I saw a talk at SMBE by @joannamasel.bsky.social with the dual origins idea but coming from a perhaps different perspective. Super interesting!

Philip Ball@philipcball.bsky.social · 4d ago

The recent paper in Science by Bill Martin's team on a vent form of LUCA and a possible "dual origin of life" got some coverage last week. I took a somewhat deeper dive for @sciam.bsky.social www.scientificamerican.com/article/life...

#iussi26 #iussi2026 was such a pleasure. So many great talks, posters, friends and colleagues. #socialinsects ❤️ looking forward to Cape Town in 4 years!

I have been tasked by @markjfbrown.bsky.social with making sure that all social insect groups go up on the map. If for some inexplicable reason you're not yet on the map, be warned - I might ambush you in the IUSSI poster session 🤣 #IUSSI2026

Come join the @socialfluids.bsky.social lab in Cambridge to study the evolution of Socially Transferred Materials! Fun new HFSP project btwn UK, NL and Costa Rica! Deadline September 7th #Postdoc #JobAlert #Evolution #Bioinformatics #STM #socialfluids www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc... leboeuflab.com

#iussi2026 @joanstrassmann.bsky.social “if what you love changes, go with it” “there’s nothing worse than stopping enjoying what you do”

“Jason [Arday] said that sociology is a discipline enabled by love and community. He also spoke about his commitment to teaching, telling me that he strived to give his absolute best to other people’s children in the classroom, hoping that others would do the same for his own children one day.”

Ordinary Notes@hystericalblkns.bsky.social · last wk.

leilacancode.github.io/everythinggo...

Useful understanding of the way US is underdeveloping itself: "Anti-vaccine sentiment is a lot like climate change denial ... follow the money ... follow the culture war" insidestory.org.au/the-rise-of-...

The rise of the measles-industrial complex • Paul Krugman

Who benefits from the American right’s hostility to vaccination?

insidestory.org.au

Great article about how research and mentoring are changing. Lots of food for thought!

Eytan Adar@eytan.adar.prof · 2w ago

I wrote a post about the emergence of AI-native students who do their research using GenAI tools. I think that there are some real risks to job prospects and the likely changes in their fields.

The #LondonEvoDevo goes to Cambridge! Kindly hosted by @emiliapsantos.bsky.social, mark on your calendars *October 2nd* at the Main Theatre in the Department of Zoology (Cambridge). Registration (£0.00): docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F.... All welcome to present: #PI #PhD #PostDocs, submit abstracts!

LondonEvoDevo meeting - October 2026

This event will take place on Friday October 2nd, 2026, at the Department of Zoology (Main Lecture Theatre), University of Cambridge, Downing Street CB2 3EJ, 12:30 - 18:30. There will be no posters, ...

docs.google.com

New report highlights the urgent threat posed by contamination from "forever chemicals." Conservatively estimates that current levels of exposure to PFAs could cost approximately €440 billion by 2050 in the EU alone. environment.ec.europa.eu/news/new-stu...

New study confirms huge and growing costs of PFAS pollution

Current levels of 'forever chemicals' pollution could cost the EU approximately €440 billion by 2050.

environment.ec.europa.eu

Come join the @socialfluids.bsky.social lab in Cambridge to study the evolution of Socially Transferred Materials! Fun new HFSP project btwn UK, NL and Costa Rica! Deadline September 7th #Postdoc #JobAlert #Evolution #Bioinformatics #STM #socialfluids www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc... leboeuflab.com

As Britain swelters through another heatwave, few people will have heard that ministers have quietly dropped plans for solar carports. Cars cooler in summer. Shelter from the rain in winter. Clean electricity all year round. A missed opportunity? @eastangliabylines.co.uk

As Britain bakes, ministers quietly park plans for solar carports

Ministers have quietly shelved plans that could have transformed Britain's biggest car parks into shaded power stations

eastangliabylines.co.uk

Biology is once again full of surprises most if us couldn’t dream up if we tried.

Jeff Groh@jeffgroh.bsky.social · 4w ago

Avocados come in 2 varieties - A-types start each day female and switch to male midday. B-types do the reverse. In work just published from the last chapter of my PhD, we show this system evolved 40+million yrs ago and is regulated by alleles of 1 transcription factor www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

You see everything is connected. The marine heatwaves off the coasts of Europe make heatwaves on land more intense, which in turn dries out vegetation, which then creates perfect fire weather conditions. Brought to you by the world's refusal to drastically reduce the burning of fossil fuels.

Ongoing marine heatwave in the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea | EU Space Support Office

In late May 2026, several countries in Western Europe faced above-average temperatures. During the same period, large areas of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea also recorded above-average ...

eu-space.europa.eu

But of course, read the whole thread. Grateful for Cory Doctorow, and grateful he writes about Silicon Valley with a flamethrower....

By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C)@doctorow.pluralistic.net · last mo.

As an economic pathology, AI is *extraordinary*. AI boosters have spent a baffling and terrifying sum of money - over $1.4T, most of that in the past year - on the promise of making as many workers unemployed as possible, while lowering the wages of the meager survivors of this jobspocalypse. 3/

🎨 job alert 🐠 Come join us! We have two positions open! These are part of our @erc.europa.eu funded project on the mechanisms underpinning convergence of colour patterns in cichlid fishes! Closing date: 16th August. Postdoc: www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc... Technician: www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc...

Callipterus Cichlid Collecting Shell

ALT: Callipterus Cichlid Collecting Shell

static.klipy.com

Join our HFSP team on this amazing project! This will be an experimental postdoc position based in Amsterdam. There will be a more bioinformatic/evolutionary postdoc position based in Cambridge coming up soon. #socialfluids

Joris M. Koene@joriskoene.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Are you a biologist with experience in and enthusiasm for imaging and -omics techniques? Apply for working in Amsterdam (@vuamsterdam.bsky.social) on the exciting topic of socially transferred materials! 🐌 🐸 🐜🧬🔬 workingat.vu.nl/vacancies/po...

If you’re thinking of applying for Senior Research Fellowships to be hosted at a UK university, check out our sponsorship scheme @camzoology.bsky.social Don’t contact me about the scheme, I won’t be able to help. Follow the instructions on the webpage instead 😉 www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/senior-...

Do you study #socialfluids? How do you see this network evolving? Join us tomorrow!

Social Transfer Network@socialtransfernet.bsky.social · 2mo ago

We'd like to invite you to our second General Assembly of the Year! Please come along with your beverage of choice 🍸☕️ and your opinions 🌶️ 📆 Monday, July 13th 2026 🕒 15:00–16:00 GMT 🕓 16:00–17:00 Central Europe 🕙 10:00–11:00 US East 🕙 7:00–8:00 Pacific Time www.socialtransfer.net

Just had an absolutely fantastic #HFSPmtg2026. Such fun science! So diverse! My favorite part though was that most everyone I met was just so curious, joyful and enthusiastic with each their own unique view on the natural world.

Human Frontier Science Program@hfspo.bsky.social · 2mo ago

What does frontier science look like? 🧪 At #HFSPmtg2026, it spans everything from cell migration and photosynthesis to evolution, plant biology or ocean microbiomes. Different questions. Different approaches. One community exchanging ideas across disciplines! 💪 #HFSP #sts

“I’ve often been told to narrow focus and specialise. But I believe my role in science is to connect different systems and synthesise across them. The fact that HFSP funds this blue‑sky, integrative science means the world to me.” Thank you @hfspo.bsky.social www.zoo.cam.ac.uk/news/egg-yol...

Interested in a postdoc position? Olfaction in poison frog tadpoles! Based in Germany with some field work in Costa Rica (bilateral funding, 3 years). Please share with your froggie and neuro/behavior contacts 🐸 www.uni-giessen.de/de/ueber-uns...

At the end of the term I asked my college creative wriing students to submit anonymous thoughts on AI. No real surprises: Mood ranges from resignation to despair, capitulation from embittered erosion of standards to total, feelings of betrayal from deep to furious. 1/

On Friday I went and spoke to a class of 7 year olds about ants and flying ant day and this weekend, as if on cue, the Lasius flew en masse at the school’s summer fete. I had an army of motivated kids joyously helping me collect queens ❤️

Excited to share our new preprint led by Fred and me in collaboration with the archaeal community! We found that the molecular foundation of histone-based chromatin has pre-eukaryotic roots in Asgard archaea. (1/4) #ArchaeaSky www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Emergence of histone-based chromatin complexity in Asgard archaea

The emergence of the eukaryotes coincided with the diversification of histone proteins and their post-translational modifications by enzymes that constitute the core of eukaryotic chromatin. Yet the e...

biorxiv.org

Back to Cambridge for me. Thanks #SMBE2026 for all the excellent talks and posters (many of which I didn’t manage to write about)! Tomorrow @camzoology.bsky.social seminar day! Next week @hfspo.bsky.social conference in Geneva! Conference vibes continue :)

Social media posts containing misinformation evoke more moral outrage than posts with trustworthy information, and that outrage facilitates the spread of misinformation, according to a 2024 study in Science. https://scim.ag/4wgXGHA #SocialMediaDay

Misinformation exploits outrage to spread online

We tested a hypothesis that misinformation exploits outrage to spread online, examining generalizability across multiple platforms, time periods, and classifications of misinformation. Outrage is high...

scim.ag

Bravo to @arthurmatte.bsky.social from @socialfluids.bsky.social and @camzoology.bsky.social

Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution@official-smbe.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Arthur Matte @arthurmatte.bsky.social, one of the winners of this year's GSEA explains why his research on sperm evolution fascinates him. #SMBE2026 #society

Beautiful talk by @margaridamcm.bsky.social on the evolution of a new cell type for nutrient transfer in poeciilids #SMBE2026

Diego Cortez on the weird Y chromosomes of lizards: a ribosomal protein is the sex determining factor (!) #SMBE2026 also, excellent thank you slide.