incindis

Scientific illustration | horror fantasy worldbuilding

[incindis]

Hello, I'm Incindis! I like to draw critters, monsters, and characters from fantasy settings.

My art tag: x

[incindis]

A sneak peak of my current project! I'm illustrating a lay poster/art piece for genomic conservation science. It's been super fun to use my bioinformatics background for this piece!

[incindis]

My protein painting adventure! Starting with a 3D model of an interesting protein, I noodle around with paper and paint to get a sense of the structure.

[incindis]

Here I get closer to how I'd want to draw the structure on the actual canvas. Look at those helices!

[incindis]

My actual canvas has different dimensions from my sketchbook, so before committing, I sketch my structure one final time on something closer to the canvas's ratio. Then it's onto the painting

[incindis]

Then I 3D printed the protein model (with help from a friend with a printer) and add it to the final piece!

This piece displays a 3D-printed ribbon model of a protein domain of the Arabidopsis plant ethylene receptor 1 (ETR1) painted with gold acrylic, accompanied by a zoomed-in view of its structure rendered in acrylic paint. Arabidopsis thaliana (thale cress) is a model organism so commonly used in plant biology that it is colloquially known as the “fruit fly” of plants. It produces small, white flowers that bloom on long, thin stems.

The 3D model was obtained from the NIH 3D database (ERS1 dimerization and histidine phosphotransfer domain from Arabidopsis thaliana. Version 2.0, NIH 3D, 2026. https://doi.org/10.60705/3dpx/18118.2. https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.M114.587667) and was made 3D-printable through mesh adjustments using the OnlineStlRepair tool.

[incindis]

My protein painting adventure! Starting with a 3D model of an interesting protein, I noodle around with paper and paint to get a sense of the structure.

[incindis]

Here I get closer to how I'd want to draw the structure on the actual canvas. Look at those helices!

[incindis]

My actual canvas has different dimensions from my sketchbook, so before committing, I sketch my structure one final time on something closer to the canvas's ratio. Then it's onto the painting

[incindis]

My protein painting adventure! Starting with a 3D model of an interesting protein, I noodle around with paper and paint to get a sense of the structure.

[incindis]

Here I get closer to how I'd want to draw the structure on the actual canvas. Look at those helices!

[incindis]

My protein painting adventure! Starting with a 3D model of an interesting protein, I noodle around with paper and paint to get a sense of the structure.

[bovid-beauty]

"Fascism"—New Federal Rule Would Require Federal Funding Recipients To Deny Trans People Exist

The rule could have heavy impacts towards trans people across society.

Last week, the Trump administration quietly released a sweeping new federal rule that would use funding threats to force institutions across the country to reject transgender people. The 400-page proposed regulation would codify the administration's anti-trans executive orders into binding federal policy, imposing a blanket prohibition on federal funds going toward "gender ideology"

The proposed rule, formally titled "Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance," rewrites the government-wide framework governing all federal grants across every agency. Among its most consequential provisions, it requires that before a federal grant recipient can receive money, the award must pass a "pre-issuance review" conducted by a political appointee—not a career expert or peer reviewer—to ensure it is "consistent with applicable law, Federal agency priorities, and the national interest." The regulation explicitly instructs these appointees to screen for "denial by the recipient of the sex binary in humans or the notion that sex is a chosen or mutable characteristic." [...] An institution that acknowledges transgender people exist—through its policies, its training, its healthcare, its bathroom access, its HR procedures, its name-change processes—could be deemed to "deny the sex binary" or to “support the notion that sex is mutable” and have its federal funding blocked.

Importantly, the gender ideology prohibition has no age limitation—hospitals could be targeted not just for providing care to minors but for providing gender-affirming care to adults, because prescribing hormone therapy to a transgender patient of any age could be deemed promoting the belief that "sex is a chosen or mutable characteristic."

[junequeer]

THIS IS OPEN TO COMMENT UNTIL JULY 13, 2026

[featherandstorm]

This is all very bad and horrible, but I want to be clear that it’s worse and more sweeping than just eliminating trans research.

This torches everything. And I do mean everything.

A very abbreviated list of its ramifications include (but are not limited to):

ending funding for ALL DEI related initiatives

allowing the government to terminate grants at any point for any reason

preventing researchers from publishing, going to conferences, and being part of academic societies

requiring that topics must support the president’s agenda.

What this means, and if anything I’m under selling it, is the death of science and research in America. It allows the government to restrict any topic they please at a whims notice, putting officials who have no background in the topic in charge of deciding funding continuity. It controls what gets researched and if/how researchers are allowed to share their discoveries. There are no books to burn if the government never allows them to be written. This is fascism plain and simple.

Please, if you only ever write one public comment, this is the one to do.

[genderkoolaid]

Bringing back this guide to writing an effective public comment. This gives you the basics you need to know, what you need to include, a basic outline you can follow, etc.

Public comments are not a vote, it is a chance for you to say "here is an issue with this law I think you need to address" and provide justification for legal challenges if it goes forward:

"Comments raise the bar that agencies have to meet when making a rule; “if an agency fails to adequately respond to significant, relevant comments in a final rule, members of the public may seek to challenge the rule in court on that basis and claim it could be struck down.ˮ"

But also, if possible, don't stop at writing a comment. Don't stop at calling your representatives. You should ideally be talking to people in your community about this and organizing resistance on-the-ground; there is a good chance people are already doing that even if you aren't hearing about it.

[cherrispryte]

Some added 101-level context from someone (me) who’s worked in federal grantmaking for 20 years and is literally certified on this document - this is a document that governs all federal grantmaking. It’s been around for over a decade and is a mega-document that combine multiple previous smaller documents that have been around for ages. It is updated every few years and generally the updates are minor - a notable change in the previous update was raising the small procurement threshold from $10,000 to $15,000 for example. Deeply dry boring minutiae that no one outside of federal grantmakers need concern themselves with. It was also federal GUIDELINES, which means there was flexibility.

This year’s is different. They are now federal REQUIREMENTS, which means there’s no flexibility. As was said previously, the 400 pages are not singularly devoted to being absolute shitheads to trans people. Theres a lot of stuff in there, some of which is the standard dry boring grants stuff, some of which is the horrible ideological warfare outlined above.

This document is issued by the OMB, the Office of Management and Budget, which is currently lead by fucking Russell Vought, the principal architect of Project 2025. This is how they’re going to implement all the horrible shit in there that wasn’t covered by Executive Order. Russell Vought is actively coming for my job, my marriage, and my kid, and most of my friends lost their jobs last year because of him. He is the fucking arch villain behind the heinous shit the current regime is doing.

So yes, please comment. You don’t have to read all 400 pages before doing so, it’s dry and dense as fuck, but I thought this information might be helpful. Also, while there is a public comment period, this isn’t voted on by Congress. The OMB just fucking issues it. Pressuring your elected officials into publicly saying “hey what the fuck are you doing here” is good, though.

[mikkeneko]

Please note the comment period is open through JULY 13th, not JUNE 13th. I saw a lot of relogs yesterday saying "last day!" and I just want to say it is very much not too late.

[grison-in-space]

As of today, 7/8/26, we have five days for public commentary on this to go through. I am begging y'all: if you care about independent science in the country that produces the most global science funding in the world, please leave a comment.

[incindis]

Sharing some more resources to help folks draft a public comment!

Helpful Slide deck (for scientists and non-scientists) 

 Use this assessment as a tool to get started and understand how the sections use FASEB- Defend Science Research: Submit a Comment

Do NOT use any part of the generated letter- even the header, into, titles given, etc (comments flagged as duplicates will be tossed and we're worried keeping these parts of the template will trigger that). 

DO use this has a template to get started. For instance, the template will generate specific named sections of the OMB docket to comment on, which is helpful to refer to.

DO NOT use your institution's email address and use your personal email 

DO introduce yourself as specifically as possible 

Anonymous comments are still impactful, but give facts, provide evidence and be as descriptive as possible. Examples include references to how the proposed law will impact returns on investment or violate existing laws (and thus result in expensive litigation)

You’ve drafted your letter using the tool above, now what? Make it personal. Identical drafts will be omitted. 

How does federal funding directly affect your ability to conduct, share, or use research daily? Monthly? Yearly? Why does this matter?

Cite the specific section numbers you are talking about for clarity

§ can be done using option+ 6 on a Mac computer 

§ can be done using Alt+ 21 on a Windows computer 

Make your comment as specific as possible; share the federal grant number and/or the amounts. 

Give examples of federal-funded grants that are essential to you, your family, or loved ones. What are the consequences without this research being conducted?

Review and use the active voice, not the passive. (Avoid verbiage such as ‘will protect’ and use ‘protects’)

Other websites to submit: 

Here is another site from Stand Up for Science that offers assistance in submitting comments.

And this is the direct link to upload a comment if you was to do it directly

[incindis]

Another scicomm piece I did and had the opportunity to present at a local museum's tabling event! It was really cool to be able to say hi to folks and answer questions they had about RNA science :)

[incindis]

Sci art of the California sea hare! This was a super fun piece to work on. Love these big squishy weirdos.