Why do animals fight? I’m recruiting a PhD student at Durham University to investigate the ecology, evolution and genes underlying aggression in fruit flies Funded PhD (UK students only). Details & how to apply 👇 www.findaphd.com/phds/project... Please share! #PhD #Evolution #BehaviouralEcology

What drives aggression? Linking Ecology, Evolution, and Genes at Durham University on FindAPhD.com

PhD Project - What drives aggression? Linking Ecology, Evolution, and Genes at Durham University, listed on FindAPhD.com

findaphd.com

*Cackles!* www.tomshardware.com/software/mic...

Creator of free Adobe clones unveils open-source Microsoft Office Excel, PowerPoint, and Word replications — Autodesk tools and other subscription-based services may come next

It's a protest now.

tomshardware.com

New paper just dropped! Read on if you want to read about how traumatic insemination shapes the evolution of the bedbug seminal proteome, where we show rapidly evolving sperm proteins and an expansion of sperm leucylaminopeptidases. www.mcponline.org/article/S153... #Proteomics #Evolution #Bedbugs

Evolution and adaptations of the seminal proteome in an insect with traumatic insemination

The protein composition of sperm and seminal fluid are key to male fitness. However, we currently lack an understanding of the factors that shape seminal proteome composition. The common bedbug (Cimex...

mcponline.org

Reminder that the closing date for this position is tomorrow!

Laura Ross@laurarossevo.bsky.social · last mo.

My lab @ Edinburgh university is recruiting a postdoc to work on the weird and wonderful germline-specific chromosomes of flies. elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid... collaboration with @germline.bsky.social and yukiko yamashita funded by @novonordisk.bsky.social please repost!

I'm sorry, but there's no way to describe this but as a pro-eugenics Op-Ed disguised as a scientific review, and is a complete failure of editorial and ethical standards at @cellpress.bsky.social . This article should be retracted. 5/5

Authors!🚨 While you scramble for scarce $ 🤔 “Springer Nature reports revenue growth of 6.2%..and adjusted operating profit growth of 7.7%. They reported even more stunning submission growth of 30% and published article growth of 13%.” Publishing in society journals helps YOU not them👇🏻. Pass it on.

Man Lying on a Pile of Money

ALT: Man Lying on a Pile of Money

static.klipy.com

My lab @ Edinburgh university is recruiting a postdoc to work on the weird and wonderful germline-specific chromosomes of flies. elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid... collaboration with @germline.bsky.social and yukiko yamashita funded by @novonordisk.bsky.social please repost!

What does it take to evolve a new trait? We have a new paper out that uses the Drosophila sex comb—a male-specific grasping structure found in a subset of drosophilids—as a model to answer this question 1/11

PLOS Biology@plosbiology.org · 2mo ago

What are the genetic mechanisms for the #evolution of novel traits? This study by @brhopkins92.bsky.social &co links #Drosophila sex comb teeth to expression changes within ancestral cells, leading to diverged metabolic/developmental rates, and a novel structure. 🧪 #AcademicSky plos.io/4gQOnZK

What are the genetic mechanisms for the #evolution of novel traits? This study by @brhopkins92.bsky.social &co links #Drosophila sex comb teeth to expression changes within ancestral cells, leading to diverged metabolic/developmental rates, and a novel structure. 🧪 #AcademicSky plos.io/4gQOnZK

New preprint led by amazing undergrad @ogolwala.bsky.social! Within ~10,000 years, sperm traits have diverged between trophic specialists in this young radiation of pupfish. Hybrids are fertile, but show transgressive sperm kinematics and reorganized integration. With @fishspeciation.bsky.social.

bioRxivpreprint@biorxivpreprint.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Rapid divergence in sperm morphology and transgressive segregation of hybrid sperm kinematics in a young pupfish radiation https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.17.745335v1

Conspecific Gamete Precedence in Speciation: History, Evidence, and a Research Roadmap I’m very happy to share this review about a fundamental reproductive barrier that has been largely overlooked in speciation research. I’d appreciate all your feedback! Preprint: ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...

Conspecific Gamete Precedence in Speciation: History, Evidence, and a Research Roadmap doi.org/10.32942/X2W...

Folks thinking that uploading confidential material to their favorite AI is safe because of of their special fences should be reminded that this past month, AI agents at all major AI companies broke out of their sandbox (much more secure fences that yours) and attacked another company!

MwahahahahahadScientist@mads100tist.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Remember that by using LLMs, you're stealing from your colleagues and yourself. You're better than that 🧪

Working with minimal genomic samples from two species? I’ve put together DemogFit, a small R package for fitting IM models and estimating gene flow parameters from a single whole-genome sample per species, plus a Snakemake pipeline to generate the input files. github.com/LeebanY/Demo...

The last paper from my PhD is out in Molecular Ecology. We looked at genomic divergence and introgression across a young species group of five Formica wood ant species 🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜. My favourite result: Introgression was not strongly positively correlated with recombination rate!

and check out the awesome highlight of our paper by @evopaa.bsky.social

Molecular Biology and Evolution@molbioevol.bsky.social · 2mo ago

This paper is featured in MBE's August Highlight; read it to learn more about the evolution of bed bug reproduction. Highlight: Traumatic insemination and the molecular evolution of a novel reproductive organ in bed bugs 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msag191

Inside the body morphological and molecular interactions influence reproductive outcomes. Traumatic insemination may bypass barriers But in bed bugs, a new organ evolved to respond to mating and receipt of ejaculate! Find out more in a wonderful collaboration led by @martingarlovsky.bsky.social

Molecular Biology and Evolution@molbioevol.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Martens et al. study the evolution of gene expression of female reproductive organs in the bed bug, finding that the mesospermalege exhibits a gene expression profile consistent with functions of the lower reproductive tract in other insects 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msag169 #societyjournal #evobio

📣 Searching for a PostDoc! 📣 Soon to be moving to San Sebastian, Spain, as @georgiamneuro.bsky.social starts her new position 🎉. Looking for a remote/hybrid position within ecoevo. Broad interests in sexual selection, mutation rates, genomic conflicts and gametogenesis. Get in touch!

This paper is featured in MBE's August Highlight; read it to learn more about the evolution of bed bug reproduction. Highlight: Traumatic insemination and the molecular evolution of a novel reproductive organ in bed bugs 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msag191

Highlight: Traumatic insemination and the molecular evolution of a novel reproductive organ in bed bugs

Sex can be complicated—just ask bed bugs. The bane of many conference goers, these blood-feeding parasitic insects mate via traumatic insemination, a repro

doi.org

Martens et al. study the evolution of gene expression of female reproductive organs in the bed bug, finding that the mesospermalege exhibits a gene expression profile consistent with functions of the lower reproductive tract in other insects 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msag169 #societyjournal #evobio

Very happy to see our paper just published in @molbioevol.bsky.social highlighted: academic.oup.com/mbe/article/... Probably my favourite paper to be a part of and really fun working with some great people! Bedbugs are very gross but also very cool! Paper here: academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...

Highlight: Traumatic insemination and the molecular evolution of a novel reproductive organ in bed bugs

Sex can be complicated—just ask bed bugs. The bane of many conference goers, these blood-feeding parasitic insects mate via traumatic insemination, a repro

academic.oup.com

New genes play a prominent role in evolution of new sperm classes of Drosophila https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.10.737682v1

We have a new preprint up looking at how much variation there is in aggression in male and female fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster). Check it out here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Genetic Variation in Drosophila melanogaster Aggression

Animals fight for resources to obtain fitness benefits; most contests are intrasexual, and males tend to fight more than females. Although the genetic basis of male aggression is well studied, we know...

biorxiv.org

Comparing reproductive isolation across species has been harder than it should be. The new Reproductive Isolation Ontology (RIO) provides a common framework to standardize RI estimates across the tree of life. academic.oup.com/evlett/advan...

A standardised framework for classifying estimates of reproductive isolation

Abstract. Understanding reproductive isolation (RI) between lineages is a central goal of speciation research. While the strength of RI has been estimated

academic.oup.com

I wanted to like QED's new 1% preprint ranking. I really did. But the more I looked at the data, the more uncomfortable it made me. Here is my full peer review. open.substack.com/pub/blekhman...

My Peer Review of The 1%

I wanted to like QED's new 1% ranking. I don't.

open.substack.com

Does anyone else have all their old conference posters up in their bedroom or is it just me?

As everyone's winding down on #evol2026 we want to share our survey link with you again. Whether you work in reproductive biology specifically or not, please take a minute to help us understand how the scientific community uses reproductive terms in research! And hope to see you at #SMBE!

Yes of course sorry! univie.questionpro.eu/a/TakeSurvey...

ToS.DefinitionSurvey.QuestionPro

ToS.DefinitionSurvey.QuestionPro

univie.questionpro.eu

Hot Dogs for All

Andrew Burke@ajlburke.bsky.social · 4mo ago

So @philmoscovitch.bsky.social was 🔥 in today's Morning File www.halifaxexaminer.ca/morning-file...