Good morning, #SMBE2026! To purge, or not to purge, *that* is the question 🧬 I'll be giving a talk on how mating system transitions shape transposable element dynamics in monkeyflowers this morning in S24 at 11:20 AM - come for the Hamlet pun, stay for the cool comparative genomics!

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

#SMBE2026 S24: Molecular mechanisms of selfish elements and strategies 🗓️ Mon Jun 29, 10:20am 🔗 smbe2026.org/programme Talks by: @levine-lab.bsky.social Yu Hua @cecilecourret.bsky.social @eleanoreritter.bsky.social Elli Cryan @alexand-kwak.bsky.social Steve Perlman @antisense.bsky.social

I’m recruiting a PhD student to join our lab in the fall of 2027. If you’re excited about phylogenetics, comp bio, paleobiology, stats theory, macroevolution, etc. please get in touch! Folks at #Evol2026, you can talk to @brpetrucci.bsky.social & @sigournie.bsky.social to learn more about our lab

"The AI bubble is about to pop! Be good scientists for the party and find our next big grift...oooh, I bet it will have quantum in the name! It sounds so futurey."

Colin Carlson@colincarlson.bsky.social · last mo.

I've seen a few people in tech-ier spaces celebrating the X-Labs thing on LinkedIn, and I just want to be abundantly clear about something: it's been very obvious from the start that this is part of the malicious capture of NSF, and if you're still excited about it after this news, you can fuck off

UGH

Science Magazine@science.org · last mo.

Exclusive: The National Science Foundation is trimming this year’s budgets for hundreds of its traditional basic science programs by roughly 20% to 30%, even though its overall budget is down just 3%. https://scim.ag/4xY2KCm

Mona Khalil died Friday after an Israeli airstrike hit her beachside home two weeks ago. She's credited with creating a conservation movement in southern Lebanon to protect sea turtle nesting grounds. n.pr/4oJ4Npy

Leading Lebanese conservationist dies after Israeli airstrike on her home

Mona Khalil died Friday after an Israeli airstrike hit her beachside home two weeks ago. She's credited with creating a conservation movement in southern Lebanon to protect sea turtle nesting grounds.

n.pr

Ooh, I agree! More of this, please. I guess the main issue is resources as always, but I feel like this addresses pressing needs both for academics looking for jobs as well as students who wouldn't mind being taught by profs with more balanced teaching vs research priorities.

🌱 We’re hiring in Plant Biology at Penn State! The Department of Biology at Penn State University Park is searching for a tenure-track Assistant or Associate Professor in any area of plant biology.

Join @amsocplanttaxon.bsky.social for Dr. Lauren Eserman-Campbell (Atlanta Botanical Garden)'s webinar, “How Taxonomists Can Shape Conservation Outcomes” on Friday, June 5 at 12pm ET. Register today, and please share! us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

@jleebensmack.bsky.social Does Phil have a bsky? Wouldn't be surprised if he's already aware of this work, but seemed up his alley!

Rainer Melzer@ucdflowerpower.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Excited to see this published in @newphyt.bsky.social doi.org/10.1111/nph.... Our model may explain why Cannabis develops male, female and monoecious plants. The summary is available in 7 languages: Irish, Urdu, Spanish, French, Italian, English and German! Awesome support by @researchireland.ie!

Please repost: My department at USC is hiring for a teaching-track faculty position. We are looking for someone principally to teach statistics for biologists, but there will be opportunities for other courses in statistics & algorithms applied to biology usccareers.usc.edu/job/los-ange...

Shout about the devastating reorganization of USFS 🌲 www.agriculture.com/partners-u-s...

U.S. Forest Restructuring Could Threaten Wisconsin-Based Research, Advocates Say

The Trump administration’s recently announced plans to radically restructure the U.S. Forest Service have raised concerns among advocates that forest land across Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest could ...

agriculture.com

Our paper on generalized dynamic phylogenetic models is finally out in MEE 🥳 The brainchild of @err-ring.bsky.social, GDPMs open up a vast new space for comparative studies on complex, coevolving traits, greatly aided by @scottclaessens.bsky.social's work on the accompanying R package. Check it out!

Trait coevolution and causal inference using generalized dynamic phylogenetic models

Phylogenetic comparative methods are widely used to study trait coevolution across biological and cultural domains. The most common methods are phylogenetic generalized linear (mixed) models, phyl...

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Average Bsky poster: "We must inaugurate a Second Reconstruction with blood and fire." Average Democratic politician: "We are in a war for the Republic, which is why I propose a 23.7% tax cut." Average liberal columnist: "For too long the transgenders have blocked research into the racial IQ gap."

You could fund 20 NSFs for this money

Jeff Stein@jeffstein.bsky.social · 5mo ago

SCOOP: The Pentagon asked the White House today for more than *$200 billion* for Iran war supplemental, sources say Some in WH think Congress won't support b/c it's so big Will tee up giant battle in Congress My last story for WaPo: www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Oh my god, yes! YES! I'm so glad folks figured this out. Leave it to Cécile and Paul haha

Dental Formulas xkcd.com/3213/

"The Islamists oppose women getting an education," I mutter, as I aim my missile at the girls school

The U.S. and Israel continue to be the biggest threats to children (and humanity).

Mohamad Safa@mhdksafa.bsky.social · 5mo ago

The United States of America and Israel has just bombed a school full of students in Iran. ~40 students killed and 48 injured. This violates Article 52 of Additional Protocol (I) Geneva Conventions, but international law clearly doesn't apply to the U.S. and Israel.

So how many of my colleagues are PAYING OpenAI to use their LLM again???? You see where your money is going?

🎉 Huge news for BHL: The Field Museum is taking over the hosting of BHL’s website, servers & infrastructure, ensuring long-term stability and access for its 63+ million pages of open biodiversity literature. Learn more: blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2026/02/tran... #BHLTransition #ILoveBHL 🌍 📚 🧪

We killed 85 schoolgirls. We are not the good guys.

US-Israeli strike on girls' school kills at least 85 students, Iran's judiciary says

At least 85 students have been killed in US-Israeli strikes that hit an Iranian girls' school in Hormozgan province, Iran's judiciary said on Saturday. Washington has not commented on the reported str...

france24.com

Phage–host interactions are a key driver of microbial ecology, but observing them in nature is hard! With metaHi-C, we detect freshwater phage–host pairs and link their infection dynamics to evolution. Together with @nadal-molero.bsky.social & Ana Martin-Cuadrado www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

HPC Carpentry @hpc-carpentry.bsky.social will become the latest Lesson Program of The Carpentries @hpc-carpentry.bsky.social in September 2026 🎉 They join our existing lesson programs: Data Carpentry, Library Carpentry, and Software Carpentry. carpentries.org/blog/2026/02...

Functionally, this is the end of foundational science research in many fields in the United States, the money taken away to subsidize already wealthy billionaires and their companies.

Jeffrey Mervis@policyhound.bsky.social · 5mo ago

NSF leaders have just acknowledged what many scientists have long suspected: Presidential directives to boost AI and quantum have upended its traditional way of doing business. www.science.org/content/arti...

New for @undark.org On: "The Birthday Paradox," the transatlantic slave trade, ancestral bonds, and the hidden power of statistics. "Family is family, whatever our genetic relationship. Impressively, the birthday paradox study captures this possibility." undark.org/2026/02/27/o...

What the ‘Birthday Paradox’ Can Teach Us About Black History

Opinion | Statistics can help fill in historical gaps, revealing surprising and empowering things about the past and present.

undark.org

Reposting this because I'll never pass up an opportunity to introduce people to the wonderful world of sheoaks. To be clear, this is family of ANGIOSPERMS with feaux needles/cones most closely related to BIRCHES. Oh, and they also fix nitrogen to boot! Then again, so do the closely-related alders.

Jean-Michel Ané@jeanmichelane.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Very cool preprint! -> What lurks beneath the surface? The hidden Frankia biodiversity in Casuarina nodules across continents | Research Square

We're excited to be recruiting an NSF funded postdoc to work in the Villanea lab at CU Boulder. We're specifically interested in candidates who want to work at the intersection of population genetics, ancient DNA, and computer modeling. Please RT jobs.colorado.edu/jobs/JobDeta...

I already shared the preprint for this month's ago, but I still find this to be one of the coolest new discoveries! The idea of "ghost kingdoms" of life just never really occurred to me before, but of course it's completely possible when you think about it.

Natalie Bennett@nataliegreenpeer.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Important message here: 4 billion years of evolution was not teleological. It was not _meant_ to get to us or our world. It was doing it own thing in its own time #Biodiversity www.sciencealert.com/mysterious-g...

It's never as simple as we'd like, eh? Well, at least there's no shortage of puzzles to solve!

Matthew Hahn@3rdreviewer.bsky.social · 6mo ago

New paper with @smishra677.bsky.social! How many different trees can be generated by just one duplication event? It turns out A WHOLE LOT, if you consider the coalescent process. 1/ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

And still no Dem leaders have gone to Minneapolis. No donor efforts to alleviate anything. Just leave people out to fend for themselves.