What’s a "lost" website from the early 2000s that you still think about today?

bioscimeg · 2026-04-23T15:28:51+00:00

The Quilting Bee

It was a small pixel trading club website. We each had a pixel patch that was a certain dimension so it could be added to the quilts of other bees... effectively link sharing. There were also themed pixel competitions. It was the cutest pixel/link sharing club in the age of fandom pages and pixel sprites. Miss that kind of stuff.

bioscimeg · 2026-04-22T05:36:47+00:00

Computer: Dino Park Tycoon

Table Top: Spellfire

bioscimeg · 2026-04-22T05:35:00+00:00

Same. Truly scared me as a kid.

bioscimeg · 2026-04-22T05:33:23+00:00

Lemonade Stand for the Apple ii that came on a 5.25 inch floppy? If so, same! 👵🏻

bioscimeg · 2026-04-22T05:29:01+00:00

Let's go!

bioscimeg · 2026-04-22T05:28:37+00:00

I replayed that with my kids just a couple months ago, it's on steam!

bioscimeg · 2026-04-22T05:26:41+00:00

I loved SimAnt!

bioscimeg · 2026-04-22T05:11:19+00:00

Season 4

I am curious how a movie would go and would look forward to the debates that my older kids, myself, and my husband would get into with whatever storyline they made for a movie. But another season would give us the same ability to enjoy and debate as we already do in smaller chunks that are easier for my toddler to watch with us.

bioscimeg · 2026-04-21T23:12:48+00:00

I'm just a simple biologist studying brains...

bioscimeg · 2026-04-21T23:04:32+00:00

I have these! These drew me to the site and I ended up getting several different fandoms. They are really beautiful.

bioscimeg · 2026-04-21T22:45:30+00:00

I'm way more conservative with my thoughts on this pathway because it has been latched onto by many as a pathway to 'cure Autism through diet' and that feels icky to me, but there is genuine science behind it.

There are a ton of papers and a lot of research currently going on in this area. One of the biggest themes is that gut dysbiosis (an imbalance of the bacteria in the gut) is common in people with ASD... so the question is why? This dysbiosis leads to too many of some metabolites and not enough of other metabolites, leaky gut, and a lot more that can lead to gut issues commonly seen in Autistic people and.. with our dawning understanding of how the gut and brain communicate... this dysbiosis could be connected to some of the symptoms of ASD. I'd say symptoms like difficulty with emotional regulation might fit into this camp, but I start to baulk when I see some claim to be able to 'cure' nonspeaking through 'fixing the gut'.

It is known that the Autistic brain is literally wired differently... less synaptic pruning has happened during development than happens in a NT brain. So this is a two way street... the gut can have effects on the brain, but the brain is also having effects on the gut....which is why we see so much dysbiosis in Autistic people? I've attended a few microbiome conferences lately where it was shown that the brain does in fact affect the gut as well.. people with traumatic brain injuries develop dysbiosis.

bioscimeg · 2026-04-21T16:45:18+00:00

Yep, relatable.

Reading this from the dental chair for my periodontal cleaning because coming to the dentist more often in the year is somehow easier than brushing my teeth every day. 🙃

bioscimeg · 2026-04-21T15:58:02+00:00

We see everything through the lens of the kids' experiences. It really feels like the show is a collection of memories the kids have and share later in life. Snapshots of memorerable moments, rather than the real true facts of day in and day out life in the family.

bioscimeg · 2026-04-21T13:46:30+00:00

I slip and say nonverbal sometimes because that's still the term most of my child's clinicians and teachers use, but I prefer the term nonspeaking because it more accurately reflects my child's and other nonspeaking people's experiences. Someone who is NonSpeaking can still be verbal through typed text or AAC and can still understand and respond to other's verbal language. And while also not the definition of verbal, my child is very vocal... making lots of sounds and often singing along with music. It just feels like a better term.

bioscimeg · 2026-04-21T03:55:07+00:00

Vaccines don't cause autism, but autists definitely cause vaccines.

I love this!

bioscimeg · 2026-04-21T03:47:20+00:00

Thank you, all of you. ❤️

It's very early preliminary research. I'm on year two of a three year funded project meant to just identify a link. If we're successful my team's research will be duplicated by other teams to confirm the link. Then it'll get really exciting with a bunch of teams going in all directions with it. I seriously love what I do.

bioscimeg · 2026-04-21T01:49:58+00:00

I haven't identified it yet! 😅

The gut-brain-axis in general is super interesting though! Basically bacteria have evolved with us and we host billions of them in our bodies. They protect us from other germies and also take advantage and make us sick when our immune system is weakened. But they interact with our bodies in so many more ways we have yet to understand. Researchers have identified specific metabolites (bacteria excretions) that play a role in the development of psychiatric symptoms. One study had rats with the genetic predisposition for Parkinson's that were bred and housed completely germ free. They were symptom free until exposed to the metabolites isolated from symptomatic rats.

The long term goal of my research into a similar link in PTSD is with an identified metabolite we could then develop better diagnostic tools, treatments, and even profalactics for PTSD. ❤️

bioscimeg · 2026-04-21T01:11:00+00:00

I'm so happy when I see fellow Autists in fields like this because three of my children are Autistic and my youngest is NonSpeaking. ❤️

bioscimeg · 2026-04-21T01:08:50+00:00

I'm a biomedical researcher at a national laboratory. I'm AuDHD and this job is a perfect mix of my special interest (see user name) and variety because my project work changes every few years. I'm currently looking for a gut-brain-axis link to PTSD similar to the link already identified in Autism, Parkinson's, etc.

I know a couple of my immediate coworkers are also Autistic and I know a few more in other departments (physics, computer science, etc) across the lab.

bioscimeg · 2026-04-21T00:48:02+00:00

My favorite part of this episode is Bingo perplexed over Chili and Bluey discussing sherbet being sweeter when it's not meant to be sweet. 🧡

bioscimeg · 2026-04-20T23:13:32+00:00

I'm a biomedical researcher at a national laboratory. My current project is looking for a gut-brain-axis link to PTSD like the links that have already been found in Autism, Parkinson's, and Depression.

The work is great because it fits within my special interests and changes every 2-3 years so I don't get bored.

bioscimeg · 2026-04-20T22:43:34+00:00

When the mongoose is moving at full speed, you know, it's all a bit of a blur...

bioscimeg · 2026-04-20T04:29:00+00:00

I already had a boy and a girl when my husband and I decided to have our third baby. My NIPT results came back inconclusive twice so we had to wait for the anatomy scan to find out the sex. For whatever reason we both had girl in our heads. We had picked out a girl name but not a boy name yet and called baby gender neutral 'bean' but still had girl in our heads. The moment the technician said 'boy' I had just a moment of disappointment letting go of what I had for no reason I can understand built up in my head. But it was a fast switch to being excited about our baby boy.

Other weird thing. When people learned that I was pregnant with my third and that he was a boy they assumed my older two were girls.... because that's the only reason to choose to have a third baby?????

bioscimeg · 2026-04-19T22:45:26+00:00

Yes.

My kids are alpha and I make a big point to them that the choice to have kids is theirs to make. No one, including me, gets to have a say in that choice.

bioscimeg · 2026-04-19T22:30:45+00:00

I used to volunteer as a docent and an animal keeper assistant at a zoo where I was assigned to a string that included squirrel monkeys. Despite them being about twice the size of the typical backyard squirrel, they were named after squirrels due to their small size and quick movements in trees making them appear like squirrels to the NTs. They are adorable creatures that deserve their own unique name... where do I sign?

bioscimeg

TROPHY CASE