanced at the to-do list scribbled on a sticky note beside her. It had grown overnight like an invasive weed—names of students she’d promised to tutor, email drafts to professors she still hadn’t sent, tasks she kept saying yes to when she should have been saying no.

A gentle knock at the doorframe pulled her out of her thoughts.

“You still working?” Nico’s voice was soft, careful, as if he already knew the answer but wanted to give her the dignity of saying it herself.

Y/N looked up, offering a weary smile. “Just taking a quick break before I jump on Zoom with Dr. Karimi. Then I need to help Alicia with her formatting, and after that—”

Nico crossed the room before she could finish. He didn’t say anything right away. Instead, he sat on the edge of the coffee table, facing her, and took in the picture in front of him: her eyes heavy with exhaustion, her natural curls pulled into a high puff that had clearly been done in haste, and her sweatshirt—his old Devils hoodie—slipping off one shoulder.

“You’ve been running on fumes for a week,” he said quietly.

“I’m fine,” she replied too quickly, eyes darting away.

He reached out and gently closed her laptop. “You’re not. And it’s okay to not be.”

She opened her mouth to protest, but he beat her to it, his tone firm now—but still soft enough not to startle her.

“Y/N,” he said. “You do what you got to do. I’ll make sure no one disturbs you.”

His words stopped her cold. They sank into her chest, heavy but comforting. She blinked, and for a second, she looked as if she might cry—not from sadness, but from the quiet relief of being seen, of someone else finally saying I’ve got you.

“Nico, I can’t just bail on people,” she said, her voice cracking slightly. “Alicia’s been struggling with her thesis, and I promised her. And I still have to respond to my advisor. I don’t want to be that person who—”

“—forgets how to take care of herself?” he finished gently.

She lowered her head. “Yeah.”

He stood and held out his hand. “Come on.”

Y/N hesitated, then took it, letting him lead her to the couch. He wrapped a soft blanket around her shoulders and settled her back into the cushions like she was made of glass and silk. Then he handed her the laptop again—not to work on everyone else’s problems, but to finally focus on her own.

“I’ll text Alicia,” he said. “She’ll understand. And your advisor can wait another day to hear from you. You don’t owe anyone an explanation right now.”

Y/N glanced at him, torn between gratitude and guilt. “You really don’t have to do all that.”

He leaned down and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I want to. I need to. You’ve been trying to be everything for everyone, and I see how that’s eating at you. Just focus on your paper. That’s all you need to do today.”

So she did.

For the first time in weeks, she put her headphones in, turned on her favorite study playlist—ambient ocean sounds and soft piano—and let herself slip into the rhythm of research and writing. The fog in her brain began to lift. Paragraphs that had once felt like mountains suddenly unfolded into clear, coherent thoughts. Her arguments found their structure; her citations aligned themselves; her voice—so often drowned out by helping everyone else—finally came through.

Meanwhile, Nico became the quiet conductor of calm behind the scenes.

He replied to Alicia’s texts with grace, even slipping in a quick apology that sounded so natural Y/N couldn’t believe he hadn’t known her for years. He reheated her lunch, brought her snacks—apple slices and almond butter, her go-to when she was writing—and even lit the lavender candle she only ever used when she was deep in study mode.

When the neighbor knocked to ask about building maintenance, Nico answered the door and quietly deflected the conversation before it could stretch beyond a polite minute.

The apartment transformed. Not physically—it was still the same tiny, cluttered space full of textbooks and hockey gear and shared routines—but energetically. It became a haven. A retreat. A place where Y/N’s mind could roam without the pressure of being constantly needed.

Hours passed.

Outside, the sun dipped behind the skyline. Inside, Y/N sat unmoving, wrapped in a cocoon of productivity and peace. When she finally hit the “save” button on the final draft of her dissertation, her shoulders slumped, not with defeat, but with release.

She closed the laptop slowly, like she was afraid it might disappear.

Nico was in the kitchen, plating dinner—some roasted chicken and vegetables they’d meal-prepped two days ago. She padded over, barefoot and quiet, and wrapped her arms around his waist from behind, resting her cheek against his back.

“I finished,” she whispered.

He turned, smiling. His eyes were soft but proud. “Of course you did. I never doubted it.”

She didn’t pull away. Instead, she looked up at him with a look she rarely gave anyone—unshielded, vulnerable, grateful.

“Thank you for today. Really.”

He kissed her forehead again, brushing her curls back with his fingers. “You don’t always have to hold the whole world together,” he murmured. “You’ve got me.”

Y/N nodded slowly, her chest warm in a way that had nothing to do with the blanket or the tea or the dinner waiting behind them.

And as they sat down together to eat, nothing left on her list but peace, she realized something quietly profound:

Love wasn’t always in the grand gestures. Sometimes, it was in the smallest thing—like someone saying, “You do what you got to do. I’ll make sure no one disturbs you”—and meaning every word.

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

Potentially another totally speculative question: What would possibly be some law on Gallifrey that outsiders would find surprising?

What are some surprising Gallifreyan laws?

Gallifreyan law is, unsurprisingly, vast, bureaucratic, and painfully overcomplicated. Most of it consists of dry legalese about causality, paradox regulations, and why you really shouldn't rewrite your own history just because you don't like how your dissertation turned out.

Details on Gallifreyan law are sparse. Some of these are real, some are questionable, and some are utterly fabricated nonsense that we wouldn't be surprised if they existed anyway.

📜 Actual Gallifreyan Law

🚫 No Time Travel for the Religious Class

Shortly after the Eye of Harmony was anchored, Gallifrey banned its religious institutions from accessing time travel, Time Lord genetic benefits, and political positions. This meant Time Priests, Monks, and the Supreme Pontiff of Time (AKA Time Pope) could no longer meddle with causality. Whether this was done to separate the church from the timeline or just to keep certain monks from inventing paradox-based enlightenment remains unclear.

📜 Completely Made-Up (But Very Plausible) Laws

🔄 No Meeting Yourself More Than Three Times in One Day: More than three instances of yourself in one place at one time is considered suspicious. Two is fine. Three is pushing it. Four is a blatant attempt at timeline manipulation.

🍷 No Temporal Duplication at Parties: If you attend a Gallifreyan social event, you are legally forbidden from inviting past or future versions of yourself to avoid "temporal bias" in card games.

🚀 No Claiming a Future Incarnation's Accomplishments: While Time Lords are legally recognised as a single entity across regenerations, attempting to pass off your future self's achievements as your own is considered chronological fraud. You did not "invent" a revolutionary theorem in 4000 years. Future-You did. Get back to work.

📞 "But I Haven't Got the Message Yet" Is Not a Valid Excuse: If someone sends you a message, you are legally responsible for receiving it, regardless of whether it has reached you in your personal timeline.

⏳ Using Your Own Regeneration as an Alibi is a Crime: You are responsible for what your previous incarnation did. If Past-You made a mistake, Current-You still has to deal with it.

🛑 Unauthorised Cloister Bell Activations Are Strictly Forbidden: If you ring the Cloister Bell as a prank, you will be charged with inciting mass panic.

🔮 "I Just Had a Premonition" as an Academic Citation is Prohibited: No matter how advanced their temporal senses are, Time Lords can no longer submit papers claiming "I foresaw this conclusion" as a valid research method.

🌀 You Are Not Allowed to Create a Paradox Just to Win an Argument: If you go back in time and change events just to prove yourself right, you forfeit the debate and may face legal consequences.

🕵️‍♂️ Stealing a TARDIS is a Crime, Even If You "Borrowed It From Yourself": Theft is theft, even if the TARDIS in question technically belongs to your future self.

🕰️ If You Gain Knowledge of Your Own Future, You Are Expected to Act Surprised Anyway: It is a cultural expectation that if you are told your own future ahead of time, you must still act shocked when it happens.

Related:

📺|📜👽How do politics work on Gallifrey?: Detailing all the mechanics and roles of Gallifreyan politics.

💬|🏛️🛒Where’s the Black Market on Gallifrey?: Where you might find shady dealings and what you could trade.

💬|👥🚫What are some cultural faux pas on Gallifrey?: Some things to avoid when a guest on Gallifrey.

Hope that helped! 😃

Any orange text is educated guesswork or theoretical. More content ... →📫Got a question? | 📚Complete list of Q+A and factoids →📢Announcements |🩻Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts → Features: ⭐Guest Posts | 🍜Chomp Chomp with Myishu →🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (pending) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine Guides →📝Source list (WIP) →📜Masterpost If you're finding your happy place in this part of the internet, feel free to buy a coffee to help keep our exhausted human conscious. She works full-time in medicine and is so very tired 😴

[askviktor]

Hello, sir! Apologies for being so formal and a little Piltov (haha), but I figured it appropriate since I wanted to give my regards to you.

For a while now, I have been working day and night to develop the proper technology to improve prosthetics, to provide neuron-to-muscle technology in said prosthetics. This requires both neuroscience and another discipline in which I’ve not yet found a name for. It is a study I’ve found little to no research in, leaving me to be the one to splice all the information together. It involves human biology as well as movement and mechanisms. Perhaps it would be called … bio … mechanics?— I’m rambling! Please excuse me, I go on when I am excited.

There are sparse opportunities in Zaun for heavy research and upper education — you and I both know how it is! As such, I have scoured Piltover’s archives (I even have a ‘library card,’ woohoo! Although I do think the attendant is breaking a rule or two by allowing that—), and I can feel a breakthrough coming soon! As I near the conclusion of my preliminary studies, I wish to thank and commemorate you for your contribution to a paper I reference heavily in my dissertation. Don’t be modest! You have no idea how much your research has aided in my efforts.

I rejoiced when I found an article dating around ten years ago from Heimerdinger’s eighth-semester internship. Does this sound familiar at all? The publication focused on ideal gas thermodynamics and a gaseous entity’s behavior due to– agh, I will write pages if I continue. You and I both know it was far more involved than what I am describing! Enthalpy, entropy, the like!

The study helped me immensely with choosing mediums, establishing measures for the average Zaunite’s mobility based on the density of the gas— I refer to it often, as my work relies heavily on how the remnants of the Grey impact Zaunites. It intrigued me especially because one of the prime controls were the fissures of Zaun’s upper end! Zaun being mentioned in one of the Academy’s published journals? I could hardly believe my eyes! I deduced that only a Zaunite would have such a hand in that! (Apologies to any Piltovs reading this, it’s just that many do not concern themselves with the air quality and the body’s –specifically a Zaunite’s– reaction to it. You understand!)

You were marked under ‘et. al,’ can you believe that? I spent ages researching the names further within the piece, every name traced back to Piltover save for one, which was only a letter … V. ‘Who is this V?’ I thought, and after a rigorous (VERY rigorous, you’re quite elusive!) search, my investigation has led me to you! Pardon my pertinacity. It took many conversations with Piltovs in which they referenced a ‘Vincent with the leg’ who worked for Heimerdinger years ago. I then found, or rather, cornered Councillor Heimerdinger, who is an easy Yordle to find if you pretend to drop papers around every corner of the upper-levels buildings! I asked him who Vincent was– sans the mention of ‘with the leg,’ as I couldn’t help but feel that comment was a bit mean-spirited. He responded that your name was in fact Viktor, that you have long surpassed what his courses had taught, and are now working on Hextech! Hextech! A Zaunite, working on Hextech! I couldn’t believe it. I said it out loud, to which he politely corrected himself and elaborated on the fact you are one of the founding members. I was ecstatic! Hextech! What serendipity that the man who contributed to a journal I hold in high regard and am using as a primary reference point for my thesis is such a prolific inventor. FOR HEXTECH! AND A ZAUNITE! Excuse the caps.

In my excitement, I told many back home of your position, and … ah, well, that ‘I’ll see it when I believe it’ viewpoint remains as strong as ever. However, it may be for the best that I fell on deaf ears. After much consideration, I came to understand why you would choose not to attach yourself to Hextech. Such is the blight of a Zaunite. Alas, we shall see where Zaunite scientists head, you and I. May we be more than ‘et. al!’

All in all, my kindest wishes and highest regards to you. Best of luck in your endeavors, you … oh, and Jayce, of course! How could I forget the Man of Progress? (No sarcasm intended!)

P.S. I say with the utmost respect, I hope to see your contributions come our way in Zaun!

My friend, I have received letters before. Pleas for funding. Petitions for approval. Veiled attempts at favor through flattery. But not this. Not like this.

What you describe, the vision, the fusion of mind and machine, of biology and movement, is biomechanics. The word itself may be young, but the discipline has always existed, hiding between the seams of anatomy and engineering. And if no one has yet named it properly, then perhaps you shall be the one to do so.

Your tenacity is... remarkable. I never thought anyone would dig that deeply into the old thermodynamics publication, let alone trace it back to me through half-scrubbed initials and whispers. You are correct: I was the “V.” And you are more correct still that no one else in that room gave much thought to the Grey.

You see, data gathered from the fissures? That was my contribution. They saw it as background noise. I saw it as the very condition of Zaunite life.

You say my work has helped yours. But now it is your work that helps me. To hear that someone, down in Zaun, is building, fighting, learning, not for glory, not for patents, not for approval, but for people… it is more than I thought possible.

Hextech… yes. It is a beacon. But it is also a fire, and fire consumes. You, on the other hand, are constructing something from the ashes.

May you never again be "et. al." May your name appear in full. And may it be one that others cite, years from now, with the same awe and determination you’ve shown here.

I pray that the environmental Hextech devices that Jayce and I have been developing reaches you and the rest of Zaun. You may have noticed construction of late on the ventilation system; it is being refitted with Hextech technology to better filter the toxicity.

I wish you all the best in your endeavors. Please, feel free to reach out for supplies, information, or any other support you may need. You know where to reach me.

V.

[yandere-paramour]

Need some reassurance from the yans since I am currently doing my university application coming in from college and still looking at the courses within my chosen interest, which is politics and other such social sciences subjects 🫠

Vivien will always support you in everything you do, but he would be a GREAT trophy husband. If you become a local politician dedicated to changing the environment around you for the better, he would be ecstatic. He would be right beside you at every charity auction, LGBTQ+ rally, and "Science is Real" protest. He would put on an apron and gladly grill thousands of pancakes for your pancake breakfast. He would deliver flowers to your office every week and stay up late making signs. Whenever you give a speech, he would be right there in his cute little floral collared shirt, smiling up at you adorably. All the activist teenagers would love you guys, you would be an absolute power couple. At the end of your term, you would be re-elected, and when you finally retired, they would probably name a building/street/monument after you.

Atalanta encourages you to major in psychology or sociology. She has billions of dollars worth of wealth, and part of being a Montclair is using that money to better both the immediate city and the world around you (remember Jamie built the community center with the attached ballet studio for afterschool enrichment for the city's children). Studying psych/soc is a great way to identify problems with equality and equity within the city and try to do something to fix them. It also will help you understand human, and therefore yandere, behavior, but Ata did not consider that. You can easily learn some good tricks to deal with her.

Noelle doesn't really like the politics angle (too much being outside the apartment), but she highly encourages social sciences like psychology, linguistics, history, sociology, anthropology, and gender studies. Everything is online these days, you can absolutely get a PhD and become the world's leading expert on Ancient Egyptian gender roles or hunter-gatherer baby slings or something. It would be a great way to keep you busy while she's at work, and you would be contributing to the world. She would be endlessly proud of your work and would get you one of those blankets where you can print your dissertation on it.

I'm so happy for you! I was a biology major myself and I do not recommend it ❤️

[crazylittlejester]

Daily brainrot and today I've got a load of headcanons I've been mulling over because they won't leave me alone.

I know we've all done a college AU at some point in our lives, but I was up at like 3 am last night debating over which academia aesthetic each Link embodies because I may have spent way too much time on the aesthetics wiki recently. Did I procrastinate for an hour to work on this? Yes. I have no regrets. YOLO and all that.

Sky -- Definitely has light academia vibes. The man does not own a single dark piece of clothing, and everything in his closet is very soft and cozy. He double majored in aviation and environmental science, but he's debating transferring over to the biology department to pursue grad studies in ornithology.

Time -- He is not in charge of his own wardrobe, okay? Malon picks out his outfits. They match. It's always something tasteful and neutral with a little bit of color, but nothing that marks him as belonging to academia. He's part of the philosophy department and a strict teacher, but the students all love him because he genuinely wants them to do well and lets them know. Most of his work is writing for philosophy journals when he isn't teaching.

Legend -- Has more of a general/miscellaneous aesthetic that leans hard into gender non-conformity. He takes his work with him everywhere and whenever someone asks about it, it goes completely over their heads because they have no idea what he's talking about. There's an ongoing bet about whether his dissertation is about linguistics, sociology, or both.

Hyrule -- I don't think there's a word for his aesthetic, he just gives off "outdoors creature" vibes so hard. He's a cryptid and rarely in the classroom because he's always out doing field work. The most human contact he has is outreach programs with the environmental science and biology departments. No one knows exactly what his grad work is supposed to be because it's incomprehensible combinations of wildlife photos half the time and the other half the time he's off the grid.

Twilight -- This is what happens when cowboys and gothic academia have a kid. It's really freaking weird, but somehow he makes it work, so nobody questions it. He technically works for the agricultural department doing research and outreach programs, but he also haunts the English department and occasionally teaches 100 level literature classes online. The freshmen like him because he rounds grades up.

Four -- An unholy combination of academia and his unique color coding system. You don't know what you're getting until he shows up. He generally wears neutral stuff, but his socks and ties are color coded, much to everyone's chagrin. He's got multiple projects going at any given time and helps out the other departments when they get stuck on details. He's really cagey about his dissertation, but he practically lives in the science & engineering building, so he can't exactly deny that he's doing something in STEM.

Wind -- He tried being fashionable, but as soon as he decided to major in oceanography he was swept away by ocean academia. The amount of blue clothing he has is frankly horrifying, and Warriors is trying to get him to branch out into less garish shades of gray and stop wearing almost exclusively rubber boots as footwear. It's a work in progress.

Warriors -- I think he'd fall under general or queer academia because he'd be fashionable in a mostly-normal-but-also-queer sort of way. Stylish, and fruity. Definitely prefers autumn/winter because that's peak scarf season. He's the kind of guy who manages to casually slip representation into any curriculum you hand him and makes it look natural. He got an assistantship with the history department because the professors love him.

Wild -- 100% chaotic academia and doesn't even have to try. Everything is a mess, but it's his mess, he knows exactly where everything is, and to be honest it's not a safety hazard, so it's fine. Besides, he dresses appropriately for department events, and he's the only grad student that Flora hasn't scared off. No one actually knows which department he belongs to, but he knows something about everything.

IM SO FUCKING OBSESSED WITH THIS YOU HAVE NO IDEA

THESE ARE SO PERFECT AND YOU’RE SO RIGHT ABOUT THEM ALL I LOVE THESE SO MUCH IM SHAKIN EM AROUND LIKE A JAR OF MARBLES

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from The Revelator:

Researchers in Indonesia recently captured a surprising event on video: A wild orangutan named Rakus, with a deep gash on his cheek, harvested liana leaves, chewed them up, and rubbed them on his wound. His cheek healed without infection. As it turns out the plants have anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antifungal, and other chemical properties that help heal wounds.

The great ape saw the plant, recognized the plant, and valued the plant because he knew something about a subject that few humans do anymore: botany.

At a time when our net knowledge about plants keeps growing, our individual understanding of plants is in decline. This is unsurprising, because while we still depend on plants for life, few of us need to know much about them in our daily lives — as long as someone else does. We rely on botanists to identify plants, keep them alive, and in so doing help keep us alive as well.

It’s a lot of responsibility for a group of scientists that isn’t getting any bigger. And that has some people in the field worried.

The National Center for Education Statistics triggered the first alarm about the future of botany in 2015. According to data released that year, the number of annual undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degrees awarded in botany or plant biology in the United States had dropped below 400 for the fifth time since 2007. In 1988 the number of degrees was 545.

The number soon rose again and so far has stayed above 400. In fact it rose to 489 in 2023 — the highest in decades. (By comparison, American universities gave out more than 45,000 marketing degrees last year.)

The definitive downward trend, though, remains in the number of U.S. institutions offering botany or plant biology degrees — from 76 in 2002 to 59 in 2023.

“Botany Ph.D.’s are disappearing,” says Kathryn Parsley, who got her Ph.D. in biology, not botany, even though her dissertation focused on plants. “The number of botanists is declining rapidly and the people filling those spaces are not botanists.” When a biology department has a job vacancy, she says, they tend to hire a professor who has “nothing to do with plants. The department will have all kinds of scientists in it, with only one or maybe two botanists, sometimes only one or two plant scientists at all.” Because she attended one such school, “a botany degree was out of the question,” Parsley says.

While nobody has tracked the average age of botanists in the United States, students of “pure botany” do seem to be waning, according to Kristine Callis-Duehl, the executive director of education research and outreach at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis. “Skills are shifting away from old-school botany. A lot of that’s being driven by funding sources,” she says. “More and more, just being a botanist is not enough in academia.”

Experts agree that in recent years, most botany professors aren’t being replaced once they retire. But why?

Money is one reason. The National Science Foundation, for instance, has shifted its funding away from natural history at herbariums and other museums, Callis-Duehl says. “It’s harder to convince Congress that that work — pure botany — contributes to the economy. They prefer basic science that can lead into more applied science, where they can make a case that it fuels the U.S. economy.”

Applied plant science has more NSF options than botany. For example, agriculture is more likely to be funded by USDA, Callis-Duehl says.

[her-devils-advocate]

Through the Mist | Part 3

pairings: Femshep x Garrus

summary: When a routine mission to rescue and recruit a handful of scientists goes wrong, Shepard and her team are left to fight against something they had never expected to face. Now stranded on a heavily fog-covered planet, they realise there is more to the strange weather than they originally thought, especially when they hear things from beyond the fog; calling for them.

word count: 4,742

ao3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/60592000/chapters/155683033

Part 1 | Part 2

Shepard limps aimlessly around the room. All of Garrus’ consistent protests for her to sit fall on deaf ears as she relentlessly searches every nook and cranny for information. Despite her meticulous rummaging, her attempts lead her to nothing but dead ends. Her hands curl into tightly held fists and despite the thick material protecting her hands, she can still feel her nails digging into her palms. 

The sensation helps to ground her, if only for a fleeting second. A million thoughts begin to rush through her mind as she forms plan after plan, each one falling short for one reason or another; not enough information, not enough visibility, or not enough people.

“You’re not enough,” she thinks briefly, the thought shocking her out of her hyperfocused state. It rattles around her brain, hitting every concealed sore spot with deadly precision.

The lamp flickers, casting an array of shadows around them for a brief second. It was only a slight flicker, barely noticeable under any other circumstance, and yet Shepard felt her lungs constrict. Her past experiences have trained her to assume the worst at all times.

She watches as Garrus falls back into his past C-Sec mode, still scanning through dozens of old reports and making mental notes of anything that stands out to him. He works silently, with the occasional hum breaking her concentration and pulling her amused eyes over to his corner. 

He stands still besides the occasional shuffle to keep his legs awake. The clinking of metal and rustling of paper encase his space while his mind processes everything. She watches him tilt his head to one side, deep in thought, before slowly nodding to himself in agreement—a gesture of hers that has rubbed off on him, no doubt.

“This doesn’t make any sense,” He mumbles to himself, flicking through the same report for the hundredth time. He turns to meet her gaze, gesturing down at the collection of records. “Nothing here seems to be relevant to the planet or the research bases. It’s like someone’s made a collection of random reports to throw people off their trail, nothing is linked.”

“What sort of stuff is it?” She asks wearily, half-expecting the bad news before it had been delivered.

“Noveria stock reports, biology reports on all council species, Attican Beta transport routes, ‘The Art of Live Subjects’: A published dissertation by Dr Ross.” He reads out before dropping the datapad back onto the shelf. “You’d think someone would have left at least one piece of evidence behind.”

“If it was a harmless project that went wrong, then maybe.” She says, her mind filtering through what little information she has. “But from what we’ve seen already, I don’t believe any of this was a mistake.” 

“Cerberus?” Garrus asks, his voice hardening as he struggles to hide the small growl threatening to follow the word.

Shepard simply scrunches up her nose and shakes her head, “It better not be, otherwise I’m going to be even more pissed, but I don’t think it's them this time. As resourceful as they are…The stuff it…” 

She trails off and her shoulders relax when Garrus picks up her sentence for her, “Hm, you’re right. It was far too personal, almost tailored to hurt us in a specific way. Even with their connections, Cerberus couldn’t have that much accuracy on our weaknesses.”

“Yeah, about that, how are you doing?” The words come out hurried, as if speaking of the events might summon a new round within their sanctuary. “I know I said we’ll talk about it on the Normandy, but that was… intense.” 

He gives her a half-hearted shrug, “No better than how you’re probably doing, all things considered. It was weird, but it’s nothing I've not already told myself anyway. You were right before though, we will have time to spill the lions or whatever once we’re back on the Normandy and not waiting for it to strike again.”

That startles a laugh out of her, and if the proud smile on his face is any indication, his plan was a success.

Now safe from what awaits them in the fog, Shepard finally lets herself drop down against the wall. Her armour clunks against itself while she shuffles to rest her injured ankle on top of the other. The pain throbs up her leg, the swollen appendage pressing painfully against the firm fabric of her boots. She lets her head fall back as a new wave of pain washes over her, all the adrenaline that had kept her active now fades away into bone-deep exhaustion. Her mind feels like it’s been set alight, buzzing with ancient anxieties and long-buried memories that have been dredged back to the surface.

Her skin prickles and a heavy weight falls over her like a blanket. Familiar feelings overtake her, feelings that she has since tried to forget: regret, loss, and helplessness. 

It has been a long time since she let the sensation of failure fall over her. With too much to do and far too much to lose, it had been much easier to push them deep down. 

The room suddenly feels too hot, a sickly oppressive feeling seeping in through the cracks and into her flesh. The walls close in on her and Shepard has to bite her tongue to hold back the strangled groan clawing up her throat. She suddenly feels like the scared sixteen-year-old girl she was and not the thirty-two-year-old, battle-hardened woman that she is.

The safety of the building is beginning to feel more and more like a gilded cage, whatever respite she had is being rapidly sucked away from her with each passing second. Something unknown sneaks inside of her, urging her to move. The stillness burns at her flesh.

“This is all your fault, you brought them here. And now one of them is lost, dealing with who knows what.” Something whispers in the back of her mind in an unrelenting caricature of her voice.

“Do you think James is alright?” She asks if only to drown out the thought. Her eyes are trained firmly on the ceiling.

Garrus pauses his work for a moment as he considers her question, “We’ve gone through worse so I doubt he’s in trouble. He probably got the lucky side of things and reached the others to let them know the situation.”

“Have we?” Shepard’s voice is quiet, almost a whisper as she lets her eyes fall shut. “Gone through worse, I mean.”

“Shepard?” The concerned trill of his subvocals floats around her, loud enough to fill the small room.

“Can you honestly say you’ve been through worse than what we’re currently up against? It’s not like we can exactly shoot our way, or talk our way, through this.”

“Well…Yeah, I can, Shepard.” His voice is tense and he awkwardly shuffles to lean against the wall, idly adjusting his gloves just to have something to do with his hands. “We’ve already gone through the stuff it’s throwing at us. As much as it hurts to re-experience, it’s not exactly new to us, in a way.”

That catches her attention and she slowly drops her eyes from the ceiling to fall upon him. She can’t read his expression, which is rare for her after all the time spent by his side, yet the look in his eyes causes her heart to crack.

“Garrus… I’m sorry, you’re right. What would I do without you?” She lets out a long breath, feeling her lungs and eyes burn. 

“We both know you would kick just as much ass with or without me, Shepard. I’m just here so you can do it in style.” He tries to joke, but the words come out too slowly, his voice wavering with each word. “I’m scared as well, for the record.”

Her eyes fly open and her head snaps to look in his direction. Garrus is avoiding her gaze, purposefully shuffling his evidence around as if it could drown out his admission. Her protective instinct wakes up from its slumber and she slowly rises to her feet. She has to use the wall as leverage, palming at it firmly while she shuffles over to the door. She runs her hand through her long hair, parts of it falling loose from the braid she wears during missions. 

“Where are you going?” Garrus asks warily, refusing to look away from her.

“To get some air and to check our surroundings, there’s no point in having both of us cooped up in here. I might as well make sure nothing is trying to break in while you scan through all those.” She waves her hand in the direction of his small pile of records and datapads, neither of them willing to address the way her hand trembles.

“Are you insane, Shepard?” He counters automatically, his voice echoing in the space between them. She turns to stare at him with a single, slender eyebrow raised. He breathes in slowly, holding his breath as he considers his words. “Look, we don’t know what we’re up against. It’s your call, but… I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“Alright, so I’ll stick my head out of the door and shoot anything that approaches,” she says bluntly.

“Spirits, Shepard.”

“We’re never going to know what we’re up against if we stay hidden away in here, Garrus.” She argues before relenting, giving him an apologetic smile. “Look, I understand your concern. I’ll keep the door open and I won’t leave your line of sight unless it’s strictly necessary, okay?”

Garrus gives Shepard a long look before slowly nodding. He turns to lean against the wall so he can watch her, grumbling something about “stubborn humans going to give their boyfriend an aneurysm” under his breath the entire time. She gives him a soft look before flaring her barrier and letting its soft, blue light encase her form.

She opens the door slowly, her body thrumming with built-up biotic energy at the ready. The air is still as if the breeze they felt upon their arrival never existed. The pair hold their breaths as the fog snakes its way into the room, yet nothing follows. The night is silent, no shuffling or groans breach the darkness. She strains her ears to be certain, not wanting to be ambushed by god knows what, but the only thing she hears is the frantic thumping of her heart. Shepard lets out a relieved sigh, her body keeping up its protective glow.

“See, everything is fine.” She says casually, her tense shoulders doing little to help her calm facade. 

“Sure, but that doesn’t explain where the horde of corpses went. They have to be out there somewhere.” Garrus calls from his corner, watching her like a hawk. 

Shepard shakes her head as the fog curls around her, feeling heavy on her flesh. She lifts her arm and extends it out of the door, she’s mesmerised by how it floats around her and sneaks into the small gaps in her armour. “Do they?”

Garrus cocks his head at her, he carefully places the datapad to one side before rising to his feet. She watches him for a moment before turning her head to stare outside. She lets the fresh air wash over her, cooling her skin. As she stares deeper into the darkness, not a single star or moon in the sky above, she spots something. Someone.

She squints, willing her eyes to focus while her hand twitches with the urge to grab her rifle; if only to feel the comforting weight of it in her hands. The figure moves closer and the fog almost seems to part itself to reveal the person within. She feels her heart stop before solace sparks through it instead.

“Vega?” She calls, hope blooming in the words. She’s already moving, letting the fog pull her further outside. “Garrus, stay here.”

She hears Garrus sprint forward, not caring about damaging any of the reports scattered around him as he reaches to grab Shepard’s arm. 

She’s too quick and is instantly swallowed by the consuming darkness, leaving nothing but mist in his grasp.

“Shepard?” Garrus shouts into the night, the words coming out frantic. She turns to give him a reassuring smile, only to find that she is alone. Her smile becomes strained and her cheeks begin to ache from the expression now frozen upon her face. 

Where the building had been just a second ago now sits an empty void, fog and darkness as her only companions. She closes her eyes and inhales deeply, the thick air sticking to the back of her throat. A rare, yet naive part of her hopes that once she opens her eyes, she will be back in the room. Garrus will be in his corner complaining about a lack of evidence. 

Too late to regret her every move, she exhales slowly. She opens her eyes to stare into nothingness once more.

She grits her teeth, “Garrus, can you hear me? I can’t see you.” Her words come out desperate, her lower lip beginning to wobble. There is no answer and she has to bite back the shaky sigh that threatens to escape her. “For fuck’s sake.”

Her heart begins to race and her hands begin to shake, but she pushes forward towards James. She had already let him slip from her side once before, this time she refuses to let him be snatched away.

“Garrus will be fine, he’s inside the base. Just grab Vega and find wherever the base is. Then we will get the hell out of here.” She mutters to herself, believing her own words less and less. 

She hobbles over to the younger soldier, glad to see that he’s unharmed despite everything that’s happened. She reaches out to pat him on the shoulder but makes no contact, her hand slides right through him as he flickers in the fog.

“...James?”

“Commander,” he answers, his voice disjointed and wrong.

She stares up at him, her pale eyes morphing into a glare. “What are you?”

James lets out a low laugh, the sound coming out deeper than normal. “Can’t you tell, Lola? Aren’t you supposed to be smart?”

She freezes, completely taken aback by his words. The eager lieutenant would never dare to speak to her like that. She wants to argue, to demand what it’s done with her squad member, but James pins her with a cold look.

“Nah, I guess you’ve always relied on luck, haven’t you?” He begins to circle her like a shark, the movements are sharp and jagged compared to his usually casual actions. “Is luck gonna win us this war, Commander?”

“I don’t know what you are, but you’re wrong,” she replies while his words stab at her heart. “We are going to win this war, all of us, united together to defeat the reapers.”

“Uh-huh. How can you unite a galaxy when you can’t even help yourself, Commander?” James looks her up and down, appraising her before scoffing, the action expells a small puff of fog from his lips. Shepard feels a hot flush of anger and moves to jab a finger at his chest, feeling more fury when she simply phases through him.

“I don’t know what you are talking about considering we’ve done a fairly good job so far. We have the turians, the krogan, the quarians, the geth, and even the rachni.”

James just smiles, his eyes dull and void of life. “What about the asari? What about Thessia?”

She bristles, white-hot guilt running through the fresh scar. Since the invasion of Earth, things haven’t been perfect, but Thessia was a whole new level of misery for her. Shepard’s jaw tenses and her teeth grind together while she slowly builds her composure back up, small brick by brick. “Thessia was…a failure.”

“Yup,” he drags the word out, letting the sharp pop of the word ring through Shepard’s ears. “Maybe that’s why you’ve been so careless, Lola.”

“What?” She asks coolly.

“It’s not like you to rush in so carelessly, is all I’m saying. You hardly had any info and it’s not like it was a time-sensitive mission. But you just charged in and dragged us into hell with you, all because Hackett asked nicely.” He replies, his tone equally unfriendly as his eyes bore into hers. “What were you hoping to achieve with this mission, Commander? Redemption? Payback? To prove that you are still worthy of our support?”

“I was…” She clears her throat, letting conviction fill her voice, “I was doing my damn job. We need people to build the catalyst, so Hackett sent me to get people.” 

The figure with James’ face just laughs, the sound is harsh and ragged against her ears. She clenches her hands into fists, teeth digging into her cheek as she stares at him. She watches as his mirthful face warps and flutters before he fades from sight, “keep believing that and you will stay lost, Lola.”

Shepard is left alone in the darkness. She is alone and cold, and as much as she would rather die than admit it out loud, she is very afraid. The black void around her sinks into her heart, weighing it down. 

She drops to her knees and her armour cushions her fall. She presses her forearms against the ground, leaning against them and feels as if her body is made out of lead. She lets her head drop, her inky hair covering her face as she struggles to breathe.

Her chest is tight, too tight to allow enough air to pass through her lungs. Her chest burns with each attempt. Her fingers curl against the floor, digging in as deep as they can as she gasps for air. Panic claws at Shepard’s throat with an icy touch, her fingers move of their own accord to mimic its ghostly caress; her chest begins to heave with every syncopated breath.

“What a sight,” she mutters miserably, “the renowned commander on her knees in the middle of a mission. Another mission that I’ve fucked up as well.”

A gentle touch on her shoulder sharply brings her back to the present and she jumps to her feet with a strangled gasp, instantly unholstering her rifle in the process. Her muscles ache from how tightly she holds herself together and she stares up at the turian standing in front of her with wide eyes.

“Garrus?” She chokes out as she lowers her weapon and attaches it to her back. She gives him a watery smile as she moves closer, seeking comfort in his presence. “You startled me there, big guy. Did you have to sneak up on me like that?”

He just shrugs, his mandibles flicking out too quickly for her to discern the emotion.

“Did you find anything?” She asks quickly.

He repeats the action, looking over her head and deeper into the night. Shepard tenses and crosses her arms against her chest to hide the shiver that shoots through her.

“Did something happen to you as well?” She tries again, trying not to take offence when he simply looks away again and begins walking away. “It’s alright, Garrus. It’s difficult now, but we will make it back home.”

She has to scramble to catch up with him, his longer legs letting him cover more ground. Worry gnaws away at her while she watches him out of the corner of her eye. He wears an expression that she can’t quite pinpoint, his mandibles are too stiff and his eyes are unfocused. Without any warning, his pace begins to quicken, turning into a small jog. She tries to match his pace and her ankle protests with each step as she runs alongside him.

She grits her teeth and pushes through the pain, refusing to leave his side again. His silence unnerves her. Each moment slips by without a word, only the sound of their boots hitting the floor and her muffled groans accompany them.

He comes to a sudden halt, staring down at the ground with a frown.

“Garrus, what’s wrong?”

“You really wouldn’t be able to do anything without me, would you?” His voice cracks out at her like a whip, the duel tones of his voice ringing out with his discomfort.

“What do you mean? Where is this coming from?” She keeps her voice sharp, hoping that the bluntness of her regular ‘commander voice’ can hide the hurt within.

“Where is this coming from?” He repeats, disbelief colouring his words. “Maybe the fact that I have done everything for you. I left my job at C-Sec to follow you. I was ready to throw away my life for your suicide mission. I am the only reason you haven’t worked yourself to death and lost us this damn war.”

She opens her mouth to reply, but no words come out. Garrus stares at her before rolling his eyes and continuing, “But what have you done for me, Shepard? You weren’t even there for me when my mother died.”

“Garrus, I was under Alliance custody. I would have done everything in my power to support you regardless. But I was locked up without any form of contact or information.” Her voice wavers and she can feel her pulse race.

He moves closer, now towering over her. She refuses to meet his eyes, unable to cope with what she might see in them.

“You always have an excuse, don’t you?” He lets out a hollow laugh, moving closer. “And why were you in Alliance custody again? Does the number three thousand and five hundred ring any bells?”

Shepard feels something snap inside her, a burning coil that warms her chest and laces her tongue with a bitterness she only reserved for the mirror. “No, you do not get to use that against me. You don’t get to use any of that against me. It was the Bahak system or the galaxy, I didn’t have much of a choice and you know that. I know you do.”

He gives a lazy shrug. His mandibles flick out and he opens his mouth to reply before she interrupts him, “I’m not finished. You have always had the choice to follow me, so don’t put that on me if you’re regretting it now.”

“Yes, because you are perfect and can do no wrong.” He moves closer, the fog growing more opaque. 

“I never said that.” She argues, her vision wavers with the tears she refuses to let fall in front of him.

“That’s why you worked with a terrorist organisation.” He takes another step, ignoring her distress.

“That’s not why, I had no choice.” She takes a step back, his face distorts and warps as he follows her.

The air around her drops, and her skin freezes when she looks back at Garrus. His features are now missing entirely, nothing more than a shadowed figure flickering in the fog.

“You always have a choice, maybe you just pick the bad option every time, Shepard.” His voice is followed by the familiar static, ringing loudly in her ears.

Shepard flinches, startled by the sudden, almost deafening noise. Her heel catches on something hard sticking out of the ground and she topples backwards. She throws her hands out to soften her fall, trying to prevent yet another sprain. Her eyes are shut tight as she tries to keep her tears from falling. 

When she finally sits up and reluctantly opens her eyes, the figure is gone. 

She remains on the floor, her limbs suddenly feeling heavier than an elcor as hot tears begin to flow down her cheeks. Her heart pounds against its skeletal case with a frantic beat and she has to bite down on her fist to muffle a sob. Fury and anguish dance inside of her, mixing and stealing away what resolve she had left. Her body begins to shiver, growing worse with each sob.

Something sharp pokes against her thigh. There's something solid and freezing protruding from the ground, but Shepard can’t find the strength to move from her position. She would have to move eventually, too many lives depend on her continued survival, but for now, she lets the shock wash over her; far too tired to fight against it. The fog sits heavily against her tears, sticking against the wet trails they’ve left down her cheeks.

A sudden tap in the distance breaks her out of her wallowing. She tilts her head to listen, the sound repeating in a soothing pattern. 

The taps grow louder, the rhythm becoming more recognisable as they grow closer. The sound of boots against stone. Heavy boots. 

She curls her hand into a fist, letting her biotics flow down to cover it in a shield, waiting for her to strike. She remains frozen on the ground, letting the fog wash over to cover her. She has never felt more like the predator and prey than she does in this moment.

She hears the familiar click of a thermal clip sliding into a rifle. It causes her to flinch and she whips around with a dizzying speed. She darts towards the figure, her glowing blue fist raised to strike. Her biotics drown them in a bright light and moments before she makes contact, she spots a very stunned turian staring back at her through the blue haze.

Shepard quickly pulls her fists back, letting the power die and taking the light with it.

“Spirits, Shepard. I didn’t realise that was you.” Garrus powers up his omni-tool, shining it in her direction to get a better look.

“No, get away from me,” she commands as more tears rush down her cheeks. They glitter in the orange glow of his omni-tool. “Not again, I don’t want to do this again.”

He falters for a moment, watching as she shrinks away. He watches as she hunches over, gripping her chest tightly as she struggles to breathe. Garrus ignores her order and reaches for her. He gently places his hand on her elbow, pulling her closer to him so he can press his forehead against hers.

“Shepard, sweetie… What happened?” His voice is a whisper and his fingers curl in her hair, grounding and soothing her with each stroke. She is tense, but the more she breathes in the familiar scent of metal and gun oil, she feels her traitorous body begin to relax.

“You’re not real.” Her voice cracks at the admission. 

“You are Commander Raven Shepard. The best damn CO I’ve had the pleasure to serve under, the most reckless one as well. You are also the kindest woman I’ve met and the love of my life. Shepard, I’m here, this isn’t a trick.” He moves to nuzzle her, wiping away the rest of her tears with his hand. She lets out a soft sigh when he moves to cup her cheek, gently stroking her cheekbone with his thumb.

“Then the stuff you said. You didn’t mean it?”

“The stuff it said was wrong.” He sighs and Shepard feels his hand shake against her skin. “If it was anything like what I had thrown at me, then yeah, it was wrong.”

That gets her attention and her head snaps up to look at him, her eyes shine more than sadness now. “What happened?”

Garrus rubs the back of his neck with the hand not clutching her, as if she might slip away again. “Oh, you know, the usual. I’m sure we will have a day-long mission debrief to go through all the wonderful experiences we’ve had.”

“But are you alright?” She questions, catching his hand and holding it tightly. She rubs small circles on the back of his hand.

“I feel like I should be asking you that.”

“Well, you know, the usual,” she echoes, giving him a small smile before rolling her shoulders and taking a deep breath. “So, James wasn’t actually James. Which still leaves us a squad member down.”

Garrus lets out a small hum as he surveys the new area they’ve reluctantly found themselves in. “So, something is trying to separate us? It would make sense, or maybe…”

He trails off, letting his words fizzle out when he nudges something with the tip of his boot. The loud clank of his heavy armour hitting its target confirms his thoughts.

Shepard watches as he squints, waving his omni-tool closer to the ground. “Shepard, this looks like a hatch. There’s something below us.”

[plethoraworldatlas]

As U.S. conservationists continue to fight for federal protections that would cover gray wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains, research released Wednesday highlights just how important the apex predators are to the western United States.

The study was published in the journal BioScience and led by William Ripple, a scientist at Oregon State University (OSU) and the Conservation Biology Institute known for his work on trophic cascades and carnivores as well as his demands for climate action.

The paper uses gray wolves to show the trouble with "shifting baselines," which, "in ecology encapsulate the gradual and often unnoticed alterations in ecosystems over time, leading to a redefinition of what is considered normal or baseline conditions."

As the study details:

Gray wolves (Canis lupus) in North America have experienced a substantial contraction of their historical range, at one point almost disappearing from the contiguous 48 United States. However, their conservation is important in part because of the potential cascading effects wolves can have on lower trophic levels. Namely, the proliferation and changes to behavior and density of large herbivores following the extirpation or displacement of wolves can have major effects on various aspects of vegetation structure, succession, productivity, species composition, and diversity, which, in turn, can have implications for overall biodiversity and the quality of habitat for other wildlife.

"By the 1930s, wolves were largely absent from the American West, including its national parks," Ripple said in a statement. "Most published ecological research from this region occurred after the extirpation of wolves."

"This situation underscores the potential impact of shifting baselines on our understanding of plant community succession, animal community dynamics, and ecosystem functions," he continued.

The researchers examined journal articles, master's theses, and Ph.D. dissertations from 1955 to 2021 that involved field work in national parks in the northwestern United States for whether they included information on the removal of gray wolves.

They found that "in total, approximately 41% (39 of 96) of the publications mentioned or discussed the historical presence of wolves or large carnivores, but most (approximately 59%) did not. The results for the theses and journal articles were similar."

While the researchers focused on wolves, Robert Beschta, co-author and emeritus professor at OSU, noted that "in addition to the loss or displacement of large predators, there may be other potential anthropogenic legacies within national parks that should be considered, including fire suppression, invasion by exotic plants and animals, and overgrazing by livestock."

Ripple stressed that "studying altered ecosystems without recognizing how or why the system has changed over time since the absence of a large predator could have serious implications for wildlife management, biodiversity conservation, and ecosystem restoration."

"We hope our study will be of use to both conservation organizations and government agencies in identifying ecosystem management goals," he added.

Amaroq Weiss, senior wolf advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), welcomed the study, tellingInside Climate News that "I think this is a really important paper, because sometimes science advances at a certain rate without a self-introspection."

"Nature is a really complex tapestry," she said. "It's woven together by threads that hold it together and keep it strong. When you start to pull threads out like you remove apex predators, the whole thing begins to unravel."

The paper comes amid a wolf conservation battle that involves Weiss' group. In February, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) determined that Endangered Species Act protections for the wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains were "not warranted."

Two coalitions of conservation organizations, including CBD, swiftly filed notices of their intent to sue over the decision if FWS didn't change course. After the legally required 60-day notice period passed, they filed the lawsuits in April.

Earlier this week, "the cases were voluntarily dismissed and immediately refiled to avoid any potential arguments from the defendants that the plaintiffs failed to give the secretary of the interior proper 60-days' notice under the Endangered Species Act," Collette Adkins, an attorney who leads CBD's Carnivore Conservation program, told Common Dreams in an email Thursday.

"Plaintiffs believe that their case was properly noticed," she said, "but we refiled to avoid any further disruption of the proceedings."

[coochiequeens]

As someone from Connecticut, I knew as soon as I saw Yale my reaction would be an eyeroll.

By Jennifer Lahl May 13, 2025

About the Author

Jennifer Lahl (MA, BSN, RN) is the founder of The Center for Bioethics and Culture. She has produced several important documentaries that can be viewed for free on YouTube. Follow Jennifer on X: @JenniferLahl

At some of the most prestigious universities in the world, ideas once confined to fringe online communities and personal blogs are now published in academic journals and treated as legitimate scholarship. These aren’t just strange thought experiments—they’re full-blown efforts to “queer” biology, reimagine pregnancy without women, and reshape medical ethics in ways that downplay the health of unborn children. What used to sound like satire is now shaping how doctors are trained and how healthcare is delivered.

I work in reproductive technology, so I read a lot of research on fertility and pregnancy. Most of it is scientific and straightforward. But lately, I’ve been seeing more and more papers that ignore biology entirely in favor of ideology. I wrote previously about one such paper that argued we should question our desire for “normal fetal outcomes” during pregnancy—especially when the pregnant person is taking testosterone as part of a gender transition. The authors actually suggested that helping people have healthy babies might be too focused on “normative bodies,” and that staying on high doses of testosterone while pregnant is fine. It was unscientific and dangerous.

But then I came across a paper that took things even further.

It’s called “Transfeminist Pregnancy: Reproductive Speculation, Genre, and Desire,” written by Carlo Sariego, a Ph.D. candidate in Yale’s joint program in Sociology and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Sariego, who uses they/them pronouns, does research exploring gender, sexuality, medicine, and science from a sociological point of view. Sariego’s dissertation, titled “Repro Futures: Transgender Reproductive Politics, Justice, and Time in the United States,” is about dismantling the idea of pregnancy itself.

In this particular paper, Sariego argues that pregnancy isn’t just something that happens to female bodies, and that trans women—biological males—can also “experience” pregnancy through three ideas: transition, performance, and labor. Sariego claims that only by reimagining pregnancy through a “transfeminist” lens can we move beyond outdated ideas rooted in biology.

It may sound bizarre—and it is—but this kind of thinking is becoming more common in academic circles. And because these ideas are starting to affect real-world medicine and policy, they need to be taken seriously—and challenged.

Let’s take a closer look.

The paper argues that “only a transfeminist re-theorisation of pregnancy can reach meaningfully beyond bodily gestation,” and laments that current research on “trans pregnancies” has focused too heavily on trans men and nonbinary individuals “to the detriment of the fertile experiences of trans women.” Sariego asserts that “pregnancy need not imply a cis body,” and proposes that “pregnancy can potentially establish a shared ground between trans and cis women.” In short, the paper claims that men can participate in pregnancy conceptually through three categories: transition, performance, and labor.

This thesis directly challenges basic biology and raises obvious questions about how these ideas could be applied in any real medical setting. The entire paper is speculative and theoretical, making it hard to pin down what exactly Sariego is proposing—or how it might help a physician provide better care to a pregnant patient. Sariego’s challenge to the biological basis of pregnancy ignores the fact that those biological realities form the foundation for how we define women in both medicine and law—and for how we care for pregnant women and their unborn children.

Even more concerning is the way Sariego misrepresents existing legal language to support their argument. For example, in the paper’s introduction, Sariego cites Texas House Bill 2690 and claims it defines a woman as “an individual with a uterus, regardless of any gender identity.” But that’s not what the bill actually says.

Here’s the full definition from HB 2690, The Woman and Child Safety Act:

“Woman” means an individual whose biological sex is female, including an individual with XX chromosomes and an individual with a uterus, regardless of any gender identity that the individual attempts to assert or claim.

Sariego’s misrepresentation of the bill by inappropriately truncating the definition distorts the legislative context and weakens its perceived credibility. It’s also worth noting that HB 2690, which was never passed, aimed to criminalize abortion-inducing medication. That has nothing to do with reimagining who can get pregnant. Since abortion can only be performed on pregnant women, the bill’s relevance to Sariego’s argument is questionable at best.

No matter where you stand on abortion, this bill has nothing to do with so-called “trans pregnancies.” Misrepresenting it doesn’t help the argument—it just makes the reader less likely to trust the author’s conclusions.

From there, Sariego lays out the “problem” as they/them see it: that reproductive medicine is “stuck,” in part, because “reproductive science and medicine are shaped by rigid gender roles” and that transgender pregnancies are underexplored—especially when it comes to trans women. Sariego claims that “anti-trans and gender-critical feminists use reproduction to argue for a ‘sex-based’ theory of pregnancy.”

But might that be because pregnancy is sex-based? It requires a female to produce an egg and a male to produce sperm. There’s no way around that. Yet Sariego insists we should reject the idea that “the view that pregnancy is exclusive to female bodies.”

To support this view, the paper divides pregnancy into three “sub-genres”—transition, performance, and labor—meant to help us reimagine pregnancy “beyond the cis/trans divide.” But these categories are abstract, ideological, and disconnected from biology. They don’t help us understand how to better care for patients. They simply shift focus away from evidence-based medicine and toward ideological storytelling.

Still, Sariego structures the paper around these three categories. So let’s take a closer look at each of them—transition, performance, and labor—to understand what they’re really arguing, and why these claims fall apart under scrutiny.

Transition

Sariego frames gender transition as analogous to pregnancy, suggesting that both involve bodily change, transformation, and the emergence of new possibilities. In this view, pregnancy and gender transition create solidarity between cis women and trans women because both undergo what Sariego calls a “process of becoming.”

See the rest of the article

[distinguishedfifty]

Thank you @its-always-silly-season for this academic au idea. This is so fun. I did leave some riders blank bc I’m just unsure. Feel free (anyone) to make additions or what you think past or present riders would be doing

Marc M: statistics professor. Some people think stats is too different to math, but he’s found his way and has convinced many of his undergrad students to consider stats

Alex M: has his MBA, working in the industry as a consultant, but Marc is trying to get him back to academia (Álex doesn’t like the idea of going back to school for 5 years and then fighting it out in academia)

Alex R: art history professor. He thought he found funding for a post doctorate at a uni, but it fell through (they’re cutting the arts). Is now here teaching

Joan: philosophy professor, but is in his 1st year of teaching this university. He came from another uni bc they defunded his department and is trying to find his footing

Taka: architecture professor. Usually around in the architecture building helping his students and trying to tell them to not pull all nighters getting their designs finished

Bezz: Got his bachelors in math and currently on a PhD track. However, is debating on testing out and leaving with his masters

Pecco: in his last year of his PhD, and getting ready to defend his dissertation where he focuses more on differential equations. He’s great at memorizing

Franky: got his phd in philosophy and Vale is trying to get him a professor position in his department. He actually has his undergrad in literature, but loves writing even more

Luca: got his bachelors in computer science and is getting his masters in computer science. Debating on getting his phd in computer science since he likes the idea of working in the industry

Jack: marine biologist and is known to take his students on wild boat rides. He will take over campus tours when they’re in the marine biology building

Brad: a professor in the medical school. He used to be an ER doctor and volunteers his summers with Doctors Without Borders. Makes sure every professor gets their flu shot or else he will be visiting them in their office hours

Pol: music professor that focuses on piano. Will take any student and go on a tangent on how special the piano is

Augusto:

Aleix: works in the law school, but has a heavy hand in telling prelaw students to get their law degree here too. Additionally, he is on the faculty senate. One day he will get everyone to unionize

Maverick: contrary to popular belief, Maverick is actually an air traffic controller professor and not an aviation professor. He used to be in the industry, but it’s a very stressful and underemployed industry. Figured he’d make more change in trying to get more air traffic controllers to fix this

Miguel: languages professor that was the first to bring the Portuguese track to this uni

Raúl:

Fabio: getting his phd in statistics. Actually getting ready to make the leap from phd student to PhD candidate

Diggia:

Jorge M: is getting his phd in gender and queer studies. He’s writing his dissertation on gender and queer identities in sports. He petitioned for a safe space to be created on campus and is working on getting a section of the undergrad dorms to be just for students that identify as queer

Johann: music professor and focuses on the guitar. He also is the choir professor

Dani: languages department chair. Since he is the dept chair, he doesn’t teach much, but students would do questionable things to get into his class. Ensures enough funding and resources are available to keep Catalan studies

Jorge L: business department chair. He has his undergrad in psychology, but went on to get his MBA and PhD in international business. Will use a weekend to travel to a different country and observe their business practices

Vale: math department chair. Theoretical math bc he’s insane. You should hear him talk about the 4th dimension

Dovi: psychology professor. Has his masters in counseling and his psyD. He makes sure his students know how taxing it can be to become a therapist. He may or may not still have a practice, but his fellow professors come to him anyways. One day he found a couch in his office and he never asked for it to be moved

[selfdiagnosedeyemotif]

Chapter One (Tyrri):

Short prologue with 19-year-old Tyrri showing her concept for her dissertation to her professor: A Study on the Interactions of Ecology and Magic in the Farlands

“Tyrri… this is a lot. Are you sure that you can -” “YES I CAN PROFESSOR”

Might include a real actual smash cut just for this scene because that would be HILARIOUS

The ship is mostly populated by ordinary cargo workers, with a small quarters belowdecks for the handful of scholars from the University of Cunningsworth that are heading over

Scrutinise tutorial introduces our main cast of characters: Elias and Lia Aegir, Sebastian Ararius, and Catena Novi

Elias is like. The stereotypical rich one. I know I’m so creative but most of these guys aren’t gonna show up much save for one.

He’s not a bad guy though, just a little disconnected from the others

He’s headed to the Farlands with his research partner and sister, Lia, to study a specific group of local birds that they believe may share an evolutionary ancestor with common Howlers back on the mainland but had diverged from them long ago

Lia is a lot more grounded than her brother but still has that very rich girl feel to her

They’re both nice people just a little… eccentric

Might give them a postgame side quest

Sebastian is a geologist looking to study the bluffs on the northwest of the Farlands (across the Sea Unsundered from the Fjordlands)

A bit more of your classic looking in a book and is surprised when you talk to him because didn’t notice you kinda guy

Not a lot of notes on him

Catena is sitting on the bunk above where Tyrri sleeps and is constantly scrawling in a notebook

Tyrri also notably is a notebook girlie and tries to strike up conversation with her about that and gets shut down HARD

Catena (Tyrri quickly starts calling her “Cat”, with no response still) fully does not talk to anyone throughout the entire trip

Her bunk is also covered in papers. Like so many.

She’s the only other scholar of magic besides Tyrri but isn’t talking to people so she can’t swap ideas and by ALEPHAN please talk to me I want to know your RESEARCH

CAT. CAT PLEASE TALK TO ME.

Sorry about that Tyrri got a hold of the keyboard there

After making landfall in the exploratory colony of Seekersgate (the only town in the Farlands), Tyrri quickly starts moving to get out into the vast world and collect some SAMPLES. Let’s GO. (Okay apparently slipping slightly into character is gonna be like. my new thing for this outline. fun stuff)

Synergise tutorial with just chatting with townsfolk that night. Most of the residents are scholars so after a lively discussion (represented by a fight) a lot of them will just say “this kid’s got some really cool ideas” and join you in your endeavours

Poke around on some forest paths for a while before happening upon a spring over and over (seems like a lot of the paths lead to it)

Jump back into cutscene mode for a research timelapse (lesgo)

Tyrri gradually comes to the conclusion that not only are many of the island’s magical creatures concentrated in this area, many of them also trace back to this one particular spring (this conclusion is made with some help from the siblings Aegir, who are more than happy to do some cool biology stuff with you)

With the help of Sebastian, who pinpoints the source of the spring as being a certain underground cavern, Tyrri is able to go on a little journey underground and find…

The First Dungeon: The Otherworldly Wellspring

This dungeon (which sadly doesn’t exist) is just such a treat for the eyes

Little streams of water lit up by glowing pink-and-purple crystals that stud the walls

It’s… bright, strangely, considering that it’s underground

No ideas for what kind of enemies we’d be fighting here sorry…

Anyways reaching the end of this place, Tyrri and Sebastian find themselves at a lake (he’s your helper for the fight ahead)

The duo start to take samples of the water, but as they start taking samples of the crystals themselves, they find that they lose their shine as soon as they’re chipped off of the walls of the cave

And something doesn’t like that they’re trying to take the crystals.

Emerging from the centre of the lake is a sea serpent that, uncoiled, easily could reach through the entire path to the underground lake out into the daylight (she is SO coiled up)

Tyrri and Sebastian quickly conclude that there is no way to run from them, they’ll just catch up

They refuse to listen to your claims that you were doing this for science and didn’t plan on being invasive, kicking off…

The First Boss: Guardian of the Wellspring

Starting things off with a fun magic snake

It has one bite attack but other than that it’s running magic

Element-wise there’s a focus on fire/ice/lightning (we’ll be seeing a lot of that in this story even outside of Tyrri’s moveset)

Not a ton of notes on this guy sorry

After a certain point: a lot of coils come out of the water, all of them are weak to Lightning, prompts Latent Power

In terms of help Sebastian has mostly skills focused on SP (probably one to restore his own and one to restore Tyrri’s)

Might have Lightning Bolt I haven’t decided yet

After the battle, the serpent calms down enough to listen to reason

Is very conspicuously trying to hide a passage that leads further down into the cave, Tyrri and Sebastian politely don’t mention it until they leave the cave

Says that the crystals draw their magic from the island itself; but the water is steeped with magic and it wouldn’t be too much of a problem to take a little to study

The duo exits the cave, talks a bit about the passage leading deeper, and separates

It isn’t focused on but if you look in the background after this scene concludes Catena is hiding behind a tree, listening in

Tyrri, holding a few test tubes of cave water in her bag, realises that she’ll need a bit of help deciphering its magical secrets and hops on the next ship that could take her back to the mainland, bound for the University of Cunningsworth

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

How to avoid falling for Faction Paradox Propaganda and Time Lord (both, the Great Houses and the House Military) Propaganda?

How do I avoid falling for Faction Paradox propaganda?

Here's your unofficial guide to not falling for the mind-bending tricks of Faction Paradox:

🧠 Question Everything: Remember, Faction Paradox members love a good mind twist. When confronted with their spiel, ask yourself, "would believing this make me want to wear a skull mask and dance around bonfires?" If yes, double-check the source.

📚 History Is Your BFF: Gallifrey's past is more tangled than Rapunzel, but if you can, try and learn a little lore to sniff out when someone's trying to rewrite the history books to their liking.

🤝 Embrace the Echo Chamber... Not: Break free, human! Listen to the Time Lord's ramblings, read the undergraduate's dissertations, and even listen to that guy in the corner muttering about "the end of time." Diverse opinions are the antidote to brainwashing.

🕵️ Emotions - The Sneaky Culprit: Beware when the Faction starts playing an emotional tune. If you find yourself tearing up or burning with rage at their tales, it's time to get outta there.

🔍 Temporal Jargon Bingo: "Frozen in time" and "paradoxes" sound cool to lesser lifeforms, but if you can play bingo with their jargon, it's propaganda.

🚫 Indoctrination - Not Today, Satan: If your new Faction Paradox pals start insisting their way is the only way, it's time to go.

🛡️ Psychic Defense 101: If you're psychically inclined, remember to keep those mental shields up.

Time Lords and Great Houses

We shall not be offering any reply to the question of propoganda in Time Lords. Time Lords are paragons of virtue led by the infallible Rassilon, making Gallifreyan narratives pristine and unblemished. When Rassilon speaks, it's poetry, a symphony of truth that resonates through the vortex. Rassilon's hallowed words are absolutely not propaganda, and we know this, because Rassilon said so.

Related:

💬|🏡🧬What are the top ten Houses for weird biology?: How Houses affect biological traits in Gallifreyan society, ranked by weirdness.

💬|🏡👪What does a traditional family/House dynamic look like?: Houses and their internal structures.

💬|🏡😈What benefits of Time Lord biology does a fully initiated member of House Paradox gain upon initiation?: Biological advantages for those of Faction Paradox.

Hope that helped! 😃

Any purple text is educated guesswork or theoretical. More content ... →📫Got a question? | 📚Complete list of Q+A and factoids →😆Jokes |🩻Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts →🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (pending) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine Guides →📝Source list (WIP) →📜Masterpost If you're finding your happy place in this part of the internet, feel free to buy a coffee to help keep our exhausted human conscious. She works full-time in medicine and is so very tired😴

[tutorsindia152]

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[celestie0]

ELLIEE, i was listening to the ihm playlist while i was studying molecular biology (save me pls) and i just wanted to tell you that it’s such an amazing playlist ‼️ i mean.. SWEET NOTHING?? BEGIN AGAIN?? .. THAT MASTERPIECE OF PEACE ?? i could go on talking bout this playlist i swearr !!

+ you literally shouldve seen my face when delicate, champagne problems AND photograph started playing.. ugh, i love those songs soo much ☹️

the new chapter was amazing as always, it feels like every new chapter you post is further proof of your talent as a writer

take care ellie and have a wonderful day !! stay safe mwah 💌

help not the molecular biology. may god be w you my love...or whoever or whatever u believe in, my point is i hope someone is there w you KJDSHFSDKJF

AH i'm so glad you enjoy the playlist! it was SO hard to pick songs for ihm bc like my music taste is kinda uhhh "younger"?? and since ihm couple are kinda older i wanted to match the vibes.

but yessss omg don't even get me started on PEACEEE for them. i could write a whole dissertation line by line breakdown about WHY that song so perfectly encapsulates the way that ihm reader feels about her relationship w gojo :''') especially down the line...oufff it hurts. i already know the EXACT chapter where peace will end up being the song of the chapter aaa

photograph is one of my faves! truly the ultimate love song. i just HAD to put it in there. it's so timeless

aww thanks sm bb and good luck with studying! <3 much love

[literaturereviewhelp]

I am writing to apply for the position of Assistant in Physics. I have extensive experience in science and I have published extensively in this area. I have been both a guest lecturer and professor at many universities around the world.Currently, I am a visiting scientist in the Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department (CCBD) at Cornell University. In my position my responsibility is to monitor and advise graduate student projects on protein expression, purification and labeling, and single molecule FRET measurements with rigorous data analysis. I also direct undergraduate research that involves protein purification and single molecule experiments. The students are working on a single molecule study of metalloregulator-DNA interactions for transcriptional regulation. As their professor for this project, I make sure that students stay on task and that they are producing the results necessary for the project.Prior to my work at Cornell University, I was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Free University in Berlin, Germany. I supervised students, taught theory and monitored an advanced laboratory courses on Methods of Biophysics. I was responsible for all aspects of this course including grading lab reports and monitoring student progress. I learned a great deal about how students approach scientific experiments and their role in supporting and developing experiments.My goal in teaching is to help students learn at both the physical and visceral levels. I want them to learn that science is always changing, no matter what project one is working or how the experiment is running. Sometimes students are afraid that if they do not receive the results they think they should receive, that the experiment is not working. I teach them that science is always challenging and as an experiment moves along, there are times when visceral knowledge is more important than what they are exactly seeing.I have taught physic courses as a lecturer at Katmandu University in Nepal. This opportunity helped me to find ways to mentor students and to make coursework interesting. Many students have said that I am a very approachable professor in my teaching style and I make science interesting.In addition to my teaching experience, I am also an active research scientist. I have presented at many conferences, and I have published extensively on various scientific topics as shown in my resume. As an example, my research in Applied Science (Physics, Chemistry, and Biology) is particularly suited to this position. My PhD dissertation and post-doctoral work focused on the blue light photoreceptor photoactive yellow protein (PYPO). Photoreceptors are nature’s spectacular molecules that mediate living beings to interact with their environment through light; human vision is one example of this type of photoreceptor. I believe I bring richness to any teaching position because I am an active researcher in the field. In my past courses, students have related that having someone who is actually doing the work they want to do, helps them gain insight into what can be done for their futures. Most of all, I enjoy teaching science. I believe that it is a topic that is inherent in everything we do, and I enjoy bringing new students to the field and watching them make progress in many fields Read the full article

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