Thank you @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social for Villager! Wonderfully strange to read rich stories set in the moor, while monsoon winds swoosh through big green clumps of bamboo behind me, here in India. I haven't even finished my first full read yet, and already looking forward to returning to the book.

In 2014, Jason Rosch and I met at a GRC in Tuscany and sketched an idea on a cocktail napkin: what if we evolved S.pneumo in mice, treated them with antibiotics, varied their immune systems and watched what won? 11 years and a huge team effort later, it's out in @cp-cellhostmicrobe.bsky.social 🧵

1/ The world's songbirds sing in just 8 basic sounds. And where a bird lives decides which ones it uses. My first PhD paper is out now in @science.org (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aee6239) Here is what we found:

Great to see this out! doi.org/10.1093/evle.... Lead by @karenbisschop.bsky.social and Thomas Blankers. It discusses: If you repeat 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐬, do you get the same result in terms of fitness? The answer is… not necessarily. Glad to have played a part!

Additive effects of environmental and demographic variation shape the repeatability of evolution across replicated experiments

Abstract. The repeatability of evolution is fundamentally important for understanding the origin and diversification of life as well as for developing evol

doi.org

📣 The ESEB Equal Opportunities Committee invites proposals for activities that increase awareness of inequalities and improve representation and equal opportunities within evolutionary biology 💰€1K grants available 👥 All ESEB members eligible to apply 🌐 Find out more: shorturl.at/7GEAo

I'm looking for postdoc opportunities for the 2026-2027 academic year. If you're looking for a postdoc with a broad skill set spanning evolutionary genetics, bioinformatics, and various omics methods, feel free to reach out. Some recent pubs: (1) doi.org/10.1126/scie... (2) doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

Macroevolutionary divergence of gene expression driven by selection on protein abundance

The regulation of messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein abundances is well-studied, but less is known about the evolutionary processes shaping their relationship. To address this, we derived a new phylogen...

doi.org

Doing the periodic cleaning of used plasmid miniprep columns and realized in honor of Earth Day it may be worth reminding you molecular biologists: Plasmid miniprep columns can be cleaned and reused essentially indefinitely! Just add 1 M HCl, soak overnight and wash 3x w/ water. Save $ and plastic

This year's SMBE Mid-Career Excellence Award goes to Matt Pennell, professor @cornelluniversity.bsky.social Visit our website to learn more about the SMBE Faculty Awards 🔗 smbe.org/faculty-awards #society

Safe to say that we are very excited about this here at ESEB! Huge thanks to Brian Golding for entrusting us with the fantastic service that you have created and curated for the years! Follow @evoldir.bsky.social

EvolDir@evoldir.bsky.social · 4mo ago

📣 EvolDir is now managed by @eseb.bsky.social! We are delighted to be taking the reins and express our gratitude to both Brian Golding who began this service to the community in the mid-1980s and to @rdmpage.bsky.social who ran this account until now 👏 You can now find evoldir here: evoldir.net

📣 EvolDir is now managed by @eseb.bsky.social! We are delighted to be taking the reins and express our gratitude to both Brian Golding who began this service to the community in the mid-1980s and to @rdmpage.bsky.social who ran this account until now 👏 You can now find evoldir here: evoldir.net

One of Ireland's less common butterflies, the green hairstreak, in a rewilding part of the farm yesterday. Rewilding isn't just about getting more trees and forests back, but increasing diversity and abundance of *all* our natural species and ecosystems.

Insightful summary of an extraordinary person being extraordinarily fired: "you don't silence a woman of color who raised concerns about racism by silencing her...The fingerprints are distributed perfectly across the system." www.linkedin.com/pulse/uclas-...

UCLA's Most Decorated Ecologist Just Got Fired : Here's the sequence

In January of 2025, at the ICTP ICTS winter school at NCBS, Priyanga Amarasekare offered to take me and a few other students out for my birthday. She didn't have to do that.

linkedin.com

Special Issue on Genetic Rescue is out 🎉🎉🎉 The 21 papers on the SI highlight how evolutionary biology can enhance resilience & long-term survival of biodiversity. Introducing genetically diverse individuals can boost fitness in small, isolated populations 🧬🌿 doi.org/10.1111/eva.70225

SSE offers free virtual #Evol2026 registration to all countries in our Global Membership Assistance program, including India, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, and 152 countries and territories around the world. Request your free registration code today! www.evolutionsociety.org/index.php?mo...

I can't be the only one who is made /uncomfortable/ by the way that razor clams burrow into sand, right? The final moments of this video by Kate Crump on the Oregon coastline are sort of the crowning glory of horror. 😬 But how does this even work? Let's talk about bivalve mobility (if we must).

Do come listen to this public talk — open to all — by @danielbolnick.bsky.social. So happy to be hosting him in Bangalore!

National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bengaluru@ncbsbangalore.bsky.social · 5mo ago

#PublicTalk Prof Daniel Bolnick will be giving a talk titled "How Can Evolutionary Biology Help Public Health and Medicine?" 📆 Friday, 06 March 2026 ⌚ 4:00 PM 📍 National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bengaluru Open to All! 👇 Check out the poster for more details

Led by my talented PhD student @justine-armg.bsky.social we’re running a #meta-analysis of #cross-sex-genetic-correlations in fitness components. If you have unpublished data or know of studies that might not appear in a systematic search, please reach out, we’d love to include them! Please share!

Looking forward to this, and some fun discussion that will hopefully follow!

PopBio on the Dark Side@pop-bio.bsky.social · 6mo ago

We are pleased to be back for another year! Join us next Thursday 1pm AEST. Deepa Agashe (NCBS) @deepaagashe.bsky.social will present a seminar titled: Founders, shapers: Colonizing individuals predict trait and population dynamics in new habitats Sign up form below ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️

one of the greatest human triumphs of my lifetime is the relentless, unceasing, heroic effort by DECADES' worth of doctors and scientists to find a cure for a disease much of the world didn't take seriously for years because it predominantly affected a community they thought kinda deserved it

Nome@nome.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Just because good news is worth celebrating: There is now a Prep medication that is an *every six month* injection. HIV has, effectively, a vaccination.

Solvitur ambulando is my favourite Latin phrase. It means "it is solved by walking".

#ProtistsOnSky no 'swimming' by 𝘝𝘢𝘮𝘱𝘺𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘢, definitively no 'staying still'. just a relaxed walk towards the lunch...

eLife@elife.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Do microbes get more food by swimming or staying still? Turns out both work, and cilia help them pull in nutrients no matter the strategy. buff.ly/vK3GmK5

SMBE is calling for nominations for Best Graduate Student Papers of 2025, recognizing outstanding papers in @molbioevol.bsky.social and @genomebiolevol.bsky.social 🗓️ Deadline Feb 27 Articles published in 2025 are eligible. The nominated student must be first author; anyone can nominate authors.

New paper out in PNAS!!! 🎉 Do more plasmid copies mean faster evolution? 🧵 Dive into the story www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Plasmid mutation rates scale with copy number | PNAS

Plasmids are extrachromosomal DNA molecules that spread by horizontal transfer and shape bacterial evolution. Plasmids are typically present at mul...

pnas.org

Registration now open for @embo.org workshop on the evolution of biological interactions on April 24 - 27, 2026! Come join us in Taipei, Taiwan to see how interactions shaped the genomes of various organisms and meeting people from across the globe. Info: meetings.embo.org/event/26-bio...

This is one of the most beautiful things I have witnessed, the craft here is impeccable.

A real treat to watch a male Lyrebird perform at the Healesville Sanctuary yesterday. Truly magnificent.

@laasya2.bsky.social @deepaagashe.bsky.social et al. quantified the growth cost of mistranslation rates and exposure to antibiotics in E. coli, finding that altered translation accuracy can shape adaptive outcomes. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf312 🖌️ Nishant Asawadekar #evobio #molbio

How do bacteria deal with double costs? And how costly are unusual levels of mistranslation anyway? In short - antibiotics are more of an issue than less/more mistranslation, but the latter changes how populations deal with antibiotics. For the long story, check out our new paper!

Laasya Samhita@laasya2.bsky.social · 8mo ago

So happy that this work simultaneously measuring the costs of antibiotic exposure and mistranslation is finally out in MBE! Work from @deepaagashe.bsky.social (who was ultra patient!) and my labs. Do see the research highlight here, with Nishant's lovely graphic. academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...

We have an early New Year present for you: 🎁The new #MVIF program is out🎁 Highlights: 🇳🇵 Bishwash Thapa 🇮🇷 Zahra Nezamivand Chegini Keynote: 🇨🇭 @saramitri.bsky.social Talks: 🇺🇸 @liliancaesar.bsky.social 🇮🇹 Haseeb Manzoor 🇦🇹 Laurenz Holcik Free registration: cassyni.com/s/mvif-45 See you in January!

The Congress Attendance Aid (CAA) Grant is offered by ESEB to promote equal participation, diversity, and accessibility @empseb31.bsky.social June 2025, Oberwiesenthal, Germany For more information and to apply click here: eseb.org/prizes-fundi...